On charming Pingjiang Road, Celeste House is one of many cafés beckoning passersby. Craving some hot chocolate, my friends and I succumbed. Celeste House has a restaurant and guest house. It’s got the feel of a small, traditional inn and the staff was quite welcoming. We were intrigued by the Italian drinking chocolate they offered. Before our orders were definite, the server gave us samples. That should have been a clue. But our sips tasted like liquid rich dark chocolate.
Celeste House has some cute seating like the area below. Unfortunately, we were placed in a room that resembled a small drafty food court.
However, when we got our drinks, after a couple sips they were undrinkable. The chocolate was just too rich and I detected a burnt chocolate after taste. Customer service in China’s pretty awkward even though here the staff spoke English. We thought getting some gelato to balance the drinking chocolate would solve the problem.
I went to their gelato counter and the woman there offered me a sample. Yuck. The gelato didn’t seem properly mixed at all. So that wouldn’t help.
In the end we gave up on our drinks and paid. I can’t recall ever walking away from a chocolate dessert of any sort.