To be disappointed about my desert?

[CrosscuttingThemes]

Just had a meal in a local restaurant.
I ordered creme brûlée, it’s my favourite pudding. To me a good creme brûlée should have a hot burnt sugar crust with a smooth creamy light custard.

The pudding arrived looking spectacular with a high tower of spun sugar but bloody hell, when I tasted the custard it was thick with chopped raw hazelnuts. The texture was heavy as if it had been overly thickened with gelatin. It felt and tasted awful. So unlike what I expected, surprisingly as the main course was really excellent.
I ate the sugar but left the rest after tasting it.
I politely told the waitress that I couldn’t eat it, I would not have ordered it if I had been told it contained raw nuts (toasted nuts may have been ok, but still I would have preferred an ordinary creme brûlée)

She said ‘oh dear, what a shame’ but charged us for it. She suggested that in future I should check what the brûlée contains as the chef likes to mix it up and try different flavours.

So no tip for her.

Do you think they should have charged me? AIBU to think that if the chef changes a classic recipe, then the menu should indicate this or the waitress should have let me know that when I ordered it?

Puddings are really important, aren’t they? You just can’t mess with a dessert like this. It’s anarchy. What will future generations do if we allow this kind of thing now? I have children, I can’t bear to think that this is their future, a future containing raw nuts in creme brûlée.

I have to go and lie down. My heart is broken. My head is wrecked.

I've had a couple of wrong pannacottas recently - instead of being light & smooth they were thick & chewy.

Managed to eat them but was v disappointed

We normally ask for inedible food to be taken off the bill. They can rarely refuse.

Trades Descriptions Act breach

Now, I'm not adverse to a creme brûlée with fruit (raspberry being a favourite) or other flavourings (once had an astonishingly good lavender one) but I'd expect a warning as to any flavours. If it says creme brûlée it should be a traditional, un-faffed-about-with creme brûlée unless previously forewarned. Otherwise it's breach of contract

Dh paid £6 for a cheesecake he said was bland and tasted like it was frozen. Declined adding dessert wine at £15 for half a bottle to go with it 🙄 So no puddings from there in future.

It spoils the meal if you can’t finish with something sweet you wouldn’t eat every night.

YANBU, creme brûlée is one of my favourite desserts and I don't like it to have anything extra in it, it ruins it. I once ordered apple crumble for dessert when eating out and what arrived was an apple tart with crumble topping. Even worse, the waitress brought it to the table accompanied by a soup spoon for me to eat it with. I actually couldn't eat it. (Disclaimer: I have Asperger's and I have a number of food rules and get anxious if they're broken which is why I don't eat out much!)

I don't like creme brûlée.

Once I got one with apples in it.

Once, I went to a place that served my sticky toffee pudding with chocolate ice cream
I once worked in a restaurant where the sticky toffee pudding was served with a caramel sauce and one day a young chef accidentally poured gravy over instead

Why would you ruin a creme brulee with nuts or fruit

I would of sent it back asking if they would like help making one as they obviously don't have a clue.
I wouldn't of paid for it either.

Once, I went to a place that served my sticky toffee pudding with chocolate ice cream.

There should be a law against that! Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream is a marriage made in heaven. To serve it with any other ice cream is an offence against nature.

I hate when they don't tell you that your dessert will be deconstructed. A blob of crumble here, a dab of fruit there, and a smear of custard on the far side of the plate.

NO.

This is very serious OP. I hope you have support IRL.

Anytime a restaurant has messed with a dessert recipe they gave clear warning. And once I had a chocolate creme brûlée that was To.Die.For.

Not dessert related but I had a "Caesar salad" once which was mainly red onion and celery . I sent it back.

“My head is wrecked.”

😂

Mine, too. In my opinion, when you go to a restaurant you eat the food the chef makes, and decide whether you like it.

Not dessert related but I had a "Caesar salad" once which was mainly red onion and celery

A friend of mine once had 'pesto' pasta without any parmesan in the pesto, it was just basil and olive oil.

Despite it being over 15 years ago, she's still emotionally scarred by the experience.

Ew that's just wrong on every level.

Appalling! I hope they enjoy reading your online reviews of their food as much as you enjoyed eating it.

Creme brûlée is difficult to get right at the best of times. The custard has to be properly set, firm and thick but not too firm or watery, and not too deep or shallow. The caramel has to be just right to crack nicely, not too thin or thick. And it certainly shouldn’t contain raw nuts unless the menu says so! Apart from anything else they should clearly label allergens.

I LOVE creme brûlée.....it’s my all time favourite desert. Which means I only order it in the best restaurants, otherwise I am generally disappointed. Very few places know how to do a good creme brûlée.

It’s dessert, desert is the dry arid place. 😉

About 7 years ago I ordered lemon meringue pie which consisted of a plate containing (in different places) a shortbread biscuit, a blob of lemon curd and a smear of 'meringue' that someone had gone at with a blowtorch.
It was apparently 'deconstructed'. I was horrified and still haven't recovered all these years later.

YANBU

As Bill Bryson in Notes from a Small Island said, you don't fuck with a Britishers pudding

I quite like the fruit versions but with warning!

No you definitely shouldn't have been charged.

I’m frequently disappointed by restaurant desserts. They are not given enough attention in most restaurants

See now this is what's wrong with the country today, rogue chefs going off menu with unnecessary "improvements" to classic puddings. And this deconstructed bs, come on I'm ordering a pudding not the components of a pudding which I need to build like I'm on some shoddy pudding version of art attack!!