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.

What the heck?! Who would even think of adding nuts to creme brulee?

You should have asked her directly to take it off the bill. That’s appalling!

We do brulees with various fruit coulis that are clearly stated on the menu

Oh goodness me, why? The last time I had creme brulee in a restaurant it had some passion fruit coulis which both looked and tasted like nothing so much as the trails slugs leave behind them. Yes it was advertised as such, but why not just not fanny about with these classic desserts in the first place?

You have my full sympathy OP.
To me a creme brûlée is about the gorgeous smoothness and the contrasting crisp top.
I still have fond memories of a spectacular brûlée, served in a wide terracotta dish in a traditional Ibizan restaurant - and it’s my happy place.
Hazelnuts my arse. You should have got a refund.

She should have popped into the kitchen and gone a bit Ray Winstone with the chef.

Crema Catalana surely in Spain!

There's an English version too, Burnt Cambridge Cream I think it's called, but I've never tried 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

No, that was her job to explain it wasn’t a traditional crime brûlée and checked that was ok with you.

I've never seen a besultanad cheesecake! Is it traditional in a particular country?

Traditional cheesecake from Yorkshire contains sultanas and is cooked at a very low temperature, as Softsheen says. Restaurants normally serve New York style cheesecakes which don’t have sultanas. Sounds as if Keepingbees went somewhere where they were trying to combine the two types of cheesecake.

Why do folk mess with the brûlée’s??

I once had a caprese salad that was mostly limp, bagged leaves, topped with a few sliced tomatoes and some mozzarella. Horrified doesn’t cover it; I’m still having counselling.

Someone on Masterchef once made a creme brulee with grapefruit IIRC.
If that's not heresy I don't know what is

I never even knew Yorkshire had a cheesecake making tradition!

I can eat peanuts and no other nuts. We went out for a works Christmas meal a few years ago. I purposely didn't order the C Pud due to my allergy. I had the Cranberry Roulade. I was table hopping when pud came out. The waiter asked would I like cream on my pud so I said yes. Sat down and put a spoonful in. Asked a colleague what was on the roulade.... HAZELNUTS!! I had to spit mouthful out and swill my mouth out. I asked to speak to the head chef. He confirmed that the menu had omitted the hazelnuts. I replied to him that he was lucky I didnt have a fatal allergy!!!

I have made a nice orange brulee with Grand Marnier before v. alcoholic.

England, France and Spain all claim to have invented creme brûlée - it’s called Cambridge as it was first served in a Cambridge college.

Slightly embarrassed that all this is too revealing about my love of puddings!

@jackparlabane you'd be surprised at the number of M&S food lines stay listed because an important member of management at Head Office likes it!!
That's why they expanded into Europe-so Marc Bollands mum could ship there. I shit you not!

I've had a wide variety of creme brûlée, but any derparture from the norm has always been indicated on the menu.

How did they know you didn't have a nut allergy? Or just didn't like nuts. Nope, it's up to them to tell you. I wouldn't have paid for it.

It’s one of my favourites too.

I once complained about a brûlée and got offered a job (I’m a chef), I took the job and showed them how to make a real brûlée 🤣

I did once have a pistachio brûlée at a posh restaurant and it was pretty good.

Creme brulee is my all time favourite dessert but even without messing with it, so many restaurants can't get it right.

It's ridiculous that the menu didn't state about the hazelnuts, especially given that they're a deviation from the traditional recipe.

(As an aside, I have a severe nut allergy but I always always check my menu choices with the waiting staff as restaurants seem to love adding rogue ingredients to traditional dishes).

You should have asked for the manager what she said is uacceptable-you dont have to ask whats in every single thing if it says creme brulee thats what it should be

Hazelnuts in a crème brûlée?! Wtaf? Wrong on so many levels.

Slightly embarrassed that all this is too revealing about my love of puddings!

Important social and culinary history!

Yanbu creme brulee should not be messed with.
I learnt a harsh lesson once when ordering pudding and didn't realise it had said 'deconstructed'. It was deconstructed banoffee pie. Basically a smashed up biscuit on a plate next to a sliced up banana and some whipped cream. Shudder.
Obviously I still ate it.

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)

Did they not ask you if you had any allergies or intolerances? Most of the restaurants I’ve gone to that is one of the first things they ask when you’re ordering.

You ate the sugar but left the rest. Do you mean you ate all of the top of it and left the rest or only that you tasted it once. If you ate more than a few bites then yabu. If you only tasted it once or twice then yanbu. However, if you had only had a few bites and were unhappy about being charged you should have asked to speak to the manager and explain the situation.

Thank you FiddleFaddle - you have made me feel so much better. Just need to stick more to the theory than the consumption

She suggested that in future I should check what the brûlée contains as the chef likes to mix it up and try different flavours.

I hope you asked her why she assumed you would ever eat there again.

Depends how much you ate. If you left all bar a couple of spoonfuls then you could have refused to pay for it. If you ate a significant amount of it then it is harder to argue.