Nizam Mohamed, from East London, is the founder of both Heavenly Desserts and Haute Dolci. At the age of a mere 21, he opened the first Heavenly Desserts restaurant in Birmingham in 2008. He then opened up his second luxury restaurant brand Haute Dolci in 2017. He has since sold Heavenly Desserts, but they have both grown and multiplied throughout the UK impressively rapidly. They’ve taken over the dessert scene and have completely stamped their authority as the go to luxury dessert parlours in the UK. It will be extremely difficult for you to not be near a branch of at least one of these. In this post, we’ll make a quick comparison of their offerings.
Heavenly Desserts
One of the most popular dessert parlours in the UK and one of the first to really go in in this market and monopolise and popularise dessert parlours. The perfect post meal dessert spot where you can go with your friends or loved ones, for a quick bite or a special occasion. They have numerous branches around the UK and no matter where you are, it’ll be difficult for you to not find one near you. A lot of the other dessert parlours who have popped up recently are trying to emulate their success and you can see it in their menu and decor. They’ve set a standard to be followed.
Menu
Their menu is a beautiful 52 page dessert encyclopaedia. You can get almost any dessert you can think of here. From waffles to milk cakes to croffles to old school custard cakes. There’s also a good selection of drinks to choose from. There’s something for the young and old literally. There’s plenty of pictures to show you what your desserts will look like and they are a pretty decent representation of what you get in the end.
Price comparison
I’m going to use three of the most common desserts that people are likely to choose for price comparison purposes:
Milk cake: £6.85 – 7.45
Waffles: £6.85 – 8.55
Cheesecake: £6.45 – 7.15
What we got
Ruby Chocolate & Raspberry Croffle
Cornflake Tart with custard
Saffron Milk Cake
In all honesty, we left quite underwhelmed. They were all decent and edible, but certainly didn’t taste as good as they looked (mind you the milk cake had a cut right down the middle and considering they’re big on aesthetics, this was quite disappointing). The croffle was too sweet; the ruby chocolate and white chocolate was overpowering and very rich. Became quite sickening by the end. The cornflake tart was good, but my wife who is the “old school” dessert expert said it’s not the best she’s had. The saffron milk cake was okay, nothing special (my favourite is still the Turkish caramel milk cake). As you can tell, quite a disappointment.
Haute Dolci
As mentioned previously, this dessert parlour is also a brainchild of the founder of Heavenly Desserts. So, the vibes are similar in regards to the luxurious nature. I’d say they’ve taken the luxurious and chic look to the next level and it looks more like an artist or designer’s gallery than Heavenly Desserts. It really is a nice dessert spot to take your family or loved ones for a special occasion. I mean so is Heavenly, but this is just a bit more. They’ve also introduced food items now, providing for a complete dining experience. This is good for those who would want everything in one place, but I do feel it takes away from the whole novelty that this is a dessert parlour.
Menu
The dessert and drink options here rival that of Heavenly Desserts in the range available. You will literally find what your heart desires. The branch we went to (Cheshire Oaks) had a digital menu, so not sure if all branches are like that, but this didn’t have the same impact of the physical menu of Heavenly Desserts for me. The pictures were also far less than that of Heavenly Desserts, so that loses points for me (being able to see what your dessert will look like makes it easier to choose). On the plus side, because it is Digital, it was probably easier to navigate. However, in the branches where food is offered too, the headings were a bit confusing so it was difficult to find the desserts on the menu initially.
Price comparison
I’m going to use three of the most common desserts that people are likely to choose for price comparison purposes:
Milk cake: £6.50 – 7.50
Waffles: £7.80 – 8.80
Cheesecake: £6.50 – 7.50
What we got
Cara-melt my heart Belgian waffles
Sticky toffee banana French toast
My favourite things custard pudding
No soliciting Dolci classic
Quite the contrast to the Heavenly Desserts experience. All the deserts were delicious! Really impressed how they nailed each and every dessert despite them being a variety. Our personal favourite was the Belgian waffles.
Overall
It’s hard to compare because we didn’t get the same desserts, but as you can tell from above we were left far more impressed with what we had at Haute Dolci. The menu is similar in terms of the variety of options, the prices are similar with Haute Dolci being slightly more expensive, and the vibes and decor were also similar with Haute Dolci feeling a little more luxurious and “special”.
