Indulge in luscious taste of chocolate at this dessert cafe

HENNAI: As a child, Janani Kannan always dreamed of making desserts. Though she did her engineering and later MBA, she was not satisfied. “After my MBA, I realised that this was not my true calling and pursued a Diploma in pastry in Malaysia. I also worked in a bakery in Singapore for a couple of months,” says Janani, who is now the founder of Maison Indulgence, a new dessert cafe in Chennai.

Explaining the reason behind the name Maison Indulgence, the cafe owner explains, “A fancy name might sound intimidating and we were not convinced to go with regular cafe names. After a long discussion, we finally decided on Maison Indulgence because ultimately we wanted people to completely indulge in the world of desserts. Maison in French means house of. So, Maison Indulgence means house of indulgence,” she explains.

Maison Indulgence is located in one of the peaceful lanes of Alwarpet - the place has outside seating as well. One can listen to the melodies from the 90s and get immersed in the delightful taste of the desserts. Janani explains that they are specific about the ingredients used to maintain high quality. Most of their ingredients are imported and she adds that they are one of the very few places in the city to make cakes using fresh cream.

Janani believes that Chennai’s foodscape has changed a lot, but it is a blessing. “The city doesn’t have a saturated market unlike New Delhi and Mumbai, and we still have space for innovation and creativity,” remarks the 34-year-old.

Maison Indulgence designed their seating in such a way that they can foster a like-minded community, where people can interact and get to know each other. Once you reach their counters the air smells sweet and you might get carried away with the number of one-bite desserts offered by them. One such dessert that caught our attention is Ruby. It is a variety of chocolate that has a berry flavour to it. They also have a space for making your bar, where you can select your chocolate flavour and add the desired topping to it.

Among the dishes we tried here, the signature chocolate indulgence is at the top of the list. A piece of chocolate cake is placed on the plate and soaked in melted white, dark and milk chocolate. One bite of this dish gives a heavenly feeling. The signature brownie indulgence is surreal. Their strawberry indulgence is a mix of sweet and sour taste, making it blissful. One of the notable desserts is their toothsome hazelnut tiramisu.

Coming to their savoury options, they have tried to balance veg and non-veg variants. The veg empanada with salsa and cheese dip is a must-try, with the cheese dip getting a special mention. The buffalo chicken pizza was decent. Do not miss their unique truffles.