The Book In Love Cafe is a 7 bedroom upper floor apartment turned dessert store. The decor is tacky with pictures that have literally been stuck on. Each room is filled with desks, chairs and shelves straight from IKEA. There is a considerable number of books, but they’re all written in Chinese.

The dessert menu is so basic, it’s almost primitive. There’s nothing exciting about what they have to offer. The cakes are bought elsewhere and then served as individual slices (although, in their defence, this is what other cafe’s do). The mochi comes straight from a packet, and the ice cream is from the local supermarket.

Last night, I ordered the Coffee and Pecan cake. The sponge cake was soft and moist, and of a good size. The cream had a subtle coffee flavour, however, there was a little too much cream. It was good and it would be something I would purchase from their supplier.

My friend had the Cheesecake. The serving was a bit small, but there were no complaints.

Another friend had the Mochi. Straight out of the packet! I was told it represented good value when eating them here as opposed to buying them in the pack.

Another friend had the Black Forest Cake. Pretty much the same as you would get elsewhere.

Another friend had the Ice Cream. There’s only one ice cream manufacturer that does this and we suspect it’s 3 scoops out of an ice cream tub.

The staff were hidden away in one of the rooms. The service was good, although they came across as being too attentive. One of them was keen to take our orders even before we sat down. The atmosphere was relaxed and the pricing was fair.

It’s a nice cute little place which offers unimaginative desserts. I can’t see this place lasting that long to be honest.

WHERE: Level 1, 85 Gouger St, Adelaide