Customer Reviews
What You'll Get
The best part of adulthood is living out childhood fantasies like living in a tree house, being a killer whale when you grow up, or eating dessert for dinner. Fulfill at least one of these dreams with today’s Groupon. For $15, you get $35 worth of gourmet desserts and drinks at Candybar in Western Addition.
Candybar pioneered the dessert bar scene in San Francisco by pairing high-end, sweet treats with fine wines, cocktails, and other drinks. Using organic ingredients, the inventive pastry crew is constantly concocting new ways to please palates and frighten dentists. The hard work paid off in 2009 when SF Weekly awarded Candybar's sweets Best Bar Desserts. Every day, the in-house kitchen churns out a succinct menu of savory confectionary creations ($5–$9) to pair with wines and specialty cocktails ($6–$8).
On the bite side, try the emphatic Peanut Butter Jelly Time!—a chocolate tart layered with peanut-butter cream, salted-caramel peanuts, and blackberries. The Red Velvet Cake is topped with a generous coating of cream-cheese frosting, a dusting of moist coconut, and a dollop of mint ice cream. And the house-made Ice Cream Trio forms a sweetened tri-force of Kit-Kat, Oreo, and Reese’s Pieces. Specialty cocktails like the Kir Royale (sparkling wine and crème de cassis) and the Strawberry Kiss (a crisp concoction of sparkling wine, ginger ale, and frozen strawberry) convert the goodness to a sippable form. Fine wines, microbrews, loose-leaf tea, and excellent coffees to pair complete the bar atmosphere.
A hip lounge environment makes Candybar a lively late-night destination. Works by local artists adorn the walls, laid-back tunes seep from the sound system, and available board games set the stage for a chivalrous loss or merciless destruction of a significant other. With no limit per person on today's Groupon (though there is a limit of one per visit), now is a good time to restock your utility belt with an arsenal of sweets and sips.
Reviews
Candybar was mentioned in the San Francisco Chronicle and DailyCandy, while SF Weekly voted it Best Bar Desserts in 2009:
- The bar-snack concept attains sweet new heights at Candybar, a hip little Western Addition venue where desserts get top billing with the cocktails, suds, and vino. These aren't your basic Gummi Bear-and-biscotti meal-closers, either...daily offerings are unique and perfectly realized culinary creations that are scrumptious on their own or with a glass of port, vin santo, or champagne. – SF Weekly
363 Yelpers give Candybar four stars:
- When you walk in, you are instantly greeted with an amazing smell akin to someone slaving all day in the kitchen to produce baked goods as rich as a thousand mermaids massaging your taste buds. – Alice C.
- This is the best place on earth. The decor is cool and lounge-y and comfortable, the service was excellent, and the desserts were some of the best I've ever had. – Jenny R., Yelp
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires Mar 16, 2011. Amount paid never expires. Limit 1 per table. Tax and gratuity not included. Not valid with other offers. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About Candybar
Of all the hooting and victory dancing coming from the group in the corner booth, only half of the commotion is a result of the game of Sorry! the group is immersed in. The other half occurs during breaks in the action when the competitors dig into the decadent morsels in front of them—desserts forged from ingredients such as rum mascarpone cream and homemade marshmallow. Evenings of spirited merrymaking capped with sweet treats are standard at Candybar, where seasoned pastry chef Cathleen Li handcrafts a rotating menu of cakes, ice creams, and sorbets.
To complement Li’s signature desserts, mixologists further tantalize taste buds with inventive cocktails, such as the strawberry kiss. Throughout the candlelit dining room, minimalist bulbs dangle from ceiling tracks, casting dancing shadows across plush red couches, black-and-white damask poufs, and contemporary artwork. A collection of board games infuses the dessert lounge’s chic atmosphere with a touch of whimsy and encourages good-natured rivalries between friends or high-stakes games to determine who gets the last bite of the ice-cream sundae.