Arabeeka at West End

We visited a new coffee place on Friday night. Arabeeka: on Boundary St at West End, about two doors down from the Lychee Lounge.
Two things really stood out during the visit: the first being that they have a fantastic range of traditional Greek sweets and pastries in a big shiny cabinet, and that they are nice and small (and accordingly priced), not like the usual giant slabs of baklava and so on that are always over-drenched in sickly sugar syrup and that you have to hack your way through like a mediaeval peasant through a mangrove bog. No, these were little mini-versions of dozens of different sweet varieties, and very appropriate they were too. I tasted the ballioreh with orange-blossom syrup. Excellent.

The second thing that stood out was that they make terrible, terrible hot chocolate. We ordered one hot chocolate to share, and it was by far the worst one I've ever tasted. It was just warm milk in a giant tall glass with synthetic chocolate syrup sitting in the bottom. Too sweet, too sickly, not hot enough. I'm sure that glass never even saw a scrap of actual cocoa powder go near it. Revolting. For four bucks you would expect better, yes?
That being said, we didn't try the coffee, so for all I know they could make the best coffee in town. Perhaps it's only the hot chocolate that sucks.

They also have a catering menu: very appealing. Could be a nice change for the next boardroom function.