By April Eve Jasak

As www.citysearch.com‘s audience winner for Best Dessert in 2002, Finale restaurant lives up to even the highest expectations. With innovative and remarkable tasting desserts, Finale, is by far, the best desserterie in the Boston area. The first is located at 1 Columbus Avenue, Boston, while the other could be found at 20 Dunster St. Cambridge.

As you walk into Finale, you can’t help but notice the refined, romantic atmosphere it encompasses. The chairs are upholstered in red velvet alongside the pure black tables. The restaurant is dimly lit with individual candles on each table, ensuring a warm and comfortable feeling for all guests.

I found the service quite helpful and efficient. Wait staff were willing to answer any questions concerning the menu before ordering. After being promptly seated, it took hardly ten minutes for the dessert to arrive.

Following each dessert on the menu is a suggested wine off the extensive wine and specialty drink list. Finale even makes their hot chocolates classy, serving it in a crystal mug with cocoa sprinkled on top of the white foam. Keep in mind, if you order this steaming $2.75 beverage, it is not going to taste like Swiss Miss. It was nowhere near as sweet, with a more raw cocoa flavor to it.

When asked what is recommended, the servers end up naming three quarters of the menu because they claim they are all so popular.

In the case that you can’t decide, one Finale waiter suggests, “If you like chocolate, the Chocolate Passion is a plate for two and seems to be the most popular among chocolate lovers.”

The $30 Chocolate Passion contains a few items on the menu, including chocolate covered strawberries, Finale’s Molten Chocolate, Manjari Mousse, a white chocolate ice-cream sundae and a number of other sweets.

Like all the desserts at Finale, the Molten Chocolate comes uniquely prepared by one of their talented chefs. Arranged beautifully on the plate, it looks almost too good to eat