There’s a subtle but distinct choice to make when it comes to the last course: Do you go homey (cupcakes) or haute (crème brûlée)? At DeLise Dessert Café, a tiny pastry shop on the edge of Fisherman’s Wharf, you don’t have to think about it beforehand. A green tea cupcake is filled with a dollop of azuki (Japanese red bean), then dressed with sesame frosting and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. But there are also good old fudge brownies, even if they do come with chunks of dried mango, candied ginger, and the essence of lavender. The rotating ice cream list (there’s frozen yogurt and sorbet too) runs to more than 31 unexpected flavors—and we mean unexpected: Ube (purple yam with coconut); goat cheese and fig; and quince poppy seed. If savory is more your thing, DeLise has a small menu of French-style sandwiches delivered on baguettes, like truffled-egg salad slathered with rich, red onion marmalade, or the brûlée'd cheese with slightly crisped and caramelized brie, fruit marmalade, and bitter arugula leaves. Yes, you can get a frozen yogurt here. No, they don’t have tuna melts.

Truffled-egg salad sandwich
Coconut pandan sorbet
Sea salt fudge brownie
Red velvet cupcake
*Menu items change frequently
view full menu here

With only eight seats, space is at a premium at DeLise. Take your snacks and grab a seat at the counter to watch the Bay Street tourists.

The flavors are fleeting at DeLise, where engineers-turned-pastry-chefs Eloise and Dennis Leung construct exotic desserts and pastries that merge French and Asian sensibilities. Their signature scone, peking duck with green onions and hoisin sauce, is highly coveted. Call ahead or follow the news on Twitter or Facebook to be sure they are well stocked on the day you stop by.

Tue.–Fri. 8:30 AM– 7 PM; Sat.–Sun. 10 AM–6:30 PM
closed Mondays

$ .85 (vanilla bean tea cookie) to $7.25 (crab salad sandwich)
$1.75 each (Peking duck scones)