I know, I know. They're so fancy. And the place is always crowded. And they have lots of branches! And amazingly high revenue!
My guess? The customers are taken in by the fancy atmosphere and presentation. The Harvest is excellent at branding, not at pastry. I have passed by this place so many times, and it's always so crowded, so I occasionally go in and try something, thinking I just bought a bad item the last time. There must be delicious cake around here. Right? Right?!
Nope. I don't know how many times I went there, maybe six times or so, but every single time I'm disappointed.
It all started with a gift. When Harvest just opened, we received a gift of Harvest cookies, maybe 6 tins in total. I can still remember the taste of the, ugh, "shortbread". It only took one bite to convince me to throw it out. I love butter. I love shortbread. But these are not shortbread. These are sand pressed into a mold and sold as "shortbread". Shortbread is just flour, sugar, and butter rolled together--how can you possibly mess this up?
Granted, they have improved a lot since then. The "shortbread" cookies were removed from the shelves, a bunch of new items were introduced, but still...
The chocolate mousse is tasteless... TASTELESS! Did they not add chocolate at all to the mousse? To add insult to injury, they used gelatinized chocolate instead of proper ganache. Look, I know they're shiny and the new thing, but they taste like crap. I eat mousse cakes because they melt in my mouth. I don't want leathery jelly that I have to chew every time I take a bite.
The pistachio dacquoise is passable. I just don't like that there is only one thin layer of what could pass as a dacquoise, while the rest is filler composed of mint mousse and sponge cake. They should just rename it "mint mousse cake".
Let's talk about madeleines. They are light, rich, buttery shell-shaped cakes. I can eat a whole tray of them in one sitting--they're that good. Harvest's madeleines? THEY'RE AS HARD AS A ROCK. Holy shit. These are failed products that should never hit any store's shelves.
The macarons are dry and brittle. No. Just no. Macarons are supposed to be soft and chewy, not dry and brittle. Have they been sitting around in the fridge for a month? Fucking throw them out after one or two weeks, please. You're already charging us a lot of money.
The ice cream tastes like very cheap budget ice cream, rough and icy like licking the Ice King's wrinkled butt. Just haul your ass to Zangrandi to get a much better product for the same price.
If you must go here, I only have two things I can recommend: the chocolate devil cake and the double-baked brownies. They're okay, though the devil cake isn't very chocolatey. The breads should be okay. But avoid the other cakes and ice cream. Seriously. Just stay away.
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