Giovane: Sugar Buns That Will Blow Your Mind

Giovane

1038 Canada Place Way, Vancouver

I’ve always wanted to try the sugar buns at Giovane. I’ve passed by this cute little Italian cafe a million times and finally visited for lunch.

We ordered a sugar bun straight away, and also a peanut butter hedgehog cake. I have a major weakness for the classic chocolate and peanut butter combo!

The sugar bun was everything I had hoped for! That peek-a-boo squirt of cream poking out of the middle of the bun is the perfect teaser to this delectable treat! Soft and fluffy and filled to the max with incredibly light and airy cream; it was pretty hard to eat this without smearing sugar and cream all over our mouths like little kids but the mess was well worth it! I think I have found my new addiction. I can’t tell you how many times I have craved this sugar bun since I have tried it. I love the contrast of the crunch of sprinkled sugar against the cloud-like, soft and velvety cream inside.

The peanut butter hedgehog cake was topped with a tasty mini dark chocolate square cup filled with peanut butter. When we cut the cake in half we found the chocolate ganache dome filled with fluffy chocolate mousse on top of a layer of peanut butter mousse. The mousse was incredibly rich and smooth, really sticking to the fork and the roofs of our mouths. This cake is surprisingly not as sweet as it looks. And like quality peanut butter, it tasted less like a Reese peanut butter cup and more like the quality salty and savoury peanut butter found in Haagen-Daz ice cream cups. I confess that I was totally expecting to bite into a giant Reese peanut butter cup though. I love sweet peanut butter. This just shows how unsophisticated my palate truly is, I guess!

We also shared a prosciutto cotto pizza, topped with prosciutto, pineapple, mozzarella and smoked caciocavallo cheese.

The pizza smelled amazing when it was brought to us, with the bubbly cheese and sizzling prosciutto. I loved the stretchy, gooey cheese, and the juicy sweetness from the pineapples. Ham and pineapple is actually my favourite pizza topping so I thought of this as a fancy twist on one of my favourites. The prosciutto, although slightly cooked through was salty and crispy, the strips of salty meat enhanced the sweetness of the pineapples even more. The smoked cheese was more subtle than I had expected though.

I also liked the thin crust that never got soggy. Even though we took our time eating the pizza, the crust was crispy until the end.

I can’t wait to revisit Giovane for more sugar buns!