Craque de Creme is a cafe centred around house made gourmet creme brulee in a wide range of flavours, from pandan coconut to lychee vodka.

The entire operation is run by Daniel Wong, whose obsessive nature led him to experiment with creme brulee until he had perfected it, at which point he moved on to mastering ice cream and waffles, too.

This cafe space is minimal, clean, and primarily white, some tables in the window and some cute futuristic school desks for seating along with a large table at the back. Anser artwork hangs behind the cash.

Pots of creme are hand-bruleed to order right before your eyes.

Wong turns the ceramic pot slowly to evenly caramelize the dessert’s top.

Creme brulees are $5 apiece, $6 for boozy or vegan versions. The classic vanilla bean version of the French dessert is done justice here, gelatinous and creamy on the inside with a perfectly stiff, crunchy top that’s toasty and smoky from fresh torching.

Other flavours include honey lavender, London Fog, aromatic Vietnamese coffee, and Ferrero Rocher, the last one a sinfully indulgent velvety pot of chocolate creme, the stiff torched top covered in crunchy and nutty blitzed Ferrero Rocher.

Wong’s waffle dough is a 24-hour version, and uses the pearl sugar that makes real Belgian waffles taste truly authentic.

We get a sweet, chewy Belgian waffle ($3.95) with a scoop of house made salted caramel ice cream ($2.95) and airy house made whipped cream in which you can see flecks of real vanila bean.

Creme brulee is also available to go with a dollar deposit on cute returnable mini mason jars.

Iced lattes ($3.95) also come in rose, vanilla, and lavender flavours for an extra 75 cents, made using beans from Ezra’s Pound.

The standard latte is nice and well-balanced, with distinct layers for visual effect.

Teas come from Treasure Green in Vancouver, an organic shop, the matcha originating from Japan and hand-whisked with a proper wooden tool.

It goes into the matcha latte here ($4.25), which we also opted for iced and a sweetened ever so slightly. 

It can also be made with Callebaut white chocolate for an extra dollar.

The only thing not made here are macarons ($3.25) made by Christopher Siu, many of them in cute and very unique shapes, some with little ears and eyes.

Wong may not do everything in the most typical fashion at Craque de Creme, but with plenty of ambition, ingenuity, obsession, and a technical background in detail-oriented car painting, this place will continue to be a hit with its quiet Bathurst neighbourhood.