We’ll be honest. This one started as a casual idea and turned into a full afternoon. The plan was simple: hit every dessert we could find at Del Mar Plaza and rank the experience. What we didn’t account for was how many options there actually are once you start looking.
French pastries, handmade gelato, churros with caramel, limoncello panna cotta. It’s a lot. We split everything, paced ourselves (mostly), and came away with some clear favorites. Here’s the full rundown.
Desserts by Clément
This is the newest addition to the Plaza, and it’s already generating a line. If you’ve been to the original location in Pacific Beach, you know what Clément does. If you haven’t, here’s the short version: French-trained pastry chef, scratch-made everything, and desserts that look like they belong in a museum before you eat them.
The croissants are the obvious starting point. We went with the White Chocolate Crunchy, which has this shatteringly crisp shell and a creamy interior that feels more like a dessert than a pastry. The Dubai Chocolate Croissant is the one you’ve probably seen on social media, and yes, it lives up to the hype.
But the standout for us was the Petit Bear Collection. These are individual mousse cakes shaped like teddy bears, and each one has its own flavor profile. The Milk Chocolate Brown Bear has a toasted marshmallow cream with a graham cracker crust underneath. The Strawberry Yogurt Bear is lighter and more tart. They’re almost too detailed to eat, but we got over that pretty quickly.
An’s Hatmakers
An’s has been at the Plaza since 2022, and if you still haven’t been, this is your sign. Named the number one ice cream and gelato shop in America by USA Today, this is handmade gelato with flavors you won’t find anywhere else.
The shop is called An’s Hatmakers, a nod to the Del Mar Racetrack and its hat-wearing tradition. The interior has this European haberdashery feel, all warm wood and marble-topped tables, which makes eating gelato here feel like an event even when you’re in flip-flops.
We tried a few of the signatures. Canvas, which is olive oil and rosemary, sounds like it shouldn’t work but absolutely does. It’s savory and herbal and somehow still reads as a dessert. Leather is brown butter and chocolate chip cookie, and it’s probably the one you’ll come back for. Rich, buttery, and familiar in the best way. The flavors rotate, so there’s always something new in the case, but the signatures are always available and always worth it.
Churros at Tamarindo
After the French pastries and the artisan gelato, we needed something straightforward. Tamarindo’s churros delivered exactly that. They come out warm, dusted with cinnamon sugar, with a caramel dipping sauce on the side.
There’s not much to explain here, and that’s the appeal. They’re crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, and gone in about three minutes. We ordered them at the bar with a round of margaritas, which is probably the best way to do it. Churros and a Margarita Tamarindo on the patio, fire pit going, music in the background. That’s a Tuesday night we’d repeat any week.
They also have a Dirty Chai Flan on the dessert menu that we didn’t get to this time around but have heard good things about. Next visit.
Panna Cotta al Limone at Il Fornaio
We saved Il Fornaio for last because it felt like the right way to close things out. The Panna Cotta al Limone is exactly that. Limoncello-infused, topped with housemade lemon syrup and served over a thin layer of Italian sponge cake.
It’s light and citrusy, which was a welcome change after an afternoon of chocolate and caramel. The texture is silky without being too heavy, and the lemon syrup gives it this bright finish that feels like summer. We had it upstairs at Enoteca with a glass of prosecco and the ocean right there, which might have made it taste even better.
If you’re someone who usually skips dessert at Italian restaurants, this is the one worth making an exception for. Il Fornaio’s full dessert menu goes deeper, with tiramisù, cannoli, and a warm chocolate cake called the Vulcano that we’re already planning to try next time. But the panna cotta is the sleeper hit.
