So my lovely bride and I went out for dessert last week. We hit up “After Eight,” a dessert-oriented spot on the eastern fringes of Burnaby Heights. Is it fair for me to post a pretty unbalanced opinion of the place based on one visit and without properly sampling the menu?

Then I remembered: fair is for newspapers.

After Eight is nice enough inside. It runs to small and dark, which is just fine for a dessert place, though on the midweek night we went, it ran to small, dark, and empty except for us.

The real problems happened when we looked at the menu: After Eight has some sort of entrees available, but that’s not what we were there for, and that doesn’t seem to be the focus. So straight to the desserts.

The total dessert offerings were four kinds of cheesecake, all of which looked pretty appetizing, about three kinds of ice cream confections, and an extravagant hot chocolate that came with its own chocolate bar.

Maybe that should be enough dessert offerings, but I don’t like cheesecake. My lovely bride doesn’t really like cheesecake either. I know, it’s probably a moral failing on my part, and maybe I should have just ordered the tasty-looking blueberry cheesecake regardless, but I had ice cream instead, because, you know, I don’t like cheese cake.

The ice cream was a hazelnut “pear”. Hazelnut ice cream in the shape of a pear, dipped in chocolate and hazelnut pieces. Good enough, but not for six bucks, and not when good gelato is as readily available as it is.

Maybe I should go back, and in a show of fairness, try the six-dollar hot chocolate. It might be worth it, and I really like chocolate. Maybe not: what would the lovely bride have?

Did I mention the tea I had was pretty expensive too? It wasn’t special tea, just pricey.

I feel bad about not trying their specialty or their chocolate, but like I said, this is an unfair review. Glean what you can from it. Or go to Dolce 67 nearer Hastings and Boundary.

What: After Eight
Where: 4532 Hastings Street, Burnaby; ph 604 780 7686
Why: must love cheesecake
How much: all desserts $6, entrees $12, drinks $too much