Applebee's vs. Domino's

A few years ago I discovered my love for Applebee's Chocolate Lava Cake. Warm chocolate cake with hot fudge pouring out of the center...I still don't understand how anyone could not like it. It seems like since then all sorts of other restaurant have realized how popular lava cake is, so they began selling their own versions - none of which were up to par with Applebee's (I try them everywhere I go).

It just so happens that a few days ago we saw a TV ad for Domino's free lava cake when you purchase an order of Domino's BreadBowl Pasta. Matt and I had been talking about ordering pizza for dinner, and although I'm not much of a pasta person, I wanted that cake. Needless to say, for dinner that night we ate pizza, a pasta breadbowl and two lava cakes (Matt knows I have a really hard time sharing dessert). I have to say, this lava cake greatly exceeded my expectations. It was amazing. The cake part was a bit more crunchy than I anticipated, but it had a really nice flavor and it turns out I ended up liking the outside a little crunchy (crunch like a cookie, not like a cracker). The chocolate on the inside of the cake was rich, milky, and warm - even though it'd been sitting in its box until we were done with the more substantial part of dinner.

Applebee's, you've met your match. Not only did Domino's lava cake taste better, but it's about a third of the price, and you don't need to leave a tip (unless it's delivered). Yes, it's much smaller, but that's good. The smaller serving was much more reasonable for a person to eat on their own, and it left me wanting more instead of feeling sick to my stomach. Applebee's cake has been demoted to second favorite and Domino's now gets the distinction of finest lava cake in all the land (at least according to Emily). I kind of want another one now...