Best Dessert for a Birthday Celebration

Editors' Pick

Chocolate piñata at Uncle Julio’s

Lots of restaurants will serve birthday celebrants a slice of cake with a candle, but at Uncle Julio’s they get to smack a chocolate piñata with a rolling pin. The ¾-pound chocolate orb hangs above a board decorated with a chocolate syrup birthday message, mounds of whipped cream, and caramel and raspberry sauces. And when busted open, the piñata ($25) reveals strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and homemade churros. Note: This is not just appropriate for whack-happy kids. Says Bethesda Uncle Julio’s general manager Breck Jones, “Anybody and everybody has ordered it.”

4870 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda; 301-656-2981; 231 Rio Blvd., Gaithersburg; 240-632-2150; unclejulios.com