| rev:text
| - 3 stars for overall but the mango shaved ice was particularly good for 4 stars. Instagram pretty but not too much beyond that shot.
Freshly arrived from Taiwan, the Harbord location is the first spot in Canada for the brand. It's housed in a cute old row house location just west of the U of T campus. Though it does have a nice 2 story seated area, it also does take out. This particular week day in the evening was fairly quiet with most tables being filled but no line up in sight.
It's white and clean in the dining area but the bathroom... leaves much to be desired. You've been warned. It's a cross between an old dirty custodian closet with a mop, vacuum, and bucket in there and ... well, it's not well maintained. Ew to other patrons. One nice thing to escape from that yuckiness is the moss wall. A gorgeous vibrant emerald green wall starts at the top of the ceiling and all the way down to the floor. It quite a beautiful artistic and natural eye candy.
As for the desserts themselves... you get a novel. I've seen restaurant menus smaller than this booklet. You have every type of Asian desserts available. Sundaes, shaved ice, ice cream, signature desserts, HK egg waffles, parfait, jellies, puddings, brownies, kanten, ... I can keep going. Prices are reasonable for regular desserts ($3 and upwards) but the special or signature desserts are hitting $10 each.
We decided to get a few of the special ones since no where in GTA West can you find the same types of desserts plus we got a cute HK Milk tea that is insta-cute with the addition of a floating marshmallow bear.
Purple Love - Their award winning signature dessert is shaved grape ice, mochi ice cream, mochi balls, fresh grape pieces, grape seaweed balls (or as I know them as candy caviar), and condensed milk. I've had Taiwanese style shaved ice before and I love the fluffy coolness hit your tongue before melting into a sweet creamy puddle. This wasn't it. I found the shaved ice more like big balls of chipped ice ... as in flavourless water and then have the grape syrup poured on top. I was surprised cause it did say grape shaved ice. Shortly after digging through the top, I hit the middle and sure enough, white big blocks of chipped ice. The syrup mostly kept to the surface and stayed there. Aside from the terrible ice chunks, the addition of the mochi, grapes, condensed milk, and grape caviar was novel and interesting for one time. The flavour was definitely sweet ... sometimes a bit too sweet but at least the grape flavour wasn't an obnoxious fake one. Would I get it again? No but I did it for that cute 'gram (even though I dont have an account). Fine I did it for the yelp. 2.5/5
Strawberry Lovers - Similar to the Purple Love, this is the strawberry versions with fresh strawberries, mochi ice cream, mochi balls, condensed milk, mango star jelly, supposedly strawberry shaved ice, and lychee seaweed balls (candy caviar) on top. Visually pretty and good for a shot... as for tastes, this feel to the same issue as purple love. It's not shaved ice... it's ice chunks. Similar to the plain ice snow cones and then topped off with a syrup. This is no different except these 2 had more plain water ice in the middle and lower half. Though I had to admit, it's a lot of ice chunks you get. The whole dessert was taller than my phone by at least a good inch. For a signature dessert, it just didn't have a good taste or wow factor to make it even a 4 star. 2.5/5
Mango Shaved Ice - After the 2 disappointing signature dessert, I was worried we'd get a pile of ice chunks. Instead we got the familiar Taiwanese style finely shaved and ribboned shaved ice. I feel like the almost make the ice block they shave from with a bit of cream to it as I found the nice melty texture after putting it into your mouth super creamy compared to other spots. It was sweet but not too artificial tasting. The mochi balls had a nice chew and complimented the light fluffy shaved ice. Of all the items we had, this was definitely the best... it may not be the prettiest but I think the ribbon pile look was quite appealing. 4/5
Polar Bear Milk Tea - Oh so cute and yes... totally fell for the gimmick but who wouldnt want to have a cute polar bear poking out of your drink and see it melt and sweetened your HK milk tea. I love HK milk tea... and this... wasn't... it. It was ridiculously bitter. Even after adding in the sugar cube. It was as if the tea was steeped long and left overnight in the tea leaves. Im used to a super strong black Assam or Orange Pekoe tea leaves... this was just like drinking the most bitter herbal Chinese tea you can find. Anyhow, it was served lukewarm so the poor bear never had a chance to help and sweetened the tea further. 2/5
Overall, fast and polite service but the desserts were inconsistent and sometimes undrinkable. I would say the Mango shaved ice stands out but everything else we tried, I wouldn't even try again.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)