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| - Upfront, I'm going to say this place has a crazy business model, but they're certainly confident enough in their product to let customer service go out the window. And I have to admit that their product is fantastic indeed.
Full House Desserts is located inside a small mall on Leslie St, with mostly small restaurants inside. They open from 7 PM - 12 AM (closed Wednesdays), after most of the other restaurants have already closed. The place itself is very small, with only room for 5 dark wooden tables inside (seating at most 2-4 people/table) but they spread out folding tables all out front in the mall corridor, and here's where larger groups cluster. They are understaffed for the amt of business they do, with usually only 2 or 3 people trying to keep up with all the orders (and running around to do it).
My friend and I visited three nights in a row last week (from out of town, not going to get this again for a while). On the first, we arrived just before 9 PM to find the place lit but their roll up gates half-closed, tables/chairs stacked up inside, and a few groups of people milling around outside. Seemed they decided to close up sometime to handle take-out orders only and told everyone to return at 9:15 PM. But they didn't bother to put up a sign to that effect so we saw group after group of people show up trying to figure out what the story was.
Seated promptly 20 minutes later inside, we perused the double-sided menu, divided into traditional Chinese dessert soups (hot), mixed soups (think cocktails) (also hot), sesame-filled dumplings in every combination of the former (hot), a few herbal soups, cold versions of the traditional soups, cold sago soups, a mango section, and a durian section. As extensive as this sounds, there are several basic soups and add-ons, like black glutinous rice, that really form the basis for nearly everything.
This night, I tried the sesame soup mixed with walnut soup, served in a traditional Chinese rice bowl as a tan-colored soup with several artful black sesame swirls that you mix before eating. I loved this. The nutty flavors of sesame and walnut are subtly infused in the soup, and these combined beautifully with just a whisper of sweet. We spotted the bright mango pancakes being served at another table and decided it would be worth a second visit to eat the soups again along with the pancakes.
On day 2, with 2 friends in tow, we tried ordering the pancakes and were told that mango and durian pancakes had to be reserved a day in advance, and highly recommended paying to guarantee they'll be held for us the entire next day. Now assured a third visit, we reserved 2 and pre-paid. I had the sesame-filled dumplings with sesame and walnut soup this day and those two dumplings, made of glutinous rice, were one of the best I've eaten, deliciously chewy yet light. Sampled a few other cold sagos and hot soups, everything excellent, especially the hot black glutinous rice.
On day 3, the four of us returned around 10:30 PM and tried the mango pancake. An order came with two, brightly yellow (almost cartoonishly so) and fist-sized. The thin pancake is wrapped around a light whipped cream filling dotted with cubed mango. A very very light dessert that didn't precisely wow on first bite but it grew on us until we couldn't stop eating until it was gone. I attempted to get the sesame filled dumplings again, in a different soup base, but was told b/c of the late hour, they were sold out. I ordered black glutinous rice in hot walnut soup instead; that was very good also, but less so than my previous orders. My friend attempted to order black glutinous rice in a hot soup after my order came, but was told they sold out of the hot version of the rice and would have to order it cold.
So in sum, come early if you want full pick of the menu, call-in take-out orders ahead of time, and reserve mango or durian pancakes (or possibly other items) in advance. It really is worth it in the end.
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