dessert Archives - Page 3 of 18

Good Day Good Time Tea

April 28, 2020

Good Day Good Time Tea is yet another addition to Vancouver’s rapidly growing bubble tea shops. I can barely keep up with the new shops that are opening! I found out about Good Day Good Time Tea via Maki and Nigiri, who know all the delicious bubble tea places.

This post is the combination of two delivery orders! For the first order, I decided to have a mini photoshoot for these drinks =P. I was bored and in need of some fresh air after not leaving the house for a week.

Mango pomelo sago: The mango pomelo sago is one of their new releases. This was the drink that sold me with this place, despite their mix-ups on our other drinks as you’ll read about soon.

The mango pomelo sago drink is made with coconut milk. Does it taste as good as it looks? Yes, it does! Fresh mango is used, in addition to fresh pomelo pieces.

The drink is made in layers, with the bottom layer being chopped mango, sago, then fresh mango slush with mango pulp, pomelo pieces, and topped with rich coconut milk. I am not sure how the coconut milk manages to stay on top without mixing into the drink, but it sure makes for a beautiful Instagram shot. Just make sure to mix the drink fully before you drink.

This drink was actually the reason we placed a second order the following week. I found that the drink was a bit better the first time. The pomelo pieces were not ripe enough and too sour on the second visit.

Oolong milk tea: The fiance ordered the oolong milk tea, but unfortunately they messed it up. At least, we are pretty sure they did because if this was their normal flavour, it would be awful!

The oolong milk tea was very watery and unsweetened. In addition, it was not milky at all. We ended up getting a refund for this drink from Uber because it was not drinkable.

Guava lemonade: To qualify for free delivery, we ordered another drink for later. Well, since the oolong tea was not good, the fiance ended up drinking this instead. The guava lemonade was light, simple and refreshing. Not bad and would order again!

Grapefruit yakult: Another mess up from Good Day Good Time on our second order. We had ordered a strawberry kiwi smoothie, but this was delivered to us instead.

In the end, we didn’t really mind because the grapefruit yakult ended up being very tasty. There was a delicious balance of grapefruit and yakult. It was a refreshing drink and took me back to childhood because I used to drink a lot of yakult!

Dragonfruit yakult: The fiance ordered a dragonfruit yakult this time, and they did not screw up his drink again so yay! I haven’t seen this on a menu before so I found it unique.

The drink came with dragonfruit pulp and seeds, and you could also taste the yakult. He really enjoyed this drink and it redeemed the messup of the oolong milk tea in the first order.

Good Day Good Time could improve on their consistency and organization, but I understand they have only been open for two months, and trying to operate a new shop with COVID-19 must be tough.

Both of our orders had errors, whether they messed up a drink or gave us the wrong drink. However, I am willing to overlook these issues as growing pains, because the mango pomelo sago and yakult drinks were delicious and great quality! We will still be ordering from them and I have trust they will improve.

Dive In Dessert Bar

April 22, 2020

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

I know that you may want to go out and have fun, but it is crucial that we distance ourselves to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve before it gets worse. Yes, you may feel fine but you could be passing on the virus to someone who is immunocompromised or elderly that may not survive this virus.

A long time has passed since I have had bubble tea! I would like to say at least two months. We have been trying to save money and spend less on eating/drinking out. Since I’m always blogging about food, it probably doesn’t seem like we have cut down but I must say, it has been very successful as proven by our dramatically lower credit card bills!

But the bubble tea craving hit over the weekend, and we decided to try Dive In Dessert Bar since they were offering free delivery on Uber! Dive In Dessert Bar is located on Commercial Drive and opened a year ago. I believe they are Korean-run as a lot of their menu focused on bingsu aka shaved ice.

After doing a quick Google search, older menu photos didn’t feature bubble tea options so it seems like this is a newer addition!

Our order arrived in a timely manner and was packaged with care. Our drinks had cling wrap in addition to a lid, so that there was less risk of spillage.

In addition, they left a sweet note on our cup holder!

Brown sugar bubble tea with soy milk: Not many bubble tea places have non-dairy replacements for brown sugar drinks! I was quite happy to see that they offered soy and almond milk options (for an additional 0.50 cents).

My drink was delicious! There was a sweet caramel taste due to the brown sugar. The pearls were chewy and tender, due to being gently cooked again in the brown sugar. I really enjoyed this drink and would order it again, without a doubt!

Classic milk tea: The fiance went with a classic milk tea! There was a strong milk tea flavour and was the perfect amount of richness and sweetness. He would also get this again.

The size was also bigger than most places, as you can tell with my hand for scale.

Basque burnt cheesecake: To qualify for free delivery, we also added a cheesecake! I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and prefer savoury food items, but this was one of the few times that I was craving something sweet.

The cheesecake was absolutely heavenly. It was light yet creamy, and was not dense. The burnt top added an extra element of flavour to it.

Dive In Dessert Cafe was delicious, and I would definitely “dive in” again! I’m already looking forward to the next order we place. Another great find during social distancing!

Also, if you know of any other places other than Chunyang, Ding Tea, ZenQ, and The Alley that have brown sugar drinks with non-dairy options, please let me know!

Trafiq Bakery

January 15, 2020

I am slowly catching up on reviews from the holidays! I’ve been eyeing Trafiq for awhile because I’ve heard great things about their cakes.

Since my birthday was coming up, I wanted to try a cake from Trafiq and fell in love with the Pretty in Pink cake from the website.

While trying to order the cake online a few days prior to my birthday, the website kept saying out of stock and they don’t answer their phones.

I figured I might as well check out this place for lunch and have a slice of the cake before placing the order! Cola accompanied me for lunch, and I enjoyed it so much here that I came back a week later for lunch!

Trafiq is always bustling, busy, and loud. You place your order at the till, which can be a bit of a wait because of how busy it is. I found their ordering system not very efficient. They could benefit from having two cash registers because there is always a line.

Seating is also not very comfortable, with the tables a few inches from each other. If you’re looking for a quiet place, this is not the cafe to go to. Tables are usually occupied but turnover is quick, just keep an eye out and have one person sit at the table while the other places the order.

DIY sandwich: I ordered a custom sandwich. At the beginning of the line up, there is a piece of paper where you circle the choice of bread, meat, sauce, cheese, and toppings. I chose focaccia bread, chicken breast, pesto, guacamole (at no extra cost!), Swiss cheese, sprouts, and arugula.

The sandwich was delicious! Thick focaccia bread slices, flavourful grilled chicken breast, and fresh veggies inside. I have no complaints about the sandwich.

DIY croissant sandwich: Cola ordered a custom sandwich as well. I don’t remember what exactly she got, but she also enjoyed her sandwich a lot.

Pretty in pink slice: The Pretty in Pink cake is their version of a strawberries and cream cake. This was sooo good. It came with layers of vanilla cake with airy strawberry mouse. Vanilla sour cream was also added, which sounds a bit weird but went well with the vanilla cake and strawberry mousse.

The cake was light with the perfect amount of sweetness. The cake was finished in a pink, white chocolate glaze which gave it the cute pink colour!

Needless to say, I placed my cake order that day. I added my own touch to it with some star candles from Michael’s, and LINE Friends characters, Brown and Cony.

DIY sandwich: I came back the following week for lunch, where it was equally as chaotic. I ordered a similar sandwich to my first visit, except I switched the bread from foccacia bread to cranberry pecan bread.

The sandwich was equally as tasty this time. The cranberry pecan bread was delicious too!

All in all, Trafiq is a delicious choice for cakes and sandwiches. The only negative is how chaotic and busy it is in there all the time! They are also too busy to answer their phones so don’t even bother trying to call to place a cake order like I did.

Mr. Mustache Tea and Dessert

December 19, 2019

Mr. Mustache is a cafe across from Metrotown. The cafe used to be Cafe Joie, which I wrote a review on three years ago. I didn’t realize that they closed down and got replaced with Mr. Mustache! After a quick Google search, it looks like they opened in early 2018.

There is also a Mr. Mustache location in the Marpole/South Granville area.

I didn’t actually visit the cafe, as these pastries were brought as leftovers from a work event. They seem to be continuing the trend of cute, Instagram worthy food and drinks though!

I sampled three of their pastries. The pickiness in me is wishing that I rotated the pink cake so that the Mr. Mustache card is showing!

Matcha cake: Starting with the matcha cake, I found this to be delicious. The matcha was earthy but not overpoweringly strong. I would describe this cake to have a light, airy, mousse texture. If you’re a matcha fan, I would definitely recommend this delightful slice of cake.

I quite enjoyed this and wish I could have had more than a few bites! But I am very sensitive to caffeine and did not want to risk not being able to sleep, especially since the next slice of cake also contained tea.

Peach oolong tea cake: I assumed that this would be a strawberry cake. To my surprise after looking up the menu online, it was actually a peach oolong tea cake ! Not many of these out there, so I was quite curious as to how it tasted.

The peach oolong tea cake was delightful and delicious as well! The peach flavour gave it some sweetness and went really well with the oolong tea. It was a very fragrant cake.

It tasted exactly like a peach tea, which was interesting to me! I really like Teavana’s peach tranquility tea so this slice reminded me of that. There was also some hidden real peach slides inside the cake.

Cheesecake: Last but not least, the bumblebee cheesecake! The cheesecake was made Asian style, meaning that it was also light and airy… but not as light as Uncle Tetsu’s. This was very enjoyable to eat as well!

A thin layer of jelly glaze on top allowed for the cute bumblebee design! I thought it would be mango or passionfruit, but it was just a plain, sweet glaze.

I’m not sure if this is because I had the cake a day after, but the glaze did not stay on the cheesecake. The whole layer of jelly glaze peeled off when I tried to get a bite the cake. It wasn’t a big deal because it was still delicious, but it made it a tad bit messier to consume.

All in all, trying these three pastries made me want to visit the actual store. You could taste the quality in the cakes and they have a cute factor as well!

An interesting thing to note about Mr. Mustache is that they are open until 12am. They probably get a lot of students cramming for exams here. Well, if you’re craving desserts at 11pm, you know where to go!

On Yogurt

December 8, 2019

After having a delicious meal at TAKO, the fiance and I took a stroll around the area. We looped around BC Place and stumbled across On Yogurt.

I heard of this place but didn’t realize they sold taiyaki! During our Tokyo trip last year, we went taiyaki crazy. Since then, we haven’t had taiyaki in Vancouver and have missed eating it.

Apart from taiyaki, On Yogurt also sold rolled ice cream, which is not as popular in Vancouver compared to Asian countries. I’ve seen videos online, but never had the chance to try it personally.

Here was my chance to have taiyaki in Vancouver and rolled ice cream!

On Yogurt was carefully curated for Instagram. They featured a cute backdrop for photos and encouraged people to take photos of the ice cream rolling process. There were also some board games and cute artwork to look at on the walls. It was a small but cozy cafe.

Rolled frozen yogurt: I ordered a plain original rolled frozen yogurt. Taste wise, it was like a vanilla ice cream with a hint of yogurt taste. The original flavour was very smooth, creamy and enjoyable.

The frozen yogurt is scooped and then placed on a freezing cold metal plate. The plate freezes the frozen yogurt even more, thus allowing it to be rolled.

I was quite impressed that the rolled yogurt did not melt into a blob while I was eating it. It was pretty cool to eat frozen yogurt in rolled sheets! There definitely was a novelty factor to eating ice cream this way.

Strawberry taiyaki: The taiyaki came with some Asian waffle sticks, which reminded me of my childhood. It also came with rolled strawberry ice cream, which was delicious! The strawberry ice cream had so many chunks of real strawberry in it!

The taiyaki was flaky with an eggy taste, similar to bubble waffle. We found the taiyaki to be thin, and flakier compared to in Tokyo where their taiyaki was more chewy and doughy. Personally, I prefer the chewier and doughier taiyaki.

The taiyaki was also a bit messy to eat because of the flakiness. I’d come back for the rolled ice cream, but not the taiyaki.

All in all, it was a successful spontaneous visit to On Yogurt. Rolled ice cream is pretty cool and although it tastes the same, there is an aesthetic and unique element to it.