The Dessert Kitchen opened fittingly in Sydney in the middle of our 2016/17 Summer. While they’ve had their store in Melbourne for a while, this is the first store in Sydney for the 10-year-old Chinese cafe chain, which specialises in health-conscious desserts that contain a minimal amount of fat and sugar. Low sugar desserts were just what we needed in during a summer marked by heatwave upon endless heatwave. It seems long ago now.
This is Purple in Love Shaved Ice ($12.80) with Kyohō grape seaweed balls, grape shaved ice, mini rice balls, grapes and taro mochi ice cream. This was a winner is the Hong Kong Gran Cuisine Awards in 2009.
The grape flavour of the shaved ice (crushed, not shaved) was delicious – not too strong, nor too syrupy – and recalled the Kyohō & Honey by Sugi Bee Garden. That and the fact that the grapes were seedless were the highlights. While the seaweed balls (their arrangement reminds us of Buddha headdress!) had the sweet and bright flavour of Kyohō grapes that we enjoy, their hard, almost crunchy non-dissolving texture with none of the firm and melty squishiness of jelly was not a hit. Neither was mochi ice cream a hit – not only does taro not jump to complement the flavour of grape, they tasted like chocolate with a terribly mushy texture. Once you’re half way through, the shaved ice turns into grape flavoured soup and you’re left to scoop through it.
This is their Ujikintoki Traditional Japanese Style Shaved Ice ($11.50) with green tea shaved ice, red bean, mini rice balls, and red bean vanilla ice cream.
The matcha flavour on the shaved ice (crushed, not shaved!) was a hit, with a very healthy dose of vegetal green tea notes, and definitely one for those who appreciate the slightly bitter notes of matcha. After a while, the matcha mixes with the condensed milk of the shaved ice to create a delicious matcha latte flavour with the plump and juicy red beans adding pops of flavour to break up the matcha. The vanilla ice cream looked and tasted a lot like compressed shaved ice, giving it a pleasantly fluffy texture punctuated by pops of red bean. The one downside were the rice balls, which would’ve fared better if they were more like dango as these were far too soft and soggy.
After getting crushed rather than shaved ice, we go back for their proper Mango Shaved Ice ($11.50). The shaved ice is light and fluffy with a gentle bite, holding its shape without melting immediately upon eating or turning into liquid on the plate. The mango flavour in the shaved ice is fresh with a gentle sweetness and the canned mango fruit is pleasant, rather than the intensely sweet syrup or the terribly sour canned mangoes used at MeetFresh. We’re still not a fan of the rice balls but the Nato de Coco jelly has its signature bounce.
And finally, this is the Matcha Red Bean Eggettes ($11.00). I’ve a minor eggette obsession at the moment and these were green tea flavoured, topped with whipped cream, azuki beans and green tea ice cream.
The eggettes had a pleasantly strong green tea flavour with a gentle sweetness. We were surprised to find no red bean in the eggettes themselves. but the pleasantness of the green tea flavour made up for that. The red bean paste is sweet and nutty, with the green tea ice cream having a gentle bitterness to counter the sweetness of the eggettes.
Flecks of green tea can be seen in the eggette batter, which has a light green colour and a crispy edge.
Overall, The Dessert Kitchen serves up decent Chinese desserts with the properly shaved ice and the eggettes being the highlights and items to draw us back.
Looking up The Dessert Kitchen online recently, I was surprised by its low ratings. N and I generally avoid anything that scores less than a 3 (out of 5) on Zomato and this place scored a 2.9. We’d visited as it opened before ratings were a thing, and were impressed enough to return. The place is not amazing and the service is inattentive but the desserts are very decent and enjoyable. There are worse options.
That said, they always seem to be out of three of the seven flavours on their menu so in lieu of our first choice of strawberry shaved ice, we try the Matcha Shaved Ice ($11.50) with rice balls, red bean and nata de coco. As we’d expected, the shaved ice is beautifully creamy with some bite before it melts on your tongue. The matcha flavour was prominent and fragrant with a hint of pleasant bitterness, while the red bean is sweet and tender. We’re not fans of the rice balls, which don’t have the elasticity of pearls or mochi, or the nata de coco, which has a weird chemical flavour.
We manage to catch their Strawberry Shaved Ice ($11.50) on another visit with rice balls, fresh strawberries and nata de coco. The strawberry shaved ice has a pleasantly fresh strawberry flavour. There’s marked notes of strawberry syrup, but the freshness of the strawberry came through increasingly as you continue to eat. The toppings are neither here nor there for us, we’d be happy for a lower price to forgo the toppings.
Ube is their flavour for winter and these were their Purple Ube Dream Eggette ($11.00).
It comes with an ube eggette, whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, and fresh ube and strawberries.
The ube eggette is a beautiful purple colour, and for the parts that weren’t slathered in whipped cream or ice cream, deliciously crispy on the outside with tender innards. Otherwise, the eggette became unpleasantly soggy. As for ube flavour, it’s rather weak compared to the brightness of the purple and we’d have enjoyed a punch of flavour perhaps with ube ice cream instead of vanilla.
A Polar Bear Hong Kong Style Milk Tea ($6.50) with a polar bear marshmallow also featured on their menu during the cooler months.
Unfortunately, much to my despair, the marshmallow flipped upside down just as I was placing it into the hot tea, which melted the marshmallow instantly, leaving only this sad mess. Clumsiness aside, the tea itself was heavy on the dairy without much tea flavour.
For completeness, this is how cute the polar bear should’ve looked. Alas, the tea itself was not something I’d want to reorder.
For all its flaws, The Dessert Kitchen does make delicious shaved ice with enjoyable red bean eggettes. We’ll keep returning.
The Dessert Kitchen is at 78 Harbour St, Haymarket NSW 2000.