I’ve found my favourite place for dessert in Hong Kong. No, really, I have. There was so much hype surrounding Dazzling Café’s arrival to Hong Kong (from Taiwan) and instagrammers were posting shot after shot of their famous honey toasts and waffles, I decided I had to check it out for myself. I’m so glad I did because now I’m officially in love. ♥
*UPDATE (February 2016): The cafe I visited in this post is Dazzling Cafe Ocean in Tsim Sha Tsui. The second branch Dazzling Cafe Garden is located in Causeway Bay (full details below).
As you can tell from the Christmas decor and santa hats worn by the staff, I went to Dazzling Café during the Christmas season, on a cold and rainy day in December. On days like that where everyone hates being out on Hong Kong streets, it was the perfect day to stay indoors and check out Dazzling for some sweet treats. :)
The waiting time for a table was as long as I heard it would be. From my visit on a late weekday afternoon, I waited 40 minutes for a table. Due to their popularity, there is also a 90 minute dining time! (Note: About 10 minutes before my time was up, a friendly waitress came up to our table and reminded us that we had 10 minutes left and asked if we would like the bill. So yes, they are quite strict about the time limit but I appreciated the polite attitude anyway.)
Despite the waiting, I was happy since I was ushered inside and got a table right next to the window, with a cute chair that had a pair of bunny ears!
On to the food and drinks! A little heads-up: there is a minimum charge of one drink per person.
Here it is! The famous honey toast they are known for and it is amazing. It’s huge and when it arrived, I’m pretty sure I was staring at it for a few seconds. The waitress offered to cut it up for us but I hesitated since 1. I wanted to take pictures of the prettiness and 2. I much prefer cutting up my own food. She probably noticed my camera because before I could say anything, she went cheerily, “I can come back after you’re done taking pictures!”
(Note: All the staff in Dazzling speak Mandarin. They are also very friendly and polite and didn’t blink an eye at my rusty Mandarin! The menu is in both English and Chinese.)
This one I ordered is the Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast (HK$95) and the honey toasts are served with a choice of soft/regular/crispy textures. The hazelnut chocolate one is made up of toast, a scoop of hazelnut ice cream, melty whipped cream, chocolate syrup and slices of strawberry. Yummmmy.
The best part was discovering that this particular honey toast had chocolate chips in each toast cube! By the way, it’s probably a good idea to pop by Dazzling when you’re hungry because these desserts are so filling. Good and filling. :D
For drinks we ordered a Dazzling Black Tea (HK$35) and Vanilla Brulee Milk Tea (HK$45) and below, a Dazzling Cocoa (HK$40) and a Cappuccino (HK$42).
The iced tea was refreshing with slices of apples in it but I wished I got a coffee instead because I thought it didn’t go very well with the desserts, it might have worked better with their non-dessert menu items. Oh well. Coffee next time! The vanilla milk tea was a little too sweet. Drinks wise, I felt like the coffee and cocoa are a better choice.
The cup of cocoa with a pretty Christmas themed design… that somehow turned from snowmen into a ghost hehehe.
And finally, this is the Strawberry & Ice cream Waffle (HK$90) served with a choice of regular/crispy texture. The waitress also recommended that we try the “mochi upgrade” for HK$15 which means adding chewy pieces of mochi inside the waffle. For HK$15, the mochi wasn’t very generous but in the bites with mochi in them, it added this chewy yummy texture.
This waffle is served with a scoop of strawberry ice cream and three types of sauces: strawberry sauce, sweetened condensed milk and syrup.
I love both the honey toast and the waffle but if I had to pick just one to order, I would go with the honey toast. It’s more unique and filling and more worth the price since the price range for both desserts are similar. But again, why not just order both, then you won’t have to decide! ;)
Dazzling Cafe Ocean
L3, The ONE, 100 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
(Tsim Sha Tsui station – Exit B1)
Hours
Daily: 12 noon – 10pm
Dazzling Cafe Garden
3/F, Shop 313, Windsor House, 311 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
(Causeway Bay station – Exit E)
Hours
Daily: 12 noon – 7:30pm
http://www.dazzlingdazzling.com/
https://www.facebook.com/dazzlingcafe.hk
https://instagram.com/dazzling_cafe/
https://instagram.com/dazzlingcafe.hk/