604: Mochido (Vancouver)

Finally, I have successfully checked into this place and have joined the hype!

Interesting fact - it's located in an industrial area in South Vancouver. Another interesting fact - this has come in as the second ... least favorite donut shop from my donut polls.

As always, I did enough research before heading over and my homework saved me from a long que. Although I arrived at a quarter to 1 in the afternoon, before their opening hour, a short line has already formed. By the time the clock stroke 1, the line was assembled roughly by 10 or so people. This is on a Friday afternoon by the way. As I was hiding behind a car trying to avoid the direct heat from the scorching sun, I overheard the people in front of me complaining how the line was insanely long on her first visit, but it was on a Saturday. (I didn't quite catch how long she had to wait for it though. I was busy looking for shades.)

I was the third in line and I honestly don't understand what was the hold. The first person ordered two boxes of assorted plus two singles, the second group ordered another box of assorted with some minor changes, I ordered three singles. It's so freaking simple and I don't even need a notepad to write these down. On the other hand, the lady took our payments swiftly and had us waiting on the side. I had to wait 30 minutes in total for 3 single donuts. For crying out loud, how hard is it to throw in three donuts into a paper bag!?!?!! What took 30 minutes!?

To save you some trouble, I suggest that you come on a weekday at around 2:30 to avoid the first wave of craziness. Of course, you could also pre-order on their website, but you would have to commit half a dozen of donuts by doing so.

Now about the donuts, I ordered three different flavors including the black sesame, salted brown butter, and ube coconut. All the donuts have the same mochi donut base but were dipped with different flavored glaze. The black sesame was quite bland but it's not as sweet as the other two. I can see why so many Asian bloggers praise highly on this. After all, the highest form of praise on desserts from the Asians is that - it isn't sweet... The sesame taste comes mainly from the sesame sprinkles on top, which were scattered sparsely.

The ube flavor has a stronger flavor but I could tell it's composed mainly of the Ube extract and coconut shavings on the top. It's pretty good but not mind-blowing.

Last but not least, the salted brown butter is my favorite of all. I believe it's a favorite from the majority as well. It's on the sweeter side but it's perfectly balanced by the salt added to it. It basically tasted like the caramel popcorn, and I'm almost positive that it's the same ingredients used, but minus the baking soda and corn syrup. Imagine a moist brown sugar powder paste that crumbles easily, and tasted like caramel popcorn on a donut, with a chewy and bouncy bread texture.

Overall, I would say these are pretty delicious. Its texture was chewy and fluffy and it did not harden after it was cooled down. Compared to Mister Donuts from Japan, I could confidently say that Mochido is superior to the mochi donuts from Mister Donuts (Honest to God and I'm not being patriotic). So well done! The ones from Japan were a bit hard and the flavor wasn't as impactful.

Even though I've given Mochido a higher score than Duffin Doughnuts, the same outcome from my donut poll, I think I would still prefer having Duffin's if I ever feel like having a donut. I have a hard time accepting them as part of the donut family, that's all.

📍Location: Here Menu: Here

Preorder: Here

💵 Price: $16.95 for six 🍩 || $2.95 for 1 🍩 (For walk in only)

🤤Taste: 4.3 / 5

🕯Atmosphere: NA

🪑Seating: NA

📈 Price Performance ratio: 4.8 / 5

Retention Rate: 50% (It's great but it's just not my type of dessert)

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕤:

🍩 Chewy & springy

🍩 Fluffy

🍩 Loved the salted brown butter flavor

🍩 Not overly sweet

🍩 Could avoid line ups by pre-ordering

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕤:

🍩 Service is slow as hell

🍩 Long line ups for walk ins

🍩 Parking can be a pain (as per my research) 🍩 Black sesame flavour was pretty bland

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:

🍩 Better than Mister Donuts from Japan

🍩 Great but not my type of dessert

🍩 But would I recommend it to you guys? Absolutely. I saw a lot of returned customers ordering a few boxes at a time. That says a lot!

604: Lotus Cake Boutique (Burnaby)

Lotus is well known for their crepe cakes but unfortunately, the Richmond location does not sell ice cream so I had to venture out to Burnaby. In their Burnaby location, they sell Matcha Ice Cream platters with 5 grades of matcha intensity. I have a good feeling that I will like their most intense level.

The worker there said that their normal matcha ice cream is at level 3 and most people prefer it at level 3. Level 4 has a bit more bitterness and level 5 is quite bitter. Nonetheless, I just ordered the platter to make my own judgment. My friend and I also ordered their creme brulee crepe cake on the side, the server there recommended that since it's one of the best sellers and it's on the sweeter side which was perfect for my girlfriend who has a sweet tooth. He said no one had ever complained about that. He also recommended the matcha crepe cake, but since we already had 5 scoops of ice cream on the table, we figured we should try something else.

Strategically, we tried the mildest matcha flavored ice cream and worked our way up to level 5. Here are our thoughts:

Unlike some of the famous matcha dessert stores, their ice cream is creamy and silky rather than slushy :)

Level 1: We were quite impressed with the first level. It had a pretty strong matcha flavor that already beat a lot of other well-known matcha specialized dessert stores! It's on a sweeter side since it lacks bitterness but it's not overly sweet.

Level 2: Slightly stronger but similar to level 1

Level 3: Matcha flavor was noticeably stronger with a hint of bitterness. We both liked it a lot.

Level 4: Matcha flavor intensifies and the bitterness is quite noticeable here but not unwelcoming. The sweetness also diminishes as the bitterness increased.

Level 5: Matcha flavor amplified that leaves your mouth with an aftertaste of bitterness. I also liked that the sweetness was not as noticeable. Recommended for matcha addicts but not for any average matcha lovers.

My favorite was level 4 to 5, but of course, different people will have different preferences. My girlfriend preferred level 4 and 5.

As for the Creme Brulee crepe cake, it was pretty much like a creme brulee in a layered custard crepe cake with the Brulee on top. The texture of their Crepe Cakes are similar to Lady M but shorter in height. I like that their crepe layer has the perfect thickness and not being overly thin. There's still a good mouthfeel to it with the perfect ratio of cream layers in between.

For some odd reason, the Chinese community has a thing for crepe cakes where they purse the crepe layer being so ridiculously thin that it becomes unnoticeable. The crepe cake dessert shops that the Chinese community prefers here include Berry Good (in Richmond) and Cake Bae (at Dunbar). I've tried Berry Good but I really didn't like the lack of mouthfeel. You might as well just buy a can of whipping cream and just directly spray it into your mouth in that case...

From a reliable source, Cake Bae is similar to Berry Good and it's also very expensive, so I think I'll pass.

Another crepe cake that I've tried at Lotus was the 64% dark chocolate crepe cake. It's rich and smooth and still has a good level of sweetness to it. It's good but I personally like my chocolates at 70% t0 75% dark. Whether it be matcha or chocolate, the strong bitterness takes over the sweetness which is perfect for a weak dessert eater like me. As you can probably tell by now, I don't like my desserts being overly sweet. (I'd say I have a sweet tooth that lies in between a Caucasian and a Chinese? Which is more or less having a Persian sweet tooth. East Indian Sweet tooth is out of the question. It's wayyy too sweet for me. haha. )

Next time, I'd like to come back to try their rose lychee and matcha Crepe cake. Their blue Earl grey is also interesting :)

P.S - I normally find desserts at $9 + pretty expensive here, but crepe cake is one dessert I wouldn't mind paying at this price point because it's time-consuming and labor intensive to make at home. So before you complain about their price point, try making a crepe cake at home first!

📍Location: Richmond || Burnaby

💵 Price: $12 🍰; $7 🍨 or $15 for the sampler

🤤 Taste: 4.9 / 5

🕯Atmosphere: 5

🪑Seating: 2.5

📈 Price Performance ratio: 4.8 / 5

Retention Rate: 100%

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕤:

🍨 They’ve got a strong Matcha game going on

🍨 the strongest matcha flavored ice cream I’ve had in Vancouver. Even better than the 🍨 from Matcha Maiko or Tsujiri ☺️

🍨 the sampler has 5 levels of Matcha intensity. 1st level is the mildest and 5th is the strongest. The matcha flavor from the 1st level was still noticeable but marginally sweeter

🍰 they make the best crepe cakes in Vancouver IMO. I know some people prefer the paper-thin crepes resulting in a nearly unnoticeable crepe layer... but that’s just like eating whipping cream. You might as well just buy a can of whipping cream then.

🍰 we tried the creme brûlée crepe cake and it was delicious. Perfect crepe to whipped cream ratio. The top had the caramelized crust and it was slightly crunchy 👌🏼

🍰 I also tried their durian and 65% chocolate dark chocolate crepe cake before and they were also lovely.

🍰 their desserts aren’t too sweet

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕤:

🍰 nothing to complain about atm

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:

🍰 I find desserts at $10+ range expensive here in Vancouver but not for crepe cakes. It’s very labor intensive and time consuming to make each of those layers, so I’m happy to pay

🍰 Looks like most of you are matcha addicts and prefer the slightly bitter aftertaste from the matcha ice cream 🥰 I also prefer level 4 - 5 intensity

🍨 their ice cream reminds me of the ones from Japan ❤️

🚨🍨 Note: only the Burnaby location sells ice cream

604: J Squared Ice Cream (Richmond)

Came here to mark my territory since everyone has been highly praising this place. According to my research, the most popular flavored is the Shanghai Fog (Jasmine Tea), Japanese Black Sesame, Thai Tea, and Oolong Tea.

I chose the Shanghai Fog and the Oolong Tea since they are more unique flavors. As a tea lover myself, I prefer my sweets and drinks with a bit of bitterness.

I find that the tea flavored was drowned in the Oolong ice cream. I couldn't tell what flavor it was until I had a bite into the Shanghai Fog to identify which was which. I buy a lot of Oolong Tea from 7 Eleven in Hong Kong so I am not foreign to the taste of Oolong. It should be stronger than green tea but less powerful than black tea. It has a woodsy flavor with the first sip being bitter but finishes off with a sweet note. I could taste none of that from their Oolong Ice cream.

On the other hand, their Shanhai Fog was quite refreshing. It's scented with a delicate sweet perfume aroma with subtle notes of floral flavor. I liked it but would still prefer it to be a tad stronger.

Overall, their ice cream was smooth and had the right amount of sweetness. I have no complaints with the serving sizes either. Pretty big scoops in my opinion.

Now, as per my follow up research, it seems like their Thai milk tea has the same problem. Some people complained that it wasn't strong enough, but the black sesame was potent. I probably wouldn't come back for a second try, but if I do, I'll give the black sesame a chance.

So far, my favorite tea flavored ice cream is from: @lotuscakeboutique for their green tea 🍨 @tenrensteahongkong (天仁茗茶）from Hong Kong for their Tie Guan Yin (鐵觀音）ice cream. I believe Ten Ren's was originated from Taiwan so they have stores in Taiwan as well.

📍 Location: Here

Menu: Here

💵 Price: $5.50 - 7.50 🍨 || $11.50 per pint

🤤Taste: 3.5 / 5

🕯Atmosphere: NA

🪑Seating: NA

📈 Price Performance ratio: 4.8 / 5

Retention Rate: 🧐 possibly for the black sesame (heard it's potent)

ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕤:

🍨 not too sweet

🍨 reasonably priced

🍨 big scoop

🍨 Shanghai Fog: tea flavor was present but could be stronger. This was refreshing

🍨 Oolong: tea flavor was drowned. I had a hard time identifying the Oolong flavor

🍨 used green products 💯

ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕤:

🍨 the tea flavor isn’t strong enough for me🥺

𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:

🍨 Their tea flavored ice cream is probably suitable for the general crowd, but for a tea lover like me, I prefer my tea flavored drinks or sweets with a bit of bitterness. So this is a bit weak for me

🍨 Japanese black sesame is another popular one here as per my research

🍨 so far, my favorite tea flavored ice cream is from: @lotuscakeboutique for their green tea 🍨 @tenrensteahongkong (天仁茗茶）from Hong Kong for their Tie Guan Yin (鐵觀音）🍨 😍