Dessert Bowl

Went there with colleagues during lunch today. Place was relatively empty besides 2 tables but they left shortly as well. We got the "window seat". Nice place to sit and watch how people parallal park. We ordered 2 mango pomelo sago, 1 jackfruit sago, 1 steamed milk with red beans, 1 ai yu mango with coconut milk (ai yu = jelly agar agar?) and 1 gosh... i cant remember hahaha... its not memorable.

I have to say that having tried several mango pomelo sago desserts before, the ones served here looks and taste pretty yummy. The real gem however is the ai yu mango with coconut milk. The mango is creamy but not overpowering, the ai yu has a flavor of its own and the blend with the coconut milk is pleasing and not cloyingly sweet.

The steamed milk with red beans could be better if the red beans are not sooooo sweet that it overpowered the taste of the milk. Maybe in future i will ask them for a plain steamed milk dessert without the red beans.

Location like what the others has said is a bit of a climb and a bit of a cramp. However, if you have the time, it is a good place to hang out with a magazine or a book, have a dessert or 2 and watch the world pass you by.  

 

Even before I stepped into this snug and cosy dessert parlour, I’ve heard from at least 2 different friends during separate occasions how good the sweet treats are.

Just to assuage the not so gratifying dinner earlier, we drove from Upper Changi Road North to Serangoon Garden for some good old indulgence.

Durian Mousse and Black Glutinous Rice combi was my 1st choice but the little shop house ran out of BGR. I ordered the Durian Mousse ($4.50) instead. My friend ordered the Mango Snow Mountain without the ice cream ($4.30). Yes, we are trying our best at mitigating any auxiliary factor that may further increase our fast expanding waistline.

I came with the intention to try, say with a maximum of a couple of mouthfuls, since the desserts here are highly lauded here at HGW, as well as amongst my friends. To ingest edibles after a self-imposed curfew of 8pm was already a contemptuous breach to my barely working weight loss regime.

Big sigh. I slurped the whole bowl of durian mousse against my 180 degrees turn of will after the very first spoonful. It was that good! Fresh durian flesh served atop a bowl of durian puree that was divine and in every essence yummy! The consistency of the durian puree was a perfect 10 smooth. I was so taken by it, I tabao-ed 2 takeaways for my mum and bro to try. They love any durian related eatables too. In fact, I think this durian dessert win hands and legs down as compared to Goodwood's Durian puff and Four Season's Durian crepe.

I tried abit of the Mango Snow Mountain. Although the viscidity of the mango puree was smooth and sweet, I thought nothing of the mango cubes. I’ve had sweeter mangoes before. Hm...tapioca pearls were also not QQ enough, I feel.

Service was prompt and desserts were served within 10 minutes of ordering. Cups and water were laid out for self service. Mayday concert playing on the flatscreen TV san the audio was a nice distraction as I savour the goodness of my durian cream. I was pretty amused by the Cantonese and English translated tongue-in-cheek epigram mounted on the wall where I sat, “I maybe lowly educated, I may not be pretty, but I have a lot of money in my pocket.” Another dictum near the toilet goes, “You can angry anyone except the boss.”

Needless to say, both mum and bro were very gratified by the durian mousse. I felt uncomfortably heaty the next day and a heavier reading on my weighing machine staring back at my dismal self. Was it worth it? I think I need to try the durian mousse again to decide. Let you know again.

Updated for dessert on Thu evening, 03/09/09:

I opted for the Mango Aiyu ($3.50) this time round. The mango puree mixed with the aiyu cream was rich, and doesn't stay in your mouth long enough to become cloying. There is an ooomph to the gustation and the abundunt mango cubes and jelly were mellow and pleasant. This sweet treat is newfangled (but catching on) that is aberrant from the norm local dessert.

I tried a bit of my friend's Rock Melon Sago ($3.50) and the fruit was fresh and luscious; blended well with the sweetness of the cream and sago but pretty normal fare, I guess.

I bought another Durian Mousse, takeaway, for my mum cos she loves it so much! :)

Located in Serangoon Gardens (next to OCBC bank), transportation to Desert Bowl might be a little troublesome. In addition, there is a flight of stairs that one needs to crawl up before finally getting to the Hongkong cafe set-up on level 2.

The variety of deserts are good - of which Desert Bowl is especially proud of their durian creations. The durian crepe was small for the price but the durian filling within was fresh. The best was the durian cream which was very nice. The mango deserts are definitely worth a try too. Go for Rose Milk drink if you have a very sweet tooth and like pearls. Don't expect snacks - the name is Desert Bowl - they only serve deserts.

Service is extremely prompt. Desert is served especially fast. Just make sure that you have your order ready as service staff come by every 2mins to ask if you have decided on your order.

Seating is a bit cramp. The best seats in the house are the two sofa seats at the window. Having deserts with a view of Serangoon Garden can be quite therapeutic.

Go for the Durian Cream - it's definitely the creme de la cream :)

It was a usual saturday girls' nite outing. we have decided to check out this place after reading all the reviews. There were four of us and we had 8 DESSERTS!!!! Here's our reviews....

1) Durian Mouses - This is HEAVEN! It's rich and creamy and gosh.... it even comes with durian flesh.... we had 2 bowls... yummy!! DIE DIE must order/eat for ALL DURIAN LOVERS!

2) Mango Sago - I personally like this as the mango puree are made of real mango flesh blended with ice. And the mango cube is soooo sweet! It reminds me of the one I had in Hong Kong. For a moment, we thought the sago were uncooked but a check with the service crew, the truth was unveil to us.... the sago became "frozen" and harden when it comes into contact with the chilled mango puree so pple like us thought it was "uncooked". Haha....

3) Mango de Cream - Can the serving be more??? B'cos it's soooo yummy. We were all fighting for our share..... keke....

4) JackFruit Sago - very fragrant and unique.

5) Milk Custard - I love it! So soft and smooth.

6) Glutinous Rice w/Ice Cream - Not bad! But the Vanilla Ice Cream disappear faster than the glutinous rice....

7) Strawberry 7-Up - We simply love it.

Overall, we enjoyed the desserts and we will definitely be BACK AGAIN!

I wouldn't recommend people to chill @ dessert place as it can be very noisy during the peak hours. Just last saturday, I brought my family there and it was so noisy till we couldnt really hear each other.

For the desserts, they are not that fantastic as they can be found else where @ a cheaper price. The honey dew sago that we ordered was the worst order that we made. Sago was not cooked and the honey dew was not ripe.

Went there on a Sunday night and it was bad. Came here with my girlfriend and we tried to order the durian mousse but was told there was none left, except for a 'take-away' one. Was also told there were no more strawberries left at all.

So we ordered mango sago and black glutinous rice with vanilla ice cream.

The mango sago was rightly creamy and sweet, but nobody can get that too wrong, can they? The sago was horrendously hard, like rubber pellets, and there was so little of them. The pomello bits were also sparse.

The glutinous rice was a tad too soft, lacking the slight crunch. The vanilla ice cream didn't do too good to it because it wasn't sweet enough.

Admittedly though, the deserts came rather quickly. And the place is small and cosy, well furnished. A tad too cold because the air-con was simply blasting down on us. Overall, not too good.

Pretty good place to chill out with friends at a nothing to do weekend evening.

I pretty enjoy my redbean ice... Simple but yummy.

Like the holiday magazine in the shop for readings, featuring all my favorite islands...

Durian crepe, fresh durian flesh, nice...

The other dessert in my photos? They're eaten by my friends.

Tried their mango and aiyu jelly in coconut milk. Taste mango-ish to me and didn't really feel the coconut milk. The aiyu jelly come in quite big pieces.

The group of 4 beside us ordered all 4 different type of mango dessert which look pretty decent also.

Think its a good place for a bowl of dessert after a heavy dinner at chomp chomp (as what their shop name suggested). A place to relax, chilled and do some catching up with friends as the place is not very noisy.

And they had a corner where you can pick up magazines to read, iced water and mentos for their customers to help themselves with.

Dessert bowl is located on the 2nd level along a stretch of shophouses in Serangoon Garden.

Looking at the positive reviews here, I can now understand the growing crowd each time I visit the place.

Shops or eatery located on the 2nd level have always appeared somewhat dodgy to me and I usually avoid them if I can.
Mr HB was the adventurous one who brought us here one weekend afternoon after a very unsatisfying lunch, apparently his tummy was calling out to him and with a name that contains the word "dessert" I guess all odds can be overcome. We were greeted by an empty restaurant which mounted my uneasiness over our choice.

The menus takes shape in the form of flip cards. with a little baby boy's face as recommendations. I thought that was pretty cute.
We ordered the Mango Ice and Mango crepe for our first visit. The mango ice was a generous tower of mango cubes on shaved ice drizzled with brown sugar syrup topped with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. This was a wonderful bowl of icy combination and have since became my personal favourite. The mango crepe was somewhat of a letdown thou with the mango filling tasting a little artificial.

Subsequent visits have seen us ordering mango sago, steamed milk custard, jackfruit sago, durian mousse and the Mango and aiyu jelly in coconut milk.
Generally speaking, all the mango desserts are note worthy and a good try. The durian mousse will make a good choice for durian fans like my father in law who quickly slurped up his bowl.

Prices are very very reasonable with the most expensive being about just 5 bucks.