Surprisingly enough, I had heard of ShareSweet before I even visited it. A relatively new Asian-fusion dessert shop, ShareSweet has been pretty popular among many people at LHWHS. The words “Asian-fusion” piqued my interest, so I decided to drag a few of my friends along with me to investigate the new restaurant.
The shop itself was very bright. Clearly, the designers went for a pastel, soft aesthetic — plants and flowers decorated the space, Chinese pop music played from the speakers and as one of my friends put it, “[the store] felt like a slice of LA.” Unfortunately, when I came face to face with a window view of a parking lot, I was immediately reminded of its rather dull location.
Ordering was fairly simple task, and I was settled into a seat in no time. Surprisingly, the first thing to be ready was the crispy chicken ($5.95). Honestly, I was a little apprehensive about this dish. It looked and sounded very, very American, and I wasn’t sure how Asian-fusion was related to chicken. However, realization hit upon my very first bite. The chicken was coated with layers of Chinese herbs. It retained the same crunch that American chicken has, but tasted tangy and distinctly Asian.
The next thing I tried was the taro tapioca dessert ($4.95). This was a bowl filled to the brim with tapioca pearls, taro cubes and coconut milk. The tapioca pearls tasted rather ordinary; the taro cubes were a little stiff, but they tasted fine as well. On the other hand, the coconut milk was too sweet, and the ratio between the milk and the other ingredients was quite off-balance, as there was far too much milk in the bowl.
Honey toast, the house special that comes in four varieties, took around 10–15 minutes to prepare, making it the last food item I tasted. The matcha lover toast ($11.95), which was hollow and stuffed on the inside, seemed like it came straight out of a magazine. Topped with whipped cream, macaroons, strawberries, red beans and more, it looked amazing and tasted great, too. The bread, which seemed like an oddly fluffy version of french toast, was still warm; the ice cream was still cold but began to melt quickly. One would think that the dish would taste ridiculously sugary, but the red beans actually cancelled out some of that sugar, giving the honey toast a taste that wasn’t overly sweet.
I ended up ordering milk tea after trying the three foods listed above. Around ⅔ of the ShareSweet menu consisted of drinks, including yogurt tea, fruit tea and cream tea, and I felt that I was missing out if I didn’t try at least one of them. After much deliberation, I got the red bean milk tea ($4.25). The taste of red beans, which are common ingredients in Asian countries, was prominent throughout the drink, and there was a significant number of red beans collected at the bottom of the cup. The rest of the milk tea seemed pretty mediocre and was a bit overpriced, in my opinion.
Overall, I would give ShareSweet 4 out of 5 stars. The shop made food that looked and tasted good, but in general, everything was a little expensive. Nevertheless, I would definitely recommend ShareSweet to any of its curious potential customers.
