Art of Dessert 仁芝初 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

I have about an hour to spare before meeting up with Anirma for dinner near Ladies Street (女人街) tonight. Usually, it’s a tough neighborhood to kill time in, but there was a place nearby I’ve always wanted to visit — an itch that’s been nagging at me for a while.

The itch was Art of Dessert (仁芝初), a Cantonese dessert shop focused on traditional desserts like black sesame sweet soup, almond tea, and more. I first discovered this place after we had dinner with Jelloman’s aunt from Aussie last year, but I never had the chance to pay them a proper visit.

At 5 pm, the dessert shop was buzzing, but there was a good reason for it: they were offering an all-you-can-eat sweet soup buffet from 4:30pm to 6:30pm for $40 only! That’s a crazy price, and frankly, I have never heard of an all-you-can-eat sweet soup buffet in my life.

So, the first question I got from my server was whether I was interested in joining the sweet soup buffet. I politely declined thinking that I didn’t want to get too full before my dinner gathering.

Black sesame sweet soup (熱芝麻糊) ($32) — I can see the appeal of the sweet soup buffet, because for $8 more I’d be getting unlimited desserts from this exclusive list. But sticking with the plan, I got myself a bowl of black sesame sweet soup instead.

One thing I look for in a delicious sweet soup is temperature. It has to be piping hot, to the point where it could burn my tongue if I don’t wait at least a good minute. But sadly, this was anything but piping hot. It was just lukewarm which ruined the experience.

So, would it be tastier if it arrived at the right temperature? I didn’t think so. I felt the richness was lacking a bit, and the texture was slightly off. I love it to be a little grainier, so you could actually feel the ground black sesame with your tongue. This one wasn’t grainy enough for me.

That’s three Chinese dessert shops in about a week. Time to take a break from action.

Food Rating: 5.1/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 6, G/F, Hung Fai Building, 2Q-2Z Tung Choi Street, Mongkok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Mongkok

Tel: +852 3111-8709

Opening Hours: 2:30pm - 12:00am (Sun - Thu), 2:30pm - 12:30am (Fri - Sat)