Sweet Tooth

The French Toast ($15) consists of a thick chunk of toasted fluffy brioche with walnuts, blueberries, strawberries and caramelized banana as well as an artful smear of salted caramel sauce.

I found it a tad too dry for my liking. The French Toast I am familiar with is usually very moist and soaked with egg and milk before being fried and it was evident this was not. Plus it was toasted in a way that drew out even more of the moisture, making it even drier. Perhaps the addition of ice cream would have helped (the option is available at $4). The salted caramel sauce has a burnt toffee flavor I can't quite place. It was an interesting compliment to the toast. I also really liked the caramelized banana.

But still, really liked the nice ambience and the good service. The soft sunlight and the wood finishings give it such a rustic, welcoming charm.

6.5/10

Miso and white chocolate is a strange-sounding but daring combination and Woodlands Sourdough made it work so beautifully.

First of all, the cookie ($3) is on the thin side (not those chunky American style cookies) has a soft, buttery texture, breaking apart easily when picked up. It's got the most satisfying crispy edge where the cookie is a bit more cooked and inside it is soft and creamy with the white chocolate. I prefer this to the chunky style haha.

Flavor-wise, the miso provided a salty contrast against the sweet white chocolate. It's kinda like a mystery ingredient; if you didn't tell me there was miso, I wouldn't be able to identify it from the subtle, slightly umami flavor of the cookie. Really delicious treat.

9.5/10

This is a quintessential Middle Eastern dessert ($6) consisting of layers of filo pastry, honey and chopped nuts (namely almond and pistachio). The owner told us that their version of baklava is homemade and has a muted sweetness level, which I appreciated.

I liked the crispiness of pastry combined with the stickiness of the honey and rich earthy flavors of the nuts. It tasted very exotic but also reminiscent of some Chinese New Year biscuit with all the nuts. Just a fun way to end a delicious meal.

I had but the vaguest idea what a blondie was. Apparently it's a brownie but with the chocolate replaced with a vanilla flavoring and utilizing brown sugar instead.

And this delightful dessert ($5.50) worked so well. The mild vanilla flavor made the bittersweet chocolate chips swirled into the mix so much more pronounced and didn't allow the chocolate to overpower the mix or make the dessert too sickly sweet.

The texture of the blondie itself is beautiful, just barely crumbling apart and the chocolate chips just perfectly melted. And the walnuts added a delightfully crunch.

9/10

Such an intriguing cake ($13). How do they even form those fat round globules? The outer layer is white chocolate mousse, which was not too sweet at all (it also lacked a distinct white chocolate flavor :/), while the center is filled with passionfruit lemon jelly and tart strawberry cremeux.

It made for quite a delicious dessert. The mousse was surprisingly thick and solid (I guess it has to be in order to hold that shape) and the center had a sourish berry tang from the filling inside. It was a very good balance of the rich, creamy mousse and the refreshing tangy filling. Really enjoyable to eat and look at!

7/10

This is a Kenyan donut topped with house soft serve ($8), which happened to be matcha-flavored that day. The presentation for this dessert seemed rather haphazard contrary to the other aesthetically beautiful dishes. The soft serve seemed to be randomly just dumped onto the donut. But props for the flowers though.

The donut itself is very very airy. It's like eating nothing haha. I was expecting some sort of exotic flavor but I didn't get that either. So it doesn't score on either flavor or texture unfortunately. And it doesn't seem to go well with matcha flavor (bad luck of the draw I guess).

The soft serve itself is super gao on the matcha flavor, almost to the point of bitterness. Which would be fine if there was some sweet or rich element in the dish to balance it out. But there wasn't. Most disappointing.

5/10

This huge tower of sugar and cream ($22) has vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles around the rim and is crowned with a whole slice of funfetti cake and whipped cream.

It is superbly sweet of course, but not in a bad way. The milkshake itself has an extremely thick, creamy vanilla base made with ice cream. It's almost a soup consistency, and barely drinkable through a straw despite my valiant efforts. Very rich but surprisingly I did not feel jelak at all.

The cake itself is really quite good too, fluffy with buttercream in the center and covered with more frosting. Slightly dry but I used the milkshake as a sauce (it is literally viscous enough to be used as one) and it elevated the taste of the cake.

Overall just a really fun, aesthetically appealing dessert.

7.5/10

Look at that glistening surface of the custard. How can such a beautiful pastry ($7.50) not taste just absolutely delicious? And indeed it was!

A crunchy, buttery tart shell is filled to the brim with a delightful lemony custard. The custard is actually super creamy on the inside (think mayonnaise-like consistency which is just slides down the throat super smoothly) and just burst with a tangy, refreshing, citrus flavor.

There is a perfect crust to filling ratio however I would have preferred the tart shell to be more easily broken through? It took some real work with a fork to cut through it and crumbs flew all over the place when I managed to do so. Still a really delicious dessert.

8/10

What a perfect sweet note to end a delicious steak dinner on.

This delicious dessert ($15) has a base of lady's fingers drenched with coffee and atop that is a rich creamy mascarpone cheese mix and cocoa powder generously dusted on top. It's got more cocoa crumbles and matcha crumbles garnished around it as well as a delicious scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

And oh boy is it delicious and just a fantastic medley of flavors and textures. The lady's fingers and mascarpone are just sweet enough to provide a contrast against the bitter coffee, and the cocoa powder. The spongy moistness dripping from the lady's fingers counters the dryness from the cocoa powder. The crumbles add a crunch while the ice cream and mascarpone provide a creamy texture.

Definitely a tiramisu to remember.

9.5/10

This delicate dessert cost $10.50 but tasted amazing. A light, airy, crispy choux pastry was cut in half and filled with a rich hazelnut paste and a vanilla-flavored cream. Embedded into the cream and garnished at the top were roasted peanuts.

I love the combination of sweet vanilla cream and salty peanuts. And there was the earthiness of the nuts that just cuts through all the fluffy textures of the cream and pastry, which were not overly sweet. Such a delightful, savory twist on the classic profiterole.

Help me this was so good ❤️

This was a fluffy homemade raisin brioche and croissant bread pudding resting on luscious creamy TCA house blend coffee custard. It was served with banana, berries and TCA house blend espresso golden syrup.

The bread was so unbelievably soft. It soaked up the syrup and coffee custard, combining the sweetness of the syrup with the bitterness of the coffee custard. The raisins and fruit added depth of flavor and a varying texture to the dessert. The custard was delightfully smooth and perfectly blended. My only gripe is that the brown part of the pudding was slightly dry/cakey but thats just nitpicking haha.

So well-thought and executed, a perfect addition to TCA's desserts. We didn't even have to wait too long for it. Totally worth the $16 price point.

9.5/10

This scoop cost $3.50 and I added $1.30 for a waffle cone lined with chocolate and peanuts.

I really like the creaminess of the ice cream here. Its just the most perfect consistency, not too icy and doesn't melt too fast. The cookie butter seems to really enhance the texture of the ice cream and adds a sweet richness that isn't overly jelak. There are speculoos cookie bits swirled in which kinda breaks up the otherwise monotonous mouthfeel :D

I didn't regret the peanut cone because it was crispy, delicious and just seems to make the entire ice cream experience so nostalgic :)

9/10