Introduction
In the last seven years of life in NYC, we have encountered wave after wave of Asia-influenced dessert trends. We have popped our fair share of bubble waffle ice cream creations, spliced layers of creamy mille crepe cakes, been engulfed in the Japanese-style cream puffs and Korean cream doughnuts explosion, counted one-thousand-and-one-ways to use bubble tea, nibbled the weird-sometimes-wonderful-sometimes-not croffle or souffle pancake or mochi doughnut hybrid dessert, and applauded the city’s growing love affair with more traditional South-East Asian desserts and East Asian flavours. Last year, we created two guides: one compiled all the best Asian dessert cafes in NYC where you can actually sit down and relax with a plate or several of desserts, and the other listed where to find the best Asian street food dessert spots. Yet, in recent months, a handful of new Asian dessert spots have opened, and we round all of them up and feature them in this list. We will also update our previous guides too – check them out here and here!
Bouncy jelly via Japan and Vietnam
Dessert destination: An Jelly, East Village, Manhattan.
Short and sweet story: When Ann Jelly opened in the height of summer 2023, we visited for colourful, jelly-laden drinks purportedly inspired by street vendors in Vietnam. In the last few months, after it launched a series of jiggly jelly in the shape of rabbits, cats and reindeer, the shop’s popularity has completely skyrocketed with lengthy queues. Notwithstanding the crowds, and the inflated pricing, we loved the coca-flavoured reindeer jelly ($15), served with a tangy sideof passionfruit and fruit morsels.
Cat tarts from Japan
Dessert destination: Miyomacchi Sweets, East Village, Manhattan.
Short and sweet story: Operating for the last couple of months as a weekend pop-up, don’t miss the palm-sized, cat-shaped pie tarts ($18) from Miyomacchi. They are available in a variety of flavours, including pumpkin, black sesame, etc. We tried two, and both were encased in a delightfully buttery tart shell. The “Yame Matcha Brulee” featured a smooth green tea matcha filling with a creme brulee-like texture, layered on top of red beans. The sunshine yellow-hued “Beni Haruka & Apple Tart” saw sweet potato and honey melded together with apple.
Sweet potato mont blanc parfait from Japan
Dessert destination: Hello Yam, East Village, Manhattan.
Short and sweet story: Go to any grocery store, and potatoes are probably one of the few grocery items that have maintained their cheap price in this era of inflation. Correction, potatoes other than a Japanese Beni Haruka sweet potato. Put that potato through a playdoh-like machine that churns out potato hair, spin it on top of a plastic container containing a stratum of cornflakes and a giant ball of cream, and voila, you have a dessert that has dominated a lot of NYC social media channels. But at $18 a pop for what is just a take-away dessert, we do wander how long the hype will last, even if it does admittedly, make for a wonderful afternoon dessert pick-me-up.
Hotteok taiyaki
Dessert destination: Tokyo Taiyaki, East Village, Manhattan.
Short and sweet story: We love hot waffle-like creations – whether in Japanese form, Korean form, Indo/Malaysian or even Thai form. Give it all to moi! 😀 So you can imagine our excitement when we heard that another taiyaki place had opened up, and that this one filled up the fish pastry with the ultra-addictive, cinnamon-inflected, syrupy brown sugar and nuts filling characteristic of a Korean hotteok pancake.
Modern egg tarts from Hong Kong/Macau
Dessert destination: Na Tart, Chinatown, Manhattan. (Also located in Flushing).
Short and sweet story: If you were to ask us what is our favourite traditional Chinese bakery dessert, we would say the egg tart, though a close second may be the plain sponge cake. So, when we heard that there was a new egg tart purveyor in the city, we couldn’t wait to visit. Na Tart does offer a traditional Portuguese-style egg tart in the Macau-style, but we actually love Na Tart’s other, more creative tarts better. We recommend ordering a box of six tarts ($18), and selecting especially: the “Pineapple” tart which would be our absolute repeat-order favourite; “Chocolate Bobo” tart with crunchy pearls; and the “Salty Boy” with a puff of pork floss and bonito flakes if you prefer more traditional flavours. We also tried the “Durian” tart, which is very pungent; and the “Ube Cheese” which was a little odd to us. You can also buy each tart by itself, for just under $4 a piece.
Cute animal icecream
Dessert destination: La Mira Gelateria, Koreatown, Manhattan. (Also located in Flushing).
Short and sweet story: Just a few years ago, other than the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, you would be rather hard pressed to find an ice cream spot offering Asian flavours more varied than green tea, red bean or black sesame. Fast forward especially since post-pandemic, there has been a growing number of spots with Asian-inspired ice cream flavours: Sundaes Best, Stuffed Ice Cream, Kaylee’s Creamery etc. And for creamy ice cream with cute animal faces, definitely check out La Mira, order the peach oolong ice cream (and choose another flavour), and have it studded like a little rabbit!
