Dazzling Cafe Richmond
Dazzling Cafe is a Taiwan franchise which recently opened two locations in Canada. One in Richmond, BC, and other in Toronto. They are most known for their Honey Toasts Desserts.
It's very popular as they are new to Canada. We recommend making reservations in advance. We tried to book a table for 4 on a weekend but we had to wait 2 weeks till a weekend slot was available.
The restaurant has this Alice in Wonderland feel to it. Some of the chairs have bunny ears! Overall the cafe does look appealing and was very clean. The only thing that bugged me was there were so many servers that every time one would come over, they would automatically assume we all spoke Mandarin. We either had to keep telling them we don't know Mandarin or look at the 1 person at our table to do the speaking. It would be nice if they could remember which tables prefer English service.
The Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast was tasty and beautiful to look at. It comes with a mountain of whip cream, ice cream strawberries and chocolate drizzle and crushed hazelnuts. It comes to the table the waitress will let you know that they will dissemble the dessert for you but will give you a moment to take photos and what not. They also have some signs you can request for as props to take photos with your dish! This wasn't offered to us by default so just ask if they don't tell you about it.
When you're ready to eat, just call them over. They provide table service to take apart the toast and how to best enjoy it. This is pretty helpful for those new to eating Chinese toast desserts!
WHAT WE TRIED:
Hazelnut Chocolate Honey Toast | $14
Mixed Berry Au Lait | $7
Strawberry & Ice Cream Waffle | $8.5
Mentaiko Spaghetti & Cream Sauce | $11.5
Spaghetti with Scallop and Shrimp | $13.5
Chicken Spaghetti & Pesto Sauce | $13.5
All the spaghetti in the pasta dishes is cooked al dente, just the way we like it! The sauces all tasted good. The only draw back is there is very little protein with most of their pastas. Below is a few things that could use improvement.
The Mentaiko Spaghetti was our favourite one and has quite a bit of tobiko (flying fish roe) in it. This was very good and would recommend this if you're looking for a light lunch.
The shrimp & scallop pasta literally has 1 piece of scallop. We shared the food with 4 people so we were digging through the pasta seeing if there was anymore. If they really were going to go the one piece route, then it would be better to put it right on top in the middle like the chicken pasta. I felt this was a bit pricy for something that was mostly noodle and sauce.
The meat on chicken pesto pasta was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.
The Strawberry & Ice Cream Waffle was bland. We'd stick to Nero and Medina for our waffle fix. Definitely stick to their honey toast dessert instead. The Mixed Berry Au Lait, mostly tasted like milk with a hint of mixed berry.
OVERALL IMPRESSION OF DAZZLING CAFE RICHMOND:
Dazzling Cafe provided a unique experience with their cafe design, table service and server outfits. The downside is their hours are so limited. We basically can never come here except on the weekends. For a place that specializes in desserts, they should definitely be open late. We can all enjoy dinner somewhere then drop by here for desserts after. Other than the Mentaiko Spaghetti with Cream Sauce, the hot foods aren't that filling as a meal and on the pricier side. We would come back just for the Honey Toasts. If there is anything you love at Dazzling Cafe and think we should try it next time, feel free to contact us!
The Bad:
Hot entrees aren't filling at all and lack meat!
Pricier menu for what you get.
The Good:
Honey toast desserts are nice
Table service for desserts was a nice experience
Rating: 7.5/10
DETAILS:
Facebook: /DazzlingCafeRichmond
Instagram: @DazzlingCafeRichmond
Website: DazzlingCafe