New dessert cafe creates pretty shaved ice desserts with a side of Nutella-filled waffles
Lakewood’s newest dessert cafe is now open.
T-Town Cafe specializes in Korean shaved ice and taiyaki waffles, which is a natural fit for a neighborhood known as the region’s best destination for Korean dining.
The cafe also serves bubble tea, ice cream, coffee and Korean sandwiches. Coming soon will be panini sandwiches.
The family behind the dessert and coffee cafe is the same that previously operated It’s Pho U at the same location.
Why the concept switch?
“Pho is a lot of work,” said owner Chang Lee, with a laugh. He described laborious slicing and the day-long process of making pho broth.
Desserts and coffee will come with less labor for the family-run business, but Lee also wanted to bring a new style of dessert to the neighborhood with a far-reaching selection of Korean fare.
And they have.
The shaved ice tastes unlike any I’ve enjoyed here.
T-Town’s shaved ice tasted powdery like snow ice, not the ground ice that sometimes serves as the base for shaved-ice desserts. This ice came with a light and feathery texture.
Lee saturates the fluffy ice with condensed milk. A red bean version, in traditional Korean style, is popular, but I veered to the fresh fruit version topped with a bonanza of fresh-sliced strawberries, bananas and blueberries. A scoop of vanilla ice cream perched atop the frozen dessert that was finished with a sprinkle of sliced almonds, sweet mochi bites and drizzles of fruit syrup. It was as majestic as it was tasty.
At $11.95, the snowflake ice, as it’s called on the menu, is a bit expensive, but the big bowls are built for sharing. They also come in mango, green tea, Oreo cookie and coffee versions.
Taiyaki is the other offering not often found here, and it’s one that has seen cyclical popularity.
“It was really popular in Korean a long time ago, but right now it’s becoming popular again. It’s come back,” Lee said of the waffles that are a popular street food throughout Asia. They’re easily identifiable and distinctive because they're shaped like fish.
The sweet waffles tasted like a cross between traditional waffles and pate a choux, with an elastic, eggy interior and crisp exterior. I ordered mine stuffed with Nutella and marveled as I cracked the waffle open to release an oozing river of the hazelnut-chocolate filling. They also come in red bean, traditional Korean style or yam-filled. They’re $4.50 for a duo or four for $7.
Here’s something I’ve never seen before, and Lee delights in being the first to bring it to the area — an ice cream taiyaki mash-up. Think of it as a fancy ice cream cone, but standing in for the waffle cone is the fish-shaped taiyaki waffle filled with Nutella or the filling of your choice with soft serve ice cream piled on top. Soft serve comes in ube (sweet yam) or vanilla, but they’re adding green tea ice cream, too. The cone is finished with a cookie straw and other embellishments. Kids will love it.
More Korean desserts: Looking for more Korean-style desserts? Lakewood’s Coffee Kitchen serves patbingsu, a style of Korean shaved ice, and a taiyaki stand inside Paldo World sells taiyaki. There are also Korean bakeries that operate inside Paldo World and H-Mart, the grocery stores.
T-Town Cafe
Where: 8515 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood
Info: 253-584-1524
Hours: Likely will change, but 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m for now.
This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 12:00 PM.