Sweethoney Dessert

At the corner of Brookhurst and Garden Grove Boulevard, where Little Saigon and Koreatown begin to overlap, there’s a murderer’s row of restaurants that are all in the upper tiers of their various specialties – Oc & Lau, Thai Avenue, Pho Flavor, and Moozi Tea Bar, just to name a few, all competing with neighbors for the same lunch, dinner, dessert, and drink dollars. And for seven years, there was Sweethoney Dessert, the sole Orange County location of a Hong Kong dessert chain.

Like Meet Fresh, another chain specializing in Chinese desserts, Sweethoney had no shortage of instantly appealing and interesting options to choose from: sweet Hong Kong/Chinese jelly “soups,” egg waffles, fruit- and bean-topped shaved ice bowls, and durian, tofu and taro puddings, just to name a handful. When we visited, souffle pancakes were also on the menu, but they were later removed – thankfully.

We were genuinely excited to try the blueberry souffle pancakes, Matcha Creme Brulee, and blueberry steamed milk custard after seeing Sweethoney’s ads, but they weren’t very good. Even though we dined in, each of the items we ordered was delivered in takeout containers, and underwhelming in flavor – sufficiently sweet but not particularly intense in the tea or fruit departments.