Claws and Cream

Opened in late June 2025, young Garden Grove dessert shop Claws and Cream sits directly across the street from the Vietnamese/Asian food hall QT Golden Market Place, matcha ice cream specialist MyCha, and coffee/donut shop Céd – and would be easy to pass by given its small parking lot, heavily clothing-focused neighboring shops, and somewhat gross adjacent vape/tobacco store. But we’re seriously glad we stopped in, because Claws and Cream is unexpectedly serving some of the best drinks and desserts we’ve found in a while.

Somewhat like Chewie and Mellow and Roasted Water, Claws and Cream is trying to be more than a cafe: The pitch is that you can stop in for teas, snacks, and largely ice cream-based desserts, then play claw games to win cute plushes. We’ve become suspicious of the “sweets and collectibles” business model after so-so experiences at those places, as well as “buy drink, get random toy in your cup” shops Bober and Naricha, as selling trinkets seems to be more important to the shops than food or drink experiences. Thankfully, that’s not the case here.

We started by ordering a Dubai chocolate soft serve ($10) – typically made with vanilla ice cream, which we replaced with their ceremonial matcha – and received an outstanding combination of crispy kataifi noodles, crushed pistachios, and drizzled chocolate/pistachio syrups surrounding a large portion of soft, frozen matcha. The flavors and textures worked wonderfully together, and the portion size was enough for two people to share along with drinks.