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If you’re a fan of Chinese desserts such as mango sago puddings and tofu puddings, you’ll have noticed that there’s been a dearth of traditional dessert shops in Hong Kong for a handful of years now. We used to have chains such as Honeymoon Dessert, Chung So Dessert, and Kai Kai Dessert scattered around town and available pretty accessibly, but these businesses have been steadily dwindling – which is sad news for Hongkongers with a sweet tooth. Luckily, there’s a new joint in Sheung Wan that’s here to fill that hole in our hearts and bellies.
Soon has just recently opened along the quiet Lok Ku Road between the bustle of Hollywood Road and Queen’s Road Central. With its light wood interiors, shelf partition filled with nostalgic Hong Kong trinkets, and aesthetically pleasing tableware, it’s easy to mistake this shop for yet another independent hipster café that has emerged since Sham Shui Po (jokingly referred to as Hong Kong’s Brooklyn) made coffee shop culture a whole thing.
But no, Soon actually serves up classic Hong Kong desserts, with almost 20 items on their menu that most Hongkongers will know well, such as mango pomelo sago, almond tea with egg whites, black sesame glutinous rice balls in ginger soup, coconut milk with purple rice pudding, and peach gum with snow fungus sweet soup.
Aside from sweets and puddings, Soon also offers savoury snacks like spicy garlic chicken wing tips and the retro curry trio of fishballs, pig skin, and turnip. I particularly enjoyed the mango purple rice soup with rice balls, as well as the glutinous rice balls rolled in peanut powder. None of the desserts were too sweet – a great compliment among Hong Kong’s health-conscious foodies – but they were definitely still moreish and comforting.
With their classic desserts ranging between $35 and $58, these are definitely pricier than if you were to go to a local, old-school dessert shop in, say, Kowloon City. But considering Soon’s central location and comfortably curated interiors, it’s a sweet price point that won’t hurt your wallet. According to their Instagram account, they are a tong sui (Chinese dessert) shop and bar, so we can probably expect them to launch a cocktail menu at some point as well.
We have a feeling that once this place hits social media (and Red Note in particular), the queues are going round the block, so head over for your old-school Hong Kong desserts soon. Soon can be found at 27 Lok Ku Road, Sheung Wan.
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