Candy Café

Great little place! The food is awesome and colorful. It’s open late, so it’s great for a late night snack. The sweet banana soup was incredible! Will be coming back for breakfast in the morning!

I like this spot it’s open late and has shaved ice, bubble tea, waffles and good cinnamon coffee, the only thing service could be better.

This is a small café in the middle of Chinatown which is upstairs, so it’s a bit hard to find. You have to look for the sign advertising their shop in front of the stairs which lead to their store. They have plenty of seating, which is good, especially if you want to try their desserts.
I had the crystal snow with condensed milk, peaches, and ai-​yu jelly. My friend had the watermelon smoothie with ice cream. I was expecting my dessert to be more like shaved ice, but it was very very soft and different from shaved ice. It was almost like melty ice cream, since the condensed milk made it creamy. However, it melted away after 5 minutes, which is way shorter than any cold dessert should last. My friend loved the watermelon smoothie, however.
We also ordered bubble tea to go. They have lots of customisability and also suggest to mix flavours. The bubble tea wasn’t the best I’ve had, so I would rate this place as just mediocre for bubble tea and their desserts.

Absolutely terrible. The waffles are basically straight out of the grocery store and taste like cardboard. Although they’re dressed up with toppings to look photogenic, it was honestly the most awful waffle I’ve had in my life. Unnecessary charges for TAP water and a bunch of hidden fees for service.

I had really high expectations for this place but it was real disappointment.
I ordered bubble tea and shaved ice. The shaved ice was the worst shaved ice I have ever had! Not sure how they failed to make it, the ice felt like it was scraped from the bottom of a fridge. It was chunky and not refreshing at all, it was more like ice you have in drinks rather than snow.
The bubble tea was also bad, they didn’t use ice cubes but instead the shaved ice ice. This made it impossible to suck up the bubbles because the ice was too chunky.
The café it self was nasty, it was not like a cute little café you are used to when it comes to bubble tea, it was more like a generic dirty china restaurant in Chinatown.
I do not recommend it to you who are a person that loves Asian dessert and eat it often.

Was absolutely disgusting, the waffles tasted like dried mcvities waffles which you can get for a pound in Tesco, considering the fact that the place only had 2 people and I knew it was a bad idea but went along with it anyway

Coming from someone who’s drank bubble tea since I’ve been able to walk, the bubble tea here was terrible. Bubbles/​Tapiocas were hard, not chewy. The matcha milk green tea was gritty. Overall just did not taste good. Maybe it was because I got it as takeaway. My friends agree that their bubble tea was bad too, and they got different flavors.
Rating not for other desserts in the shop since I did not try any of the other desserts or food.

To be honest, I’ve been spoiled by asian desserts back home in Toronto it seems. Severely.
This place just doesn’t compare to what is possible and it was relatively expensive as well. I don’t think shaved ice at £4.65 is exactly cheap… it definitely wasn’t fresh and wasn’t very delicious either. It was a relatively small portion as well. The red bean topping itself was fine… but the rest of the shaved ice was just unappetizing.
There were the odd chunks of ice in my shaved ice that wasn’t churned properly, and I can’t even swap out the jelly for another topping which is relatively odd since you could technically construct your own anyways. They charge you for another topping even if you want to omit the one it comes with, but that’s just dependent on establishment I guess. I was right anyways in not wanting the aiyu jelly, because it tasted VERY old and slightly rotten. It doesn’t look appetizing either. I don’t even know what it’s actually supposed to taste like, but I doubt it should taste rotten in the mouth.
Also, the place is easily missed. It’s has a VERY thin sign and place next to a large restaurant, and you have to walk up the stairs to get to it. Inside the place it’s not very furnished, it’s like an unfurnished and non renovated basement. Think old and small wooden booths and chairs, and plastic tableware.
So far though, given London’s selection of asian desserts, I guess it’s a decent place. But, I’ve tasted and experienced far better so I would not want to come here again.

Fully enjoyed my visit at the candy café with my husband. We ordered a lychee juice tea and banana sweet soup that made our visit last almost two hours because we ordered the same thing over and over again. The tea was very refreshing with the shaved ice on top and the boba was chewy to perfection. I highly recommend this place to anyone craving boba in china town, this place was a hidden gem.

I take all my friends here as a rite of passage. They have decent bubble tea and tasty desserts that aren’t too sweet. Which is perfect for me because I can’t handle things that are too sweet. It’s also a really nice place to have a catch up talk with a couple of friends. The booths only fit around 4 – 6 people if you squeeze in though. Their desserts also remind me of home which is always a welcome feeling.

This is a really nice little desert place in the heart of China town. Would really wish there were more of these kind of cafes in central London.
Candy café can be easily missed, as most have mentioned here, because the restaurant is on the first floor. The restaurant itself is quite nice and friendly looking, certainly welcoming.
There is a huge variety of bubble tea, and all sorts of chinese deserts. There is also some snack foods like wings, instant noodles and toasts and the prices are quite decent too.
I tried some of the house deserts, it was certainly refreshing and the service is quite quick. It does get busy here, but it just shows that this is a popular bubble tea /​café hang out.
There is free WiFi and they offer student discount and accept card.
I would come here again, its different and serves a good variety of bubble tea and chinese deserts.

This is honestly my favorite dessert place in London for Chinese style desserts! My favorite is mango lover. The workers are so nice as well and there is free wifi you just have to ask for the password.

This place is a lovely hidden gem but almost impossible to find it which makes it very hard to direct people there. I been to this place quite a lot and I can confirm what others have said so far: the portions are massive, the quality is very good, the menu has a lot of variety, the staff is very friendly & fast, the tea is very good and they stay open until late.
On a cold day I would recommend trying the dessert soups or crepes and on a hot day it’s always interesting to experiment with their cold dessert selection.
The only reason I am giving it 4 starts is because of the tiny toilet/​staircase and the crammed space inside the store but even this can make for an interesting experience
On a final note, they also do takeaway on everything which i found a bit odd but they do package things neatly and they are easy to carry without worrying if you will spill them or if they will melt.

It’s hard to find authentic Hong Kong dessert nowadays with fresh ingredients and traditional dishes. Candy Café is as close as it comes. It has a good blend of modern and traditional desserts such as shaved ice and sesame mochi. I ordered the red bean float and a mango shaved ice with fresh mangos, green tea ice cream, and some tapioca and it felt like I was in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. The wife got a mango pomelo both times because she is repetitive but appreciates the authentic taste of a tradition mango pomelo. The two of us each got a dessert and it came out to around 8 pounds, which is not bad for Central London. Overall, if you are looking for a Chinese dessert spot, this is the place to be.

If you blink too many times, you may miss the café. It’s carefully hidden in Chinatown. Walking inside, you observe the limited seating and think about trying to fit your guest and yourself into a booth. similar to a packed and neat jigsaw puzzle.
The café could give Starbucks a run for its money. The prices are very affordable and the menu selection is awesome. Anyone with an insane sweet tooth should come here. I came here to celebrate and ordered a crêpe that had vanilla ice cream surrounded by chunks of strawberry cheesecake. The dessert was finished off with a topping of chocolate and raspberry syrup freestyled on my dish.
Most of the desserts have fruit and sweets mixed together. Yes, you have the option of ordering some selections on the menu that are not desserts but I declined. I saw a patron order a shake that had cocoa beans dropped at the bottom of the glass. the portion size was pretty big.

Very authentic Hong Kong tea place.
Good bubble tea, nice jelly cold deserts, and other Asian deserts which are special and nice.
On the photo it’s crepes with cheese cake and more nice stuff.
If you’re into special HK/​Malaysian mixture of deserts, drinks and vibes — this place is for you.

Small boba shop with desserts that is located in Chinatown!
A good way to quench your thirst and drink some tea while at it!
They have an open window, which makes it quite nice to leisurely sip on some tea!

Found this place on Unilocal and decided to check it out while in chinatown.
This place is a bit hard to find as it has a small entrance but its pretty decent size café upstairs. This place seems to be popular with a lot of college students (maybe because they give student discounts and some other discount– can’t remember). We went late at night after dinner as dessert for their shaved ice and some boba. Both were so-​so, the shaved ice wasn’t authentic shaved ice, but like snow cone shaved ice and not the fresh shaven ice you get in hong kong that is like powered snow. The boba was so-​so also, chatime down the street was better. The prices were cheap though. Overall, the items we tried were so-​so but cheap so i guess you get what you pay for. Oh, the people working their didnt speak mandarin chinese I think (the guy working their asked me to speak english). Maybe because he was from taiwan or spoke canto? idk lol.

Authentic HK desserts, nice Matcha. Everything we tried has lived up to our expectation! Nice price too!

The bubble tea is just about okay, average, I do recommend the deserts here. Really nice mocha and red bean ice dessert! And don’t forget you can to get your student discount if possible!

I’m quite surprised a lot of Unilocalers have heard of this place. When it first opened up we thought, what a strange place to have a Chinese dessert place! You have to go to the first floor to eat? The door to this place is a very small door with orange sign? How do people find this place?
Well. I found it because Chinese people, being Chinese people, always spread news of openings like wildfire. It was, and still is, a haunt for many university students and sometimes older people like me!
The desserts are ok, they had some teething troubles back when they were newly opened because when my group of 10 came, one of my friends discovered her dessert was salty. You read that right, salty. We told the manager and he was puzzled and we asked him to try it. Yes, it tasted salty to him too! He then proceeded to take another 2 of the same dessert out of the fridge and tried them, they were salty too! Promptly the whole lot went into the bin and my friend ordered something else.
Strange experience, but perhaps someone mixed up the sugar and salt containers? Even if a dessert went off it would not become salty, unless my mind is not as scientific as I thought.
Luckily, I have been back a few times over the years and the same experience has not happened again.
The issue I have with this place is the space. There is so little room here and you will usually feel cramped in your little seating area, and it’s not very good if you want an impromptu catch up with a huge group of friends, as usually it’s really busy at night.
There is one toilet only, sometimes they keep it locked and you have to ask for the key, sometimes it’s open. Just ask the staff, they are quite friendly.
For me though, I still prefer my original dessert haunt, Golden Gate dessert house, unless my companions feel like eating here. I feel like the desserts are more freshly made there than here, and the turnaround of the food is better. There is also more space there. Each to their own though, don’t judge until you have tried both.

Average desserts. Service was good however.
Friend ordered plain dumplings but was not sweet. When asked about the sweetness, they said we suppose to add it ourselves. But they didn’t even give us the sweetener. Friend didn’t know the nature of the dessert and thus thought it was suppose to be bland. She ate a bit and decided to order something else.
Other dessert places would have already had the sweetener placed in it. This place could have at least have the courtesy of letting us know that we had to add th sweetener.

A hidden gem on the second floor next to the Chinatown Arch, this is a favourite haunt for many students and youngsters.
Personal recommendations here are HK-​style milk tea (though more similar to Tea-​C in Malaysia if you ask me), the matcha milk tea, the crepes, the kaya toast, … you know, come to think of it, you probably can’t go wrong with anything on the menu!

Petit endroit très sympa pour boire un bubble tea à Londres en plein coeur de chinatown.
Un peu caché, j’ai remarqué cet endroit seulement parce qu’il y avait une pancarte avec des images de bubble tea et de desserts asiatiques. Pour y aller, il faut se laisser emmener par l’escalier jusqu’à l’étage.
La salle n’est pas très grande, il y a moins d’une dizaine de table je pense. Pas beaucoup de place mais très convivial. Quand j’y étais allé j’ai pu parler avec les propriétaires qui ont été super sympa et on s’est parlé dans un mix d’anglais/cantonnais, c’était assez sympa.
Les boissons sont pas super chères et sont très bonnes. Je m’étais laissé tenté par un jus de mangue avec de la gelée. C’était très bon ! Ils font aussi des bubble tea et des desserts comme de la gelée de mangue ou plein d’autres choses qui avaient l’air délicieuses.
En plus le wifi est gratuit pour les clients et 2 pc sont en libre service pour aller sur internet. Et c’est ouvert jusqu’à assez tard le soir et j’avais passé une très agréable soirée londonienne au Candy Café. La prochaine fois que je retourne à Londres, j’y vais sans hésitation !