Matcha Cafe Maiko Matcha soft serve with matcha powder and mochi: According to the Matcha Cafe Maiko website, the San Francisco shop located in the Japantown center is the first to open in the "American mainland," with an original location in Hawaii. Its matcha products are imported all the way from Harima Garden in Kyoto. While the menu features their matcha soft serve, they have a surprising variety of lattes, floats, and other beverage pairings as well. At $5.50, their soft serve is a bit steep for a single serving, but it has a concentrated herbal f... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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Amausaan uji Matcha Matcha Ice Cream: Green-tea-flavored soft serve from Japanese sweets stand Amausaan uji Matcha in the Richmond district of SF (they also have a location in Berkeley). At $5, this large portion comes in a waffle cone and is topped with matcha powder. Most of the bitter matcha flavor comes from the powder, but the ice cream is creamy and smooth; the cone is standard in both flavor and texture. I enjoyed it overall, but sampling it at the Berkeley location the next day, I found the ice cream to be too sweet, ... (read more) 3.5/5.0
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FK Frozen Custard Black Sesame and Matcha White Chocolate Ice Cream: The last time I had ice cream from FK Frozen Custard, the brand was still named "Frozen Kuhsterd," and they were a food-truck-only business. Now they have a brick and mortar in the Lower Haight in SF, still offering a mix of classic flavors and asian-inspired options like black sesame, milk tea, and ube. I ordered one scoop with two flavors, which was generously sized and easily sharable – though I had the entire scoop for myself. (: My previous experience with Frozen Kuhsterd involved an ... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Vive la Tarte Almond croissant : I had high expectations after having the excellent orange blossom croissant from Vive la Tarte in SF, but this almond croissant was less successful for a few reasons. The almond paste filling, while substantial, was wet enough to render the pastry a bit soggy, and the filling combined with the powdered sugar was very sweet overall. Quite large for a croissant, but also more expensive than your typical local bakery at a little over $4. You could taste the quality of the individual ingredients... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous Cookies and Cream Ice Cream: An all-too-familiar story: San Francisco ice cream shop with a 15 minute line, wrapping around the corner. Organic Strauss milk and cream sign. $16 bag of peanut brittle, $9 bag of chocolate malt balls at the register. $5.50 for a single scoop. Really creamy but otherwise unremarkable set of everyday ice cream classics (I ordered the cookies and cream - other flavors on the day I went included chocolate chip, sweet cream, burnt sugar, e.g., flavors you can easily find in the grocery aisl... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Swensen’s Lychee ice cream: Swensen’s is a historic ice cream shop in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood. Opened in 1948, it now has locations around the world. I don’t find myself in this neighborhood very often, so the last time I was there, I finally got a chance to try it. They offer a bevy of flavors, mostly traditional favorites, but I got a scoop of lychee. Unfortunately, the ice cream had an overly icy, almost clumpy texture, and though it had sizable pieces of lychee throughout, the moisture content of ... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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