Since Kensington Eats / started up in 2020, we'd promised our daughter Audrey that she could co-write a review featuring nothing but desserts. There’s been no better timing than the May issue when spring has sprung and we’ve left this damp winter behind us.
A proper sampling requires ordering a restaurant's most popular dishes but an all-dessert meal would test the resolve of even the most enthusiastic foodie family. For this assignment, we called in reinforcements via a cadre of Audrey’s school friends.
U: Dessert Story, on the corner of Shattuck and Hearst, pulls from Korean, Japanese, and Thai influences and takes Asian desserts to the next level. Visionary owner, Tammy Boonlieng, believes that her creations should be a sensory experience and a treat for the eyes as well as the palette. Nowadays, a dish can be delicious while also being “Instagrammable,” a relevant and modern descriptor for how great a dish looks, how it makes us feel and how much we want to share the experience on social media.
The restaurant typically attracts crowds of college students creating an energetic and youthful buzz that bounces off its walls adorned with classic Thai decorations and flowers. However, craning your neck to see what artistic creations arrive at each table is where the real scenery is.
The Volcano Bingsu is a flagship dish for U: Dessert Story. Bingsu is a type of Korean shaved ice where a block of frozen milk or cream is grated to create a fluffy, snow-like dessert. It holds together better than water-based shaved ice and is not as heavy as ice cream, which makes a perfect canvas for the editable art being showcased.
Arriving in a large silver urn, the dry-ice-activated “eruption” is a real crowd-pleaser as cold steam spews from the top and spills across the surface of your table. The milky syrup melts and settles into the dish where diners are treated to various textures including the fluffy bingsu and layers of crushed Oreo cookie bits, cornflakes, and sliced almonds. The effect lasts a few minutes, which gives the table enough time to capture the delectable sight on camera and eat almost a quarter of it before the smoke settles.
The highly-recommended Hojicha Bingu is a more elegant vegan option. Hojicha is a distinctive Japanese tea made by roasting tea leaves over charcoal. When infused into the bingsu and served with boba pearls the experience is addictively herbal and bittersweet. Asian desserts sometimes described as “not too sweet” is a compliment that allows the diner to eat with more enthusiasm and enjoy some of the dessert’s subtleties. It is also why, in this case, the addition of crispy chocolate rice on top makes for a fun addition in terms of taste and texture.
Exploring some of their other specialties we ordered the Mochi Ube Waffle. Anything mochi-related incorporates flour derived from mochigome, short-grain glutinous rice creating a distinctive chewiness. Combined with ube you get a satisfying texture and a light nutty flavor in a brilliant purple package. With its chocolate drizzle, powdered sugar, strawberries, and banana slices, everything comes together in a way that will cause you to never look at another waffle the same again.
So what’s for dessert in a dessert article? Luckily for us, U:Dessert Story also excels at some savory options including a Mochi Waffle Grilled Cheese, Spicy Thai Ramyeon, and their Millionaires Candied Bacon. We opted for their Fried Chicken, tossed in a sweet homemade glaze. It was a great share plate for the table, which ended this backward, but unforgettable meal.
1849 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley, CA 94709
https://udessertstory.com/
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