Cool Off This Summer at Icy Bar!

One of my favourite places to go in the summer are Asian dessert places and shaved ice is always welcome, especially with the hot weather we've been having. When Chinese Bites held an event last week at Icy Bar, I jumped at the chance to go!

Shaved ice desserts have been gaining popularity in Vancouver and Icy Bar now has four locations in Vancouver, Richmond and Burnaby (and a stall at the Richmond Night Market). It's the best way to beat the heat in the summer! The restaurant is always packed so make sure you have time to wait for a seat, or you can take your desserts to-go.

Here are some of the desserts we tried:

Clockwise from top left: Mango Ice Cream Mochi Icy, Traditional Eight Mix Icy (customizable toppings), Strawberry Mango Ice Cream Icy, another Eight Mix Icy with fruit toppings and green tea ice cream.

Clockwise from top left: Tea Egg, Plant Pudding (Flavours: Original, Durian, Mango, Oreo, Tiramisu), Black Rice with Coconut Milk (hot dessert), Red Bean Green Tea Ice Cream on Thick Toast.

Pancake series: Strawberry, Mango, Durian, Taro. Filled with whipped cream and the corresponding fruit.

Chocolate Honey Toast. One of my favourite desserts of the evening, the toast cubes are smothered in syrup and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Tofu pudding, with your choice of toppings.

Fererro Rocher and Durian smoothies. Not as sweet as most drinks, and very filling!

Icy Bar is decently priced and cheaper than some of the other shaved ice places I've been to. Their flavoured shaved ice (I tried this on my own, so it is not picture in this post) is one of the better ones I've had and is only $6 (plus $1 for each topping). The portion size of most of the desserts are good and are large enough to share. I'll definitely be going back to Icy Bar soon to try more items on their menu!

Disclaimer: The desserts mentioned above were provided free of charge by ChineseBites and Icy Bar. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way. 

 

Doolami - Asian Dessert Shop

With summer approaching, I'm always on the lookout for the next place to get a cool treat (also because I like dessert, heehee). J and I happened to be near Doolami, a place to get shaved ice and ice cream. I've been seeing a lot of photos on my Instagram feed, so we decided to try it out.

Their most popular dessert dish is the mango, papaya or lychee shaved ice for $7.99. The ice is milky and flavoured and gets shaved off in "sheets" so it has a lighter texture than normal shaved ice.

The shaved ice tasted as good as it looks! It wasn't too sweet, and since mango is in season now, the fruit was ripe and lended to the sweetness of the dessert. The balls on top I could have done without though.

Doolami also has pints of ice cream you can buy for takeout (think Earnest Ice Cream, but more Asian flavours) and one of the flavours I am interested in trying is durian! I think I will be back this summer to try other shaved ice flavours!