Coconut Beng Snow Ice One of the places that we have come to know over the past week on social media would be that of Within the Walls Dessert Bar — these folks are opened fairly recently around East Coast Road; the shop unit in which it occupies is along the same stretch where one would be able to find establishments like Beach Road Prawn Noodle House. Within the Walls Dessert Bar is neighbours with Breakfast Grill — itself being dubbed as the “first and only Kowloon Walled City Dessert Bar in Singapore”. Indeed, the theme of the dessert bar is strongly themed after the former Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong; the walls and floors of the dessert bar features concrete with a mostly unfinished look that gives the space a really raw look — there are also faux shutters and shop signboards to help to add on to the vibe alongside the use of neon lightings and old Hong Kong movie posters hung on the wall as well. The dining space is rather decently-sized; the dining furniture comprising of foldable stools and foldable tables. With its theme, it is no surprise that Within the Walls Dessert Bar is an establishment that focuses other offerings of Chinese-style desserts (i.e. Tang Shui); the menu being split into sections comprising of Hot Dessert, Cold Dessert, and Snow Ice. Considering how Within the Walls Dessert Bar is an establishment that serves up bottled beer in their beverages menu, they also do offer a small line-up of Bar Bites as well; think various types of shrimp balls, shrimp cakes, fries, chicken wing and Chicken Karaage that would go well with the alcoholic beverages. Non-alcoholic beverages available at Within the Walls Dessert Bar will include fruit teas, HK-style Milk Tea and Black / Milk Coffee — just to name a few.
Within the Walls Dessert Bar actually does serve up their selection of Snow Ice desserts in two (2) different formats — there is the menu where one can actually “build-your-own” shaved ice dessert bowl; patrons can get to go for either 1 Base + 1 Nectar + 2 Toppings or 1 Base + 3 Toppings at a flat price of $12.80 — there is also a choice of adding a scoop of ice-cream at $2 per scoop. We went for one of the pre-set Snow Ice bowls which can be found on a seperate page of the menu — this page comprises of six (6) variants of shaved ice desserts that come with a standard set of toppings by default. Skimming through the menu, we found ourselves going for the Coconut Beng Snow Ice. It is noted that Within the Walls Dessert Bar does not describe on the elements that make up the dessert, though it can be observed from our order that the Coconut Beng comes with coconut-flavoured shaved ice, Taro Balls, Red Bean and Almond Flakes. Digging into the coconut-flavoured snow ice, the snow ice comes in the form of a style similar to that of the Taiwanese-style shaved ice — also something similar to what local establishments like Mei Heong Yuen Desserts would serve out. The snow ice comes with a good texture where it is light and fluffy; the texture also being consistent throughout the entire bowl. The fragrant aroma of coconut milk is evident all over, while the red bean does come cooked all soft with a predominantly earthy note — not too sweet, and paired well with the coconut milk. Other elements such as that of the Taro Balls seemed to have been included more for the textural aspect of the dish — the Taro Balls being a crowd pleaser providing a bit of a chew factor while the almond flakes created a light crunch for a slight contrast.
Things were slightly less impressive with the Gingko Hut Barley Beancurd Skin Soup that we have had — they do serve both a hot variant and a cold variant of the item, and the latter is what we had gone for. We felt that while the item does come with the familiar notes that are similar to soy milk, the flavours weren’t quite as rich and punchy enough for our liking. That being said, the beancurd sheet comes is small shreds that enables one to have more than a bit of it in one spoonful, while the barley provided an oatmeal-like texture for some contrast. The Hot Milk Coffee is something that one would likely skip if they are less acceptable to instant 3-in-1 coffee mixes — coming in a rather large enamel mug, we did notice the coffee mix not being stirred till it completely dissolved; the notes also being fairly weak and isn’t quite something that gelled well with our preferences. Overall, Within The Walls Dessert Bar is a spot with some hits and misses. We did wish that we were able to give more of their other dessert items a try — items like the Steamed Egg Pudding, Cendol, Black Sesame Paste, Purple Rice with Coconut Milk and Yam Paste (Orh Nee) were all items that caught our interest; it could have been a matter of us opting for the wrong items to go for during our visit. Prices of the hot and cold dessert at Within The Walls Dessert Bar range from $4.90 to $9.90, while the prices of the Snow Ice desserts range from $12.80 to $14.80. Despite our experience, we do look forward to returning to Within The Walls Dessert Bar another time to experience the other desserts that they have to offer on their menu.
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