[CLOSED] Softsrve (Johor Bahru)

Not too smitten by this though. I did like that the ice-cream had only a kiss of oolongcha, so it was mild enough for anybody (even those who aren't keen on tea) to enjoy. There was a medium-sized brownie cube buried underneath too, which was a nice surprise though I think preemptively cutting it up into bite-sized pieces would allow one to enjoy it with a scoop of the softserve. 😬

The puffle was a combination of all things wrong, however - thin, brittle and possessing an insignificant amount of matcha flavour. Yet, I don't know what's a good benchmark for it, as I've never had one prior to this? Can anyone enlighten me please?! 😦

I guess…I have mixed opinions about this. It didn't meet my expectations, but it's not awful by a mile either? Ah well, at least I got the chance to try it! (6.8/10)

I got the Callebaut Dark Chocolate (w/ Nuts) soft serve (RM12.90/S$4.15) on my first visit to Softsrve at Taman Mount Austin. A quick Google search will tell you that Callebaut is a type of couverture chocolate from Belgium, made from roasting the whole cocoa bean instead of the typical method of roasting the cocoa kernel. An ingredient as sophisticated as this Belgian chocolate can only mean an ice-cream to remember, right? But unfortunately, this was…pretty underwhelming.

I hope it’s not only me who feels that the quality of café foods in JB are a shadow of the ones here in Singapore. Well, generally speaking, as i am aware that there are exceptions to this. Truthfully, while the taste of the chocolate was mellowed, yet still packing a jab of flavour, and that the soft-serve was smooth, it wasn’t remarkable or at least memorable at all. But that’s not surprising given how standard/typical a couverture chocolate usually tastes. I was hoping for an element of surprise, but there seemed to be none.
.
Plus, the workmanship of the swirling was decent at best - the helix-conical swirl seemed to be slanted towards the west and the top looks quite deformed. I was definitely a little disappointed. Yet, I would say it’s certainly still worth a snap or two? 🤔
.
They do have other things on the menu such as Belgian/puffle waffles and some shaved ice dessert, but I must say - don’t expect any sort of grandeur in taste, unless you want to deliberately set yourself up for disappointment. (7/10)

Kakigori seems to be increasingly popular these days. Pity that the texture of the ice was quite coarse and both hojicha and ujikintoki were too sweet for my liking. Even the additional side pour was on the sweeter side so we skipped that. Espuma was also pretty gao, was actually expecting something lighter.

At first bite the hojicha tasted better with the strong earthy flavour - but the uji turned out to be easier on the palette. Hidden beneath were toppings that you can get more or at RM2 - azuki, dango, etc. Not something I'd be back for but perhaps I'd give their soft serves a chance if I ever find myself in this area again (oolong sounds good!!)

The other kakigori we had at Softsrve apart from the Houjicha was this, the Uji Kintoki. Unfortunately, it was similarly coarse in its ice texture and too sweet for our liking. It would probably be better if the ice wasn’t drenched in the sauce, as there's also another cup of matcha sauce to pour over. Additional toppings are at RM2 each and you can choose from things like milo nuggets, shiratama dango, azuki red beans and etc.

Was excited to try the kakigoris here after a long half an hour car ride from JB City Square, but we were quite disappointed with what we got. The layers of coarse ice weren't as fluffy as we hopped for and even though there was a subtle nuttiness, the over generous pour of sauce was too sweet and slightly artificial tasting. Additional toppings (shiratama dango, azuki red beans, milo nuggets, etc.) are at RM2 each.

So they said, kakigori is the middle version of ice kachang and bingsu (and the price too!), but I'm not too sure how it is supposed to taste like - a mountain of coarse chunks of shaved ice that melted pretty fast with ultra sweet syrup? Found this too sweet and jelat for my liking, and it can definitely be shared by 4 or more people.