The Dessert House

Some items on their menu are definitely better than others. I would recommend their warm milk teas (we had red bean and wheat germ — both of which weren’t made with powder and were not overly sweet) and their dessert soups (all of the ones involving black glutinous rice I’ve tried have been great!). The shaved ice is also delicious! A great place to get dessert and hang out well into the night!

The service is slow, the prices are a bit high and the décor is terrible. They can’t bother to put some pictures up? BUT. that being said, the mango pudding is to die for… The best I have had! The pearl drinks are great and their menu selection is varied, fun and interesting. So, if you can bare with the slow and sometimes grumpy service and the strangely dull ambience, it has it’s merits.

While the outside appearance may resemble a generic shop front and the simple, plain interior may feel utilitarian, do not confuse the simplicity and appearance of the shop with the large fabulous menu containing traditional and contemporary Hong Kong, Chinese and Taiwanese teas, desserts and snacks.
First the desserts. Fabulous selection of bubble teas, shakes made from taro, pistachio, red bean traditional and fruits (dragon fruit) etc, Taiwan Shaved Ice, traditional pastries sweet tofu, custards, and Chinese dessert soups (e.g papaya, almond flakes, white fungus, almond milk and tofu, you know that kind of stuff. Traditional style and excellent. Lots of other stuff too and a nice selection of bean and pearl «bubbles» to add to your teas, shakes and smoothies.
Now the teas, a very decent selection of somewhat uncommon herbal teas. The menu contains descriptions of their origins, properties, and traditionally how and why Chinese drink them. Nice change of pace.
Lastly, the «snacks» or what the Hong Kong Chinese call «Ye Xiao» (pronounced Shao) or «late night snack», consisting of many belly fillers such as won ton soup, fish ball soup, congee or rice soups, This place delivers on the Ye Xiao.
As an aside, in the old times, pre air conditioning, men would go out in the evening, could be in their pajamas and slippers to meet their buddies from the neighborhood at their Ye Xiao tea house snack joint and catch up the events and gossip of the day and hood. Going out for Ye Xiao also became a commonly understood secret term/​joke for the man to slip out and meet their neighborhood lover/​mistress for a different type of late night dessert treat! One can only wonder what the women were up to while «the cat was away…»
Anyway I digress. Great place for a «real» late night dessert treat! Doesn’t take credit cards, just cash and some Canadian card.

I really love the house special dessert fruits, grass jelly and tapioca. I always get that and their red bean milkshake is my partners fave! She does not like it anywhere else other then Dessert House. The 3 star rating is literally for the house special i love so much.

I think dessert house is one of the better places in Calgary for fresh fruit bubble tea. I admit that the prices are much higher than I would like, but I visit dessert house whenever I have a craving for FRESH FRUIT drinks — none of that powder flavoured stuff! I also enjoy their house special and some of their snacks like the satay fish balls.
I don’t know if anyone remember their old location, but it used to be across the street from where they are now and the service used to be TOTAL CRAP. I think over the many many years with lots of bubble tea stores opening and closing all over Calgary, they have come to realize the importance of customer service — which I really appreciate! The location they are in now is much bigger and nicer and cleaner.
If you are getting take out and you don’t want to wait, I recommend that you call about 15 – 20 minutes ahead and just order what you’d like and pick it up.
Also, they don’t take credit cards so remember your debit card and/​or cash.

SLOW service as I had remembered.
Can’t believe this place still exists.
on a late night when you want BBT I suppose that there aren’t many places to go to.
You basically have no choice.
It is what it is.

I tried to like this place, I really did. But admittedly, my utter dislike of bubble tea probably doomed any chance of that from the start.
I tried their fruit teas ans other non bubble tea drinks, and found them to be pretty tasteless over all. The snack foods were greasy and other teas were passable at best. I found myself wondering why I didn’t say the heck with it.
Dessert House, it’s not your fault. I guess I’m just too used to western desserts than chinese style ones, that it just doesn’t appeal to my palate at all.

Me and my two friends decided to try out this place because there were lots of good reviews about it. When we enter the resto at about 5pm, there were nobody in there except for a table of highschool girls almost done with their food.
We decided to help ourselves and chose a table for the three of us. The server (some middle aged chinese guy) gave us the menu without saying anything. SERIOUSLY? Menu book looks good but the food is a little bit pricey like a deep fried chicken wings (5 wings only) for $ 6.
So we ordered then it took them 30 mins to serve our food knowing that there’s nobody in there except us. why sooo slow? I could’ve understand if there’s other customers like us but really? So both of my 2 friends got their order, finish eating them yet there I was waiting for my bbq ribs for an hour. I decided to ask the server for the follow up and he said he’ll check it. Okay.
After 15 mins, my friend told the other lady server about my food and she said it’s coming.
After 30 mins, still there was no sign of bbq ribs.
After 45 mins, me and my friends decided to cancel the order and pay the bill.
It took us 2 hours and a half staying in that place. Two hours waiting for the food, in total.
I know the bbt is good but the wings and skewers? mehh. we’ve had the worst experience there. we even thought that they don’t really care wasting their energy serving us with moderate customer service because they thought we were just some cheap college students. UGGHH, i was so furious.

Once upon a time, I snubbed The Dessert House based on the fact that I’ve had better, cheaper bubble tea in Chinatown. However, the infamous Angelo T. recently swayed me into giving this place another chance, when we were seeking an adventure filled with tea and street fights. Unfortunately, our latter requirements weren’t met. In fact, technically, neither were met, if you are to read onwards into this nerdy ramble…
The Dessert House is very utilitarian in design, but it seems all of my favourite Chinatown establishments are, so I’m okay with that. They have an extensive bubble tea menu, as well as snacks and desserts.
They also offer «tea,» which is where we run into a FIRST WORLD PROBLEM. The reason they state on the menu that their teas are appropriate for everybody, is that these are not teas, but in fact herbal tissanes. In fact, from the list of herbs and combinations, there seem to be no actual tea from the camellia sinensis plant at all. This is fine with me, but just something to take note of if you were hoping to seek out a dragonwell or wulong or something. You won’t find it here.
I do agree with Angelo that the pots of «tea» can run a bit steeeeep (SEE WHAT I DID THERE?!), considering that they start at $ 8.95 for a pot of a single herb such as peppermint, licorice root, etc. The combinations of herbs go for about $ 10.95 if I’m correct. In the future, I would either buy my own herbs (I can get a pound of organic peppermint for less than $ 10 from my favourite tea wholesaler), or hit up Oolong or Steeps.
But, I digress. One thing I found charming is how they serve the little pots of tea, all glass teaware from the pot, to the cups, to the little glass warmer with a tealight candle you are given. Our server was also very helpful when I gave her my militant list of limitations, requesting vegan food. She checked with the kitchen, and as it turned out, the green onion cakes and pumpkin cakes filled with red bean taste met my requirements. We ordered both and they were pretty great. Good to share amongst a couple friends. She also consistantly refilled the hot water for our tea.
The service was lovely, and I’m actually kind of just being a brat because I had very specific expectations, and was secretly hoping to find like… The Fight Club of tea.

Their BBT is alright. Their desserts are okay. Over all, it’s just okay.

We went here on a friday night to meet up with an old friend. She spoke 100 languages and studied 1000 cultures so it was no surprise she ordered our desserts for us: P She ordered a couple of desserts for us to share– one was a bean based sweet dessert reminiscent of a Filipino dish and the other was a mango/​pineapple custard. Both were very tasty, which was a good thing, otherwise she would’ve suffered the wrath of my criticism: P
I ordered the a pot of tea, which was a little pricy for it’s quantity, but I suppose I could’ve just asked for a refill of hot water. It was delicious and this place is a great alternative to most tea houses in Calgary.
I’ve been to the Dessert house a few times before over the past few years. It’s a great spot for late night rendezvous with old friends or a neat place to take anyone who would be impressed with the experience :)

MMMMMM dessert house.
This great spot used to be across the street in the corner strip mall starting out with 5 tables, then 8, then 10. Now they are in a much roomier space but there are still line ups on Fri-​Sat nights!
The atmosphere is a lot more sterile than it used to be, but not much of the essentials have changed.
STILL the best spot for fresh fruit drinks
STILL the best spot for taiwanese light snacks (fish balls, rice sheets, cuttlefish, noodles)
STILL the best spot for chinese dessert (taro tapioca, stewed papaya, steamed milk, black seasame pudding)
STILL the same grumpy face aunt who can’t seem to care about what you are saying… but I have to admit, SHE ALWAYS GETS IT RIGHT.
And who else can be bothered to roll their own sticky rice balls anymore? Yes, that is right, they serve the sweets that traditional chinese homes makes! It’s a dieing form of dessert!
The quality of food here hails in comparison to any other place, since there isn’t a wide variety to begin with. But any other place that has tried has never lived up to the deliousness Dessert house is known for.

I do like their bubble tea. They are good. Fresh.
This place gets really loud tho… and not because people are loud… it’s because of the busy blenders (busy making drinks for customers). They have an open area where they make drinks for the customers. The noise really makes it hard to sit there and have a conversation with people. I found that in order to talk… I pretty much have to yell.
Beside the noisy-​ness, I must say the food, desserts and bubble teas are awesome! Seriously if you are looking for snacks/​desserts/​bubble teas, it’s a great place to go to (but I do suggest take out rather than sitting in if you want a more relaxing environment to enjoy the good food)
Recently I am very amazed with their service. They have been super friendly… a lot friendlier than before. It’s funny that my friends and I are still shocked about how friendly they are now. So I guess this is a plus!

This is a great little place in Chinatown if you’re looking for various Asian desserts.
Everything is made fresh, and they have many dishes with fresh fruit, juices, etc. They have some hot food items as well, but they’re small portion sizes and to be honest, not that good. I would avoid the hot food items unless you’re desperate for a snack and can’t visit anywhere else. I had the chicken wings one time, and it tasted like they took raw chicken wings, put it to a blow torch, then smothered some sauce over it. Hence, the chicken was rubbery, and kind of tasted off. Thus, hot food items are not this place’s strong area, at least in my opinion. But the desserts are great!
However, because many things are made from scratch, and because the location is small (hence the kitchen is small) and there aren’t many staff working in back, service can be slow at times, especially if the place is packed, simply because it takes so long to make things. So if you’re looking for a quick fix, or to be in-​and-​out in under 10 minutes, you can forget about it; Dessert House isn’t really equipped for that kind of an operation.
Instead, this is a place you go and visit if you want to linger or are looking to catch up and chat with friends. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere, and is the perfect place for students to visit, bring some textbooks with them to study, and just lounge around for an hour or so.
The pricing is a little on the high side when you consider the portion sizes in my opinion, but for sheer variety and selection, it’s hard to find another place in the area that rivals the Dessert House’s menu. They’re open late too; often when me and my friends have a late dinner in Chinatown, we’ll drop by the Dessert House after 10 p.m. just to relax and chat.

I came here three times while I was in Calgary; my cousin loves it! Me, on the otherhand… I think it’s okay. Pretty standard, a little pricey.
The first time I came here I had a Taro Milkshake with Boba. It definitely tastes like taro, but it definitely tastes super powdery, too, which you may like or not like. My cousin and his friend looves their powdery milkshakes, and I remember them talking about how good Dessert House’s Green Apple Milkshake (or smoothie?) was.
The second time I had a Green Milk Tea with Boba. Very aromatic, and it tasted more like Jasmine Milk Tea to me.
Their boba, at first, seems too soft but as you keep drinking it’s like magic! They turn into chewy little balls of perfection: D.
The third time I went I had a Baked Mango with Ice Cream. Being American, I thought Dessert House was just substituting «baked» for «fried» to make it seem more healthy… So imagine my surprise when a McDonald’s apple pie-​like dish came out. The dough was flaky and was very much like a croissant, and the inside was filled with gooey mango pieces. I think I liked the ice cream more, to be honest, but the pastry was good all the same. It was baked fresh and took about 40 minutes… not worth the wait, lol. Luckily I had good company to keep me entertained the whole time.
All in all, it’s a great place to go to if you’re looking for a late night hang out over some HK dessert, snacks, and drinks.

The only thing Dessert House has going over other bubble tea places are the desserts and walking distance in Chinatown. Drinks are expensive and the service is consistently sloooooooooooow. Go to Bubblemania instead if you’re hungry and thirsty.

Best place for chinese dessert.
I’ve tried most of the chinese dessert places in Calgary and I think The Dessert House is the best. They’ve also been open for quite a while.
The food portions
price wise (the more $, the more expensive): $$$
food quality (1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest): 4.5
services wise (1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest): 3