Chatswood's Best and Most Iconic Desserts
Written by Lorraine Elliott
I always want a change of scenery after dinner. It gives you a chance to get some fresh air and take a little walk and in Chatswood there are lots of dessert places that sell a range of desserts. I had so much fun sampling all of these places over one weekend and you will too!
1. Lily Ice Cream
Shop 9/409 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW 2067
Lily Ice Cream is a brand new ice cream shop that opened mid May 2022 on Victoria Avenue right in the thick of the shopping action of Chatswood. Even early on, it is proving popular with lots of people stopping by for a post-meal ice cream, despite the wintry chill outside. The point of difference is that Lily Ice Cream uses Hokkaido milk in about half of their ice creams. Hokkaido dairy is prized - the area is located far north in Japan with a cool climate and the cows have lots of pasture to graze on. The cows produce a rich milk that is sublimely creamy and some say that the milk tastes like vanilla.
Not surprisingly the Hokkaido vanilla is the best-selling ice cream at Lily and we try this along with the Berry Swirl with raspberry, white chocolate and coconut also made using Hokkaido milk. It gives the ice cream a noticeable creaminess - even Mr NQN who doesn't really remark much about food notices it straight away. Not all flavours use Hokkaido milk for example the pistachio and matcha use Australian jersey cow milk as the creaminess isn't the focus of these flavours.
But my favourite item here is the Japanese or Harajuku style crepes. These crepes are designed as walking crepes so you can snack and walk. The Biscoff Nana is what dreams are made of with Hokkaido vanilla ice cream, Biscoff, caramel sauce, cream, buttered popcorn and slices of banana on top. It's absolutely heavenly and Mr NQN polishes off the crepe after a double scoop of ice cream!
2. Pishon
Chatswood Interchange, 54/436 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW 2067
Pishon is located at Chatswood Interchange just near Chatswood train station. At first glance it looks like a tiny cafe but it's more than that with a range of cakes, pastries, sandwiches and biscuits and it's well worth a visit. They are known for their Bingsus or shave ice that come in three flavours: milk, matcha or mango - we tried the matcha bingsu.
The matcha bingsu is enormous and could feed 2 or 3 people so it's great as an after dinner dessert to share. This bingsu is a huge mountain of matcha flavoured ice (strong in matcha) with plenty of sweet red beans and mochi. It's not overly sweet and you need to make sure that you get some of the red bean and flaked almonds along with the matcha ice. The ice in a bingsu is very important and the ice here melts on the tongue. Tip: the iced taro tea latte is also excellent.
3. Auntie Sweetie
Shop 4/1 Help St, Chatswood NSW 2067
Auntie Sweetie specialises in Hong Kong style desserts. The shop is located down a quiet section of Help street. It only opens at 3 o’clock but come 3.45pm the shop quickly fills up. They don't take credit cards here although you can transfer money through PayID.
It's a quirky place. The display cabinet is sparse, in fact there’s nothing but three tins of soft drink and four bottles of water but the menu has an interesting range of goodies focusing on tong sui or sweet soups. The prices are excellent with the average cost around $5-$6 per bowl of sweet soup.
Black Sesame Soup $6.
These sweet soups can either be rich and warming like the hot black sesame soup or they can be cold like the refreshing sago and coconut with rockmelon, lychee and grapes.
Coconut Milk Sago with Fruit of the Day $5.50.
The black rice with red bean, mini mochi and coconut milk is my favourite while Mr NQN loves the coconut milk sago with fruit. One thing to note is that these sweet soups aren't overly sweet. I'd actually prefer a touch more sweetness to them but that's just me and you can always add sugar in rather than take it out.
4. Gelateria Gondola
2/77 Archer St, Chatswood NSW 2067
Gelateria Gondola is on busy Archer Street right near the heart of the action in Chatswood and on a sunny day there will invariably be a crowd gathered outside the gelateria. This award winning gelato shop is by Luca Zanini from Castelfranco, Veneto in Italy.
The store is small but has a range of flavours from traditional pistachio to offerings like coffee mascarpone, Grand Mariner Frutta Secca to flavours like taro. Mr NQN loves the mango gelato that tastes just of pure mango while I am very much all about the taro flavour which hits all the right notes of sweetness and taro flavour.
5. Celsius Dessert Bar
Bus Interchange, Kiosk 4/436 Victoria Ave, Chatswood NSW 2067
Celsius is all about trends for Instagram. This container is located just near Chatswood train station near the bus interchange. The best seller is the Dragon's Breath that comes as a cup of colourful balls. These are Korean Baegae Samsaekboll or cracker balls that have liquid nitrogen added to them. When you bite into them the cold air from the liquid nitrogen makes it appear as though you are breathing fire (or frost).
The actual balls don't really taste like much and they're not very sweet or savoury but the effect is fun. It's really more for Instagram than taste. The pick is actually the classic egg waffle, a crispy waffle that looks like giant bubble wrap! This comes in a range of flavours from sweet to savoury.
