Cherry’s Tea & Icy Bar

Got the mango icy. It’s a pretty big serving for one person and it is packed with a TON of what seemed like fresh mangoes. Although no condensed milk (darn!), they used a scoop of vanilla ice cream instead which is pretty A-​OK in my books! ¹¹⁄₁₀ would become mango-​holics after eating.

I wanted a dessert at the Crystal Mall Food Court after a very delicious lunch, and this definitely seemed the place to go. It was packed while most other shops were empty, even at about 4pm on a weekday.
What everyone seemed to be getting was these giant bowls of shaved ice, which looked awesome, but I was too full for that and wanted something I could carry around while shopping.
They have several menus with tons of options, so it’s a little overwhelming. I just went with my usual go-​to when confronted with milk tea options: a green tea icee. I went for the red bean since that’s a unique twist.
Tea Special #14: Japanese Green Tea milk w/​red bean ($ 3.75) — 3.5 stars
pic:
The green tea icee part had a fantastic flavor: it had just enough of that slight bitterness unique to green tea, countered by a little bit of sweetness. The red bean is a little soft and starchy, and it was a bit *too* sweet, almost overcompensating for the green tea. You get one of those fat straws and the first half of this drink is really good. But then you’ve gotten through all the liquid and you’re left with the more icy parts, that have a lot of the flavor sucked out of it, plus a bunch of red bean clumped at the bottom. It was impossible to get these with the big straw, and it was incredibly noisy to keep trying. I went back to Cherry’s to ask for a small straw and they immediately recognized my problem and instead gave me a spoon with a long handle. It’s great that they were so helpful this way, but you shouldn’t encounter a problem with finishing your food in the first place! What if you’re not in the mall anymore and can’t go back to get the right utensil?
MENUS
Shave Icy:
Hot Dessert:
Cherry Fruit Tea & Icy Bar:
Tea Special:
Specials:

Mmm! I love me some Taiwanese shaved ice! Cherry’s has two locations, one in Crystal Mall and one in Parker Place! I’ve been to both, and the quality has been consistent!
I always get their 4 item combo on shaved ice! You can choose between three sizes: medium, large, or a to-​go cup. My favourite toppings are the rice balls, red bean, coconut milk, coconut jelly, mango jelly, and grass jelly! The best part is that they drizzle condensed milk on it, which makes it even more delish!
They also have bubble tea and some fresh fruit juices, which I haven’t tried. Service here is no frills and efficient! I’ll definitely be frequenting this place in the summer months! :D

Good variety of drinks and shaved ice concoctions. They also serve Chinese desserts which I have not tried. Tried a couple drinks here and they are decent quality. They used fresh mango in the drink I ordered recently which I do appreciate. Service is fast!

When you need Chinese sweets after eating a savoury meal from this food court you can go to the others and get some sort of bubble tea type drink, but when your a traditionalist like me who really needs some sort of substance to chew on, and some real Chinese style dessert this is your only option. I know what your thinking, there are other vendors in the mall that serve sweets… yes and no, your not getting a crêpe here, or an egg waffle (dan zai or you can search eggette) but what you are getting here is shaved ice, or Chinese sweet rice dumplings (tang yuan) in sweet broth. They have the mini dumplings that don’t have anything inside, and the bigger ones, the one I ordered this day had a mixture of smalls, and 4 big ones filled with black sesame.
They probably do not make their own here, but wherever they are buying them from they are good, a great sense of chew. They cook them perfectly and my sweet ginger broth with my dumplings was a good fix to get the savoury flavours out of my mouth. This food court is so vast that I wish there was another place that would serve this type of food. I did notice that many people ordered shaved ice… to go, and they give a plentiful amount. Other things they sell are the mixed hot and cold drinks with multiple teas.

My favorite place in Burnaby for shaved ice! A great assortment of toppings are available (everything from green bean, red bean, almond jello to strawberries and tapioca). The ingredients are always fresh and for the serving size and price, the value is there. There are other dessert items that look great but have not yet really tried anything else there — just hooked on the shaved ice!

Yummers! The shave ice is pretty great and for 5 $ you can get 8 generous toppings

I’m used to having my papaya milk thicker, but Cherry’s was still pretty good. $ 3 for a large cup is not bad.

The cooling watermelon juice was made with fresh watermelon after I ordered it. They blended it with a substantial amount of ice, so it was more of a watermelon slush than watermelon juice — but it was a refreshing palate cleanser after a nice dim sum meal at Top Gun.