Sweet O’clock

– My First Impression –
I was here on a weekend afternoon and my husband and I decided to share one dessert and one rice dish. The store was quite spacious and I liked the colour combination here. There was only one associate in the store and I could tell the workload was way too much for her. She was responsible for preparing all dessert dishes, greeting the customer, cleaning the tables and taking care of the cashier.
– Food and Drink –
We ordered 2 items:
1. Popcorn Chicken on rice — their popcorn chicken was quite salty (I rather have it salty than sweet. Off topic: there are a lot of Taiwanese restaurants offering sweet popcorn chicken which I don’t like at all). The quantity was huge which consisted of a bowl of rice, popcorn chicken (more than 20 pieces), soy sauce tofu, half hard boiled egg and some veggies on the side. I found their rice very hard and I had trouble to digesting it.
2. Sweet O’ Clock Signature Herbal Jelly with blended ice made with herbal tea (tastes like grass jelly in shaved ice format) with herbal jelly, taro ball, tapioca and condensed milk. The taro ball was very chewy and the condensed milk complemented the taste of the melting shaved ice. This was definitely one of the best shaved ice dishes I’ve had. :)
– Overall –
Compared to other Taiwanese restaurants, I found Sweet O’Clock had an average performance. Their dessert tasted way better than their regular meals. There are a lot of restaurants with better desserts around Yonge and Finch, but they are definitely not the worst one in town. I would love to go back to try the mango shaved ice dessert. It looks really appealing.

Will definitely be back. Clean, great service, tasty desserts. Had to matcha snowflake (favourite), the mango shaved ice (seasonal), the signature herbal jelly with homemade taro balls and tapioca, and the deep fried squid balls.

3 for hot food. 3.5 for dessert.
Came with a large group. Had a reservation, but Sweet O’clock isn’t the kind of restaurant that looks like it takes reservations. It looks more like a cafeteria. One can order at the cash register, or if one eats in, they give you menus and you can order at your table. Oddly enough, we still paid at the cash register after eating in.
Had:
Popcorn chicken ($ 6.99?) — fairly good sized portion for the price. Served with mayo. I’ve never had Taiwanese style popcorn chicken spiced quite like this, and I’m not sure how to describe it. I didn’t particularly enjoy it, but I didn’t hate it. There were a few pieces that were just barely cooked, so they had a springy texture that made me think they were still raw. They weren’t, though. We checked.
Matcha snowflakes ($ 8.99) — Before ordering this, I was hesitant that it would be worth it, but after receiving and tasting it, I think this is quite fair for the price. The matcha snowflakes are essentially shaved ice, but matcha flavored. The matcha taste was pleasantly present. The mountain of matcha snowflakes was topped with a scoop of impressively good quality strawberry ice cream (not particularly artificial, and very creamy), coconut jellies, and red bean. Very tasty.
Tried:
Fried squid balls ($ 6.99?) — Once again, decent portion for price. Not the biggest fan of squid balls though. They were just like deep fried fish balls. Also served with mayo.
Marinated tofu — came with the popcorn chicken with rice. It had a bit of an odd taste. For marinated tofu, it lacked a marinated taste. There was only the tiniest hint of soy. The tofu started off tasting fairly fresh, but then took on a fermented taste after (not quite stinky tofu, but starting on that journey?)
Braised beef noodles — Didn’t have enough to make any sort of judgment.
Shaved ice with herbal jelly (grass jelly), tapioca balls, taro and sweet potato balls — Not bad, but I prefer my matcha snowflakes. Sweet potato balls had a springier texture than the taro, but only slightly. Sweet potato balls had the texture of properly done tapioca balls. Pretty sure the shaved ice had brown sugar on it. We were given creamers to pour on the entire concoction, which we did. That was interesting.
Supreme mango crushed ice — Pretty sure this one was also $ 8.99. Shaved ice (plain) topped with a generous amount of fresh mango chunks, mango ice cream, and mango purée. I would have been more impressed if the shaved ice was mango flavored as well, but loads of mango taste in this one, and the fresh mango chunks were really tasty. The mango ice cream, like their strawberry ice cream, was very creamy and mango-​y in a not so artificial way.
It would have been nice if we had gotten regular water refills (the popcorn chicken made me really thirsty, and when having desserts, I need a lot of water), but I do see why that was difficult for the server (s?) because they seemed understaffed to take care of a party like ours along with the rest of the patrons in the restaurant.
Oh. And one aggravating thing that kept happening throughout the night was that when people went in and out of the front door, it wouldn’t close properly, and would stay ajar, or swing ajar periodically. On a hot day, it might not be so bad, but Monday night was quite chilly, and I ended up having to wear my jacket the entire night to avoid the chill coming through the crack in the door. One of my friends ended up having to get up repeatedly to close the door properly. I feel both sorry for him, and incredibly thankful to him.
Final verdict: I’d come back for the desserts in the summer, but I’d pass on their hot food.

not a good experience. One order per person minium. I went there with my friend so I can only order takeaway and have it in my car. The red bean is hard to chew, not well cooked. The taro doesn’t have any tastes. won’t come again…

Gotta have dessert after dinner to conclude the night!
We ordered the Special which consisted of brown sugar ice topped with tapioca, hot grass jelly and taro balls. I gotta say, the ice here is definitely something I’d be coming back for! Not too sweet and it goes well with the grass jelly since it is not sweet to begin but rather, had more of a herbal taste (just how I like it)! However, you gotta eat it quick otherwise it’ll melt! I find that the Taro balls could’ve been a bit sweet since I felt like I was chewing on a blob of starch… Not sure if anyone else was bothered by the undercooked tapioca. or perhaps it was just undercooked that day we ordered? The undercooked tapioca bothered me a bit however, it was edible and enjoyable when eaten with the other toppings.
Overall, love the dessert! Will be back for more and will re-​review!

It’s a cute little café along the busy strip of Yonge. You can walk straight to the cash if you’re ordering to go, but if you’re dining in, they’ll seat you and provide you with menus. They offer a good variety of desserts as well as hot foods. I had come after dinner so I was just looking for dessert. When we sat down, the girl told us that each person had to order something, which kind of sucked because I wasn’t really intending to eat anything, just my girlfriend. So she ordered the signature herbal jelly and I got the herbal jelly roasted milk tea.
The herbal jelly was pretty good, not too sweet but had that dessert taste. The herbal flavoured iced really made it come together. They actually messed up my order and didn’t add the herbal jelly to my drink but the roasted flavour was really there. It’s not bad. There are other places that offer similar desserts, and since it’s not really close to home, I probably wouldn’t bother going out of my way for it.

I always a fan of Taiwanese dessert as I love the QQ chewiness of taro balls, boba and grass jello and more.
Sweet O’clock has hand made taro balls! Should I be excited?!
Service was definitely missing and rough on the edges. So many things that did not feel right.
One order per person which I can live with as I can share a taro ball dessert with my friend and take a drink home. The serving is quite generous as I doubt I can consider that as a dessert after dinner but more like a meal in itself. Taro Balls did have the great QQ mouth feel but that’s really it.
The tray that they have my orders was so wet like dripping in water. I just felt a little gross out to start with. My spoon and napkins were kind of wet too…
I doubt I will be coming back. The search of good Taiwanese dessert continues.

Went to this dessert place with a couple of friends for an after dinner treat. The store is decently sized with large and small tables. They serve Chinese desserts such as shaved ice, herb jelly mixes, slushes and so on.
The employees were a little standoffish especially when we asked if we could change one of the toppings. She couldn’t really offer any alternatives and instead asked us what we wanted to change it to. When we asked what they had available she couldn’t answer or chose to ignore us.
In the end my friend and I ordered the matcha snow. It came topped with a scoop of red bean ice cream, lychee jelly and red bean. The matcha snow was pretty delicious though a little on the sweet side. Fortunately the matcha flavour was also strong. The red bean ice cream was good and the lychee jelly mixed with matcha turned out to be a delicious. I don’t like red bean but my friend said it was good.
The dessert was about $ 10 but quite a decent size. Not my top choice for a dessert place but decent enough.

I had to sign up to Unilocal just to share my experiences *yes plural* about this place.
1. Why would a place offer mango desserts and beverages and never .I mean never have mango? I challenge you to go there and ask for a mango drink. mango slush mango anyhing… their response «we are out» my response «when do you ever have it?!?» TAKE IT OFF your menu!!!
2. Half of the menu here uses tapioca. Hahah how can you run out?! On more ocassions than one. they have run out. Epic fail on inventory.
3. They run out of taro… fml…it’s just like a potato. the least amount of prep and work
Overall this place sucks taro balls.
Save your $ 7 and go to gong cha. Atleast they never run out of anything on their menu

Came back and was thoroughly impressed with their food and service. The portions were very good for the price. Loved the desserts. We ordered the fried intestines and the beef ribs. I was not a fan of the ribs, it was strangely salty and at the same time too sweet, the texture was terrible and chewy. I loved the intestines, it was nicely prepared. The fragrance of the spices and the seasoning added greatly to the dish, the crispy exterior was a nice contrast to the fatty center, the pickled veggies brought everything together. I would recommend this place for small groups after dinner dessert/​snack pig outs, seats are limited but worth a try.

The best green tea shaved ice I’ve had in Toronto! But why the 2 star you ask? Definitely because of the lack of consistency here. I came here on three separate occasions after the first time where I somehow was lucky enough to score the green tea shaved ice but every time after that, it was readily NOT available for some ridiculous reason. «We don’t have it because the person that makes it is on vacation» Sorry?!! Can you say that again? How does that even make sense?! I can’t think of any logical reason why a business would choose to limit their business and potential profit like that! A business cannot depend on only one person. That was the first I’ve ever heard that one I tell you. So I had to opt for the strawberry shaved ice which was nothing like the green tea one. The ice for this one was chunky, hard and bland. Was legit eating ice. It was not snowy, milky and fluffy like the green tea one. I’m sure they don’t have a separate machine for each flavour? Sooo… The ice texture should essentially be the same?
Another time I went they simply didn’t have it and the employees didn’t seem to know why. I asked them if it was sold out and they said it wasn’t (???) but they said they will have it next week. Ugh, This place is so confusing!
Anyway, the take away for this is if you want anything from here (well, shaved ice to be exact), call to make sure they have it first so you don’t drive 20 minutes to disappoint yourself!

Came back again and had a bad experience. Really bad. I ordered some noodles, a really simple dish that can be prepared under 10 minutes, and it never came. Waited almost an hour wondering where’s my food. Luckily, I was catching up with friends and we had one dessert dish come out. I asked the waitress about the noodles and she totally forgot about it. I didn’t even get a discount for the dessert I got?! I was expecting oh maybe it’s on the house but naah not even 10%. Me and my friends were starving so we just left to Kmart to get food.
Oh yea, and the service was kind of different this time too. I had an actual waitress serve me so now I don’t know if I pay first for food or after? Meh, the grass jelly dish I ordered was average. But I’ve now confirmed I won’t be coming back! Mabu station has better desserts

Hand made taro ball No. 4 (taro, red bean, boba with a bit of shaved ice) $ 6.90 — the shaved ice in the center was more like a snow cone. Its not the soft and layered shaved ice you get at Cha Me Cha. With all the other stuff that came with it the snow cone quality ice quickly became slush. The taro which came with it was really soft and tasted great.
Sweet potato tofu pudding $ 5.99 — tofu pudding was NOT smooth and soft. There was not enough sweetener/​syrup. The texture and thickness of the pudding was just way off. The sweet potatoes were soft and tasted good which saved this dessert from becoming a complete failure.
Desserts served on a food court type tray which you pickup yourself at the counter.
This place gets an okay from me at best. And an okay from me usually means I will try it once but probably won’t return.

YIKES!
This place is terrible. It seems that this area of North York is exploding with bubble tea/​dessert places following the arrival of the big names of the bubble tea world like Gong cha and cha time. But the new joints just don’t cut it.
The drinks taste heavily DILUTED, and the desserts use INGREDIENTS OF QUESTIONABLE QUALITY. My GF and I tried one of those grass jelly/​taro ball things (I forget exactly which one) and it tasted a bit plastic-​y, if you know what I mean. google «chinese counterfeit food». you’ve been warned.
Despite the terrible food I was so focused on having a good time with my gf playing cards. After the place started filling with people, and WE WERE STILL EATING, they told us that playing cards aren’t allowed and just stood awkwardly over us as if asking us to leave to make space for other customers. WTF?!
I can tell from how the staff spoke terrible english that they probably haven’t been in Canada for very long, and have no idea how rude and ridiculous they were being.
There is absolutely no reason to visit this place, the food is dangerous (plastic tasting dessert, I got sick from the milk tea), and there are so many better options nearby. Play it safe and head to CHA TIME.

Sweet O clock has a very simple concept, but simple is all you really need. they do the taiwan style desert that involves a bowl of grass jelly shaved ice, and an assortment of little chewable sweets. such as taro jelly and such. Although the desert sounds simple. it has a lot of moving parts. and it is for this reason that sweet O clock is pretty good. it sticks to the simple formula and does each part relatively well. This desert is really about each individual part being made well. and that is what brings it whole. i find this desert place has got the right forumla, and is very authentic. It also has a very simple and clean interior, that most customers will feel comfortable sitting down, eating and chating. The only issue with the seating is not enough of it and most people have to go for the take out option for the most parts.
The signature dish is definitely, good. what prevents it from being a 5 star, is that it doesn’t really wow people. it simply does the signature desert well. but not amazing. i would of course recommend people this particular restaurant’s herbal jelly desert for those who miss it in asia. and are around the area.

I can’t get enough of this place. The Sweet Potato Taro Balls (Taro No. 2 on the menu) and the Signature Herbal Jelly ate outstanding. Taro No. 2 has a nice subtle flavour without being too sweet, while the Herbal Jelly is sweeter if that’s what you’re craving.
The servers are happy to answer your questions about their desserts, and offer you recommendations.
The handmade taro balls have a great squishy texture to them, they’re strangely addictive.
My one complaint about this place is that it’s really small, and it gets packed quickly on a weekend evening.
Other than that, delicious desserts, fair price, helpful staff, free wifi; can’t go wrong with this Sweet O’Clock.

Recently opened a Taiwanese dessert place where I usually hangout so I definitely wanted to try. They offer various taro ball, herbal jelly, traditional tofu pudding, shaved ice, pudding, slush and bubble tea combinations — both desserts and drinks.
There is limited seating which can be disappointing since it’s a dessert place. I’ve been here a couple of times only when there is seating available.
So how it works is, you place your order than they give you a buzzer. The standard wait time is 10 minutes depending on how busy it is. There are a couple of chairs on the side where you can wait.
My favourite is Sweet O’Clock Signature Herbal Jelly with herbal jelly, herbal blended ice, taro balls, boba and cream (6.90 $). It’s a refreshing and good combination of flavours. It’s good for sharing or if you are super hungry you can eat it on your own.
The Large Hazelnut Milk Tea with grass jelly (4.70 $) is the drink I always get there which is pretty good and comparable to Cha Time. The Jasmine Milk Tea is what my friend enjoys the most. You can adjust the sweetness of your drink which is a plus.
Overall food/​drinks are good along with the service but the seating is 3 stars since you can’t always find a table.
They offer wifi and vicinity is accepted here as well which is a plus.

Newly opened dessert place in the area so we decided to try it out because it serves Taiwanese desserts.
Came here on a Sunday night around 10pm, the place was filled not because there was a line up, it was because all the seats and tables were occupied already, given there were only 8 tables.
It was a bit of a turn off that there were no seats available and did make me want to walk out because these kind of desserts isn’t ones where you can take out and take home to eat, reason being most of them contain shaved ice or ice cream in it and starts melting by the time you walk out the door on a summer night.
We waited 10mins until we got a table and then we went to the counter to order, which wasn’t too bad. There was a few customers that walked in after we sat down and again there were no seats so they walked out. They should find something to solve this problem where not enough seats are available to customers and people DO WALK OUT!
There were mainly 3 categories for desserts, taro balls, herbal jelly and shaved ice with ice cream on top. They do offer drinks as well like bubble tea. We ordered the herbal jelly signature, which came with herbal jelly, tapioca, taro balls, shaved ice and cream. Desserts are $ 6.90 which is kinda pricy but the order portions are fairly big, more than enough to serve 2 people. If their prices can go lower and make the portions smaller, or offer 2 sizes that’ll be better. They don’t have the option to add extras to their desserts which was odd and disappointing, so if you want some other toppings, you have to order a whole new portion.
Once you order you food, they give you a pager where you can sit down and wait for your food instead of crowding the counter. It took approximately 10mins to be ready which I find fairly long for a place where there’s no other customers’ orders besides us.
Maybe I had higher impressions of it from reading all the reviews and pictures, it wasn’t as good as I thought. The herbal jelly was ordinary like any other, shaved iced melted so fast that I didn’t even noticed it existed in there, tapioca was great like how it’s suppose to be, taro balls which were made in house didn’t feel any extraordinary, it was chewy but tasteless, Also, I feel that it was towards the sweet side, hitting my sweetness margin and I’m a person who loves sugar.
Overall, it was JUST OK, if their signature is supposingly to be the best in store, it didn’t amaze me, and won’t be a reason for me to purposely go back, If they can make more seating in the store, it would definitely help with people walking out and losing business.

One of the new dessert shops in this area, we stopped in to check them out after dinner. They have handy pictures of their food on the wall, really useful since I couldn’t read the small lettering on their menu board, lol!
We ordered the QQ Wintermelon Tea (coconut jelly + tapioca pearls) and Sweet O’Clock Signature Herbal Jelly («herbal jelly + herbal blended ice + taro balls + boba + cream»). Both were good stuff! Our taro balls were freshly made, we were told we had to wait a while as they had ran out and were cooking a new batch. We didn’t mind at all. The herbal jelly and ice were sweet and nice. It’s comparable to ZenQ’s Q Ball dessert except this one had the bottom of the bowl filled with herbal jelly (instead of a scoop on top) and the taro balls are in small dice. You get a more balanced scoop in your mouth :)
The tables for 2 along the south wall were placed quite closed to one another so it’s not really a conducive place for deep conversations, know what I mean? However, they are great for people watching on Yonge St!
Service is friendly. You order at the counter and they give you a buzzer to call you when your order’s ready.
3 stars because apart from the slightly cramped space, it felt stuffy in there. You feel it the moment you step in but it didn’t get more uncomfortable so it’s not too bad.

I’m a fan! Had the following items:
1. Supreme Mango Ice Dessert — Amazingly fresh and sweet mango! I’m a huge fan of mangoes having grown up with the very sweet mangoes from the Philippines. The mangoes here reminded me of that. And with the mango ice cream melting into the shaved ice, it was such a refreshing thing on this hot summer day!
2 Taro Ball No. 2 (with Sweet Potato + Barley + Boba) — First time trying some Hand-​made Taro Balls. It was delicious and interesting. It’s as fresh as they come as they only make them last for two days. This reminded me of a combination of boba + mochi texture but made of taro. Another refreshingly great treat on a hot day! Be sure to try a spoon with all the ingredients. I only wish the Sweet Potato was already in bite-​sized scoopable pieces so I wouldn’t have to break them down myself.
3. Fresh Mango Blended Ice Creama — Using the same mango as the Supreme Mango Ice Dessert, this was blended perfectly (meaning the shake was smooth and you don’t get any texture of ice as you drink). The Creama adds a great touch of flavour to make the drink even creamier. One thing to note though is, if you order #1 already, I don’t think there’s any point ordering this (or vice-​versa). Better try something else.
4. Wintermelon Tea — The drink came in a glass jar which was very interesting. I’d never had Wintermelon Tea in its raw form. It’s usually in milk tea form like in Chatime/​Gong Cha. It was very refreshing drink, like a way better form of Iced Tea. Very good as well on a hot day. The sweetness doesn’t feel like sugar sweet.