Spoonful

Spoonful, a Korean dessert cafe, opened up on February 17th in 12973 Olive Arcade Blvd, right next to Joo Joo, another Korean restaurant, in Olive Arcade Plaza.

The cafe sells bubble teas (Strawberry, Mango, Green Apple, Milk Tea, and Taro Milk Tea), Sweet Red Bean (pat, in Korean) or Nutella filled Taiyaki (bungeo-ppang, in Korean), as well as Americano, Latte, Vanilla Latte, and Matcha Latte (with a choice of 2% or whole milk.) Their specialty, the bingsu, which is a Korean shaved ice dessert, comes with flavors of Strawberry, Mango, Blueberry, Cookies ‘n Cream, Fruity Pebbles, Matcha, or Injeolmi (Korean rice cake with powdered soybean topping). When we went, we got the Strawberry Bingsu and the Red Bean Taiyaki.

The cafe was cute: from the music (a nice mix of DPR Live, IU, GSoul, and other K-Pop artists), to the wood paneling detail on the sidewall, to the neon sign of a hand in a heart shape (perfect for Instagram photos with your new snack!). When my family and I went there, the shop (and parking lot) was very busy, even 10 minutes before closing on a Saturday night.

Strawberry Station (Bingsu)

The Strawberry Bingsu comes with frozen strawberries (cut into slices), thinly powdered snow, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and an option of condensed milk on the side.
Strawberries were either in season or frozen when they were, but they were very sweet strawberries in general. The snow is nice and thin, thankfully not too chunky (think snow cones). In my family’s opinion, the quality of ice was better than Corner 17, or the late Ice Factory in the Loop.

One of the best parts of the bingsu was that they added another layer of strawberries and syrup halfway through the bowl. Usually, you get to the middle/bottom, and the only thing left is bland snow(thus the optional condensed milk, to add some sweetness). Instead, however, the strawberries in the middle were a very welcome surprise. Also, despite the strawberry syrup, strawberries, and condensed milk, it was not overwhelmingly sweet, which was another welcome surprise.

A little pricey– $14.95 for a Regular Strawberry Station. However, the quality is, in my opinion, the best you can get around St. Louis, so overall, it’s worth it.

Taiyaki (Bungeo-ppang)

The taiyaki was roughly hand-sized, with a nice crunchy shell, a pancake-like inside, and a decent amount of filling. We got the 2 for $6.95 deal, which, again, was a little pricey, but it was not bad and considerably better than our own past attempts at making it at home. The red bean pat was a good balance between chunky and smooth, and the ratio between crunchy and soft for the dough was amazing.

Overall, Spoonful was pretty decent, and if you have a craving for some bingsu and Korean desserts, Spoonful is the best place to go in St. Louis.