Cong Sao Star Dessert – Excellent Hong Kong Style Desserts In Causeway Bay

I’ve been meaning to come to Cong Sao (聰嫂私房甜品) for a long time, but every time I’ve tried to go there was a very long line, so I never ended up going.  However, on this trip I met up with a friend and made sure to go at an off hour and luckily there was a table available immediately.
Hong Kong style desserts generally fall into two categories; one is the old school stuff that old people eat, which you can see an example of here and the other is newer style desserts which is what Cong Sao serves.  These desserts are quite a bit different than American desserts with lots of mango, durian, jellies, soups and puddings as opposed to cookies and cakes etc.  I’m a big fan of both styles of desserts and it’s difficult to find good versions in the US, so I always make it a point to get these when I’m in Hong Kong.

Durian Pancake:

This is a thin crepe-like pancake that is filled with a very light and sweet crème and durian (mango is the other fruit that they usually make this with as well).  I believe the original Honeymoon Dessert in Sai Kung invented these although I’m not 100% sure about that.  However, I remember in the early 2000s going to Honeymoon in Sai Kung before it became a big chain and people raving about these there and it sounded like it was something they invented.  Anyhow, the version here is excellent.  The pancakes are thin and just slightly chewy which I like.  The crème is light and not too sweet and it pairs really well with durian.  Now obviously you have to like durian although the durian here is not super strong, so I think even those who don’t really like durian would be okay with this.  If you don’t like durian I’d recommend getting the mango.  9/10

Mango Tapioca in Coconut Milk:

This is pretty simple; it’s chunks of mango in an ice cold soup of coconut milk with tapioca in it.  I like this dessert a lot, the combo of mango and coconut milk is really good and mangos just taste a lot better in Asia than they do in the US, they are much sweeter and have better flavor and texture.  They made the coconut milk a bit sweeter than I prefer, but still good overall although there are dessert places in HK that definitely have better versions that the one here.  8.25/10

Mango Sago with Grass and Mango Jelly in Coconut Milk:

I’ll admit that sago looks like some weird alien egg or eyeballs, so sorry if they gross anyone out (my gf thought it looks really gross).  This was like the prior dessert except not served as cold and it had sago and grass and mango jelly in it.  Sago is made from palm stems, which you can read about here in this wiki article.    They don’t taste like much, but they do give a nice texture.  I’d say the same about the jellies.  While similar to the other dessert, I like the textural aspect of this one a bit better.  8.5/10

Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls:

These are called tang yuan in Chinese and they are probably one of my favorite Chinese deserts.  They are glutinous rice balls filled with ground up black sesame with sugar in a hot sweet ginger soup.  They taste just like they sound, but I also really love the texture of the super soft rice dough with the crunch of the sesame and sugar.  The tang yuan here quite good with nice flavor and texture, but the soup was a too gingery for me as it was very strong.  8.0/10 (8.5/10 for the tang yuan, 7.5/10 for the soup)

Overall, the pancake was really good and the other desserts were solid although not the best versions I’ve had in HK.  I would like to come back as some of the desserts that other customers were eating looked great.

Address: (note they moved a street away recently, so this is the new address)
G/F, 11 Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣耀華街11號地舖
Phone:  2278 2622