Cafe Home
$ Korean, Coffee & Tea, Salad
3377 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
I don’t understand why Dole Whip is served by the most sketchy places. The last time I saw Dole Whip being served was at an ice cream shop in Palm Springs with a loudmouth owner who carries a bad attitude (see his epic snarky owner comment on my previous review of Lappert’s Ice Cream.) What I learned from that guy while he was talking a mile a minute was that Dole Whip IS vegan – so I knew I had to try it – just not at his shop!
There are literally only three places in Los Angeles that serve Dole Whip so I got to try it yesterday at this cave-like Korean cafe called Cafe Home. It was a bright August afternoon and I walk into this extremely dark cafe. After readjusting my eyes, I quickly made a note of the un-popularity of this place after seeing a long line of people outside the door of their neighbor the Boiling Crab versus only two or three people sitting at one table in this cafe. At the end of this dark and empty cafe was a confrontational ajumma – an older and unsmiling Korean maitre d’. I was walking towards her and she was walking towards me. I didn’t want her to get too close, so I quickly said that I’m here for Dole Whip. She stopped and turned around and went behind the counter and then barked that the smallest Dole Whip they have would be $5.50. Although a small Dole Whip from this place was $3.25 on a menu posted on Yelp from 2013, I find that everyone now thinks they’re on a trendy stretch of West Hollywood so the ridiculous 60% price inflation didn’t bother me too much.
What bothered me was that when she served it to me in a soft serve, she served the soft serve in such a way that it was hollow in the center. And I am especially disappointed because the Dole Whip was actually good – so I would have very much appreciated it if it wasn’t hollow in the center for the price I paid. I literally poked my spoon into the ice cream and it deflated. Dole Whip has the potential for it to be a trendy flavor served for similar prices at other much nicer shops as it is vegan and deliciously holds a kind of consistency between sorbet and actual ice cream. It’s just a shame that the most off-putting shops outside of Disneyland carry it. I just hope to one day be able to find this stuff at a place that I am confident doesn’t have old fossils to give me a hard time or try to rip me off.
Useful: 3 Funny: 2 Cool: 2
8/19/2016