SHIROKUMA: Simply Overrated

After Sally and I had lunch at LOCALE24 Diner & Bar, we headed to Shirokuma to get ourselves some ice cream. A birdy told us that Shirokuma is famous for its' matcha dessert - green tea ice cream, green tea cake, green tea rice balls, you name it! - so we went to the dessert house to get a taste of its' overwhelming green-tea-based dessert.

Sally had a bowl of Matcha Anmitsu - a traditional dessert bowl with mochi, shiratama balls, chunky red beans, matcha jelly and served with a side of brown sugar syrup. She asked for an additional ice cream on top, which costed her an extra Rp12.000,00. 

There were three choice of ice cream: vanilla, matcha, and twist. Sally went for the Twist Soft Cream because it was a combination of matcha ice cream and original milk flavor Japanese Soft Cream.

Matcha Anmitsu

I ordered a lovely Matcha Cake Parfait for myself, which consisted of soft cream layered with matcha cake, cornflakes, mochi, shiratama balls, chunky red beans and matcha jelly. My dessert is pretty much the same with Sally's. We were only lacking one or two elements each. 

Overall, the presentation of the dessert is excellent. They were very adorable and very appealing to the eye, very kawaii if I may say. But, do they tasted as good as they look? 

The soft cream was creamy and milky. It wasn't too thick, nor easily melt. Unfortunately, the Twist Cream was dominated with the original milk flavor cream, making it hard to distinguish the matcha flavor of the soft cream. 

On the other hand, the matcha cake in my parfait had a strong green tea flavor, yet, the texture of the cake itself was horrible. The cake was very stiff, as if the baker put too much flour in the batter, and it crumbled easily. Yes, the matcha flavor is very strong in this cake, too strong it made the cake tasted bitter and simply unpleasant. As a sweet tooth, I was disappointed by how the cake is lacking of sweetness. 

Next, is the shiratama balls. Shiratama balls are made from glutinous rice flour. It is similar with mochi, as they both were made from the basic ingredients and share the same chewy texture. Shirokuma's shiratama balls were basically tasteless, even the matcha shiratama balls didn't have any green tea flavor at all. It was a bit of a challenge for me to finish my rice balls because they were very unpleasant to my taste buds. 

Didn't like the chunky red bean in my parfait because they made my dessert tasted weird. And they weren't even sweet, just plain nutty! But, I did enjoy eating the matcha jelly on the bottom of the glass - they were sweet, slightly bitter, chewy, and tasted like green tea. The cornflakes tasted like, well, cornflakes and it blended well with the ice cream.

Matcha Cake Parfait

Now that I have tasted a glimpse of Shirokuma, I can say that the dessert place is overrated. Sure, they may have cute and adorable desserts, but they don't taste as good as they look. They are only good for Instagram and it ends there. Not recommended for those who strive for delicious dessert. 

SHIROKUMA

Ruko Crown Golf, Blok A No. 23

Bukit Golf Mediterania, Jalan Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pantai Indah Kapuk, Jakarta

Opening Hours

Monday - Sunday: 12PM - 10PM

Contact
+62 21 2923 7523