I thought I'll make a quick mention of this little cafe/restaurant on the outskirts of Chinatown/ Haymarket. Hana Hana is the quieter younger sibling of a number of other Japanese outlets in Sydney including Wagaya and Takeru. It is located at the corner where once upon a time, the French Riviera ice cream shop used to sit perched on the edge of one of the many entrances to Darling Harbour.
Downstairs, the restaurant serves Japanese food (mainly bento box sets). But our usual haunt was upstairs where they serve dessert :).
The place was quiet when we arrived (despite it being late lunch hour), and we made our way upstairs to another seating area decorated with pretty patterned fabric and simple wooden furniture. The upper level seating area seemed equally empty with only a mother and her toddler enjoying ice cream near the windows. A lone waitress was preparing desserts at the little open plan preparing area whilst we scouted out the ice cream display, which included all your classic Asian flavours such as green tea and black sesame.
However, we were quickly entranced with the idea of a Green tea parfait.
Left: Patterned lighting. Right: Green tea parfait $5.90.
The parfait consisted of an interesting combination of flavours and textures. There was a modest sized scoop of green tea ice cream, a chocolate wafer, some chewy mochi, crunchy cornflakes (an interesting touch, totally Japanese :)), sweet red bean paste (anko), and cream and green tea pudding at the bottom. Yum! Although, I'm not a huge fan of the mochi (which was chewy, but didn't have that much taste when compared to the rest of the parfait), the parfait was pretty satisfying overall. The dessert was not overly sweet (and may not satisfy people who like their sugar), but rather subtle, light and pretty refreshing.
Great place for your green tea ice cream fix!
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5/209 Thomas St
Sydney, NSW 2000
Sydney, NSW 2000
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