本草堂 Sweet Turtle Desserts — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

With Health Herb Harmony closing in that plaza, there is no more competition for Chinese Desserts.. This remaining dessert place is super small, kind of quiet and they only have four tables for sit in and therefore, the wait times can be excruciating since patrons tend to overstay and do not care that people are waiting for over 40+ mins to an hour for a table and just stay there to chitchat! Unbelievable! The restaurant should be more proactive at encouraging patrons to leave when done eating, especially if your future customers are just left hanging there waiting for a long time. Also one thing I didn't liked is that even though they have just four tables due to social distancing, they allowed a family to reserve a table?? leaving just three tables for sit in. Service when provided was good.. Desserts are good too but the waiting time just kills it.. and no, takeout desserts aren't just the same.. You need to dine in to experience the true taste of...

This place has been around for sooo many years, but only tried it for the first time. Came here on a Saturday night, had to wait about 15 mins for a table - lots of seating but quite small inside. Expect to not sit comfortably.

We ordered: Tofu pudding (豆腐花), not a good deal, bowl was small for the price but the taste was not bad. Walnut soup (合桃糊), taste authentic, smooth and not too sweet. But was not hot enough. Mango Pomelo Sago (楊枝甘露), mango and pomelo were both fresh, not too sweet, good amount of sago, a bit on the watery side. Black sesame milk pudding (芝麻糊燉奶), made fresh cause it came out piping hot, flavour was good, the presentation could’ve been better but that’s minor.

$33 for the above 4 items, guess it’s not too bad since I don’t need to cook or clean. Might come back in the future if I’m craving, but definitely would not consider my go-to place for...

This place used to be our "go-to" place at night for dessert. Sadly the owner has changed and the quality of the food has gone downhill. It isn't just the quality, but it seems the original owner never passed down the recipes and the new owners just don't care. We had two of our favourite dishes and they were definitely nowhere near the same as before. The sesame egg pudding took over 40min and I could tell they just microwaved some pre-made egg pudding. The egg pudding was still bubbling and obviously overcooked. The worst part is they just slapped on some sugary sesame paste (from powder) on top. The original sesame egg pudding was made with real grinded sesame and it was baked INSIDE the egg pudding. The other dish was just very water and again, full of sugar. I agree with the other reviewer, the service was also poor when they weren't busy. Needless to say, we won't be...