Bingsu Bean — Restaurant in Toronto

Edit: April 2024... The bingsu bowls have gotten smaller. So it's the same price but for smaller portions of bingsu. A few months ago the bingsu bowls were a bit bigger. Might now come here in the future if they keep shrinking their sizes.

Came to Dear and Fro several times with my friends. We have tried various bingsu flavors here. Some are very good, others are okay, and the rest are just meh or a hit or miss.

Tonight we ordered the Blueberry Bingsu, the Oreo Cheesecake Bingsu, the Hong Kong Styled Milk Tea Bingsu, and a Blueberry Milk Tea.

My friend says that the Blueberry Bingsu is really good. My other friend says that he chose his old reliable -- the Oreo Cheesecake Bingsu. Tasty as always. It's his 3rd time having that one. The Hong Kong Styled Milk Tea Bingsu tastes pretty good. It's also tall, comes with the cheese foam, and the milk tea to pour over the bingsu. The caramelized sugar on top is super tasty too. The Blueberry Milk Tea is light and, well, tastes like blueberries. Very good blueberry milk tea.

In our past visits, we had tried the Raspberry Bingsu, the Matcha Bingsu and its variants, the Injeolmi Bingsu, the Earl Grey Milk Tea Bingsu, the Thai Milk Tea Bingsu, the Mango Bingsu, the Strawberry Bingsu... We've had a lot of bingsu.

Some of the Matcha Bingsu variations are okay. The rest that we have tried was all pretty good. The fruit ones hit really well.

The cafe is small and cozy. The decor and the lights make the atmosphere feel chill and relaxed.

They have Korean comfort food and desserts and drinks (signature drinks, tea, milk tea, hot drinks etc). We've never ordered the hot dishes and other desserts here. We've only ordered the bingsu here... And one milk tea.

Dear and Fro is our comfort favorite Bingsu place. We always come back here. And the bingsu place here, is in a very good location, all around other cafes and restaurants. Come here for the bingsu and chill vibes. It's seriously good here... (though the sizes of the bingsu have shrunk from before the original size of the bingsu before the pandemic...). The prices are still relatively good for what you get.

The bingsu prices range from around $13 to $15, give or take. The Blueberry Milk Tea was around $6.95 give or take for a large size.

I would like to try the toast dessert the next time we come here.

They only accept cash and debit card. No credit cards allowed. So make sure to either bring cash or...

This place didn't live up to the hype for me and my YEA. It's solid but wait a bit to avoid the serious lines.

It's recently opened so exploding with popularity and long lines for the limited space with the cafe. The cafe is nicely decorated throughout with a mix of round sit-down tables and a tall long bench near towards the back.

TIP: if the cafe is full with no open tables, their unofficial policy for tables is based on the order of the customers. So squatting on a table while your group orders will not work.

There was definitely a line-up out towards the door when we arrived in the evening around 9pm-ish. It was a lively atmosphere and it was packed through and through.

The main frustration that I had with the place was that there was no clear person trying to direct traffic and clearing tables of those customers that had finished their dessert to make room for new customers who just ordered. There was a Dear Fro person trying their best to manage flow of customers but a lot of people in line, like myself, were wondering what do I do when I get my dessert and there is no place to sit because other people are just sitting at tables chatting with empty dessert bowls. Although the cafe is probably meant for people to enjoy the desserts in a relaxed atmosphere, a grand opening will pretty much blow up that idealism.

I would recommend not coming here until maybe a month or two later when surge of people subside a little bit.

Now overall, their take on shaved ice was good but nothing memorable for me. The shaved ice wasn't overly sweet which I did enjoy against some of the more sweetened versions of shaved ice. We settled for the strawberry shaved ice as a consolation because their mango shaved ice was so popular that it was sold out. The texture and mouth-feel of the little shards of shaved iced was like eating little snowflakes.

I wish we had more time to enjoy the atmosphere but we bounced after feeling the deep stares of others waiting for a seat to tuck into...

We had a group of 9 people went there yesterday around 9:30PM (we actually arrived before 9:30PM). After 10 minutes of waiting and a cashier came to tell us that they had too many orders ahead so they couldn't take ours. We were asked to wait for an extra “moment” and order later. The 9 of us then sat and waited at the table right in front of the cash counter for our turn.

We tried to order 2 more times during this ridiculously long wait time, but failed. Funnily enough, after our orders were repeatedly rejected by the same cashier for the same reason, we observed the cashier lady generously took orders from some other customers who came in later than us and keyed them into her computer system.

We questioned and complained the cashier for this. Then, what she did was simply hand wrote our orders on a piece of paper and told us they would make them soon. We paid and tipped right after.

What happened then? We waited till 11PM, yes, somehow we were still patiently waiting for our orders. It was 90 minutes since we came in, so we decided to leave. When we approached to the cashier for our refund, she then gave us 4 drinks, part of our orders, and promised to make the rest soon. We were all tired and disappointed at that moment, so we refused to wait for any longer. She retorted "but I told you already that you have to wait for a moment".

It's insane for annyone who defines 90 minutes waiting as "a moment", especially when it happens at a dessert place. The cashier refunded us the drinks we didn't receive..and we counted..the tips paid ahead for these refunded orders were missing! Classic! We argued with her for one last time and finally left with the right amount. None of us will...