Yu Cake — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

You cake. My cake. Our cake. We all cake for Yu Cake — until you realize the sweetest part of the experience ends the moment you step outside into South Coast Plaza’s passive-aggressive parking trap.

Let’s start with the good: Yu Cake’s mille crepe offerings are absolutely worth the hype. Layers so delicate they practically dissolve on the tongue. Flavors that don’t scream but softly sing. It’s a minimalist dessert bar with maximalist satisfaction. Honestly, if you’re on a date or need a dopamine boost, this place delivers in layers.

But now the bitter truth: just try sticking around after mall hours to finish your crepe in peace while topping off your EV. You’d think “closing time” means “wrap it up soon,” not “surprise police response.” South Coast Plaza’s parking enforcement treats ChargePoint like a sting op. There’s no grace period, no warning — just rent-a-cops with clipboards and attitudes, radioing Costa Mesa PD if your vehicle dares to idle past the invisible curfew. And while I wasn’t arrested (I had no warrant, nor any reason to be), I was fully aware that if I did have some unrelated infraction in the system, I’d have ended up in the back of a cruiser over a slice of cake and 6% battery.

To be clear: the store deserves five stars. The mall’s post-hours policy? One star, maybe less. Yu Cake isn’t the villain — but it’s trapped in a mall that punishes patrons for staying a moment too long.

Final note: cheesecake isn’t a cake. Fight me. It has a crust, it’s custard-based, and it’s baked. That’s a pie. A delicious...

It is their soft opening so I suppose I should cut them some slack.

I tried 5 items: 2x mille crepe cake slices: Rose Lychee : Kind of bland, smells good- not very sweet or flavorful. Mushy. Matcha : Just mushy and slightly bitter. It wasn't good in any way. I took a bite and threw away the rest because it wasn't worth the calories. 2x cheesecakes: Original Cheesecake : The best item there but not sure if it is quite worth it. The top has a creme brulee layer. The bottom(crust) was chocolatey, not graham cracker but it was good. This is the only item I'd consider getting again. Blueberry Double Cheese : Tasted "meh" not horrible but not good either. Hard to eat as the layers slide around.

Salted Cream Oreo Box : Not very salty, just tasted like a normal mid-tier chocolate mousse cake without very much richness. Watermelon Fruit Tea : Not bad but not worth the wait. Didn't come with the crystal boba (which I didn't really want anyway, but it says it should have it according to the menu).

Regarding the service, they were nice. However it was only after I paid that they told me the drink would take 20 mins- it would have been nice to know before paying. Then as I waited, people who ordered the same drink after me got their drinks first and I had to ask where my drink was.

There are some tables but a lot of the tables in the establishment aren't suitable to eat cake at (very low to the ground/knee level).

It is their soft opening though so take that...

The soft opening lines were crazy, but I went yesterday (July 27, 2024) and there wasn't a line. There's only 1 self serve kiosk available, so if there's someone ordering through there, be prepared to wait a few minutes. Once you do place an order though, the service is quick and if you order to-go, the cake is packed in a very nice and presentable box and bag.

There are some seats in the restaurant itself, which are super comfortable, and the overall atmosphere is pretty chill and well-themed. There's also seats outside the area as well as part of the mall.

I ordered the chocolate hazelnut mille crepe. You can't not compare mille crepes to the O.G. Lady M, so I was pretty disappointed with Yu Cake's take on it. For being chocolate hazelnut, I thought it would be pretty hard to mess up, but it was very bland. The top layer was chocolate with real hazelnuts, which was good, but the rest of the cake was very bland with only a whipped cream flavor. Maybe I chose the wrong flavor here, but I didn't really enjoy the cake.

The texture of the crepe layers was thicker and more rubbery/chewy than melt in your mouth, but I think it works okay in this type of cake. The cake as a whole was drier than I expected considering there's cream between each crepe layer of the cake.

For being the same price per slice for a mille crepe cake, I would much rather...