A La Mousse — Restaurant in Philadelphia

We had pre-ordered a cake for our mom's birthday on Wednesday and scheduled for it to be picked up on Sunday of that week at 1pm. On Sunday at 1pm we arrive to pick up the cake and the woman at the counter informed us the cake will be ready in 15-20 minutes. 30 minutes go by and still no cake. At this point we are getting irate because we had guests who were waiting for us, and most importantly, the guest of honor - our mom. We asked the status of the cake and the woman at the counter said that they are training 2 new employees, who are "slow" at decorating the cake. We mentioned that the cake is for a birthday, to which she replied by asking what time the party is starting and we told them that it had already begun. She then reiterated that the new employees are still decorating the cake and proceeded to rhetorically ask, "You don't want the cake to be decorated ugly, do you?" First of all, they chose the wrong day and the wrong order to train new employees on. What is the point of pre-ordering ahead of time and scheduling a pick-up time if the product would not be available on time? Second, it is not our problem that you are training new employees. The fact of the matter is that we pre-ordered and paid for a product for a scheduled time and it is unprofessional that they did not commit to that time. Additionally, at the time the order was placed, the person taking the order informed us that they will text us when the order will be ready for pickup. However, no text or update was ever received. When this was brought up to the manager (whom we recognized to be the person who took our order), she informed us that they don’t text their customers and only call the customer if the customer is late to pick up the cake. Anyhoo, after taking their sweet time "decorating" the cake, the result is pretty damn sloppy. Just look at that god-awful writing. Note to management: Perhaps consider having your trainees practice on a piece of parchment rather than a special order for a special occasion. Lastly, when it came time to finally cut the cake, the cake was hard as a brick -...

My go-to dessert place in Chinatown. SO adorable, and matcha galore!!

Atmosphere: Very cozy, but can get a bit crowded at popular times (Fri/Sat evenings). As a heads up, it might be hard to come by seating at those times, and can get a bit too loud. Otherwise, I love the space - great for relatively small groups (less than 4-5).

Food: I have loved everything that I've had here, including their cute pastries (bears, teapots, ice cream), and drinks (love their rose milk teas!). I could just stare at their assortment of pastries for days. So visually aesthetic! Their menu actually changes as well - for example, their new lava cake will incorporate raspberry instead of the matcha filling they had before. I seriously just want to eat EVERYTHING off their dessert menu - all look so so delicious and simply beautiful.

Recommended Must-Try: Their lava cake with matcha cream was incredible, though it takes around 25-30 minutes to prepare. Filled with such warm and creamy chocolate, though I think it slightly overpowers the taste of matcha cream. The cake itself was not very sweet, which was a good balance to the sweet chocolate inside. And topped off with green tea ice cream? Perfect. I just wish the portion sizes were larger (and that my stomach had more room!).

Overall: 5/5 - I will definitely be coming back - so perfect to catch up with friends, or to go on a date in a nice cozy atmosphere. The only downside is that the desserts are a bit on the pricier end (think generally $8), but as such a delicious and adorable treat, I...

I recently made my first trip downtown since the pandemic first brought lockdowns to our area. I'm someone who's never been good with crowds but ever since covid, I've truly been afraid of them. I only got on the (overly crowded) train in the first place because I got a summons to report for jury duty. The whole trip was basically one big panic attack for me - but of course, that's not what this is about.

For as miserable as the rest of my day was, the shining beacon at the end of it all was A La Mousse. I don't have words strong enough to convey incredibly glad to see it was still around and still exactly how I remembered it.

It's a small storefront but it has such a nice cozy environment. Just walking in the door brought back memories of all the times friends and I had stopped in to sit and dine on their delicious treats in the past. This time around, though, I had a train coming soon, so I had to make my order to-go unfortunately. The cake was still wonderful, though.

I've never had a single item from A La Mousse that was anything short of perfection. I only got a slice of cake this time but I remember their drinks being amazing too. This was the first place I ever had an americano and the fact that I can actually remember such a random factoid is quite telling about how good it was.

If I can figure out a day/time to go downtown when the train cars aren't packed like sardine tins, I hope to go back to A La Mousse...