MANILA, Philippines – If you’re looking to satisfy your sweet tooth but want to watch your diet, try heading over to The Dessert Kitchen, one of the newest restaurants in Manila.

The Dessert Kitchen is a franchise from Hong Kong and serves light Asian desserts – their menu promises low-fat sweets with ingredients like matcha, fresh fruits, seaweed balls, and kanten.

This may be their first branch in the Philippines, but The Dessert Kitchen has reached international shores too, with 20 branches worldwide, including one in New York.

In Manila, the restaurant can be found on the 3rd floor of Power Plant Mall at Rockwell and has bright, fresh interiors, with its open kitchen, wire lanterns, and murals.

They even have a wall of greens that many were using as a backdrop for their sundae and parfait photos when we dropped by the VIP opening on Tuesday, February 2.

While some people at the opening were also ordering regular cones of ice cream at The Dessert Kitchen, the standouts are definitely the dishes on their extensive menu that are new to the Filipino palate.

Here’s what we tried on The Dessert Kitchen’s menu on February 2:

Purple in Love (P258)

The Dessert Kitchen boasts that this is their bestseller, and we can see why. This grape-flavored dessert is fresh, and the Kyoho grape seaweed balls piled on top of grape shaved ice is an interesting new texture. It’s topped with mini rice balls, grapes, and taro mochi ice cream.

Ujikintoki Japanese style (P258)

Another bestseller this ujikintoki (green tea shaved ice) takes advantage of a classic combo – green tea and red bean. The Dessert Kitchen’s ujikintoki is topped with red bean, mini rice balls, and red bean vanilla ice cream.

Romantic Valentine parfait (P258)

The Dessert Kitchen is serving up more familiar dishes too, like like parfaits and sundaes. Their Romantic Valentine parfait is topped with corn flakes, strawberries, peanuts, pistachio crust for a sweet, pink dessert, perfect for sharing (or to have all on your own) on February 14.

Black Temptation parfait (P188)

When it comes to dessert, you can’t go wrong with chocolate. The Dessert Kitchen’s Black Temptation parfait is a tall glass of cocoa crisps, oreos, and chocolate pearls.

Cocoa Kiss sundae (P168)

If you’re craving something chocolate but packs more of a punch, the Cocoa Kiss sundae’s coffee jelly is perfect for topping your meal off with a bittersweet finish. The sundae has chocolate ice cream, cocoa crisps, a banana, chocolate pearls, and vanilla ice cream.

The Joy of Party sundae (P168)

The Joy of Party sundae is aptly named, as it tastes like a celebration. The seaweed grape balls – the same ones in the Purple in Love – burst in the mouth, while the cranberry rum ice cream has a distinct alcohol taste. For added texture, The Joy of Party’s is topped with cornflakes and nata de coco.

Green tea milk sauce kanten (P198)

The kanten is one of The Dessert Kitchen’s more exotic dishes, at least to the Filipino palate. The concept is similar to that of Japanese soba dishes, but instead of buckwheat, gelatinous noodles are dipped into a sauce of your choice. We tried the green tea milk sauce on February 2, but ther sauce flavors include peach, kyoho, honey, and brown sugar.

Coffee pudding (P128)

The Dessert Kitchen has a lot of pudding options, with toppings like mango and caramel. The coffee pudding is the restaurant’s version of a coffee jelly dessert without the ice cream.

Durian banana serradura (P198)

If you love durian, you’ll love this. The durian banana serradura (tea biscuit pudding) may be topped with many other fruits, but it tastes just like durian. If durian isn’t your cup of tea, The Dessert Kitchen offers other flavors of serradura too, like mango, green tea, and strawberry.

Japadog eggette (P258)

One of the few savory dishes on The Dessert Kitchen’s menu is their Japadog eggette – a hotdog topped with caramelized onions, seaweed, and teriyaki mayonnaise, all wrapped in a lightly flavored garlic egg waffle. You can choose to eat it on its own, or with the honey mustard provided on the side.

Aside from their flagship branch at Power Plant Mall, which opens to the public on February 4, The Dessert Kitchen is looking to set up shop in other places in the city too.

In the meantime, will you head over to their first Manila branch to try their dishes? Which of the desserts mentioned above are you most interested in? Let us know in the comments! – Rappler.com