When I find something awesome, I just have to share it!

My dad goes to the Filipino store a lot, and often times, by the register there are Filipino-themed magazines and newspapers. He was looking through one of the local newspapers when he saw an advertisement for a new Filipino-owned bakery called Sweet City Desserts in Vienna.

Let’s go!

We decided to make our way there after a trip to nearby Whole Foods. I have to admit, it was a little hard to find – if you blink, you miss it. It is right next door to Pure Pasty (which I read as “Pure Pastry” at first), a British pasty shop. I thought to myself that it was very strange they would open a bakery near another bakery! Of course, it was PASTY restaurant, not pastry.

Sooo, I go inside Sweet City Desserts and the owner (I think) immediately gravitates towards us and offers Sansrival, Kalamansi Key Lime Pie, and the Ube Cupcakes – turns out those were pretty much the extent of the Filipino desserts. The rest were Americanized desserts like cakes, cupcakes, mousses, pies, gelatos, tarts, etc. Gone were the “traditional” Filipino desserts like leche flans, halo-halo, mamon and ensaimada.

But you know what? There is enough Filipino flavah to make it work, and the desserts are actually really, really good. The owner said there was one last sansrival left and I almost felt obligated to buy it. I also bought one ube cupcake because, well, I just couldn’t leave a “filipino bakery” without getting something made with ube (purple yam). I also tried the kalamansi key lime pie. All of this, we brought with us, to go.

After dinner that night, I expressed my excitement at these three desserts to my husband. We started with the kalamansi key lime pie. Kalamansi is one of my favorite citrus fruits, native to the Philippines. It’s a little tangy, a little sweet and like nothing you’ve ever had. It was incorporated into this mini pie but instead of key lime, it had kalamansi. Yummy! I may never order regular key lime pie again!

Then we tried sansrival, a completely Filipino dessert. It is made with layers of crunchy sweet merengue with sweet filling in between. Okay seriously, better than mom’s! Be warned though, this is not a low fat, low calorie dessert, but who cares. Everything in moderation.

My least favorite was the ube cupcake, but that’s probably because I’m not a huge fan of ube to begin with. But man, was it ever pretty to look at.

Reading reviews from yelp, I probably should have also tried their signature dish, the Vienna Crunch, but I wanted to try their Filipino-infused dishes first. I will definitely come back, if nothing more than to try the sansrival again!