Aoyama Lab, Where Sweets are Served in Petri Dishes

Tracy Wang, Senior Editor | Jul 30, 2018 4:00 pm | Add a comment | 2827 reads

Let’s be clear, the newly opened Aoyama Lab is not a hospital inpatient unit even though it may look like one. Puke-green walls? Check. Shelves stacked with microscopes? Yep. Staff dressed in white lab coats? Uh-huh. It’s enough to make you feel like someone might whisk you away at any moment to perform surgery rather than serve you Japanese-style desserts.

Thankfully, once you have settled in and sampled the quality sweets on offer, any initial dread gives way to the realization that this quirky dessert shop is cutesy over cut-y. Marble tables, mint green sofas, golden metal chairs, and even pale pink blankets fill the space for a sleek décor reminiscent of the team’s first venture, He Cong He Chu Lai. That initial venue opened at Sanlitun Beilu to an almost instant fanbase, before relocating to Courtyard 4, where it remains. Cash-strapped sugar-fiends will be happy to hear that this new shop is significantly cheaper, amounting to around RMB 75 per person instead of RMB 140. Sadly, that reduction comes at a price.

The menu features a handful of cream filled choux pastries (all at RMB 42), Aoyama rolls (the Japanese equivalent of a Swiss roll, RMB 38), and two kinds of mille crepe (RMB 78). The Thai tea choux (RMB 42) was less successful as a dessert than it was at being eye candy, in part because the gimmick of a glass petri dish plate got the better of it. Despite the choux being covered with a crimson layer of Thai black tea-tinged whipped cream, it proved extremely dry and left us to signaling a nearby nurse for water. Meanwhile, the salty cheese Aoyama roll (RMB 38), despite featuring a lush cream cheese and whipped cream filling, was not fluffy enough to counteract its delightfully dense insides.

As for the drinks, The Dance in Austral (RMB 32) is a ruby-brown and subtly sugary milk tea served in a glass bottle with moreishly chewy bubbles. However, the Just a Moment rooibos grape tea proved to be an odd marriage that, like most unpromising matrimonies, failed. That’s because its overly sweet and fruity grape flavor masked the rooibos notes entirely and half was left to be disposed of properly. All in all, the desserts at Aoyama strike a decidedly middling note and the hospital-esque atmosphere is a theatrical device that we’d rather not encounter again until the time comes, ideally having binged on wholesome cake.

Aoyama Lab
Daily 10am-10pm. SLG38-2, B1, Sanlitun Taikooli South, Chaoyang District (5718 0155)
青山研究所：朝阳区三里屯南区地下一层SLG38-2