Restaurant: Cake-Ya
Cuisine: Japanese/Desserts/Bakery/Fusion
Last visited: May 26, 2010
Location: Port Moody, BC
Address: 2415 Clarke Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Japanese owned/operated
• Japanese bakery/dessert shop
• Specializes in Japanese desserts
• Most popular for creme caramel
• Creative/Fusion Japanese desserts
• Fresh, homemade
• Small selection of Asian roll cakes, tarts and cookies
• Mom and pop shop
• To go/take-away only
• Homemade mochi or Daifuku (available on occasion)
• Cash only
• Tues-Sat. 11am-6pm
• Sunday 12-5pm
• Closed Monday

**Recommendations: Matcha Creme Caramel, Black Sesame Creme Caramel, Okinawa Shortbread (Matcha cookie)

Cake-Ya is a small Japanese bakery in Port Moody specializing in homemade desserts. The are in a way “popular Western desserts”, but made with traditional Japanese ingredients and Japanese twists. If it wasn’t for the tiny location and presentation it could easily pass for a gourmet dessert you would expect to see served at a restaurant. They are very creative with their recipes and I was definitely impressed.

I would have never discovered Cake-Ya on my own since I’m never in Port Moody, but my friend was kind enough to bring me some to try. Since I’ve never been to to the actual Cake-Ya location, I cannot comment on the service or ambiance. From the photos it looks like a tiny mom and pop/hole in the wall bakery that has probably become a local favourite. It looks like one of those secret places that relies on strong word-of-mouth, which I bet is true. Everything is home made, delicate and made in small batches with a focus on good ingredients and freshness.

On the table:

**Creme Caramel - 5/6

• $2.25 (original)/$2.50 (other flavours) or $12 for 6 (original)/$13.50 for 6 (other flavours)
• Creme caramel, or they call it “cream caramel,”  is what they are most popular for.
• Fresh, homemade and available only to go.
• I’m not even a fan of creme caramel, but Cake-Ya makes creative flavours and they’re done very well!
• It’s like a  Japanese version of creme caramel and they put their own creative Asian/Japanese twists to them.
• Overall they were excellent, but certain flavours worked better than others.

• Custard Creme Caramel – 4/6
  • Original custard creme caramel $2.25
  • The white one (2nd cup from bottom up)
  • This is their original flavour. It totally reminds me of creme brulee without the burnt sugar topping… well it is creme caramel after all.
  • It’s very soft and silky smooth which I loved! It would hold in a cup much better than on a plate.
  • The caramel is actually at the bottom of the cup and it’s this syrupy brown sugar caramel. It’s not thick and sticky, but much more liquid in texture.
  • It’s slightly more eggy in flavour than say typical creme caramel and it’s also not as sweet, which are common Asian characteristics for these kinds of desserts.

• Matcha Creme Caramel – 5/6
  • $2.50
  • This was my favourite of the flavours.
  • It has a strong green tea flavour and it’s sweet, but also not overly sweet or bitter in flavour.
  • It is very expected, but still good.
  • These ones were still warm when I had them,. so they were very fresh. It tasted better warm because the flavour was stronger.
  • I would warm them up.

• Black Sesame Creme Caramel – 4.5/6
  • $2.50
  • I’m not even a fan of black sesame, so I was not expecting to like this flavour considering I wasn’t even a fan of cream caramel to start off with. However this surprised me!
  • It is actually the 2nd least sweet of the flavours I tried, but it also tasted the creamiest.
  • It’s very mild black sesame, and not bitter but still obvious. It just had a wonderful flavour.

• Milk Tea Creme Caramel - 3/6
  • $2.50
  • I thought I’d like this 2nd best after Matcha, or even the most, but I actually liked it the least. Mind you it was still good, but the flavours were a bit odd.
  • It tastes like it was made with Earl Grey Milk tea rather than Hong Kong style milk tea so it was very unexpected.
  • It tasted like there was nutmeg and vanilla in it. It was very aromatic, but for some reason the taste was off, although it sounds good. I did like it more as I ate it, but it did taste like Indian Chai tea flavour rather than milk tea flavour. It just caught me off guard because it’s supposed to be milk tea.
  • It was the least sweetest flavour.

**Okinawa Shortbread - 5.5/6

• Pack of 4 cookies $1.50
• These cookies were the highlight for me, although they are most popular for their creme caramel cups.
• This was a Japanese style shortbread cookie and it’s about the size of a hockey puck. Very affordable and worth it!
• Okinawa Shortbread – Matcha – 6/6
  • The Matcha Okinawa Shortbread was my favourite!
  • It’s very fine and tender crumbs and it’s very soft and crumbly. It’s almost like the texture of very fine soft and sandy sugar crystals that just melt in your mouth.
  • It’s quite sweet and it’s almost dry with a slightly crispy baked exterior.
  • The outside is almost like meringue and it’s even softer than one my favourite butter cookies (from Jenny Bakery).
  • The green tea flavour was from Matcha powder and it was very evident, but not overpowering. It was the best green tea cookies I’ve had to date.
• Okinawa Shortbread – Original - 2/6
  • The original cookie wasn’t even that buttery and the flavour was just very bland. It was just sugary and I didn’t like it that much.

Matcha Roll Cake – 3.5/6

• Matcha roll cake filled with fresh whipped cream and red bean paste $6.50
• This is a typical Asian log/roll cake, but the Japanese version.
• It’s one of the softest Asian roll cakes I’ve ever had though. It’s extremely moist to the point of hearing tiny bubbles pop when I cut through into it.
• I really like the matcha cake part. It’s a light sponge cake that’s moist, light and airy.
• It’s loaded with cream and it was a bit too much for me. I would rather have less cream and more cake to balance it out a bit.
• The red bean paste was very fresh and homemade, but I don’t like red bean to begin with and it was also too sweet here.
• The combination of flavours worked, but the ratio was too heavy on cream and paste that it overpowered the matcha cake part a bit.