A Visit to Hood Famous Cafe and Bar

This weekend I attended the Grand Opening at Hood Famous Café and Bar in Chinatown/ID. Their first location, Hood Famous Bakeshop is in Ballard. They're popular for their Filipino and Asian-Pacific desserts, especially their Ube Cheesecake. The new spot in Chinatown also serves cocktails, along with espresso, and their desserts.

I'm a Hood Famous newbie, and I'd been hearing about their mini cheesecakes for a while and they always looked amazing. I'm a big cheesecake fan, and I remember my first time trying it. When I was a young kid, we were having a big family dinner somewhere and I took my first bite of cheesecake. All of the elements of that Cherry Cheesecake blew me away, and it was love. Since then I've had cheesecake in many forms, whether it was baking it at home, tasting it at events, or ordering it for dessert when dining out.

After standing outside in line for about fifteen minutes, I made it inside. The first thing I spotted were their cheesecakes. What makes them unique at Hood Famous is the flavors. There's the bright and purple Ube Cheesecake, the White Chocolate Guava, and Coconut Pandan, and more. I couldn't pass up getting the Vietnamese Coffee one, since I love coffee cheesecake. Since my boys aren't adventurous eaters yet, I selected the simple, but classic Vanilla Bean. Along with the small cheesecakes, they had Mochi Waffles, scones, cookies, Ube cookies, and quiche to buy.  

My husband and needed an afternoon coffee fix, so we shared a Vanilla Latte with Almond Milk. The four of us were lucky to grab a table and we got some extra forks and shared the cheesecakes. They were so soft and smooth, with just the right thickness of graham cracker crust. The cheesecakes are dense, so I recommend sharing. The coffee flavor was spot on, rich and deep, blending well with the creaminess of the cheesecake. The dark chocolate curls on top were also perfect with the coffee flavor. The Vanilla Bean was also nice, having just the right amount of vanilla bean and a solid graham cracker crust.

The cheesecakes were so good, I'll have to return and try the White Chocolate Guava one. I love guava and I didn't see this one on display until I looked at my photos later. They also have an Ube Latte, a beautiful cup of coffee with the bright purple Ube on top. Welcome to the neighborhood, Hood Famous!