[REVIEW] Chicco Cafe

Chicco cafe is located in the West End of Robson St.
It is after the intersection of Robson St and Nicola St.
The time it takes to walk from Vancouver City Centre skytrain station to Chicco is about 15-20 minutes (estimated) but in the end Maiko and I jumped onto the #5 bus.

Chicco cafe only accepts cash.


Ambiance: Chicco cafe is a tiny shop with 4 small tables and 1 large table. It's a nice place to sit down to have a coffee ( or parfait) and chat with a friend. Most people come in to eat a parfait and leave. Others sit and chat over a parfait like Maiko and I.

Interior of Chicco cafe

Service: There were only 2 girls when we were there. Our drinks were ready in 2 minutes, our parfaits took around 3 minutes.


Food: It was very windy that day so we ordered a hot drink before we start on the parfait. I got a small mocha ($3.75), while Maiko got a small caramel macchiato ($3.75).

Left: Caramel Macchiato
Right: Mocha

Both drinks were very light. My mocha has a light roast coffee flavor to it, with a subtle hint of chocolate. It doesn't taste heavily of chocolate, like the mocha at Blenz coffee.

Chicco cafe's menu boards

After we've been warmed up, we went to order our parfait. I got the mango parfait, Maiko got the green tea parfait. Parfaits are $7.75 each.

The mango parfait consists of:

• a crispy pastry stick?- it's sweet and slightly salty
• mango syrup- not overly sweet (^^)b
• a slice of strawberry
• a strawberry macaron
• I've had some bad experiences with macarons, or maybe I just don't like them but this one is the best one I've had
• a cube of mango mousse
• very light and airy, relatively bland compared to the ice cream
• mango ice cream
• I tasted the ice cream first, then took a bite of the mousse. I find that grabbing a chunk of mousse, then the mango ice cream helps with getting more of the mango flavor
• strawberry jelly
• whipped cream
• this is the disappointing part. The parfait was 1/4 whipped cream with only 2 tiny balls of ice cream
• corn flakes
• the salty kind, not like the sugary Frosted Flakes
• raspberry sorbet (?)
• Maiko and I have been pondering whether it could be strawberry or raspberry. I think the taste is off if it was suppose to be strawberry flavor
• diced vanilla sponge cake
• super spongy and airy and soft! Too bad by the time I got to the bottom I don't have any ice cream/whipped cream to serve it with

Chicco cafe's mango parfait

The green tea parfait contains:

• green tea flavored pastry
• anmitsu (sweet red bean)
• green tea mousse
• green tea ice cream
• I really like this ice cream. It has the aftertaste bitterness of green tea  
• mochi
• whipped cream
• green tea jelly
• corn flakes
• vanilla ice cream
• diced vanilla sponge cake

Chicco cafe's green tea parfait

Overall

AMBIANCE: (4/5) It's a quiet cafe, perfect for chatting with friends over a parfait or coffee. The downside is that seats are very limited and the furniture doesn't really fit the image of 'Chicco Cafe' that I thought it would be.

SERVICE: (5/5) service is excellent. I got my drink and parfait very quickly.

FOOD: (3/5) the ice cream are great (in the parfait), but there's only 2 tiny scoops in the whole parfait. Most of the cup was filled up with whipped cream and corn flakes- that was quite disappointing to me. The mocha is reasonably pleasant if you enjoy a lighter flavor, compared to other major coffee franchise.

VALUE: (3/5) I think the mocha is reasonably priced, but still a tad bit expensive. The parfait was definitely not worth it in my opinion. Half of the cup was filled with whipped cream and corn flakes (and air, because of the corn flakes).

Will I go to Chicco again? I won't go back for parfait, BUT I am willing to purchase their macarons- which I really like. They also sell cakes and cookies, which I haven't tried.