The Sweet Side of Seattle Southside

Satisfy your Sweet Tooth in Seattle Southside

Some like them cold, some like them hot, but dessert will always hit the spot!

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.

Thanks to the rich cultural diversity of Seattle Southside, you can find sweets from across the globe. From Mexican-style ice cream to Filipino halo halo to Japanese mochi donuts and much more, you can take yourself on the sweetest culinary adventure.

Chill Out

Sip Your Sweets

Baked With Love

Sweet as Candy

(More Than) Just Desserts

Chill Out

There's nothing like cooling off with a sweet, cold treat.

Kakigori Dessert Cafe in Tukwila elevates their Korean-style shaved ice (called bingsoo) to another level with unique flavors and decorations, like cute (and fully edible!) frozen animals that top their treats. If you'd rather get something warm, try a dessert waffle topped with goodies.

SomiSomi in Westfield Southcenter offers soft serve ice cream in a delicious fish-shaped waffle cone (called ah-boong in Korean).

Sweet D'licias in Des Moines specializes in nieves de garrafa, a Mexican sorbet, and raspados, or shaved ice.

Max's Restaurant is famous for its halo halo, a many-layered dessert from the Philippines that features ice cream, shaved ice, fruit jelly, pudding, and other toppings.

For a quick-service experience in Westfield Southcenter Mall, Jollibee's and ChowKing Chinese also offer halo halo.

Thai Tea Shaved Ice from Kakigori

Ube and Vanilla Swirl from SomiSomi

Halo Halo from Max’s Restaurant in Tukwila

Max's Restaurant

Sip Your Sweets

Some of the sweetest things in life come through a straw! Boba tea may have originated in Taiwan, but it's exploded in Seattle Southside (we even have a Bubble Tea Trail!). A variety of sweet tea, fruit, and coffee-based beverages are combined with add-ins like tapioca pearls, fruit jellies, and pudding to create satisfying textures and flavors. TeaCup in Des Moines offers a Vietnamese take on the boba classics (try the fresh-whisked matcha!) Natalie's Sugar Cane and Desserts (located in The Eatery at Lam's Seafood) has a fresh sugar cane juicer right in front, so you can watch the show of sugar canes being pressed while you wait for your order.

Of course, you can't talk about the PNW without mentioning coffee. But there's a lot more to try than just frappes from famous chains that started in Seattle. Drip & Sip is a cute little corner cafe in Tukwila that specializes in Vietnamese iced coffee, a super strong coffee with sweetened condensed milk. The house specialty, Salted Coffee, is topped with a salty-sweet milk foam that's the perfect complement to the sweetness of the coffee.

Baked With Love

At Taiwan-based 85°C in Tukwila, choose from dozens of milk buns, puff pastries, and more. Everything is packaged, making it super quick and easy to take stuff to go.

Looking for classic Mexican pastries? Look no further than Las Delicias Panaderia Y Antojitos in SeaTac, where the conchas are pillowy and delicious, churros are plentiful, and treats are served fresh from the oven.

At Zain Restaurant & Bakery Cafe in Tukwila, you can find fresh baked goods made by an in-house pastry chef. Don't miss the light-as-air puff pastries, fluffy slices of coffee or coconut cake, or rich pistachio baklava. At the adjoining Tawakal Mini Market, you can pick up boxes of assorted treats such as a caramelized peanut bar and butter cookies made in traditional Somali style. They're just faintly sweet, making them a great snack with coffee or tea.

There are also two of the best mochi donut places in Seattle Southside - Dochi in The Eatery at Lam's Seafood and Mochinut located in Westfield Southcenter Mall. Mochi donuts combine the fried deliciousness of a donut with the soft, chewy texture of mochi, plus they're cute, colorful, and perfectly photogenic.

Red Ribbon Bakery in Westfield Southcenter Mall specializes in Filipino flavors, like their amazing Ube Overload cake, which is naturally tinted a deep purple from the color of the ube root, a sort of cousin to the sweet potato. Also in the mall is Boo Macaron Bar, where you can find this delectable French treat in every color of the rainbow.

Treat Cookies in Burien (located right next to the Highline Heritage Museum) has insanely good, chewy cookies in both classic varieties and fun, seasonal flavors like root beer float and peach pie. They typically have vegan and gluten-free options as well.

Fresh Baked Goods at Zain Restaurant & Bakery Café

Zain Restaurant &…

Mochi Donuts from Dochi

Dochi Donuts

Pastries from 85°C Bakery

85C Bakery & Cafe

Ube Overload Cake from Red Ribbon Bakery

Treat Cookies

Sweet as Candy

Of course, no list for sweet enthusiasts could be complete without talking about candy. The big name in confections here in Seattle Southside is Seattle Chocolate, our very own local chocolate factory, where jcoco and Maeve Chocolates are manufactured. You can go for a tour, a tasting, or just swing by their showroom to pick up sweet souvenirs. Want a sweet secret? On Saturdays, the factory sells their "seconds" - that is, candy bars and truffles that taste just as sweet, but aren't pretty enough to sell for full price, so you can stock up on your favorite flavors and save money!

If you want a wide variety of candy, Lolli and Pops in Westfield Southcenter Mall offers everything from chocolate to gummies to cotton candy and more. Their broad selection of fine confections and adorable pastel decor are sure to sweeten your day. Also located in the mall is Pacific Northwest chain Candy Tyme, where buying in bulk is the name of the game.

(More Than) Just Desserts

Of course, we can't leave out the restaurants that have fantastic desserts on their menus. Copperleaf Restaurant at the Cedarbrook Lodge has a seasonally changing menu, with an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients, so their menu is constantly changing. One thing that never changes? Their desserts (and dessert cocktails!) are always fantastic. Expect seasonal fruits to make an appearance on the menu, as well as at least one chocolate-rich item. Auntie Irene's in Des Moines has all manner of baked goods on their menu, but their Donuts in a Cup and Cake Pops are special standouts.

Chontong Thai has a sweet take on the spring roll with their Banana Roll, in addition to more traditional Thai desserts like sticky rice with mango. At 13 Coins, the entire dessert menu is a treat, but their rich, moist carrot cake is an exceptional standout. After filling up on smoked meats at Sharps RoastHouse, indulge in a slice of s'mores-inspired Campfire Rocky Road Pie for all the tastes of a marshmallow roast with none of the mosquito bites.

And of course we can't mention desserts in the Pacific Northwest without featuring a cherry pie. Tuscany at Des Moines has exceptional pies of all flavors, with a perfectly buttery crust that will leave you saying that this is pie heaven.