Dolce Bakery and Cafe, Korean-Owned on Little River Turnpike and John Marr Drive in Annandale - Closed

[cheezepowder]

We went here for lunch on Saturday. It's a Korean coffee shop/café at 7137 Little River Turnpike (a little west of Il Mee and Shilla). Phone: (703) 256-1888

They have a bakery case of cakes and a table of packaged baked goods. Their menu has coffees, teas, bing soo (shaved ice dessert), ice cream, frozen yogurt which they call yogurt ice cream, spaghetti, pasta, and Japanese curry (choice of vegetable, meat, or chicken). You order at the counter, and they bring the food to you. The place has a number of tables, and I liked the plush velvet chairs.

I had the Japanese meat curry which came with rice and a maraschino cherry on top. The menu offered a choice of regular or spicy curry, but they only had spicy, which wasn't actually spicy. The curry came with chunks of potatoes, carrots, onions, and beef in a brown sauce, similar to beef stew. My husband got the vegetable version, which was the same as the meat version minus the beef. We both liked our curries. I think the curry cost around $7.95 or so. Japanese curry has a certain different flavor than I've tasted in Indian curries. You can buy packages of Japanese curry sauce at the Korean grocery store.

With the curry, they gave us a small plate of thin pickle wedges, pickled jalapenos, and two thin slices of asian pear that had been soaked in a really strong alcohol and sprinkled with hot pepper flakes. We didn't care for the asian pear because the alcohol flavor was too harsh.

I wanted to try their frozen yogurt so I ordered the plain one even though it was $9.95 (!) It turned out to be big enough for the two of us to share so the price wasn't as outrageous as it seemed considering that we spend about that much at Tangysweet, though that's for two well-topped (3 toppings) yogurts. Here, the frozen yogurt was piled high in a gravy boat with some strawberries, blueberries, a raspberry, and a blackberry. It just comes with fruit, there isn't a choice of toppings. The frozen yogurt had some tang to it, but it didn't seem as tangy or as creamy as the yogurt at Tangysweet. It satisfied my frozen yogurt craving though.

[PollyG]

Dolce & You would be a nice place to meet someone to catch up over coffee. While the coffee is relatively expensive, about $3.95, it is served with a small square of pastry, a mini madeline, and a sugar-crystal studded stirring stick. In my book, that is way better than a 1500 calorie latte extravaganza from $tarbuck$.

The spouse and I had about the same reaction to Dolce &You--"why wasn't a place like this around when we were dating?"

Special bonus: If you purchase one of their cakes to go, it comes in a sturdier-than-usual box prominently labeled "Fancy Cake" and they provide a plastic cake knife. We're easily amused.

[goodeats]

It is really pretty in here! I had an incredible craving for bingsoo, and having tried Shilla and Breeze's, I thought I would try here. Complete date night atmosphere--highly recommend for those who are keen on intimate, cosy, warm color type of places.

Bingsoo can be to-go! I didn't want to be a solo diner tonight, so I took one green tea bingsoo home (rice powder, condensed milk, fruit, green tea ice cream, shaved ice). It was a bit steep at $8.50 pre-tax compared to the other two bakeries, but I really enjoyed this rendition. It was a nice way to ending my shopping excursion at the new Goodwill store behind Jukebox Diner.

I would be happy to try their cakes or off the menu one night.