Kowloon Tong Dessert Cafe

"Kowloon Tong has everything you need for a late-night meal: fried food and desserts. The Hong Kong-style cafe in the Richmond stays open until midnight daily serving a long list of crunchy-coated fowl and seafood. Order the popcorn chicken extra spicy, curry fishballs, and salt and hot pepper squid, as well as some of the otherwise hard-to-find Hong Kong desserts. We like to keep the fried streak going with crispy thick-cut toast with condensed milk and peanut butter. For something slightly less heavy, you could always get a bowl of black sesame tong yuen or the grass jelly with grapefruit and mango purees." - julia chen 1, lani conway, ricky rodriguez, patrick wong

"Kowloon Tong in the Richmond has two things going for them: They’re open until midnight daily, and they serve an extensive list of hard-to-find Hong Kong-style desserts like tong yuen, tofu fa, and grass jelly—and they’re all delicious. Tong yuen are stretchy and chewy, tofu fa is custardy and served with a just-sweet-enough ginger syrup, and the grass jelly is firm and stands up to mounds of fresh fruits and ice cream. Crowds form after dinner every night. If you can’t bear a potential hour-long wait, order online and scurry in to grab your desserts before running home and back into your sweats." - julia chen 1, patrick wong, ricky rodriguez

"Kowloon Tong has two things going for it: the Hong Kong-style cafe is open until midnight every day, and there's an extensive list of hard-to-find desserts. Solid savory dishes—curry fishballs, salted egg yolk fries, and deep-fried chicken wings—certainly get the job done after 9pm, even if they won't have you racing into the kitchen to personally thank the chefs. But we prefer coming to this Richmond cafe after dinner with a group and divvying up Hong Kong staples like tong yuen, tofu fa, sweet sticky rice, and grass jelly, all of which are rare in the city. The glutinous rice balls are stretchy, chewy, and filled with black sesame, peanuts, or red bean, and the tofu fa is custardy and served with a just-sweet-enough ginger syrup. Order both. There’s plenty of seating inside where you can go to town, though if you can’t bear a potential hour-long wait, order online and take your dessert home." - Patrick Wong