Air Lab

The Verdict

Crepe cakes, brûlée cheese tarts, burnt cheesecake, milk tea parfaits and fluffy souffle pancakes. These are just some of the goodies you can expect to find at Air Lab.

The dessert shop is packed with a heavenly array of Japanese-inspired treats that are so good, you can expect a long line-up around the block on weekends (but the wait is absolutely worth it). Located on John Street, this takeaway joint calls for a “go hard or go home” mentality—that is, you should definitely be leaving with a couple of pastry boxes.

Of course, the standout on the menu is Air Lab’s deliciously silky and soft souffle pancakes. If you know anything about these iconic pillows of goodness, then you’ll know that these pancakes are extra fluffy because of all the air bubbles which hold their shape inside the pancake batter (after being beaten and folded into the rest of the custard-like batter).

The team at Air Lab whips up a mean crème brûlée-inspired riff on the souffle pancake and you can add burnt caramel sauce, soft boba and milk tea flavoured soft serve. There’s also a tiramisu flavour stack worth digging into and a White Rabbit candy souffle stack, inspired by the famous Chinese milk-based lolly.

Air Lab also churns out one hell of a Basque burnt cheesecake. If you’ve never heard of this guy, he’s basically the brother of the highly-acclaimed New York-style cheesecake. Its origins hail in from Basque Country, a region between the border of Spain and France and it’s recently been given a slight Japanese-style modification, giving the cake a forever creamy and custard-like centre.

If that’s not enough to get your heart yearning, there’s a seemingly endless supply of honeycomb coffee lattes, red velvet cheese crepe cakes and Paris-brests, a French dessert made of choux pastry and praline-flavoured cream. And look, bring back-up because you’re most definitely going to want to order everything.

Image credit: Air Lab