Fast Food Watch: We Try KFC's New Desserts

On a hot day, ice cream is awesome, no matter where you are. That being said, ice cream in a shopping mall KFC, the air conditioning blasting fried-chicken-smell all over you, is pretty far down on the list of where I would like to be. But KFCs are hard to avoid, and they’re offering two special ice cream sundaes (RMB 10 each), shown on the promotional posters wrapped in ribbons and tissue and looking so nice and delicious. I tried them both to see what they’re all about.

The honey chocolate sundae is pretty much what you’d expect from a fast food chocolate sundae: creamy vanilla soft serve with mercurial chocolate sauce that hardens as soon as it touches the ice cream. The variation is the honey flakes, which look like fish food, sprinkled on top. I was hoping for a little breakfast cereal crunch, but there wasn’t any of that. It seemed more like someone ate a day old croissant over your ice cream and got crumbs everywhere. Or, not exactly everywhere. The “layer upon layer” (ceng ceng) in the name isn’t very accurate; the flakes are just dumped on top so you can eat them quickly and wait for the ice cream and chocolate to melt into a kind of cheap chocolate milkshake.

Assuming you’re okay with red beans and tapioca in your dessert, this sundae is pretty alright. The syrupy floral-flavored pearls (like what you’d find in your bubble tea) aren’t too sweet and since you’re wielding a spoon and not a straw, there isn’t the danger of sucking too hard and catching one in the back of your throat. KFC is not where I would go for ice cream, but if, for some reason, you’re already in a KFC or if you’re going to die if you don’t have ice cream in the next five minutes, then I recommend giving this one a try.

Photos: Allison Reibel