I Took My Dog On A Dessert Crawl Of NYC And This Is What I Learned

I do have a separate dessert stomach, but it, too, has limits.

Hi! My name is Jade, and this is my dog, Matcha.

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I named her after my favorite ice cream, and as you can see, it's also her favorite ice cream - though, arguably, both of us just really like ice cream. We're lucky enough to live in NYC, where matcha is abundant, and ice cream even more so. Matcha has an Instagram account where she reviews NYC foodie spots, and our weekends are spent collecting material for the 'gram.

The Idea

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We were scheduled to "takeover" the Instagram account for @wethedogsnyc on May 3 and I had been trying to plan what we would do that day. Maybe my blood sugar was feeling a little bit low, or maybe I just wanted make a small dent in my NYC #dessertgoals bucket list, but I decided that it would be a fun idea to take Matcha on a "matcha dessert crawl" of NYC. I texted a few friends to see what they thought and the unanimous response was "No, you're crazy."

So yeah, I was doing it.

The Plan

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One of the hardest parts of this entire experience was narrowing down the places I would go. A Google-search of "matcha desserts NYC" yielded 1,320,000 results. I had faith in my stomach, but I only banked one vacation day for this, and my budget was $150. I would have to be a little more selective. I solicited recommendations for NYC's best dessert spots from all my foodie friends, I slid into the DMs of my favorite Instagram food influencers, and I Instagram-stalked the hashtag #matchanyc. Soon, I had a list of fifteen.

The next two weeks were filled with frantic DMs, emails, and phone calls to the spots I'd chosen, making sure that they were dog-friendly. Some places enthusiastically welcomed us. Some places I had to take off the list because they weren't pet-friendly. Some never responded, so I just figured I would just show up, fur baby in tow, and ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

At the end of it all, I had a plan. We would start at Bibble & Sip uptown and make our way downtown, ending 8 hours later, and 10 pounds heavier at Alimama in Chinatown. It was 2 hours and 2 minutes of walking, which is exactly 1 hour and 13 minutes longer than my sweet baby goldendoodle had ever walked in her life. But I had faith that the sugar high would see us through.

The Morning Of

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I stopped eating the night before at 5 pm, to prepare myself for the onslaught I knew was coming. Matcha woke me up at 6:30 (as usual) because she needed to go outside. After going to the bathroom, she immediately ran home and stood next to her food bowl. Her eyes screamed, "I'm hungry". Oh sweet child...

I put on my matcha/Matcha fan club shirt - a t-shirt from Holy Matcha in San Diego that says "You, Me, Matcha", and we were out the door.

First Stop: Bibble & Sip

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When I asked around for good matcha desserts in NYC, almost everyone recommended Bibble & Sip. They have bubble tea, assorted pastries, and macarons - but they are really known for their cream puffs. Matcha's Instagram handle is @matcha_creampuff, so there was really only one thing to order.

Next: Bird & Branch

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This was recommended to me by one of our Instagram pals. I'd never heard of it before, but it turned out to be an adorable little coffee shop that serves matcha, matcha lattes, and matcha affogatos - which is just fancy name for matcha floats. Obviously we ordered the affogato. Though delicious, this was a choice that would come back to bite us.

More Ice Cream: Besfren

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At this point I was fading. One of Matcha's dog friends met up with us and his mom looked at me and asked, "How're you doing? Still eating? You're almost done, right?" Yoooooo, define "done".....

A Classic: Spot Dessert Bar

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Of all the places on my list, Spot was the only one I'd been to. Famous for their matcha lava cake, it was one of the first matcha desserts I had when I moved to NYC. We had originally planned to walk, but Spot was a 30-something minute walk away from Besfren, and I felt like I was going to die, so we hopped on the train and hobbled to the St. Mark's institution. Not gonna lie, we snapped this photo, and took the entire thing to-go.

Over the halfway point! Van Leeuwen Ice Cream

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Doggy bag (lol) in hand, we made our way to Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, which was featuring a special vegan matcha flavor collaboration with Matchabar. One of our Instagram foodie friends met up with us there and helped eat some of the ice cream, which was a good thing because as delicious as it was, my body was not ready.

Brief Intermission: Chalait

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At this point, Matcha looked like she was about to pass tf out, and I was feeling the same, so we called ourselves an Uber for the 10 minute ride there. Luckily for us, we were ahead of schedule, and the manager at Chalait had confirmed that they were very dog-friendly, so Matcha and I ordered a blissfully unsweetened matcha almond-cashew milk latte and went into a mild food coma.

Reinforcements are here! Sweet Gloria

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At this point, people were finally starting to get out of work, and reinforcements were on their way. My friend met up with us at Chalait, bought me a can of wine, and walked me and Matcha (wine in hand) to our next stop. The ice cream at Sweet Gloria was probably the prettiest ice cream I've ever seen and it was delightfully light. Matcha's Frenchie pal met up with us and he clearly enjoyed it too! Win.

But wait, there's more: Sweet Moment

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The nice thing about Chinatown is that all the spots are 5-10 minutes away from each other. We only had to walk about 5 minutes down the street to get to our next stop. We ordered the matcha-strawberry waffle, which had looked so good on the online menu the day before, but at that point, we were the definition of diminishing marginal returns. My friend, who's allergic to strawberries, ate the waffle (minus the strawberries!)

So close we can taste it: Alimama

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As a runner, I can honestly say that walking up to Alimama was comparable to passing the twelve-mile marker in a half-marathon. Your body is failing, your limbs are weak, but you're so close to the finish line, the will to finish gives you a second wind. We ordered the matcha cream puffs, matcha mochi donuts and the matcha mochi donut holes (say that five times fast!) Thankfully, one of Matcha's hungry dog friends and one of my hungry human friends came to help. Can you tell they really liked the cream puff?

The Finish Line!

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The sugar high lasted about 30 minutes. This photo was taken right after we finished - eyes bright, smiles wide, matcha all over our faces. We could nap later - for now, we celebrate.

What I learned:

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Matcha slept the whole train ride home. I sat in my seat, arms around my sleeping baby girl, contemplating what we'd just accomplished. All in all, I learned three things from this experience. One: my stomach is not as strong as I profess it to be. Two: rather than fasting the night before, and not eating anything except sweets all day, I should eat normally the day before, and cut the sugar and cream with some salt - maybe a few potato chips between locations. And three: even though I wanted to die the entire time, I would absolutely do it again.

Have you ever done a dessert crawl? Did you survive? Post your experiences, tips, and comments below!