ATUM desserant

Walked in on a Friday night with my cousin. No reservation but luckily, someone canceled and we were able to sit in! We waited only 5 minutes and got seated. So happy. The desserts was basically free drawn by the desserts chef with some kind of liquid frozen sorbet/​gelato. The price was kind of high but I get it for it being in Causeway Bay. Worth a try!

Side note: 200^th review! Yay to myself lol
Like to play with your food? Does interactive dessert sound interesting to you? If yes, ATUM Desserant is the place to be! Although they also have regular desserts, ATUM is mainly know for their ‘Improvisation’ sets. I’ve only tried their Improvisation set so its what this review is based off of!
Their Improvisation sets should be different every time you try it. You basically get paired with an ‘artist’, and they make a creation for you based on your choices and preferences. You can even ask them to draw specific things or leave the design completely up to them. You may also make any special requests. Seemingly, it was everybody’s birthday the night I went, since everyone’s finished product said ‘Happy Birthday’ on it!
You start by choosing the canvas; you get to choose white, black, or grey. I suggest looking at photos others have posted to get an idea of what you want. But anyway, we asked the artist which one would look better in photos, and she suggested the White canvas. After that you get a welcome shot. I believe it was some kind of juice in the shots. The artist then lets you choose some flavors, and they begin drawing. Ingredients used in the making includes cream, jelly, cookies, pudding, nitrogen sorbet, some fruits, and dried fruits.
I don’t recall exactly how long, but the drawing process took maybe an hour or so. When its done, you take some photos and eat! The dessert looks great when its done, but sadly tastes pretty ordinary. In a way, its actually deconstructed dessert. You get all the typical dessert ingredients but separate from each other.
If you look at it from a dessert aspect, ATUM’s Improvisation sets are quite pricey. But you are also getting an interactive show along the way that’s quite fun to watch. Along with the Instagram-​worthy pic opportunities, it makes the set worthy to try at least once.
Improvisation sets are only available at the limited bar seats along the counter. There are also a couple of sofas on the side for either people waiting, or people that want regular desserts. For those wanting to come for their Improvisation sets, I highly suggest making a reservation! I made a RSVP for a Tuesday night about two months in advance and there were already five people ahead of me! As for the service, it was nothing less than spectacular. According to the workers, ATUM has been open since July 2014, but they seem to be getting more and more popular lately.

ATUM attracted a lot of eyeballs when it first opened. The concept is fun, and the creations are colorful and appeasing to the eyes. I don’t think there is any other place like it in Hong Kong, yet. I definitely «liked» a lot of posts on my Instagram feed before coming here myself. Yet, I have been warned it’s one of those places where once is enough.
The «Improvisation» reminds me a lot of Pollock’s paintings. Because we were seated in the corner and there were a few machines in between us and our server, we were «invited» to participate in our creation. We were a little disappointed the managers did not handle our order but our server is sweet and fun so it was alright.
The whole «drawing» process took almost an hour. We were given a handful of dried fruit to nibble along the way, which tasted just like space food I got from NASA. Because of the lack of counter space, we were only provided with our teas after the dessert was completed. The ingredients are actually very simple: a few dallops of syrup, a handful of dried and fresh fruits, a few cubes of mocha and jello, a few spoonful of chocolate pudding, and a few broken pieces of crackers and a big piece of sorbet made with liquid nitrogen — walla~ «Thank you very much, your order came out to be HK$ 4xx.».
I guess it’s not too bad for 3 people if you look at it as if you just went to a relaxing drawing class. I’d admit I had a lot of fun taking pictures of our creation but honestly, would I return for the food? The answer is unfortunately a «hell no». This is a place to impress and have fun but the food left a lot to be desired. This old Chinese saying just looped in my mind: 見面不如聞名.
Reservations are essential if you want to sit at the counter (to order Improvisation).

Small place with around 12 «bar» seats and a few more comfy tables at the side. But the beautiful desserts drawn on the canvas are only available if you sit at the bar seats, because they have to draw it in front of you. So a few things:
— Wonderful service, the staff are friendly and flexible. They will accommodate special requests unless they don’t know how to draw it.
— the experience can be quite interactive. If you seem interested enough, the staff will offer you a chance to play with the canvas. Of course, you bear the consequences of a fugly dessert
— Is a relatively good deal. The last time I had something similar was at Mandarin grill, and while I don’t remember the price of the dessert, the entire meal was Hkd 2000. I found the quality similar. So if you just want the dessert, Atum won’t break your bank.
— Like I mentioned, cosy and limited seats + dessert. For us guys, read: Date place.
Finally, for me the taste was just so so. Perhaps I’m not a big dessert fan, but scraping dessert off a canvas isn’t as tasty as a structured dessert where the ingredients have more interaction with each other. But here, the emphasis is the experience I guess, and for me, it was a good experience overall. For the girls, even more so.
Only minor thing, there is only one shared washroom, which isn’t that clean and was clogged the time I visited. Not that consistent with the image of a quaint little dessert restaurant :/

Creative and fun to watch dessert. But except the presentation, the dessert itself taste so-​so. Can give it a try for special occasion.