On Peachtree Street, right between Orange Theory Fitness and the UPS store — or rather, somewhere in between Taco Mac and Jimmy John’s — sits the recently opened Sweet Hut, a cafe-style chain that specializes in Asian bakery cuisine. While it is very true that there is also a Sweet Hut up on Buford Highway, an hour MARTA ride away, this one sits about a five-minute walk from the Midtown MARTA station. Being a frequent patron of the Sweet Hut on Buford Highway, it was exciting to learn that towards the end of last semester one had opened up on Peachtree Street and was now within walking distance from Tech Square.
Not surprisingly, the bakery was relatively full even on a Saturday afternoon, with several people sitting, chatting with friends or working on laptops at the tables on the left side of the room, as well as a few people walking around picking up baked goods on the right. Yet despite the chatter, the cafe still felt relatively quiet.
On the left wall is a saying that is also on the wall in the original Sweet Hut: “’Stressed’ spelled backwards is ‘Desserts.’ Coincidence? I think not!” The standalone quote sits on a dark brown background and fits in well with the décor of the establishment, as well as with the overall feeling of relaxation that the place exudes.
The bakery displays the name, price and major ingredients of every treat sold on little cards that hang in front of each item. However, while they serve most of the same foods as the original Sweet Hut, they are missing a handful of the pastries sold in the Buford Highway location.
Aside from the usual buns and tarts, Sweet Hut also sells bubble tea, coffee, macarons, cakes, custards and bread, as well, as burgers and sandwiches. The burgers and sandwiches range from about $8-12, which is a bit more than what the average college student’s wallet can bear, to be perfectly honest. However, the baked goods range from $1-5, so one could easily get away with paying less than $20 for a large amount of food.
As an example of the quality of food offered at Sweet Hut, the bibimbap burger is served on a brown bun with either a cucumber salad or fries. This burger itself contains a beef patty — cooked to the customer’s preference (i.e. rare, medium, medium-well, etc) — an egg and all the veggies that usually accompany bibimbap, most notably carrots and bean sprouts. The burger, albeit good, is unfortunately certainly not worth its $12 price tag.
On the other hand, the egg tarts are absolutely heavenly, though a bit inconsistent at this Sweet Hut branch. Sometimes, they are cooked to perfection, but on occasion they end up a bit overcooked and the crust becomes extra dark and almost crispy. Though, even crispy, they still taste amazing.
The “Sweet Hut Milk Tea” tastes much the same as normal milk tea, though it is certainly much better than the Panda Express bubble tea vendor that recently opened up in the Tech Student Center. Additionally, the price for the regular sized tea is on par with what one would expect bubble tea to cost.
The beauty of the tea from Sweet Hut lies in the fact that it is easily among the best bubble tea in the area and the drinks are not too sweet — because overly sweet milk tea is just too much. Also, one could add pudding in their tea as well — which is a lot better than it sounds to a person who has never had it. While the Sweet Hut milk tea tastes pretty good, their Thai tea is even better and it costs the same amount. They also have a wide variety of other teas, coffees and fruity drinks that can have pearls or pudding added to them.
Sweet Hut also has many other tasty treats, including BBQ pork buns, black pig buns, fruit tarts, macarons and delicious Nutella-filled goodies. When it comes down to it, Sweet Hut on Peachtree is an amazing bakery with some pretty good bubble tea. To top it all off, it is really close to campus and pretty cheap; all in all, a pretty sweet deal.
Our Take: 4/5