Sweet Dreams Bakery & Bubble Tea

I've become a regular customer for bubble tea here. Love the options of zero sugar and less ice!!
The place is usually crowded, but they are quick with the bubble tea orders and the bakery orders.
Only the kitchen items take some time.
Bubble tea: 5/5
Bakery items: 5/5
Kitchen items: 3/5

I drove to Franklin from Nashville upon a friend’s recommendation to try Sweet Dream’s boba tea.

Their Thai tea was solid and strong, one of the best — however, the boba was not sweetened at all. In fact, it tasted like it was steeped in tea overnight, and gave a slight bitter taste. It was constantly messing with my overall palette and the awesome taste of Thai tea. The texture of boba was good and soft, just how I like it. I just wish they slightly sweetened the boba.

I got the classic milk tea (bubble tea) and it was delicious!! It’s conveniently located in Cool Springs! It’s hard to find the best bubble tea, and this place is it for me when I’m in town visiting family. I order more ice and more sugar than I typically do and would suggest this strategy.

I drove from Memphis to Nashville for a doctor's appointment and took that opportunity while in town to come to Sweet Dreams Bakery. I also visited Five Daughters Bakery for their 100 later donuts.

I really like egg tarts but there aren't many places in Memphis to get them and nowhere that sells a Portuguese egg tart.

I ordered six Portuguese egg tarts that the owner at Sweet Dreams Bakery was kind enough to freeze so that I could take them home in an iced cooler and bake them fresh in the oven. I also ordered one of their moon cakes and one egg tart. I would have ordered one of their other fruit tarts but they didn't have any when I stopped by in the afternoon.

The Portuguese egg tart and moon cake were each a day old when I ate them. I stored them in the fridge overnight and drove home the next day.

The moon cake was delicious. I never had one before so I don't know what other moon cakes taste like but the one that I got from them I would definitely get again. The crust was flaky and the inside of the moon cake had a red bean paste that was really smooth, had a clean flavor, and wasn't too sweet.

The egg tart is what I remember the most though. It's different from the Hong Kong egg tarts I've had in Memphis.

The crust is flakier and a little bit stronger as it is held together with many layers of pastry crust. It has a nice buttery flavor to it, but seems a bit less buttery than a Hong Kong egg tart. The custard in the center has a richer flavor and texture to it and is also sweeter than the Hong Kong egg tarts that are here in Memphis. I think the richer and sweeter custard center likely goes better with this less buttery tasting crust.

I ate two of the frozen egg tarts I brought home and those were even tastier than the day old one I ate the first time.

I really enjoyed the Portuguese egg tarts. I wouldn't say I like them more than Hong Kong egg tarts, but I wouldn't say I like Hong Kong egg tarts more than Portuguese egg tarts. I think I like them both for what they are.

If I lived in Nashville I would be visiting Sweet Dreams Bakery on a regular basis. Though the price of the items would limit how often I would consume them. At a lower price point I could see myself eating copious amounts of egg tarts and moon cakes. The next time I'm in Nashville I hope to try out more of what they offer in the store.

That said, I mentioned that I visited Five Daughters Bakery for their 100 layer donuts at the start of this review for a reason.

I've tried nearly all the donut shops in Memphis TN. I was very excited to try the donuts at Five Daughters Bakery as there's nowhere in Memphis making gourmet donuts, let alone cronuts.

So I got up early, bought $70 of donuts, drove home in 2hours, and did my best to eat them all. And, the highlight of this extraordinary consumption of pastries was the day old Portuguese egg tart and mooncake.

Five Daughters Bakeries donuts were a let down. Too rich, too sweet, the flavors a bit too loud and bold and lacking nuance - there is no subtle savoring of sweet flavors in most of their donuts - and many of the donuts were greasy. The peach Fritter was a bad joke with basically no peaches; mostly just chewy overcooked dough. A few items were okay, the Boston cream's vanilla custard was well done, and the oatmeal cookie was tasty, and I normally don't like chocolate chip cookies, but the one at five daughters was tolerable. But their cookies don't compare to Makedas Cookies here in Memphis, or what I can cook up in my kitchen in an hour, and this not worth the premium prices that they charge.

In hindsight, If I could do over the purchases I made on my trip, I would've ordered everything from Sweet Dreams Bakeries menu.

So, if you want some tasty pastry, my recommendation is to come to Sweet Dreams Bakery.

Came here on a Saturday afternoon, they had one lady running the whole store going back and forth between taking orders and making drinks. It took her 25 minutes to get my drink to me, and when I left there were 15 people standing in the very small cafe waiting for their orders. Leaving 2 stars cause the milk tea was decent, nothing to write home about. They sorely need more staff, not worth $6 for a small drink and a half hour wait. Regular boba milk tea pictured.

I love this little café. Probably the best bubble tea I've had in the Nashville surrounding area. The baked goods area always fresh too. I try to stop in whenever I can.

When I first started coming here, they would majority of the time have one person working. So, if they were busy, there would be a bit of a wait. But it seems within the past few months that they have increased the staff, so the wait time is more manageable.

Having never been here we were excited to try the Japanese cheesecake. We also ordered noodle bowls. The chicken was cold however with less salt the noodle bowl would have been good. I would not eat it again. The other people with me got pork and threw it out. I’m not sure how Japanese cheesecake should taste but to me this tasted like scrambled eggs and another person felt they tasted soured Parmesan cheese. So that’s two descriptions. The place was nice and midway through waiting on the order I saw the 70 score from the food people. We took our chances bc we had already ordered but we through the food away and had to get something else. So, maybe go small and test what ur getting. Lady was nice but I will not be back just was not at all good.

Test good, but whan we came just one person for cashier and cooking, i'm order in 3rd queue, i got the lasted .

Boba Teas were great. But what left us wanting to go back was their Portuguese Egg Tarts. Soooooo good. Definitely a must stop next time we're in Franklin, TN.

On a Saturday morning at 11 am, we were the only ones there. Take-out-only due to the pandemic. I ordered the spicy wonton soup, small cherry pie, Portuguese egg tart, Japanese cheesecake, and taro boba tea.

The wait wasn’t bad, about 10 minutes. The service was friendly (I think it was the owner), and he gave menu many options, which I really appreciated. Service was 5/5.

I really liked all the food, though the Portuguese egg tart wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The crust was super flaky, but the inside was a little more like pudding, and not as firmly set as I’m used to.

The Japanese cheesecake was just to my liking. It’s right in between the crumbliness of a traditional flour cake and the creaminess of a cheesecake. It’s sort of a weird texture if you are not used to it, but I love it. It’s a little expensive, but well worth it. I’ve considered making it in the past, but a couple Youtube videos later, found it too overwhelming to even bother with.

The wonton soup was the only hot dish that we tried, and it was perfect: Spicy, fragrant, and piping hot. A little hard to eat in the car, but worth the effort.

The cherry pie was flaky, buttery, and the crumb topping had a nice little bite to it. Well worth the four dollars.

Lastly, the taro boba tea: Not bad, but I’ve had better. The boba was a bit more firm than I think it’s supposed to be.

Absolutely worth checking out. I will definitely visit again.