Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow

We ended up at Cheevit Cheeva at The Row KL because a friend had apparently been thinking about this dessert shop for far longer than we had.

Fair enough. Some friendships are built on emotional support. Others are built on agreeing to drive somewhere for shaved ice.

Cheevit Cheeva started in Chiang Mai in 2015, taking Korean-style bingsu and giving it a distinctly Thai dessert treatment. The Row was its first Malaysian outlet when it arrived in KL in 2024.

The Row itself is packed with restaurants and cafes along Jalan Doraisamy which is convenient until everybody arrives with a car. Parking was probably the least enjoyable part of the visit. There is paid open-air parking nearby but spaces are limited, and we also saw cars parked along the roadside with tickets tucked under their wipers. Take that information however your wallet chooses to interpret it.

Once inside, things improved considerably.

Shokupan Pandan Sang-Ka-Ya Bingsu (RM27)

We ordered the small.

“Small” is doing some generous work here.

The portion is easily enough for two people, possibly three if everyone is behaving politely. Cheevit Cheeva’s bingsu uses very fine milk-based shaved ice and this was the part we liked most. The ice was smooth, almost fluffy as it melted, with a clean milky flavour and surprisingly little sweetness.

The sang-ka-ya, essentially a Thai pandan-and-coconut custard, was thick and creamy with a gentle pandan fragrance. It was not the sort of neon-green kaya that punches you in the face from across the table.

The toasted shokupan pieces added the necessary crunch. Simple, yes, but without them the whole bowl would have been milk ice meeting soft custard and discussing texture conceptually.

A tiny ‘jug’ of coconut milk sauce came alongside. Pouring it over the ice added more sweetness and coconut richness, so we liked having control over it rather than receiving a bingsu already drowned in syrup.

Cheevit Cheeva itself lists the pandan shokupan bingsu among its signature flavours, so if you are coming here specifically for bingsu, this is a sensible place to start.

Mango Sticky Rice (RM20)

Let us establish something first. You can get mango sticky rice for less money elsewhere in KL.

There. Expectations managed.

Our friend wanted it, so naturally the Mango Sticky Rice appeared anyway. And to be fair, the important part was done properly.

Sticky rice should be soft, moist and chewy, not a sad dry clump waiting for coconut milk to perform CPR. This one had the right texture: smooth, sticky and properly tender without becoming mush.

The mango was ripe and sweet, while the coconut milk served alongside was creamy with enough saltiness to stop everything becoming one-note sugar. That salty-creamy edge is what makes mango sticky rice work; without it, you are basically eating sweet fruit beside sweet rice and wondering why you paid RM20. For another mango dessert where the flavour comes through despite the lack of actual mango pieces, we had a similar experience at Kay’s Steak & Lobster.

Our only complaint is quantity. There simply was not much sticky rice to share.

The mango was generous enough, but at RM20, we found ourselves rationing the rice like resources were running low.

Overall, it was a good dessert. We just wanted more of the part named in the dessert.

Boba with Fresh Milk RM14

There is not much mystery here.

It is fresh milk. There is boba. The end.

Well, almost.

The milk was cold and milky. No complex flavour here. But the problem was the pearls. We wanted that proper springy, chewy resistance from the boba, but it was noticeably firmer and less bouncy than expected.

It was not exactly terrible. It was simply not what we would expect a boba would be.

And to be fair, Cheevit Cheeva built its reputation around bingsu rather than bubble tea, so this is not where we would spend precious stomach capacity next time.

The Bonus KLCC View Is Outside the Cafe

One unexpected bonus has nothing to do with dessert.

You cannot sit inside Cheevit Cheeva sipping boba while staring dramatically at the Petronas Twin Towers. But walk around The Row and the towers appear neatly framed between the surrounding buildings.

We took the photo above on an overcast day, with KLCC rising straight down the street between newer towers and older low-rise buildings. It is actually a pretty good distant KLCC photo spot if you happen to be here already.

We are not professional photographers, obviously evidenced by the image above, but we imagine the same view would look much better at night once the towers light up.

Dessert first. Accidental sightseeing second.

Would We Return to Cheevit Cheeva?

Yes, particularly for the bingsu.

Nothing we ate was mind-boggling, but almost everything had the same quality we appreciated: it was not aggressively sweet. The pandan bingsu was smooth, creamy and generous enough to share; the mango sticky rice nailed the texture even if we wanted twice as much rice; and the boba was the only real letdown.

If you already love bingsu, Cheevit Cheeva is worth trying. If you do not, this probably will not alter the course of your life.

And if you are driving to The Row, maybe let somebody else handle parking.

Friendship has limits.