Steep Street Sweet Sweep

Little Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills is a high rent, high traffic street that happens to have a lot of dessert options. Catering to tourists mainly, but also Beverly Hills locals the street features the most famous of LA cupcake sue-ers, Sprinkles. In its wake are a number of other sweets purveyors including a crappy gelateria, some cafes and Fulfilled- a Japanese pastry shop I’d been wanting to try. Never letting a food 5k opportunity pass me by, I decided to make it a sweep of the steeply priced sweets on this small walkable street.

First stop was Fulfilled, who specialize in Imagawa-yaki (known as Ima, pronounced ē-ma). These pancake-like pastries are filled with sweet Azuki bean and expertly handcrafted on a cast aluminum grill.

The small shop serves Ima in flavor combinations like Ghirardelli chocolate/toffee/crunchy peanut butter and strawberry/cream cheese/Ghirardelli white chocolate.

I opted for the traditional Japanese Azuki bean and a simple combo of banana/Nutella. They also sell a large variety of Japanese beverages, from which I chose a bottle of milk tea. I decided to take all the snacks to my house and eat them together, so scroll down for the food pictures.

The next stop was Crumbs Bake Shop, Sprinkles cheaper nemesis.

Their decor is cheaper looking, as are their cupcakes. These minis were just sitting on the counter next to the cash register.

Last stop was the trademark marauding Sprinkles. I’m not wasting space or energy writing about them or posting pictures.

Finally home to eat everything.

The side by side cupcake comparison was just basic black and white.

The verdict was that Fulfilled were tasty, probably better eaten hot and worth the slightly high price tag. I hate to say it but Sprinkles blew Crumbs away. No contest in terms of moistness and the argument can rage on about whether their frosting is too sweet- but I like it.