Sweet Harts Sweets has a wall of fat free frozen yogurts in various flavors (from peanut butter to raspberry), and a selection of toppings (fruit, chocolate, etc), all yogurtland – style.  There is also glass case hosting gelato, which also comes in a variety of flavors (tiramisu to spumoni), and a second glass case boasting cupcakes and cakes.  Cookie jars along the counter sport nicely sized cookies.  The majority of the wall of the store is dedicated to candy.  They have all sorts of candy there, but nothing I haven’t seen before.  Hello Kitty candy, Disneyland-esque lollipops, your usual grocery store candy, the usual movie theatre candy, some imported candy, and candy from your (well, my) childhood (Now and Laters and Poprocks!).

All in all, I wasn’t impressed by Sweet Hart Sweets.  It was way too mediocre for a sweets shop in Los Angeles.  L.A. has too many amazing dessert spots, and its hard to compete.  If you want to go to a real candy store, visit It Sugar (to be reviewed as part of the LA Dessert Tour soon!), or Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Sweet Hart Sweets has a fraction of the candy offered at It Sugar or Dylan’s Candy Bar.  Sweet Hart Sweets also does private parties, like Dylan’s, but I have no idea what those are like.  Furthermore, I was actually disappointed by the frozen yogurt and gelato.  Both were extremely watery, and I have no idea why.  Not melty, the way it should be, watery.  Probably the worst gelato I’ve ever had, as the watery texture just made it weird.  Also, the worst frozen yogurt I’ve ever had.  The taste is artificial, as well as the weird watery texture.  Yogurtland (another stop to be reviewed on the Dessert Tour!) is defintely the place to go for fro-yo.  Also, the cashier girl charged me for a gelato when I actually got frozen yogurt!  (there is a difference: yogurt is 38 cents/oz. while gelato is 75 cents/oz.)  And I left so I wasn’t even able to tell her she had it wrong and get my money back!  I didn’t try any of the baked goods, but I have a feeling they won’t be amazing.  I asked the kids working there if they were baked in the store, and they told me that all the baked goods were baked off-location and brought over in the morning

But the worst part about Sweet Hart Sweets was not the sweets; it was the service.  I don’t know if I just went on a bad day or what, but the service was very bad.  There were three workers (all kids) that day.  One was the manager, but she doesn’t do anything.  She spent the majority of her time in the back, and was not available to answer questions or listen to complaints.  Arielle, the girl working (the one who overcharged me; do avoid her if you visit) at the time, was extremely rude and unhelpful.  She rolled her eyes when customers asked for samples, didn’t know the answers to any questions, and complained when customers took photos, never smiled, and spent her work shift examing her fingernails.  On the other hand, Ivan, the boy working with Arielle, was extremely nice and helpful.  He gave out heaping samples to every customer, and actually offered samples to everyone who walked through the door.  He also answered questions as much as he could, and was very polite.  But only 1 good employee out of 3?  Not good enough for me.

So why did I include Sweet Hart Sweets on my Los Angeles Dessert Tour?  After I got home, I googled the store and found that it is actually the brainchild of Melissa Joan Hart, of Sabrina the Teenage Witch fame!  Sabrina was quite popular during her time, so there are probably a lot of people out there who would like to visit Melissa’s sweets shop, so I thought it was worthy of a review as part of my LA Dessert Tour. Oh, and the interior makes for really cute photos!

Essentially, Sweet Hart Sweets tried to cram Dylan’s Candy Bar, Yogurtland, Sprinkles, and gelato all into one place… and kind of failed.  The second happiest place on earth?  Nice try, Melissa.  I definitely have some suggestions for the business model of this place, but that’s another blog post for another blog.