Best Dessert: Sweets By Belen
South American-inspired pastries and cakes fill the display cases at Sweets by Belen, the finest place in the city to satisfy a sweet tooth with something that began elsewhere but now feels wholly Houston. The sweets boutique’s Houston location, located on Hillcroft just off the Southwest Freeway, celebrated its 10th anniversary in October and there’s a Katy outpost, too. Whichever you visit, prepare to delight in treats you’re unlikely to spot in the baked goods aisles of our best grocery stores or on many local restaurant dessert menus.
Start with the alfajores, cornstarch-based sandwich cookies native to Peru, which is where chef Belén Bailey grew up and formed her love for baked goods from her grandmother. From Peru to southwest Houston and Katy, the family inspiration now exists in the forms of guava cheesecakes, Nutella tres leches, passion fruit Marquesa and the highly-recommended suspiro Limeño. It’s so delicate and sweet, it takes its name from a woman’s sigh. It’s always a coin toss between the Lima-born dessert and Belén’s mango mousse, which is airy and fruity.
If you’re undecided between those standouts, just arrive at the beginning of the week for “Macaron Monday,” when the shop’s macarons – in blissful varieties like coconut, pistachio and café con leche – are offered at discount prices.
On any given visit, you’re likely to see and chat with the shop’s namesake, a friendly small business runner who followed her family’s passion to build an Afro-Latina owned bakery in her adopted city. That added bit of diversity in the city’s food scene is perhaps the sweetest concoction of all from Sweets by Belen.
Multiple locations