Sweet Rice is a Cafe – Afterall
I have been around the Gwinnett Place Mall area quite a few times since I used to live very near to this area. That said, I have always driven by Sweet Rice and never was truly sure what kind of restaurant it was. I think this is a confusion that many people get when they are driving past here. This is because Sweet Rice is in a stand-alone building that used to be a burger shop. If you know Duluth, you know that most of the cafes are usually in shopping centers or attached to a grocery store. That said, seeing a cafe in a stand-alone building, you’re not sure if its a restaurant or a real large care and usually the restaurant idea ruled supreme in my mind.
Sweet Rice is, in fact, a cafe that offers snacks, coffees, cakes, and teas. I was making my usual drive by and decided to finally give it a try and was shocked to find this out. I am always looking for new cafe’s in this area because it’s usually the only place I can find good cafes at.

A UNIQUE CAFE EXPERIENCE
Sweet Rice is unique of all of the other cafe’s I’ve been to. This is because unlike the other Korean cafe’s that sell the same bread like White Castle, Treehouse, Mango Six and Cafe Mozart, they sell mainly “Tteok”. This is a type of rice cake popular in Korea that is usually made from celebratory events. For the sake of time, I won’t go too much into Tteok and the history as this is supposed to be a simple review but you can read about it.
A SIMPLE AND EASY MENU
So tteok is another way of saying “rice cake”. Sweet Rice is a cafe that sells many different versions of rice cakes. When you first walk in, you’re greeted by what looks to be a glass enclosed buffet filled with sushi sized cakes.the buffet area reminds me of Sweet Hut’s. Each of these is very affordable from $.20 – a tad over $1.00 and are made daily. These extremely affordable prices threw me off a bit but im not going to complain.
Not too far from there is the register area which an enclosed array of cakes (regular ones) both large and by the slice. Their main menu consists of coffee, tea, bubble tea, and juices (including rice punch). There is not much else to talk about when it comes to their menu. It’s literally just-drinks, rice cake and a few sweet cakes. This may sound simple to some, but for people who are having problems making decisions like me, I love it. The staff was also very friendly and explained to me how everything worked. I give them
A QUIET AND FORMAL ATMOSPHERE
When I go to a cafe, I am usually just looking for wifi, a place to sit and work and something to snack on. This place provides that without any complications. The space is pretty big with two main sitting areas. It has a large decorated tree in the center and formal/modern style tables both large and small. One thing I didn’t like too much was the fact that the modern stool chair was not comfortable at all and almost threw me off until sitting. I quickly moved to another table with normal chairs and was much happier.
The music choices consist of piano editions of many of your favorite songs which keep the atmosphere a quiet-cozy type. The wifi is going pretty well at 64Mbs so its definitely a place that I will be returning to constantly to get work done.

THE CAKE WITHOUT CONVICTION
Normally when you say “cake” in America, it means your taking a slice of something that’s going to be jam-packed with everything delicious and unhealthy. It’s usually enough to make you feel happy and convicted for yourself at the same time. The cakes at Sweet Rice, are not that style. I came late and was shocked to see that most of the creations were already sold out. The first one I tried was the “Jeong Pyun” which was made with Rice, water, salt, yeast, almonds and pumpkin seeds. When you look at the ingredients, it almost sounds like your making a granola bar. The sugar was very light here, I couldn’t really taste much sweetness but the rice and the nuts really stood out.


The second rice cake I tried at Sweet Rice was the Pumpkin Suiki. This is made from rice, water, salt, sugar, pumpkin and green beans. The flavor was not so sweet as well, you taste more fo the rice and can smell the pumpkin but it’s not as strong of a flavor as American desserts.

A GREAT PLACE TO RELAX AND ENJOY COFFEE
I am not sure what I feel about the flavors yet. Living in China and Japan, I have learned to love less sweet desserts but by American standards, you could hardly consider this a dessert.
All and all, as far as cafes go, I am excited to find a new one here in the Duluth area that is not overcrowded. I am here on a Saturday night and still running a 64Mbs connection so I can’t complain. I got a caramel macchiato which was alright (not the best – I currently like what I get at Arte 3 the best).
Review overview
The Pros
- Cozy environment
- Friendly Staff
- Affordable Prices
The Cons
- snacks are lacking a bit in flavor
- cakes sell out fast and are not replenished