It does seem that there are certainly lesser ice-cream parlours opening up in the heartlands of the late as compared to the time several years ago where they seem to be sprouting up across the island in different neighbourhoods and various corners. That being said, there are a few of such establishments that are still appearing at certain neighbourhoods — one of the newest additions to the local F&B scene here would be Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream; a newly-opened establishment which had found home within a shop unit that is situated at the foot of Blk 477 Tampines Street 43. Located right beside a salon, Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream reminds us of how most other neighbourhood-ly ice-cream parlours are like — one that typically takes up half a shop unit, though Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream is also one that is tastefully designed despite the limited space that it occupies. The small and cosy shop space does feature outdoor seating to maximise the seating capacity that they have — the interior featuring furnishings that are pretty functional, though the large use of wooden panelling and fittings certainly matched the certain details that feature a white colour aesthetic. Being an ice-cream parlour, Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream does not carry any hot food — patrons can view through the display chiller at the counter for the various ice-cream flavours which they are carrying for the day; the ice-cream can be in cups, cones or with various types of waffles including original, duo flavour and a Matcha Mochi Waffle. Beverages available at Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream includes drinking chocolate, as well as espresso-based specialty coffee.

Dropping by Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream over the weekend during mid-afternoon, we were looking to give one of their waffles a try alongside their ice-cream. Amongst the various types of waffles which they had to offer, the Matcha Mochi Waffle was one that immediately stood out to us — there also wasn’t much contemplation on which ice-cream flavours to go for; while most of the flavours offered at Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream were pretty much on the safer side (think flavours such as that of Matcha, Dark Chocolate, Vanilla Pod, Thai Milk Tea etc.), there were two flavours that stood out from the rest for us. These two flavours would be the Cendol Jackfruit, as well as the Kaya Toast — both of which being flavours that are based off locally-inspired elements; it is also noted that the Cendol Jackfruit is a vegan-friendly flavour as well. Going straight for the Cendol Jackfruit Ice-Cream first, we did feel that the Cendol Jackfruit was the flavour that was the better of the two — the profound notes of jackfruit was especially alluring ; not quite something that we have tasted before at other ice-cream parlours. Due to its vegan-friendly nature, we also felt that the Cendol Jackfruit ice-cream was one that was relatively undisturbed — did not seemingly feel creamy nor heavy; mostly carried the sweetness of jackfruit, though the Gula Melaka element that one would associate with Cendol does seem to be missing here. The Cendol element here comes in the form of Cendol Jelly — the green jelly pieces were unfortunately a little frozen, and our scoop did come with a part where a cluster of Cendol jelly can be found in the middle that made the ice-cream felt a little icy in general. On the other hand, the Kaya Toast ice-cream was creamier and smoother; featured chunks of crusty toast for a good bite though the notes of Kaya wasn’t evident — felt more like a Kopi Gu You with some bitter undertones and buttery finish instead. The Matcha Mochi Waffle featured mochi bits hidden in certain parts of the waffle; whilst fragrant from the batter, the notes of the Japanese tea were a little bit on the lighter side in general.

Having tried two of the many flavours of ice-cream which Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream has to offer, we felt that the folks at Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream do seem to have quite good and inventive ideas of the flavours of ice-cream which they would like to serve up for their patrons — there are a good mix of safer and conventional ice-cream, while they do also carry a few flavours that are stand-outs that gives Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream a little bit of a character of its own. We did feel that they had given both the Kopi Toast & Cendol Jackfruit Ice-Creams quite a fair bit of thought during the development process, though the result felt a little bit over-engineered — something just felt that there was too much happening during the process that seemed to have over-complicated the ultimate product that altered the original intentions of what it was supposed to be. Considering so, it might probably work out better for patrons to go for one of the safer and more conventional flavours, though we aren’t exactly able to give our sentiments on that since we did not give those a try during our visit. Nonetheless, perhaps the folks at Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream can re-look into the execution of the locally-inspired flavours to achieve a more balanced and focused offering, especially since there does seem to be quite a bit of potential here. We had also given the Maple Latte a go during our visit here; this was quite a palatable concoction with the infusion of maple providing a fragrant sweetness that went especially well with the coffee, though we do think that the execution of the coffee could have been better — while we note that Delato Handcrafted Ice-Cream isn’t a spot that focuses on specialty coffee unlike the establishments that are part of the third-wave coffee movement, we cannot help but to imagine how this idea would have worked especially well with a perfectly-pulled cuppa. Still, an interesting addition to the Tampines neighbourhood; one that we are confident about themselves refining their offerings further in due course — a spot that residents would enjoy having at the convenience of their neighbourhood.