ICE CREAM / GELATO

I am a Hvala fan loved the vibes loved their matcha drinks loved their waffles but sobs I have found a let-down at Hvala and it’s this matcha cookies and cream ice-cream 😪 it was so so sweet!!!! And I couldn’t even taste the matcha flavour in it the matcha bits tasted like dough bits added into my milk (?) vanilla (?) ice-cream?? Really very disappointed given its price point and from hvala!! I will stick to the matcha drinks in the future 😔

Haven’t had kooks in a while! I like the combi of warm cookie & cold ice cream. The cookie is slightly underbaked for the lava-ness, and crisp at the edges (my fav part)! The ice cream isn’t anything to shout about, but the combi of cookie + flowy chocolate + ice cream satisfies. Maybe it was bc I shared it, but I felt that it wasn’t too sweet/jelat :)

I usually go for brown butter ice cream as it has a nice mild caramel-ish flavour, pairing well with the choc cookie. We tried the coffee flavour this time, and it’s decent. Am glad they’ve remained pretty consistent since I first had it 2 years back!

Was at 5 The Moments Cafe on a Friday night and it was super crowded!!! Left our number and was told to wait for 30 mins but thankfully we were in within 15! :-)

Overall I was SO SO surprised by how enhanced all the flavours tried were! I got the blue pea sea salt - I was so confused at the start because it was literally “salty” and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. But I grew to like it more and more, and the saltiness was light on the palate / my friend got the passionfruit which was SO SOUR my face immediately crunched up the moment I tasted it their passionfruits are indeed freshly made

Overall it was a pleasant experience while I wasn’t particularly fond of the flavours so I will def be back still to try the other flavours :-)

Have been wanting to try venchi for some time and it did not disappoint! It now ranks quite high in our list of great ice cream places. The gelato was reaally smooth, texture-wise quite creamy. The hazelnut was reminiscent of kinder bueno, while the cappuccino had a nice & mellow coffee taste. Both were great! Will be back to try their other flavours :) Btw is it just me or this place kinda reminds me of grom gelato?

The mint flavour was refreshing but not too in-your-face (I usually avoid mint flavours as it feels like I’m eating toothpaste?? does anyone feel that way too?), but for us it kinda overpowered the watermelon taste. The Chia seeds gave some crunch! The texture was slightly different from their other flavours, but still nice and smooth and light :) This flavour is not my thing, but it’s a personal preference - to each their own!

We checked out this new spot for gelato, which does pretty unique flavours! The smoked hay was true to its name - it wasn’t grassy/green tasting at all (thank goodness!) and was rather pleasant. Preferred this out of the two, as smoky flavours in dessert are rather appealing to me.

The banana burnt butter tasted a little like Korean banana milk, and I liked the banana crisps sprinkled on top! Would have been nicer if there was a deeper banana flavour. They allow for taste-testing here, so we tried their apple & cinnamon, but that tasted a little flat so we didn’t go for that.

We weren’t a big fan of the texture. A little too crumbly / not creamy enough. Would probably return after they’ve sorted out any operational kinks to try their waffles and other flavours :)

The waffle was rather crisp, but it wasn’t very fluffy inside. Both flavours of ice cream were alright too, but it was a little too milky for my liking - the honey / rum&raisin flavour could have been more integrated into the ice cream base. I had somehow expected a honeycomb crunch (the actual beehouse, not the sugary toffee thing) since the name of the flavour is “honeycomb” after all, but it was just honey mixed in.

Have previously reviewed the hojicha as well as rum & raisin, so this review will be for the other two.

The kueh dardar flavour had notes of pandan and gula melaka, with shredded coconut folded into the ice cream. Was pretty sweet for us!

The carrot cake flavour was like having carrot cake (not the hawker fried carrot cake) but in ice cream form. There was the earthy, cinnamon + cream cheese taste, pretty true to the name of the flavour!

Tom’s does innovative flavours that actually work, I’m always excited to try them! Although I’ll have certain flavours that I prefer better than these more ‘wacky’ flavours, they do it well enough such that I’m not hesitant to try their new stuff :) There’s another ice cream place that does wacky flavours, but theirs sound much better than they taste - this is not the case for Tom’s 👌🏼

Haagen dazs @ Holland was super comfy and empty compared to the other cafes at HV but this was really pretty overpriced at $14-15?? (Can’t rmb the exact price) the waffle was meh (not crispy and pretty soggy and small) and green tea ice cream was rather sweet. I did enjoy the macadamia ice cream tho!! Actually pretty solid.

ahhh ice cream cakes are my weaknesses (really just ice cream disguised in cakes) this was such a good satisfying cake!! The cookie base had a nice crunch coupled with the hazelnut ice cream and soft cake layers 🥰

Heard so so much about dopa but somehow it didn’t live up to my expectations but it was still good!!! Gelato was smooth ok the matcha cheesecake didn’t taste like matcha nor cheesecake and was tad sweet :-( but the pistachio was RLLY RLLY good the flavour bursts through and wasn’t sweet at all :-)

The waffle had a slight sourdough tang, and was crisp outside, kinda cakey inside. It was really airy though, and we prefer waffles that have some density to it. The whiskey crancherry had a strong alcoholic kick, with some tartness from the cherries and cranberries. The marula tasted a little like pear, and the crunchy cacao bits were a good addition. Flavours were alright, but in terms of texture, it was kinda flat and thin. The gelato dissolves immediately when eaten. Everything we tried here (both waffle & gelato) was weirdly airy, not a big fan.