PaPa Gelare by CoffeePlus

Got to know of Papa Gelare via social media one day — located in the quaint neighbourhood of Farrer Gardens, Papa Gelare is a newly-opened gelato parlour that is situated at Blk 4 Queen’s Road, which is just a stone’s throw away from Farrer Road MRT Station on the Circle Line. Whilst it does sound pretty off as to why a new dining establishment would be opening its doors in this quiet HDB estate, Papa Gelare are opened by the same folks behind Coffee Plus — a cafe which serves up specialty coffee and a small selection of bakes that occupies a hole-in-the-wall space in a shop unit just several steps away from Papa Gelare. While Papa Gelare technically occupies two units of shop space at Blk 4 Queen’s Road, only half of the space is dedicated to the ice-cream parlour — the other half seems to be used as storage for some antique furniture to evoke some old-school vibes, which seems to be tastefully placed though no entry is allowed in the said area. Given how this leaves Papa Gelare with just a small kiosk-sized area to operate from counting out the space that is used a kitchen area, this meant that folks whom intend to dine-in will have to sit outdoors; there are six (6) tables good for two (2) pax each located outside of the store for patrons to dine-in at. With such a small space, the offerings at Papa Gelare can be said to be quite limited; they do have quite an extensive selection of gelato within its display freezer at the counter — patrons can opt to either have their gelato in cups or with their housemade waffle cones, while waffles can also be ordered to go along their gelato. For beverages, Papa Gelare only offers Fiji water and a variety of Zeste bottled drinks (i.e. fruit infused flavoured water) for those who need something to go with their gelato.

After skimming through the variety of flavours available in their display freezer, we found ourselves going for the Rosemary Pumpkin — a flavour which we found to be quite unique as compared to the more commonly found flavours which seem to dominate the display freezer; not sure if the Rosemary Pumpkin was a seasonal special considering how the tub dedicated to the flavour seems to be of a smaller size as compared to most of the other flavours which they have to offer. Going for a scoop of the Rosemary Pumpkin in a cup, we initially found the Rosemary Pumpkin to be a little bit stronger on the Rosemary element — the entire flavour being all smooth and creamy; all that whilst being perfumed by the herb itself whilst bearing a rather strong milk base. It was only slightly later which we found out that the sweetness of the pumpkin only starts to pull through when one enjoys the gelato in bigger spoonfuls — the larger the spoonful, the more evident the sweetness becomes, providing a bite that was almost akin to having pumpkin with a bit of cinnamon infused for that extra spiced note that runs subtly at the back of the tongue. Despite so, we do feel that the flavours of the pumpkin could have been a little stronger here — we would imagine how the notes of pumpkin would have been drowned out when had together with the waffle or the waffle cone; still a pretty neat attempt in serving something unique nonetheless

Gelato parlours are aplenty around but there seems to be a void to be filled still especially in this part of the island; Papa Gelare does seem to answer the needs to having a dessert spot to serve residents around Farrer Road MRT Station — this would be apart from the likes of Bakery Brera and LR Boulangerie which both focuses on cakes, bakes and French viennoiserie. Whilst we had only given one flavour out of the several which are available at Papa Gelare a try, we do feel that Papa Gelare does churn out pretty decent gelato in general; one with good texture and flavour, though it would certainly work even better if they could be look into serving up a wider variety of more adventurous gelato flavours in the long run — something of the likes of the Rosemary Pumpkin and White Coffee which they were offering during the day of our visit, which would definitely give them more character as a gelato parlour to check out whilst being in the ‘hood. With that being said, Papa Gelare is probably that sort of spot that residents around Farrer Road MRT Station would appreciate; somewhere to just gather around over dessert for a chit chat in a quaint environment without having to jostle with the crowd in