Ice Cream Review – Page 5

Enjoyable Ice Cream at Scoops in Port Credit

Published on November 15, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 82 Lakeshore Road East, Mississauga
Website: https://www.instagram.com/scoopsicecreamshop/

Scoops is a fun little ice cream shop in Port Credit that serves scoops, sundaes, and milkshakes, and that makes all their own ice cream in-house.

It actually reminds me a lot of Ed’s Real Scoop, particularly the layout, with gelato up front and the various ice cream flavours behind it.

They have a whole bunch of interesting flavours (I didn’t count, but it’s gotta be over twenty); I went with Nutella banana.

It’s pretty decent. It’s probably not worth going out of your way for if you’re not already in Port Credit, but it’s a solid scoop of ice cream. My flavour was a bit icy, but was otherwise quite rich and creamy.

The yellow colour made me worried that banana extract might be involved, but if it was, I couldn’t tell (the ice cream actually had a slightly underripe banana flavour). And of course, I don’t have to tell you that banana and Nutella are great together.

Also: I’m just happy whenever an ice cream shop is still using plastic spoons. Sorry, the environment — wooden spoons are horrible. I’m pretty sure that if they eat ice cream in hell (fart flavoured, I guess?), they use wooden spoons.

Tasty Dark Chocolate Ice Cream at Bang Bang

Published on October 27, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 93a Ossington Avenue, Toronto
Website: https://www.instagram.com/bangbang_icecream/

Bang Bang is a bit less exciting these days; they have a pretty set selection of permanent and rotating flavours, and once you’ve tried them all, you’ve tried them all. The early, more experimental days where there were always at least a couple of odd new flavours to try are, sadly, long gone. I can’t remember the last time I saw something new on their menu.

The quality is still fantastic, however. I had the WTF2 on my most recent visit (“a smooth dark chocolate, 70% callebaut chip”), and holy moly it’s good. Super creamy, intense chocolately flavour, good level of sweetness, and the chocolate pieces are thin enough that they still melt in your mouth (a lot of chocolate in ice cream tends to have that issue where it’s so cold that it’s mostly just crunchy with no real flavour).

New places like Good Behaviour are giving Bang Bang a run for their money, but it’s clear that Bang Bang still knows how to make a primo scoop. They’re also, as you can tell from the photo above, still doing quite well, which is nice to see.

Tasty Frozen Custard at The Loop Creamery

Published on October 13, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3795 Lakeshore Boulevard West, Etobicoke
Website: https://www.loopcreamery.com/

I (sort of) tried this place back in 2018, when they had frozen custard on the menu at Woodfire Sandwich Co, an offshoot of Woody’s Burgers. Alas, the sandwich place is no more, but the ice cream has been bumped up to its own thing (though it’s now inside Woody’s Burgers).

As I mentioned in my previous post, frozen custard (which is basically just standard ice cream with an added richness and flavour from egg yolks) is weirdly hard to find in the city. So the fact that The Loop Creamery exists at all makes me happy.

And it’s quite tasty. I think it’s actually improved since 2018; the ice cream is rich and creamy, with a mild but satisfying custard flavour. It’s quite good.

I went with the Old School, which is just peanuts and caramel in a vanilla base. The peanuts had gotten a bit soft in the ice cream, but it was otherwise quite tasty, with the rich custard base working very well with the ribbons of sweet caramel.

Unique Arabic Ice Cream at Pinochi Ice Cream

Published on October 9, 2022October 9, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2340 Council Ring Road, Unit 104, Mississauga
Website: https://pinochiicecream.ca/

The Arabic ice cream they’re serving at Pinochi is pretty fascinating; it’s made with mastic (which is actually the resin from a type of tree), and it has an unusual, ultra-chewy texture that’s surprisingly addictive.

If you’ve never had it before, however, it’s going to be a bit of a shock. It’s so incredibly dense and chewy that it’s pretty difficult to eat with a spoon (a fork and knife are probably advisable). It’s deeply springy, with an almost chewing-gum-like texture that eventually melts in your mouth. It’s very, very different from traditional ice cream, but once you get on its wavelength, it’s quite enjoyable.

Pinochi serves it rolled and then sliced, with a generous amount of crushed pistachios on its exterior, giving it a great nutty flavour. The mastic has its own flavour, too; Wikipedia describes it as tasting of pine and cedar, and yeah, that’s probably right. The taste is quite subtle, but it definitely adds its own unique personality.

Pistachio ice cream is a tried-and-true flavour, but between the taste and texture of the mastic, this one is very much its own thing, and it’s great.

Quick Bites: Happy Sundae, Allwyn’s Bakery, Tom’s Dairy Freeze

Published on October 4, 2022October 4, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Banana cream pie sundae from Happy Sundae

So, hmm… I’m trying to balance my newfound desire to keep this blog negativity-free with my need to warn you that this place isn’t very good. Because it’s not very good. The biggest issue here is the “ice cream” itself, and I’m putting ice cream in quotes because they say right on their menu that the soft serve is dairy-free. Here’s the thing, though: Honey’s has illustrated fairly conclusively that it’s possible to create dairy-free ice cream that’s just as creamy and delicious as the real deal. The stuff here, on the other hand, is exactly what you fear non-dairy ice cream is going to taste like. But in the interest of not dwelling on the negative, I’ll just say that the banana slices were quite tasty (a lot of dessert places make the mistake of using underripe bananas, and that wasn’t an issue here) and leave it at that.

Jerk chicken meal from Allwyn’s Bakery

On the plus side, the small jerk chicken meal from Allwyn’s is a pretty great deal. Ignore the word “small” — for eleven bucks, you get a hearty portion of rice, two pieces of jerk chicken, and a side of coleslaw. I wish it tasted better, however. I couldn’t taste any of the spices and complexity that you’ll find in the better versions of this dish; it was just one-note salty in a way that got really monotonous to eat. It’s a deal, though!

Pineapple sundae from Tom’s Dairy Freeze

Okay, let’s end things on a more positive note. I know I’ve written about Tom’s Dairy Freeze about a billion times on this blog, and guess what? It’s still great! I got the pineapple sundae this time; the sauce has a decent proportion of small pineapple chunks and sweet syrup, but it’s the ice cream itself that’s the real draw. This is still — hands down — the best soft serve in the city. It’s rich, creamy, and delicious.