gelato Archives - Curiously Carmen

Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria

August 2, 2014

One of my friends and fellow food blogger raved to me about Famoso, after asking her where I should go for dinner. After going on Urbanspoon and reading the great reviews for this place, I was very excited to try it out.

It took us 15 minutes to find parking in the Commercial Drive area, and we ended up going to a pay parking lot because finding a free spot was impossible.

Anyways, I tried to make a reservation for four at Famoso but unfortunately, they only accept reservations with parties of six and up. Fair enough, they told me that it shouldn’t be a problem to walk in past 7:30 on a Saturday night, so off we went!

We waited around 5 minutes for a table for four. I immediately liked the lively atmosphere, and the hostess was very friendly from the beginning. We were seated in the back, where we were able to see all of the restaurant. A server came promptly, and asked us if it was our first time here as their ordering system is a bit unique from other places.
Basically, they have menus, order sheets, and pencils on each table. To order, you write down what you want on the notepad (if you want), and then walk down to the pizza counter, where they place your order for you. From there, a server will bring the pizza to your table and they take care of your needs from then on. You pay for the pizza at the end of the meal, with your server.

After settling on our pizzas, my friend went down to the counter to place our order. Customers are able to see the pizzas being prepared, but there is a semi-wall between the ordering/prep station and the tables, which is good because it gives both parties some privacy.

Funghi pizza (14.75). This was one of their specialty pizzas and came with parmesan crema, roasted white mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, caramelized onions, and more! Cream and mushroom lovers would absolutely bask over this pizza! It was very creamy, and there were a lot of mushrooms on it.
Italian ham and crushed pineapple ($13.75). I thought this pizza was average, nothing really stood out to me. I wished that the ham would be spread out more, or that there was more quantity of it. The pizzas themselves were very thin, which is what Neopolitan pizza is supposed to be like, so I expected it. Since they are thin, they aren’t super filling.
Since the pizzas weren’t that filling, we decided to order some dessert to share. The affogato was $1 off and I have been wanting affogato for so long! After making a trip to the gelato counter, we decided on getting the mint stracciatella and another flavour below ($4 each after $1 off special).

Ordering dessert follows the same process as the food, servers will bring you your dessert after ordering it at the counter. I fell in love with the mint stracciatella at first bite. Mixed with the espresso, it was super creamy, heavenly, and delicious. The mint chips from the gelato became melted from the espresso, which made it taste even better!
The other affocato that we got was with the coconut gelato. This one was delicious as well, and we savoured every little bite down to the last drop of espresso. The quality of the espresso itself was very rich and dark. So good!

-Carmen

Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt

July 24, 2014

After visiting Steveston back in May and trying Sockeye City Grill, I came back here with a few friends for the evening. We ended up eating at Sockeye City Grill again, since I had a decent experience back in May. Afterwards, we took a beautiful evening stroll as the sun began to set around us.

We decided to stop at Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt, as we were craving some dessert and I didn’t get to come here during my last visit. Thankfully, it wasn’t too busy since we came on a weekday evening, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt is really popular and a prime tourist spot in Steveston, you will often see visitors strolling the pier with a delicious, fresh waffle cone in hand. Of course, we had to give it a try as well 🙂
Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt only accepts cash. One thing that I found strange was that they do not offer any ice cream samples to customers. I guess it helps speed up the transaction and also saves on cost.

However, it might be frustrating for customers if they can’t decide on what they want. Especially if they are tourists, what if they’ve never tried or heard of certain flavours where they’re from?
I was torn between having ice cream or frozen yogurt. I decided on getting the mixed berry frozen yogurt! I got the kids size in a waffle cone($2.75, plus extra $.50 for a waffle cone) The yogurt itself was pretty good, it was flavourful and had a nice texture to it. It reminded me a lot of Yogen Fruz, which I love! The star of the show would have to be the waffle cone though.

When I was handed the waffle cone, it was still warm from their machine. The waffle cone was so crispy, warm, and fresh. The price for the cone wasn’t bad either, I was expecting it to cost more since it’s a tourist area and the waffle cones are freshly made! I actually ended up going back for a regular size because the froyo and waffle cone was that delicious…..hehe…

(Also, I just realized as I was typing this that the picture included my nails! I did a review on the Etude House Nail Polish trio, which you can read as well)

A picture of Rooibos’ gelato, I forgot which flavour they had but they enjoyed it!

Another picture of Parmie’s gelato, I forgot what flavour she had as well! Sorry 🙁

Here is a bonus picture of the sunset that evening, which I captured at the end of the dock (Click for bigger and better resolution!). Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt is a great place to buy a delicious fresh waffle cone before exploring the pier.

-Carmen

Bella Gelataria Handcrafted Gelato

June 26, 2014

Back when I did not have a blog, I came here with my friend who was stopping in town from Japan for a few days. Prior to him landing in Vancouver, he told me that he had to try this place before leaving, because apparently this place is very well known in Japan. Well damn, if people across the ocean raved about this place, it must be one good gelato place!

We ended up loving our gelato, but to be honest, I don’t remember much of the gelato itself as I was too happy that I was able to reunite with my friend living halfway across the world after a year.

So, half a year and one beautiful sunny afternoon later, I decided to stop by again and enjoy some delicious gelato after a delicious meal at Kintaro Ramen!

Bella Gelatria is located on the main floor of the luxurious Fairmont Pacific Rim, right by the water. There was a line up out the door, and almost around the corner the day we went. In total, we waited about fifteen minutes in line.

The staff working there are very experienced in heavy volume traffic, so they had a pretty efficient system going. There are also awards and framed newspaper articles lined up from top to bottom, so you definitely will not get bored in line.
Of course, if you do not want to read their framed articles, you can take the time to decide what flavour you want to try. I was craving strawberry that day, but unfortunately, the worker told me they didn’t have it. She was then interrupted (in a friendly manner) by the owner and master gelatier, James Coleridge as he informed me that they only make strawberry when in season.
After much debate, I settled with the chocolate belgian brownie. I was in love at first bite. The chocolate was extremely rich, smooth, decadent, and soft. I fell in love with how well-rounded the chocolate flavour was, and how creamy it was.

I have never had gelato, or ice cream, as creamy and rich like this before. You could really tell the difference in quality. Typing this post is making me so hungry now.
Next up (no, I did not order three all to myself, incase you’re wondering) is the Thai coconut milk gelato. Just like my chocolate one, this one was extremely creamy as well. There was a strong and delicious coconut taste. It came with little slices of fresh coconut as well, which added to the freshness of the gelato.
This was the mint chocolate gelato, but I didn’t get a chance to try it. Delicious is actually just an understatement for Bella Gelataria.

Honestly. I’m not the only one that thinks so, either considering that Bella Gelataria has won numerous awards in Italy for their gelato and their rating on Urbanspoon.

-Carmen
PS. Here is a picture of the outside, with their big sign. This picture was taken at my first visit in chilly November (read first paragraph above), hence the jackets.

Amato Gelato Cafe, Olympic Village

April 29, 2014

Funny fact, I always thought this place was called Mario’s Gelato until I tried to Urbanspoon it, and there were no results! So I decided to add/suggest the restaurant to Urbanspoon, and it showed me that a place known as “Amato Gelato Cafe” was already at this location.

After some research, Amato Gelato Cafe is the retail gelato shop owned by Mario’s Gelato. We noticed that with our latest visit, our gelato pints came with their company logo on it, while previous times, there was nothing. Weird. Anyways, after our mediocre and semi-disappointing visit to Ramen Sanpachi, we were feeling like dessert so we stopped by here. Before writing this, I was reading up on other reviews from this place. A blogger mentioned that she got in trouble for taking pictures in the store, which didn’t happen to me. That’s very strange, especially in our day and age where a significant portion of a restaurant’s marketing comes from their own customers. Perhaps they changed their policy.

Speaking of policy, Amato does not accept credit cards. There is a charge to use debit, so cash is the way to go! You also pay for your ice cream prior to choosing the flavours. There are also two more gelato display cases which aren’t pictured, which forms a bit of a “J” shape.
Whenever we come here, we always get the “to go” tub because we feel that it’s a better value. For $9, you get a lot more ice cream and you can bring it home to enjoy! I believe you can chose from 1 L or 500 ml, we went with 500 ml.

You can also pick up to three flavours, which is what we usually do. It always takes me a long time to decide which flavour I want, and the staff are generally really patient with sampling.

However, I do find that they do not really know their products well, because when you ask them questions, they look really confused.
The first flavour we decided on getting that night was the rolo! It came with a caramel gelato base, with rolo chocolate chunks inside. We were hoping to get white chocolate raspberry, but they didn’t have that flavour that night so we settled with this.

There was a light caramel taste, nothing too strong. It was not as rich and sweet as I expected it to be for a gelato. The star of the show were the rolo chunks inside the ice cream, which had caramel inside!
The second flavour we got was the strawberry cheesecake. Please excuse my ugly pictures, it was tricky trying to capture it properly since it came in a pint! This one was my favourite out of the three flavours we got that night. It was very rich and indulgent, which is what I’m going for in gelato. There was a strong, thick, cheesecake flavour to it. It would have been nice to have included some actual strawberries in there, but I enjoyed the richness and creaminess to this gelato nonetheless.
The third flavour was the coconut, one of the boyfriend’s favourite! We order this flavour every time because it tastes so good and rich. There is a strong coconut taste to it, but also very, very rich and creamy. The coconut gelato has a very smoother texture to it, more so than the other flavours.

From what we’ve tried from our multiple visits, Amato offers decent gelato at a decent price. The flavours we tried had a smooth texture to it, and was very soft and nice to scoop.

-Carmen