The Icecreamists

This ice cream parlour – famous for being the home of the “Baby Goo Goo” breast milk ice cream (the one that Lady Gaga tried to sue the company over due to the name…something almost as rich as the ice cream itself) was named one of Time Out’s best ice cream parlours in last week’s London edition.

Compared to the London Ice Cream royal that is the Haagen-Dazs cafe, The Icecreamists offer a smaller menu at almost double the price. Pretty toffy, trendy stuff on the face of it. And it would be, were it not for two factors: the food and the décor (fairly important things for a restaurant).

The restaurant (go for seated, the queues for takeaway go round the block) is decorated in Black No 1 and shocking pink shades, the seats are Louis and Chesterfield style chairs and benches. It has a very decadent rock-chic vibe about it.

We went for the taster menu (12.95) which consisted of a chocolate scoop, dulce de latte, vanilla, and “glastonberry”. The berry sorbet lived up to this frozen fruit fanatic’s non-dairy ideal. It was rich, with punchy flavours, and absolutely mouthwatering. Dulce de latte delivered as expected – and went great with both complimentary jugs of chocolate and caramel sauce. Vanilla and chocolate both trumped my expectations. For someone who loves vanilla ice cream – particularly when it’s Madagascan and laden with pods – I found theirs to be somewhat bland and lacking. On the other hand, I detest all forms of non-chocolate chocolate, from hot chocolate to chocolate flavoured ice cream (it’s just NOT chocolate). This, however, tasted like the real deal. Ice cream, yes, but somehow with the taste of actual molten Belgian chocolate. Extremely rich – we couldn’t manage more than half a scoop between two – but definitely chocolate ice cream done right.

The Icecreamists is probably somewhere that I’d take a trendy friend as part of a night out, but for pure dairy indulgence, I’m sticking with the Old Favourite.