Crackle Crème

Crackle Creme is a one man operated dessert shop that is located in Chinatown, serving creme brûlée and waffles. I only know of Crackle Creme because a few months ago, photos from the dessert shop were popping up on my Instagram feed almost every day! I was more interested in trying their waffles than the creme brûlée though. So after finishing up at The Fish Counter with C'est la vie a Maggi, we decided to make a dessert stop and headed to Crackle Creme.

The interior of Crackle Creme looks clean, tidy as well as simple, and the space is properly maximized. There are seating arrangements along the walls and a few seats outside of the shop. During our visit in the middle of the afternoon, the shop was not busy so fortunately we had no issues grabbing a seat. If the shop is full however, Crackle Creme offers creme brûlée to go in disposable tin cups.

On our visit, the flavours of creme brûlée included Bailey's, Madagascar Vanilla Bean, Cream of Earl Grey, Salted Caramel, Black Sesame, Pandan Coconut and Durian. In addition, there was some sort of event(?) that the shop created more flavours for which included Spiced Pumpkin Pie, Matcha Green Tea, Ferrero Rocher, Honey Lavender, Lemon Basil, Guinness Espresso, Maple Topped with Walnuts, Bourbon Butter and Chai Tea. Basically, there is a large variety of flavours available! 

Qoola Frozen Yogurt Bar : Oakridge location

Qoola is a Canadian frozen yogurt franchise and there are over ten locations in B.C. The frozen yogurt stands are usually located in shopping centres and are completely self serve.

Consumers select their choice(s) of frozen yogurt along with toppings and have control of the portion. This year, Qoola launched an organic selection and the flavours on my visit includes banana split, blood orange passionfruit, green tea, peach lychee, vanilla, lemon, original and blackberry. Asides from frozen yogurt, Qoola offers smoothies, "Q2GO" take home froyo or sorbet, and waffles.

Timothy's Frozen Yogurt : Gary Point Park location

After a disappointing late lunch at Sockeye City, we decided to take a stroll around Gary Point Park. On the way there, I noticed Timothy's and being still hungry from not eating much at lunch, we dropped by.

I have a question; in general, are customers allowed to sample ice cream or gelato? Before, as in just up to half a year ago, I never asked for samples because I was shy. In addition, even when offered, I would decline! I just have this weird tendency to feel obligated to purchase something just because I have a sample. But, after purchasing many flavours before and sometimes not really enjoying a few, occasionally I like to ask for samples. Well, more like wait for someone to ask for a sample and follow LOL.

Having said that, I was wondering if Timothy's even allows samples? When I asked to sample the pistachio gelato, the cashier seemed very annoyed and almost rolled his eyes. Also, there was no one else behind us at the time. Perhaps because there was a small line up earlier on? Anyway, as if his negative attitude was not uncomfortable enough, the sample was the size of only two corn niblets (no exaggeration) so I really did not understand what the big deal was. Furthermore, BF never asks for samples and if he does not like the flavour, he tosses the food out which I find very wasteful. So, I asked him to grab a sample this time. When it was his turn, the cashier snapped. 

His face changed to what I did not know could even be more unfriendly, he let out a loud sigh and said, "just to let you guys know I can't give you anymore samples, thats it." At the time, I felt guilty like I shoplifted or did something wrong and was startled; so I played it safe, ordered a blackberry yogurt and got the heck out of there. Fortunately, we left there fast because someone else came up behind us and we did not want to annoy the cashier even more. I even hesitated to go back for a spoon or napkin! Geezus. As for BF, he went to an ice cream truck nearby because he was not happy with the customer service here.

Allegro Coffee Bar

Whole Foods has a gelato bar? How come I never noticed? After receiving strict rules from a friend to not grab a snack before meeting her for dinner because my “snacks” are usually a meal, I decided to try out some gelato before grocery shopping. The gelato comes from the Salt Spring Island and is completely organic.

SMALL 3oz $2.99, MEDIUM 5ox $3.69, LARGE 11.5oz $4.69.

The available flavours are maple, hazelnut, vanilla bean, strawberry and cream, as well as chocolate bliss. Before ordering, I sampled the maple and found the gelato to be extremely sweet, to the point that I did not want to finish the sample. The cashier was not very surprised and mentioned all the flavours are pretty much sweet and pointed towards the trash for me to toss the sample out. So, feeling obligated to purchase something because I asked for a sample, I went for the hazelnut along with the vanilla bean.

Marble Slab Creamery : South Surrey location

Whaaaat unlimited mix ins at Marble Slab? For one price? After grabbing lunch at Five Guys, we headed a few doors down for some ice cream. Walking in, there was no one in site which I did not mind since I took the opportunity to snap some photos without any weird stares.

Marble Slab is a chain restaurant that serves ice cream, ice cream cakes, milkshakes, malts, smoothies, ice cream soda and floats. Furthermore, there is a variety of mix ins to be added to any ice cream. 

SMALL $4.99, MEDIUM $5.99, LARGE $6.49, HALF LITRE ($7.49).

Rocky Point Ice Cream

While dropping by Safeway at Kensington Plaza, there happened to be a birthday celebration for Cobs Bread. What did that mean? Free ice cream from Rocky Point!

The available flavours were salted caramel, mint flake, espresso flake, rocky point road, maple walnut, cotton candy, vanilla as well as strawberry, and a sorbet such as mixed berry. Furthermore, there was a special flavour which was made especially for Cobs, lemon blueberry scone.

Tre Galli Gelato Caffe

Tre Galli Gelato Caffe is located at the River Market in New Westminster Quay, and after an unpleasant meal at Re-Up, we headed across to the shop. I believe this is the only gelato shop in New West too. The prices include tax and are $3.50/child, $4.10/single, $5.15/double and $6.50/triple. Furthermore, there are take home containers available as well. Some of the flavours include amaretto, passion fruit, chocolate chip mint, blood orange, stracciatella, lemon, french vanilla, pear, kiwi lime, greek yogurt, blueberry, banana chocolate chip, pineapple, black sesame, panna cotta and tiramisu.

Before grabbing some gelato, we came here for a frappe while having a meal at Re-Up. Surprisingly, despite sitting right in front of the caffe with no line up (at the moment), the male cashier dropped our drink to the other side (presumably where the drink pick up area is) without mentioning it to us. Comparing the customer service to Re-Up, it was pretty… not welcoming or friendly. 

Mattu's Coffee & Tea : Willoughby Town Centre location

When heading back to the car after having dinner at Noma, I noticed a little cafe that serves ice cream from Island Farms. Mattu's Coffee & Tea is located in Willoughby Town Centre which is not to be confused with Willowbrook Centre (although they have a location there as well), and is the coffee shops' second location. 

The cafe not only offers coffee, but tea, frappes, milkshakes and alcoholic beverages as well such as beer, coolers, and martini. Asides from the drinks, the cafe offers generic goodies such as soup, pastries (lemon, cranberry, apple crumble, triple berry and date bars), quiche and biscotti. In addition, there is even a heart shaped Barbie cookie! Although I am not sure if the baked goodies are housemade. 

Earnest Ice Cream

Before parting ways with C'est la vie a Maggi, she urged me to try Earnest Ice Cream and to get it over with. As for her, she finds the shop overhyped and was firm on not ordering from here again. And from what I have heard, sometimes there are lineups up to an hour long! Although fortunately, we waited only a mere five minutes. 

Earnest Ice Cream focuses on local and sustainable flavours which is similar to Rain or Shine, a newer ice cream shop that popped up in Kitsilano. In addition, vegan flavours are available as well. And for those who really love the flavours here, Earnest has a fridge full of pints at the back of the shop.

As for the prices, they are slightly higher when compared to Rain or Shines'. Single $5.00, double $7.00, pint $11.00. However, waffle cones do not cost extra. As for the flavours of ice cream, vegan lemon, salted caramel, whiskey hazelnut, spruce bud, cardamon, london fog, rhubarb oat crumble, cafe au lait and 33 acres of malt was available.

Paradiso Gelato Bistro

Ending my food date with C'est la vie a Maggi, we headed to Paradiso Gelato Bistro which is a place I have wanted to try for a while. At least for a couple of weeks! The gelato shop is located right across from Kitsilano beach and I cannot believe that I have never been here! As for the interior, seating is limited which is likely not an issue since most will walk out with gelato rather than staying. In addition, asides from gelato, the Vietnamese owned shop offers banh mi! If we did not have froyo earlier, we would have probably tried one.

As we were checking out the flavours, one of the kind owners offered us a sample of choice. Furthermore, the sample was a generous size and more than enough for the both of us to have a taste.

Scoop!

After finishing lunch at Indian Oven, C'est la vie a Maggi and I noticed a frozen yogurt joint a few stores down. Scoop! is a small froyo shop and the concept is simple as well as similar to Menchie's, Pinkberry and Qoola. Customers choose a flavour of frozen yogurt and select their toppings at the self serve bar. 

Glenburn Soda Fountain & Confectionery

A few months ago during a late lunch at Burgers Etc, I noticed an old school ice cream shop across the street and knew we had to make a visit. So, months later after revisiting Burgers Etc, we stopped by Glenburn Soda Fountain & Confectionery after dinner. The ice cream shop is located in North Burnaby along Hastings Street, and has a very homey old fashioned atmosphere. Walking in, we noticed the extensive chalkboard menus plastered on the wall with attractive as well as easy to read font, and the shop offers ice cream from Birchwood Dairy, floats, milkshakes as well as sundaes, and other goodies.

As for the seating arrangements, there are only a few seats by the counter which would be my first choice (however, some kiddies already took them!) and around three to four tables.

Rain or Shine Ice Cream

Rain or Shine Ice Cream is on C'est la vie Maggi and my to visit list for our next food date and according to her, the ice cream shop is the next "it" place for ice cream. However, since I was literally in the area and had a pretty crappy lunch at Mamalee's, I felt like I deserved something good and made the visit without her. Rain or Shine has a list of "keepers" and seasonal ice cream choices along with toppings, sundaes and shakes. The interior of the ice cream shop looks clean as well as simple, and has a spacious hallway for customers to line up comfortably. When we walked in, a clerk was helping a customer and another staff member who was at the back of the shop, smiled when she made eye contact and shortly came out to serve us. I am big on customer service and something so simple like a smile, goes a long way. 

Rain or Shine offers single scoops with one flavour for $4.50, single scoops with two flavours for $5.00, doubles for $6.00, a flight of four flavours for $9.00 and a pint for $9.00 as well. The good news for those who want to grab a pint is that you can skip the line! Also, Rain or Shine has "Taco Tuesday" which consists of two scoops of ice cream and one topping served on a taco waffle cone for only $6.00 (a pretty good deal!). Since we did not look at the prices before ordering, we went for two doubles and a flight which comes with the same amount of scoops, would have costed $3.00 less!

Tim Hortons and Cold Stone Creamery : Abbotsford location

After leaving Harrison, we made the trip out to Hope just to take a ride on the Air Tram. Unfortuantely though, the air tram was not open until a few weeks later so we started heading back to Vancouver. On the way back, I felt light headed as well as car sick so we got off the Whatcom exit to grab a snack.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory : Harrison Hot Springs

After finishing breakfast at Chuck & Kitty's, I was craving for something sweet and head to Rocky Mountain. The man working at the front was friendly as well as welcoming, and offered us a sample of their maple fudge. I grew up frequently visiting Rocky Mountain, especially for their caramel popcorn! However, isn't it weird that I never tried their caramel apples?! It must be a Chinese thing… my parents never wanted me to try one when I was younger, and now that I am older, I do not care for them. I like my fruit simple, with no yogurt, melted chocolate or caramel.

Amato Gelato Cafe

I guess a gelato trip is somewhat on the way to Burnaby from Vancouver :). I have been here a few times and it is always "meh" to me. The flavours that are always pretty much a fail is the mango and green tea, but I thought hey, it has been a couple of years since I last tried them, so they probably have improved. Fine, I actually did not want to try the mango and green tea but I felt pressured to.. I will explain why later.

The shop is quite dead for a Sunday with five employees. From a business view, I would think to ask if any of the employees would like to leave since it is slow. This is only an hour ago around 4:30pm? In the beginning everyone was grouped together and talking, but it is nice when they see customers waiting for them, they start to spread out.

Cup: Single $3.75, Double $6.50

Cone: Single $4.50, Double $7.25

Dipped cone: Single $5.50, Double $8.00

Apparently you cannot take photos as one of the employees mentioned and when I stopped, another one felt the need to tell me again. Telling me once is enough, especially when there is no one even here, it is very quiet and I am pretty sure everyone heard when the first girl already told me.

In their defence, I did take quite a lot of photos (almost every flavour). However, in my defence, I wanted to look through old photos to see if I really have tried every flavour. And from a business view, I understand why people do not prefer photos being taken in case they look bad or something that is there, should not be there. Usually when any food shop prohibits photos, it is because there has accidentally been a mistake regarding the food which was captured on camera. And to be honest, I doubt the manager even worked today and if I asked straight up if I could take photos before I started, they would have let me. It is the fact that I did not ask. End of vent.

PISTACHIO, MANGO AND GREEN TEA.

Portion control issues? The pistachio is the smallest scoop of gelato I have ever had here. Anyways, the pistachio tastes like salted pistachio (but is not too salty) and my friend thinks it is overly sweet like syrup. I do not think it is that sweet, but it does taste legit like actual salted pistachios. The mango is very subtle, tastes more like a peach if anything and is not very good. As for the green tea, the taste is barely there and there was a few ice chunks as well. In addition, the gelato here is a bit too creamy for me as in too heavy, I like my gelato to be creamy but a nice light creamy. Other than the creaminess, there is a lack of flavour. I prefer La Casa Gelato more plus their friendly staff (not because of todays photo incident). 

Yeah I did not even want the mango or green tea because it is never good, but obviously I feel like shit when more than one person feels the need to tell me to stop taking photos when I already stopped, so I chose something fast, took photos of what we got and left. I also got stared down when putting the prices on my phone, what is wrong with this place?

Note: Why no napkins? Usually most places offer or just give them to you with your order.

Food: 2/5

Service: 1/5

Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato

A couple of years ago, Bella Gelateria used to be my favourite gelato place! I remember when they were always empty and now they are so popular and ridiculously busy.

The most common questions that random people asked was, "is this place that good?" and "is this really the line up?".

Their media recognitions

One scoop $5.50, with cone $6.75

Double scoop $6.75, with cone $8.00

Triple scoop $8.00, with cone $9.25

SALTED CARAMEL WITH WAFFLE CONE, AKBAR MASHTI (persia; rosewater, saffron, pistachio and cream) and TORRONCINO (italian honey nougat), SALTED CARAMEL and SALTED HAZELNUT

So everyone ate without waiting and forgot I wanted a photo. Mine is the one in the middle, untouched,  and the presentation looks shitty. Anyways, yes, the gelato is good and very creamy. The line up was only 2 metres so I decided to go, and I consider anything longer than that not worth it, unless you have time to kill and enjoy being seen downtown (whoops, I can be negative sometimes). Watch me later on in November when it is less busy and post about how yummy it is haha.

Service: 5/5 (one of the guys there are always super friendly!)

Food: 5/5