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After a very salty (msg!) and unsatisfying Dim Sum at Floata, I really needed something refreshing. The closest thing other than bubble tea was Amato Gelato (aka Mario's Gelato). I guess other than my quest for the best Chinese bakery in town, I'm also on the sub-quest for the best Gelato in town as well. Mario's is quite popular in the GVRD as it supplies many restaurants with their specialty desserts and gelato. However, does popularity and name recognition translate into good gelato and sorbetto? Well, I've had Mario's many times in the past and it's always been pretty consistent
. I visit Amato Gelato today to compare with my past visits to Vivo and La Casa. Of course there are many more to visit (or revisit) before I can make a fair judgment.I'm actually pretty glad I went early in the afternoon to Amato Gelato. There was nobody around (partly because it was cold too) and I could take my sweet time looking over the flavours. I finally decided on one scoop of sorbetto and one scoop of gelato. Just in case you don't know, sorbetto contains no milk products and gelato is made from milk, not cream. I choose the
Blood Orange sorbetto and the Aloha gelato (pineapple and coconut). Two scoops cost me $6. In comparison, it's only $4.50 for a large cup at Vivo. I really liked the blood orange sobetto, the flavour was perfectly balanced. It was a bit tart; but it was tempered by the right amount of sugar. It was really refreshing and I really could eat much more of it. Although the pineapple coconut gelato had good flavour, the texture was ruined by too many large bits of coconut. I know this might be a personal taste thing; however, I really don't like really large chunks of anything in my ice cream or gelato. To me, it is hard to enjoy the 
smoothness of the gelato that way.Now, talking about smoothness, the gelato and sorbetto were both not very smooth, in comparison to Vivo, La Casa or Mondo. In fact, I found the sorbetto and gelato quite icy. Yet, the flavours at Amato are better than La Casa. I think Mondo and Vivo have a good balance between flavour and texture. I think Amato is actually an okay place to get gelato; however, with the prices they charge, there are better choices.
The Good:
- Flavours are well balanced
- A good selection of products
The Bad:
- Texture is not as good as some others
- A bit pricey
Amato Gelato
78 East 1st Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
604-879-9011
3 comments:
Coincidence??? I was there not long ago (post coming soon along with the non-food place I visited) and agree with your assessment of Amato Gelato. Just like my comment about Qoola, there are so many gelato places in town that you have to stand out. Unfortunately, Amato Gelato did not... Oh, well.
Thank goodness you have the same opinion. I was thinking that people would be offended I didn't like the ever popular Mario's Gelato. To me, it's overrated.
Never be afraid of expression your thoughts. As I have mentioned previously (specially in my sort-of controversial negative opinion of Qoola), restaurant owners needs to hear all type of feedback to learn how they can improve and fix things.
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