Tutto Belle Il Gelato

As much as Vancouver has a wide selection of many things, it really doesn't have much in the way of Ice Cream and Gelato.  Let's be real here, the landscape is dominated by Earnest, Rain or Shine, La Casa and Bella.  Yah, there are some other spots, but in reality, if you were a tourist in town for 24 hours, you would probably visit one the of aforementioned places.  Since I am a local, I know there are more choices than that, but if you compare to other cities, Vancouver just doesn't have an extensive ice cream/gelato history.  Well, we do have another in town in Tutto Belle II Gelato on West 4th.

I recently was able to do a quick visit to the place and the first thing that struck me was the availability of unique flavours.  For myself, I wanted to try the sorbetto and the 2 options that spoke to me were the Mango & Passionfruit and the Strawberry & Raspberry.  Texturally, I found both smooth while a touch thick.  Maybe a touch gummy, but nothing offensive.  I thought the mango & passionfruit was mango dominant, yet that really didn't matter as it was fresh and natural-tasting while being purposefully sweet.  Predictably, the strawberry & raspberry was tangy and tart with the raspberry coming through.

Viv decided on the Blood Orange sorbetto served in a waffle cone.   It had an attractive colour and was a bit sweeter than the 2 flavours I had tried.  There was the unmistakable essence of blood orange, but we felt it was not as strong as we would've liked.  That didn't mean we didn't enjoy it still because it had the same qualities as the other ones.  We liked how they really loaded up the scoop atop the waffle cone and didn't leave us wanting for more.  The cone itself was aromatic and crunchy, holding up to the sorbetto. My daughter went for the White Peach and it was probably the sweetest of the 4 sorbettos we tried.  It was probably due to the fact that white peach lacks inherent tanginess to offset the sweetness.  With that being said, it wasn't as if the sugar content was excessive either.  Being more subtle, the white peach was more floral tasting.  This actually allowed for the waffle cone flavour to come out more unlike the dominant tanginess of the strawberry & raspberry.

My son was the only one to choose gelato and he went for his usual in the Chocolate.  This was pretty creamy and rich.  Seeing how gelato is made with milk, that meant it was executed properly.  It was plenty chocolatey while the sweetness was balanced.  I thought this was the best option to go with the waffle cone rather than the fruit flavours.  As with the cups, they were not shy about loading it onto the cone.

I returned a few weeks later on my own coin to try a few more flavours including the Mochi Ice Cream featuring strawberry gelato.  I tried eating it with the fork that was provided but honestly, I made a mess of it.  Better to jut pick it up and eat it.  I found the thin layer of mochi quite soft, but if I didn't eat it quickly enough, some parts got more chewy.  The gelato was creamy and did taste like strawberries.

I ended up also trying 2 more of their gelato flavours including Apple Pie and Sour Cherry.  Once again, the texture was creamy and light.  I thought the apple pie was rather sweet and could've used a bit more apple tang.  As for the sour cherry, it was mildly sweet with some cherry flavour.  Again, I would've liked a bit more tang to it.  Overall, the gelato and sorbetto at Tutto Belle II Gelato were good with many desirable flavours.  Definitely worth checking out!

*All gelato and sorbetto were complimentary for one of the two visits for this post*

The Good:

- Desirable flavours

- Not shy about the portion size

- Balanced sweetness

The Bad:

- Sorbetto was on the gummier side but on a subsequent visit, it was much improved

- Some of the gelato flavours could be a bit tangier to match its description