Dolce Amore

Dolce Amore
1590 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC

Feel free to call it odd, feel free to call it funny. There is a heat wave hitting BC and temperature records were broken not once but twice in the last week or so. The 35C/95F we had would be something akin to what I had to deal almost on a daily basis in Panama but there was something… different. Humidity? Whether it is or not, in both cases it felt really hot, just that in Panama, you would be sweating bullets and be soaked after you walk a couple of blocks; not necessarily the same here for me. Regardless, that does not mean I can use the same tactics to deal with the heal, like getting some ice cream – or, in this case, some gelato from Dolce Amore in Commercial Drive.

Of course, ice cream/soft serve/gelato/snow cone/et al, whatever it is, I won’t be the only one looking for something to deal with the temperature. So, when I arrived, there was a small queue. Oh, well… Now, they ask you to pay first which is a bummer. It is not that I mind paying first; instead is the fact that those who paid already will most likely be in front of the counter which does not really allow you to see what flavours are available. And, of course, when they call the next (paid) customer and he/she dallies a little bit, there will be others unhappy about why he/she are taking so long. Darn. Anyway, I was able to take a peak while waiting in line and it was just a matter of waiting until it was my turn.

Sorry for the glare effect…

While they had two counters, there weren’t that many trays in the second counter. Most of the gelato were in this one in particular. This looks good to me as too much variety will, well, give you many options but quality will most likely be compromised. Anyway, as for myself…

I ordered a two scoop and, among the flavours I wanted to give it a try was fig mascarpone. But… But… When I arrived, the “new” tray was a different flavour and fig mascarpone was the label for what a tray they removed just before my turn. Argh!!!! That really threw me off as I wanted to give that one a try. In the end, I went for orange creamsicle and pistachio. Not sure how noticeable they are from the picture above: the pistachio is the slightly brownish one at the bottom, the orange is the top version. The orange-y syrup had some pieces of orange (zest?).

In both case they were good and had something “bad” at the same time. For one part, the flavours were there, i.e., it wasn’t one of those cases where you had to try really hard to taste them. I specially liked the pistachio, as it had a hint of roasted pistachio rather than the regular “dry” pistachio flavour. The orange, well, when you taste small chunks of zest… However, here is the “bad” part. For one, it was starting to melt a bit too fast! Sure, you can blame the heat but, from the first of the two pictures above, do you see it already starting to drip? Also, the orange had a slight unnatural orange flavour. OK, probably this is me nit picking. Whenever I have orange, I don’t expect the all-sweet-orange-y flavour. Instead, I expect a bit of acidity. There wasn’t none in here…

However, overall, it was good, as the negatives I have mentioned are more on the nit picky lines rather than they being “bad”. It was quite rich so probably going for two scoops was a bit too greedy: one scoop would have done fine… ^_^;;;

Tagged under: Commercial Drive • Dessert • Vancouver