MoMo & Coco

Melbourne’s Best Asian Ice Cream Shop

Introduction

After almost a year away from NYC, we can say that the dessert landscape in NYC is not always a trend setter or particularly innovative. Ever tried to google “best Asian ice cream” dessert shop? In NYC, there’s the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory for pan-Asian flavours, and Sundaes Best for Korean-centric flavours. But otherwise…we are scratching our heads to think of another dedicated Asian ice cream shop in NYC. By contrast, for a city with less than a quarter of NYC’s population, Melbourne has four very good ice cream shops entirely or almost entirely dedicated to Asian ice cream flavours. 

For modern Japanese flavour ice cream 

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Kori, 392 Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD. Also located in Hawthorn.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Fuji apple. 
  • ☑ Budget: AUD$ 6.90 per scoop.
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  Kori is considered to be one of the most premium ice cream stores in Melbourne, and for good reason. It showcases a finely-curated ice cream menu of all-Japanese flavours, with the stand out being the gelato-textured Fuji Apple or Nashi Pear. There are also more traditional flavours on offer, such as green tea, red bean, miso, chestnut, and hojicha, and these are all lusciously creamy. However, if you prefer stronger tones for the green tea flavour, we prefer Hareruya’s version (see below). 

For Japanese mochi ice cream

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Hareruya Pantry, 27 Somerset Place, Melbourne CBD. Also located in Carlton. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Very strong tea or genmaicha. 
  • ☑ Budget: AUD$ 6.60 per scoop.
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: What’s better than just a single scoop of ice cream? How about wrapping it in a paper thin layer of mochi? If you love green tea ice cream – and if you love it especially strong and bitter and earthy – we highly recommend heading down the laneway where Hareruya is located. It’s a case in point of concentraing on one small thing, and doing it exceptionally and perfectly well. 

For bubble tea ice cream

  • ☑ Dessert destination: XinFuTang, 273 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne CBD.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Bubble tea.
  • ☑ Budget: AUD$ 5 per scoop.
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  We l-o-v-e bubble tea….so much so that our blood type during the summer months is probably bubble tea. 😀  And what is better than bubble tea? How about bubble tea ice cream? We hunted down the best bubble tea ice cream in NYC (see here, here and here), so you can be sure we hunted it down in Melbourne as well. And similar to NYC, the best one can be found at Xin Fu Tang. In Melbourne, it’s served in a narrow plastic cone, with warm bubble tea and tapioca balls swirled into icy soft serve. Extremely sweet, but a perfect antidote when it’s a 40 degrees Aussie summer. 

For pan Asian flavour ice cream

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Naruto, 361-365 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne CBD.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Osmanthus Oolong.
  • ☑ Budget: AUD$ 5.50 per scoop.
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  Nestled inside an unassuming grocery store, Naruto features a bubblegum-coloured line up of both Western and Asian ice cream flavours. As at the time of writing, it is the only place we know of in Melbourne CBD that offers a most delicate Osmanthus ice cream, almost as understated as the shop’s location. We also spotted rose oolong and peach oolong flavours too. In offering other pan-Asian flavours such as black sesame, yuzu, durian and green tea, Naruto makes for a pleasant introduction to Asian-flavoured ice cream for those unfamiliar or inexperienced. Just don’t expect it to be particularly pioneering.

For Indonesian/Malaysian flavour ice cream

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Beku, 150 Lygon Street, Carlton.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Cendol.
  • ☑ Budget: AUD$ 6.90 per scoop.
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Beku distinguishes itself by showcasing a very long menu of both dairy and dairy-free ice creams. We especially like Beku’s dairy-free ice creams, which have a texture almost like a thick whipped cream. Of the dairy-free flavours we tried, they were all vibrantly flavoured. The Cendol was our clear favourite, arriving with little green droplets of pandan jelly swimming in a small pool of gula melaka syrup. The Calamansi was delightfully tart and acidic and worked as a great counterpoint to other heavier ice cream flavours. The most interesting flavour though, has to be Beku’s Telok Angin, a minty and gingery concotion inspired of its medicinal namesake. By contrast, we found the dairy ice creams, such as the Pineapple Tart and the Teh Tarik, to be more muted in tone.

For Filipino flavour ice cream

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Kariton Sorbetes, various locations including Melbourne CBD. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Buko Pandan.
  • ☑ Budget: AUD$ 6.50 per scoop.
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Of all the ice cream places on this list, Kariton is perhaps the most laser-focused on featuring only Filipino flavours. You won’t find an errant strawberry or tiramisu ice cream here. Being a Filipino dessert spot, the Ube was extravagantly creamy, but as we find ube a bit too heavy to endure for more than a spoonful, we preferred Kariton’s range of sorbet more. The Buko Pandan sorbet was excellent, embedded with shredded coconut and pandan jelly, and as a double scoop experience, it is perfectly balanced with either the Guyabano (a refreshing soursop sorbet) or the Four Seasons (a sweet mix of guava, pineapple, mango and orange). By comparison, Kariton’s non-sorbet range were much creamier and much much sweeter, featuring flavours such as caramelized bana, milo milk, cheese, and dulce de leche that drew on distinctively Filipino desserts. Note that Kariton scoops particularly generously – aka slightly larger-than-average-sized scoop.

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