When it comes to ice cream, we don’t discriminate. Whether it’s presented in a matka, as a sandwich or on a stick, prepared with gourmet ingredients or is factory-manufactured, we eat it all. We haven’t however been swayed by the newfangled liquid nitrogen churned ice creams that are gaining popularity across the city. To us the avant-garde technique employed by restaurants and new ice creams salons is no more than a fancy chemistry trick involving a showy cloud of vapour that parts to reveal an intensely cold block or scoop of ice cream that we often fear will give us frostbite.
Papacream, the city’s newest liquid nitrogen ice cream shop, proved us wrong. The Churchgate salon is the colour of a sorbet shade card, with swatches of pastel blues, peaches and pinks, and provides seating for 30 people across its two floors. For their elaborate preparations are designed to be enjoyed in the store. Notably, they’ve focused less on the theatricality of assembling the ice cream and more on flavour innovation. Apart from savoury options such as the Mexicano (spiced nachos with cheddar, bell peppers and jalapeno ice cream) and paani puri sorbet (puris topped with potato mousse and served with a pani sorbet), there’s the Thai sushi ice cream (read about this below), which has to be eaten with chopsticks; a doughnut ice cream sandwich; and masala chaas flavoured sorbet to name just a few of the many unusual offerings.
Our top scoops were the orange and basil sorbet (Rs110) and the Ferrero Crunch (Rs180). The orange and basil sorbet was a cooling mound of crushed ice stippled with fresh basil and drenched in freshly squeezed and unsweetened orange juice. If spiked with vodka, it would make the perfect party treat. The Ferrero Crunch was Ferrero Rocher chocolate successfully reimagined as ice cream with rice crispies and whole hazelnuts in a luscious and creamy milk chocolate ice cream concealed under a thin sheet of dark chocolate. Get the Mexicano (Rs250) only for the chilled scoop of delicious cheddar and jalapeño ice cream, which is imbued with a smokiness from the roasted bell peppers added to the blend. The ice cream is presented as a dip with a sharing portion of spiced nachos. Alas our batch of chips was thick, hard and practically inedible.
The Horlicks ice cream with mini Nutella pancakes (Rs180) was monotonously milky and made too sweet by the topping of pancake roulades. The somewhat contrived Thai sushi ice cream (Rs250) is essentially a frozen chocolate crepe stuffed with coconut and lemongrass ice cream and then sliced to resemble maki rolls. The highlight of this Japenese fusion dessert was the refreshing Asian flavours within the superfluous chocolate wrap.
Get: Orange and basil sorbet (Rs110), Ferrero Crunch (Rs180).
Skip: Horlicks ice cream with mini Nutella pancakes (Rs180).
Prices exclude taxes. This review was conducted anonymously.
It is our policy to review new joints a week to ten days after they have opened.
Papacream, Shop No.18, same building as Eros Cinema, Churchgate. Tel: 022 6517 7272. Open daily, from noon to midnight. Get directions here.