Best of Toronto
The Best Gelato in Toronto
The best gelato in Toronto is sold by people who have to make hay while the sun literally shines. There are few food businesses more dependent on the weather, and with high summer lasting barely two months in the city, the city's gelaterias have to pray for heat and humidity the way that ski resorts pray for brisk snow and bright days.
Gelato went from its Italian roots on College and St. Clair a few years ago to spread throughout the city, around the same time as chefs all over the world came to prefer the lighter, more vividly-flavoured palette of gelato flavours to dairy-laden ice cream. The ubiquity of flavours like lemon and pistachio are a legacy of the old-fashioned gelateria's persistence as an industry standard, but adventurous gelato makers have been spicing up their glass-fronted freezers with adventurous, even radical innovations.
At a fully-stocked gelateria the selection can be daunting, so I asked staff to pick a favourite, or a flavour that summed them up - a very tasty game of Lucky Dip that might help give a helpful cross section of the city's best gelato.
Here is where you can find some of the best gelato in Toronto.
Note: This list was previously published on April 7th, 2008. Comments below made up until November 22, 2010 are in reference to the old list. We've purposely kept the archived comments here because we believe they (mostly) add value to this topic. If you don't want to have to wade through all of them, simply hit the "sort by newest first" link at the top of the thread.
Dolce Gelato
With locations in Little Italy and the Danforth, Dolce aims straight down the centre with traditional flavours like fragola, torrone, noccciola, bacio and Sicilian pistachio, with a few decadent modernisms like Oreo, bubble gum and dulce de leche. Lucky Dip - pistachio. More »
La Paloma
It’s not the oldest, but it might be the most beloved old school gelateria in the city, a fixture on St. Clair’s Corso Italia, and a red letter amenity for realtors selling downtowners on midtown west. On hot days, the only possible time you can avoid a lineup is early morning, and weekends are a madhouse. Lucky Dip - limone and Sicilian pistachio (totally old school). More »
Mad Italian Gelato
Two locations, one on College, the other on South Bayview - both gelato-mad neighbourhoods with healthy competition - means the owner is pretty confident. The Lucky Dip turns into a cornucopia, with the manager pulling one spoonful after another out of the display freezer. There’s too much to choose from, but the pink grapefruit stands out, with its mulled-down tartness. More »
Gelato Simply Italian
On the furthest western edge of the Bayview/Leaside/Mount Pleasant gelato district, and a relative newcomer. Classic Italian flavours, displayed with their names untranslated, in a clean, slick shop that’s meant to evoke a gelateria on some hip street in Naples or Rome. The owner has a charming, pugnacious pride in his flavours, and offers a Sicilian pistachio that he insists is the best in the city. More »
Ed's Real Scoop
Two stores in the Beaches and Leslieville mean that this home of all things frozen has the east end covered. Selling ice cream, gelato and sorbet, they don’t specialize but they certainly excel. Lucky dip - Pistachio, buttery and rich, but when temperatures soar, you might want to make some space for the sangria sorbet. More »
Hollywood Gelato
In the heart of Leaside, this gelateria has all the classic fruit-filled flavours and a host of New World dessert-inspired variations (Oreo, Skor, creme caramel.) A quick Lucky Dip turns up a heady, nutty Ferrero Rocher gelato, but the owner is eager to push his Magnum Gelato - a low-fat, high-protein engineered gelato that might make purists blanch, but only until they get a taste of the Valhrona chocolate, as rich and dark as a truffle-filled mousse. More »
Hotel Gelato
In the largely gelato-free northern border of Forest Hill, this 16-month-old gelateria has a snazzy glossy black and white interior with Lucite chairs and a liquor license, as well as a relatively full menu and a freezer full of boundary-breaking flavours like mojito, key lime and strawberry cheesecake, but the Lucky Dip pulls up peanut butter and banana, both ingredients distinct to the tongue and free of overwhelming sugar. More »
Il Gelatiere Artigianale
The name suggests a craftsman’s approach to gelato flavouring, family-owned and made in the back. Their display freezer is also likely to contain some challenging surprises in addition to the tried and true. Lucky Dip - The nice young woman behind the counter chose limone, which may be the root and trunk of all gelato, but if you’re adventurous you’ll go for something like the pancetta - creamy and slightly smoky, with chunks of candied Italian bacon brittle. Proof that bacon, truly, does go with anything. More »
Soma Chocolate
At 55 Mill Street The gelato’s made in a glass-walled lab just behind the counter, evoking lab-coated food science with an endearing geekiness at this Distillery District fixture. Chocolate and coffee flavours have pride of place, of course, but the Lucky Dip pulls up lemon sour cream, a variation on the classic limone that gives it body and a whole new kind of rich tartness. More »
Discussion
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...but hey, i'm bias ;)
And Mike, I understand your bias. =)
I was trying to find a place that probably packed up and left the day after I had their gelato!
Why is life so cruel?
Enjoy!
He opened .Gelato Simply Italian last year. And it is phenomenal.
Gotta try Dolce Gelato (heard a lot of negative reviews on other forums) and Simply Gelato Italian. Coming back from Rome last month has gotten me hooked to find the best in the city.
Gotta try
www.elioimporting.com Elenka Gelato ingredients.
Well now the secret is out, happy gelato'ing