Super Serve
Super Serve is a soft serve shop in Kensington Market offering fun toppings and classic ice cream flavours.
It's a new venture from the team behind El Rey and is located right next door to the restaurant — they even share the kitchen in the back.
Housed in a bright space, they've kept the old signage from the location's previous hair salon and renovated the interior to have a retro feel with green checkered tile floors, a slotted menu board, and a hand-painted window sign.
Co-owner Owen Walker told blogTO that the move to open an ice cream shop felt natural.
"Our flavour offerings cross over with El Rey," he said. "We also felt like it's what the neighbourhood needed."
The menu is quite simple, consisting of five types of combinations with one of them being a monthly vegan special.
True to their name, the servings are large, coming in at 8 oz. It's best to opt for a cup over a cone to get the best topping coverage on your swirl.
You'll find classic flavours like chocolate and vanilla available as a single or twist. During our visit, the vegan flavours were pineapple and horchata.
Super Serve #1 ($7.50), a crowd favourite, is a chocolate vanilla twist topped with a cornflake-pretzel mix with a toffee texture that's coated in caramel. The crunch on this is excellent.
Super Serve #2 ($7.50) is reminiscent of coconut cream pie or a piña colada. Vanilla soft serve is topped with coconut shavings, pineapple tossed in lime juice, and caramel sauce.
This one is lighter and more refreshing than the chocolate base. Walker tells me they're always trying to strike an interesting balance of sweet and salty, "almost like when you dip your fry into ice cream."
Super Serve #3 ($7.50) is kind of like a strawberry shortcake. Mascerated berries and strawberry coulis are topped with white crumbs that are made based on a Momofuku recipe.
White chocolate and condensed milk is baked into a hard crumble that melts in your mouth. It's a fun texture that plays off the cool ice cream well.
Super Serve #4 ($7.50) is for chocolate lovers. Fudge, peanuts, and chocolate crumbs that conjure memories of Oreos are layered over a chocolate swirl.
If you're feeling creative, there's also an option to build your own cup starting from $5.50 with additional toppings going for $0.65. I personally think the cornflake-pretzel and milk crumb are must-tries.
The monthly vegan option ($7.50) was a pineapple and horchata twist which we opted to try in a waffle cone.
It's topped with caramel and a fine hazelnut praline, and pineapple. Overall, this makes for a great post-meal palate cleanser.
Super Serve is located at 562 Dundas St W.
Fareen Karim
