Gelato Messina, Miranda

Are you ready for an obscene amount of gelato photos in one post?

The whole saga began when I first heard about friends driving out specifically for a gelato run (people do that?), and then later someone else asked me what my favourite gelato place was (none at the time), what I thought of Gelato Messina because they thought it was all hype (I’d never visited a Messina at the time) and recommended another gelato place in Sydney (still yet to visit). Gelato is apparently a pretty big deal to many, so I guess there’s only one way for me to find out and form my own opinion. Yes, Vickie finally visited Gelato Messina to see what the fuss was all about. This is what Gelato Messina at Miranda is all about!

Jump to:

Gelato Messina Standard Flavours (Gelato)
Gelato Messina Standard Flavours (Sorbet)
Gelato Messina Special Flavours

Gelato Messina Miranda Jan 2016

Gelato Messina Miranda Dec 2015

Gelato Messina Miranda Oct 2015

Gelato Messina Miranda Sep 2015

Gelato Messina Miranda Aug 2015

Gelato Messina Miranda Jul 2015

Gelato Messina Miranda Standard Gelato

Gelato Messina Miranda Standard Sorbet

Note 1: I don’t have a sweet tooth so very little sweetness would satisfy me and any more quickly overwhelm and sicken.
Note 2: I generally avoid caffeine after a certain hour and usually only have gelato after dinner, so I may never try many of the coffee or chocolate flavours. Boo.
Note 3: I am cuckoo for coconut, so expect just a little bias. smile
Note 4: Blank comment means it tastes fairly standard (and that’s not a complaint).
Note 5: This post will be continually updated as I revisit the place. Oh, spoiler. I revisit the place.

Post Last Updated: 25 Jan 2016

Gelato Messina Standard Flavours (Gelato)

There is a plethora of standard gelato flavours available, and the first time I went there I just didn’t know where to begin. At Messina Miranda, the first and third display cabinets from the left are the standard gelato flavours that are available year-round.

Gelato Messina: Gelato (standard)
	Flavour	Comments	Date
	Apple Pie	This flavour has my usual complaint of the apple pie crust crumbs being too large a lump, but it wasn’t soggy and that I appreciated. I love apple pies themselves but wasn’t particularly fond of this flavour.	25 Oct 2015
	Banana Split	I liked the banana-ness on the first few tastes, but after a while, it seemed to have dissipated and I could only taste caramel, peanuts and chocolate.	25 Oct 2015
	Bounty	Coconut milk gelato with desiccated coconut and choc chip. I thought this tasted too chocolatey and not coconutty enough, but I’ve never had Bounty the chocolate, so I wouldn’t know how it compares.	2 Dec 2015
	Choc Mint	This flavour tastes like mint leaves. It leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste, which I much prefer than the sugary fake mint flavour of some other choc mint ice cream. Every time Richard orders this, the staff would ask if he’s tried it because it’s just different from the typical choc mint.	31 Jul 2015
star	Coconut Lychee	Loved the very Asian coconut and lychee flavour combination.	14 Aug 2015
	Hazelnut		31 Jul 2015
	Macadamia Crunch	Macadamia gelato with crunchy sweet white chocolate bits inside.	23 Aug 2015
	Pannacotta w Fig Jam & Amaretti Biscuit	Had a big scoop of this and a big wad of super sweet sticky fig jam hit and overwhelm me. I wish this was more pannacotta than fig jam, but if super sweet stickiness is your thing, this flavour would be your thing.	31 Jul 2015
star	Pear & Rhubarb	Lovely fruity flavour!	14 Aug 2015
	Salted Caramel and White Chocolate Chip	A bestseller according to the Messina website, and I can see why. It’s creamy, sweet and slightly salty. It’s the complete diet.	25 Jan 2016
	Vanilla		2 Dec 2015
	Yoghurt & Berry	Tastes more or less like its name. There’s meant to be both raspberries and blueberries in the coulee, but every time I’ve seen it there’s only red swirls in it.	19 Sep 2015

Gelato Messina Standard Flavours (Sorbet)

Sorbet, also available year-round, are on the furthest right. I could favourite all the flavours in this section!

Gelato Messina: Sorbet (dairy free)
	Flavour	Comments	Date
	Blood Orange	Quite sour, which I love. Excellent as a palate cleanser.	9 Oct 2015
	Chocolate Sorbet	Taste dark chocolatey and not overly sweet, and not thick like an ice cream or gelato. A lighter chocolate option.	14 Aug 2015
	Coffee and Hazelnut Praline	The sweet crunchy hazelnut praline goes very well in the coffee sorbet. There’s enough hazelnut taste in it.	23 Aug 2015
	Lemon Sorbet	Super refreshing, palate-cleansing, tarty lemony goodness.	11 Sep 2015
	Mandarin		25 Sep 2015
star	Pandan & Coconut	Pandan and coconut are always a reliable flavour combination.	31 Jul 2015
star	Passionfruit	Comes with all the crunchy passionfruit seeds. Enjoyed the tartness.	14 Aug 2015
	Raspberry		19 Sep 2015
star	Salted Coconut & Mango	A bit of mango puree on a coconut base with just a hint of salt. Love this.	23 Aug 2015
	Strawberry		25 Sep 2015

Gelato Messina Special Flavours

Special flavours are on the left hand side of the second left section. There are always 5 special flavours available and every weekday, a new one displaces an old. Unlike their standard gelato and sorbet, the specials would often have a million things going on. My general comments about these million things going on are:

Many are too cakey / doughy / obscure for my taste; I’ve learnt to avoid anything with “brownie”, “bread”, “biscuit”, “cookie”, “crumbs”, “cake”, “pie”, “doughnut” in the description. Yeeeaah. I don’t bother with a lot of the specials any more.
Even on days where the “brownie”, “bread”, etc weren’t too cakey / doughy, they could sometimes be in too big a chunk that gets awkward to chew. They probably look better for promo pictures, though.
Nuts in the gelato are not guaranteed to not be soggy.
Anything with “praline” in it so far has been reliably crunchy.
Taste test is a must before committing to the full scoop! But even then, your sample might not have grabbed that doughy crumb or soggy bit of nuts.
There always seems to be one peanut butter flavour on the board?

Gelato Messina Miranda Jan 2016 Specials

Gelato Messina Miranda Dec 2015 Specials

Gelato Messina Miranda Oct 2015 Specials

Gelato Messina Miranda Sep 2015 Specials

Gelato Messina Miranda Aug 2015 Specials

Gelato Messina Miranda Jul 2015 Specials

And now, the ever growing Special flavours comment table!

Gelato Messina: Specials
	Flavour	Comments	Date
	Rococo	Chocolate, honey and coconut gelato with crunchy, sticky nougat. I taste-tested this and thought I liked it, but the big scoop got more sickly sweet by the minute.	25 Jan 2016
	Old Gregg	Baileys gelato with butterscotch sauce folded through. Taste test of Richard’s scoop and it’s very alcoholic!	1 Dec 2015
	Pablo Pistachio	Light pistachio gelato smothered in white chocolate mousse and raspberry puree. I didn’t pick up a lot of the white chocolate taste (or my scoop just didn’t have a lot of the mousse in it), but I still liked the pistachio and raspberry flavour combination.
	Pretz N’ Popped	Pretzel milk gelato with peanut popcorn praline. Ah, it’s the peanut popcorn praline, which I remember having in one of the old specials (Cracker Jack). Still crunchy, and I still liked the peanut flavour.
	Big Cheese-Off	Pistachio & ricotta gelato, scented w/ orange blossom water & candied almonds folded through. The staff told me it’s quite cheesy; Richard thought it’s cheesy enough; I mostly tasted the pistachio. Occasionally the lovely orange blossom water came through as well. My only complaint is the candied whole almonds got quite soggy being embedded in the gelato.	9 Oct 2015
	Cracker Jacks	Caramel peanut butter popcorn gelato with peanut popcorn praline. The praline was sweet and crunchy and the peanut tastes great with the popcorn. Enjoyed this.	9 Oct 2015
star	Tongue Thai’d	Peanut and coconut gelato with cashew dacquoise and lime curd. Loved this! Very nice peanut taste. Richard’s comment on taste test of my scoop: “Taste like Thai!”	25 Sep 2015
	Passionfruit Cheesecake	I got this as a full scoop after taking a taste test, but regretted my decision. I couldn’t taste any of the cheesecake but a watered down passionfruit gelato. The crunchy biscuit base chunks were so big they were distracting.	19 Sep 2015
star	Pina Coco-Lada	Bounty gelato with pineapple cake and mango puree. Love this one! It had more coconut than the super sweet Bounty gelato on its own, and the pineapple and mango taste went super well with it all. It was thankfully not as cakey as the Danny Two Times I had in the same cup.	11 Sep 2015
	Danny Two Times	Yoghurt, orange and poppy seed gelato with orange cake. I loved this as the taste test and proceeded to get a scoop, but my scoop ended up being almost all orange cake, and barely the yoghurt, orange and poppy seed gelato I first tasted. Richard also had a full scoop, and both were so cakey they didn’t melt at all. Not a fan of this.	11 Sep 2015
star	Burnt Caramel and Ginger	It wasn’t too sweet despite the burnt caramel name; love the ginger taste in this. Wish this was a base flavour available at other times! And this doesn’t even have coconut in it!	23 Aug 2015
	VJ’s Coconut	Caramel coconut gelato with ginger lemongrass jam. Taste test only. Has more ginger lemongrass taste than coconut. I was very close to getting this as a proper scoop if I hadn’t felt like something more coconutty.	14 Aug 2015
	Romanikerer	Peanut butter cheesecake gelato with peanut butter brownie. Very rich, to the point that I somewhat regret choosing to have a whole scoop of this.	31 Jul 2015

Key
star	Standard flavour	Note to self: try this again
star	Special flavour	I wish they would redo the flavour in the future
	all	I got fooled by the taste test! shakes fist

The Verdict

TL;DR: Do I think Gelato Messina is all hype? Nope! Especially not if the staff at Miranda have been so consistently helpful and friendly, even when the place is super swamped on the weekends after a film. This is really bad for my waistline!