Whole Foods Market – Gelato Shop

Restaurant: Whole Foods Market – Gelato/Coffee Shop
Cuisine: Gelato/Dessert/Coffee
Last visited: October 22, 2010
Location: Vancouver, BC (Fairview)
Address: 510 West 8th Avenue
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: 5
Ambiance: 3 (for what it is)
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

• Salt Spring Island Co. Gelato
• Homemade
• Local ingredients
• Natural/Oranic
• Low fat/Fat Free
• Massive portions
• Limited selection
• Limited seating
• Budget-friendly
• Fresh fruit sorbet
• Tea & Coffee available
• Eat in/Take out
• Open late
• Open daily 8am-10pm

**Recommendations:

Everyone knows that Whole Foods Market has a bakery section, hot foods section, pizza section and sandwich section… but did you know they had a gelato section?! I didn’t! It’s actually just a small little gelato shop operating out of the coffee shop by the cashiers and exit. My friend suggested it after dinner at Seri Malaysian Restaurant. I needed a palette cleanser after eating an insane amount of delicious and spicy Malaysian food. Gelato is always the way to go and the perfect tool for digestion in my opinion. Of course my favourite is Bella Gelateria, however due to convenience we came here instead.

They have a limited selection of flavours but every single flavour was delicious! I was so impressed by the quality of the gelato here, although Whole Foods wouldn’t sell anything crappy either. The Salt Spring Co. Gelato and sorbets are organic and natural, made with local ingredients. It’s actually available for wholesale however they do claim to make the gelato in small batches. Whole Foods imports Salt Spring Co. Gelato once a week for the gelato shop, so it’s not made fresh daily gelato and as a result it does have an icier texture rather than creamy one.

Whole Foods also gives you massive portions (unless I just had a fantastic scooper) and it’s super affordable at $2.69 for a small, $3.49 for medium, and $5 for large. Most places sell a small for $4-5. The value is definitely there and it’s a serious bargain for what you’re getting and the quality isn’t sacrificed either. It might not be premium gelato, but it’s still very good and better than I expected.

On the table:

Vanilla Gelato, Hazelnut Gelato & Raspberry Sorbet – 4.5/6

• Small $2.69
• So you’re allowed double flavours in a small size cup and I love that! I actually got a 3rd flavour as a freebie just because they were closing up and feeling generous I think 🙂
  • Vanilla bean Gelato – 3.5/6 – is icy, light, and nicely sweetened but it tastes a little bit like vanilla extract in flavour. There are vanilla bean seeds, but it just tastes a little extract-y to me, although it’s all natural extract if it’s being used.
  • Hazelnut Gelato – 5/6 – I loved the hazelnut gelato. It’s very nutty and creamy and there’s tons of flavour. It would have been good with actual pieces of hazelnut, but whatever… it’s does the job fine.
  • Raspberry Sorbet – 4/6 – the sorbets are amazing here and they’re non-dairy and fat free. It a frozen creamy puree of fresh raspberry and it had seeds and everything. It was nicely sweetened and slightly tart and just very good quality.

Strawberry Gelato – 2.5/6

• Large $5
• This was a large and it’s the size of a small tub of ice cream. Such a deal!
• This one was definitely icy and it was almost like frozen chucks of gelato. You can see how the scooping was almost like pieces of gelato instead of creamy gelato.
• It was quite light and you could taste the fresh puree of real strawberries and even see the seeds.

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