Venice ice cream shops: the 5 best
Guide to the best ice cream shops in Venice (or its province, to put it better): map complete with addresses, reviews, useful information and tips for eating ice cream properly in the Venetian area.
Write the gourmap of the ice cream parlors in Venice it is a superhomistic enterprise. No, not because there are too many, but because there aren’t any. You should already know what are the criteria of the ice cream parlors that Dissapore likes? They have to be handcrafted, really. It really means that they can’t have too many outlets, because it’s easy to see how to maintain the same quality in many different outlets.
Then they must be a little contemptuous, that is, they must promote at least some new tastes, risking to raise a few eyebrows, and that battery of fake tastes and piacioni that provide a base of milk with various additions, biscuits from the large distribution to the over-the-counter chocolate.
You will understand that using this methodological criterion in the hit and run restaurant city is quite risky, in fact, if you are looking for a good ice cream shop in Venice it is better not to go to Venice. Outside Venice, as with pizzerias, you can breathe a better air. Where the market is not made up by the mass of tourists, who is doing well is more evident, and truly keeps pace with the competition.
But alas, there are still too few places, and this classification is almost ridiculous for how sparse it is. Thus, eating an ice cream, a practice that in my dreams should accompany the walk in the center on Sunday, is still a matter that involves programming, the machine and a foresight that an ice cream cone should not expect. You will not hear me say here, of course, that, after all, it is only ice cream, but it does not seem a good idea to make this food, too, the origin of pilgrimages and devotional paths. It is a product that has such a large and already defined market that if you do it well you can still make money.
And it would be enough to follow the flow that has allowed, today more than in the past, that people are in favor, at least here in the North East, to spend a few euros more to eat an ice cream made as it should be. And we will not be picky, recognizing that this change of mentality is mainly due to that chain, which was once called artisanal and which today was bought by the multinational company, but which has started to sell ice cream, better than average, and keep it in the cockpit.
Obviously, making a good ice cream is not at all simple, there is not only the choice of the very important raw material, but also a very delicate chemical balance, to manage consistency and meltness, airiness and creaminess. The podium of this meager ranking is in fact all about consistency, one more airy and technical and the second more voluptuous and authentic. There is no mistake in one or the other but only a question of taste, and in a ranking voted for the best pastry chef we opted for the more “technical” consistency, the one that is more difficult to achieve.
If you are curious here you will find the results, you will, alas, quickly: here you are the best ice cream parlors in Venice.
Mauro’s art
Mauro Crivellato makes, in Mirano, a competition ice cream, and in fact wins the races. Above all, the Golden Cup of ice cream, won in 2006 and 2014, an award among professionals. Her ice cream is not so bold from the point of view of combinations, but it is because it is radical in the choice and purity of the ingredients. The tastes of her fruit expression are in fact the ones that make you think “wow, she really knows…” which should discourage us a little but that when we exclaim it fills us with amazement.
The first place is earned neglected for the elegance of its ice cream, airy and creamy at the same time, a difficult alchemy, and for its cones, too thick and here instead thick, crunchy and artisanal too.
It has only one real weakness: before finding a bench to sit on to taste the ice cream, you have to walk 300 meters.
Da Simone ice cream parlor
Simone Valotto, compared to a Crivellato makes a simpler ice cream. I have this note not related to a less equipped one but to a skilful work on the local market: Simone grew technically as an ice cream maker in Martellago and then landed in Oriago di Mira, a tiny fraction with many impulses towards sustainability and food concreteness (they have shared agricultural fields in which they grow whole grains which they transform into bread in an old wood-burning oven), but it still remains a small town in the province. So, apart from the salt ice cream, there are no pindaric flights but excellent and well thought out creams, suitable for a greedy public but with an already polite taste.
Casa del Gelato
Renzo Ongaro has been making ice cream for 50 years, in Caorle for 40 and it shows. It shows in the sense that his ice cream is masterful, self-confident, at times disturbing. It can also be seen because it is a very vintage ice cream: served in cups, spaghetti, cream and topping in profusion; a pleasant antiminimalism. sometimes perhaps a little overwhelming. It is in third place in this ranking because, despite being an ice cream made as it should be, it gets lost a bit in the meanders of a pharaonic menu, and the tastes that really excel end up not standing out enough.
Chocolate ice cream parlor
A small ice cream parlor in corso del popolo in Mestre has climbed the ice cream rankings over the years, opening a second store next to the main square of the city and extending its business with aperitifs, centrifuged, homemade fruit juices (3.5 euros) . This is the ice cream of Claudio and Marco Zanette two twins, who learned to make ice cream at the shop when they were very young and they deserve the credit for having brought quality ice cream to Mestre by filling a mammoth void, once filled only by that famous chain, today by Unilever. Their ice cream parlor is perfectly contemporary: with fresh fruit on display, wooden furniture, ice cream wells. There are never too many flavors, and sometimes they lack evergreen flavors, such as strawberry in June, but with the cone they break out because it is crunchy and delicious. Over time, some flavors have become iconic: single-origin chocolates and ricotta with caramelized figs (the smallest ice cream costs mainly 2 euros). So why is it almost at the end of this ranking? Because their ice cream seems a little sitting on its laurels, and its taste is affected, never incisive, never completely surprising. In addition, the service has become a bit slow and not always friendly since it became super busy. Last but not least, from a place that is climbing the heights of stardom among ice cream parlors we expect a little more experimentation.
Scaldaferro Natural Ice Cream Parlor
Scaldaferro is a company on the Brenta Riviera, in Dolo (VE), which produces a very high quality nougat, tasted and celebrated by everyone, including us. For several years, only in the summer, the space facing the street of the company has been transformed into an elegant ice cream parlor, with a good number of seats to sit down to enjoy the cones that can be bought at the counter. A simple philosophy, with few flavors and always a couple of nougat flavors, among the best in the house. Tastes change weekly and are all simple, often based on a single seasonal fruit, and then there are some classic flavors, such as malaga or coffee, but produced with selected raw materials. The single ball costs 1.7 euros. He finishes last in this short ranking, albeit last among the first, because in our tasting we encountered some technical problems, some ice, and a taste that was not always decisive.