ARKTOS Gelato

I can see the reason why Supply & Demand would set up a gelato takeaway kiosk at their Esplanade outlet. Overlooking the waterfront with high foot traffic around, many people would definitely want some cold stuff during their walk around here.

Checking out what flavours they are offered for the day I’m here and found this interesting one.

A kaya toast set but in a scoop of ice cream. Made from baguette & burned butter gelato, coconut jam and coffee crumbles. So don’t expect you would taste anything closer to kaya.

One place that had been mentioned a fair bit via social media quite a bit during the weekend seems to be Arktos Gelato — a concept by the folks behind SUPPLY & DEMAND, Arktos Gelaro can be found at their Esplanade outlet. It seems that some form of modifications have been done to their Esplanade outlet to accommodate for the space that is currently occupied by Arktos Gelato — the space for Arktos Gelato is segmented out of the SUPPLY & DEMAND outlet by creating a food kiosk that faces out towards the Esplanade Jetty with a view of Marina Bay Sands; possibly to entice passers-by going through the area beside the bay to grab gelato especially when the sun is beating down from above. Whilst there are outdoor seatings located around the area where SUPPLY & DEMAND is, it is noted that Arktos Gelato is mostly an establishment with a core focus on takeaway operations — this also means that the dine-in seatings located in the outdoors are catered more for SUPPLY & DEMAND’s patrons rather than those having Arktos Gelato’s offerings. Being a gelato parlour, Arktos Gelato has quite an extensive selection of flavours stocked up in their display chiller at the counter; patrons can also opt to have their gelato in a cup, with a cone or with their Choux pastry that is baked fresh in-house.

We gave two of their gelato flavours a go and we must say that we are more drawn towards their Sake gelato — being the flavour which we had decided to opt to come in a cup, the Sake gelato comes with a texture that felt just about right as compared to some other alcoholic-infused gelato that we have had from other establishments in the past. One distinct difference with the Sake gelato here amongst other alcoholic gelato that we have had elsewhere seems to be the fact that the Sake gelato here comes being more of a gelato rather than that of a sorbet. Interestingly, it can also be said that the Sake gelato isn’t overly creamy; in fact, one could most certainly taste a hint of the booziness of the Sake here with a note that can described as being similar to bring rice wine — even to the point of feeling a grain-like texture in the gelato.

In retrospect, the Citrus Herb gelato carried an evidently zingy note, thought the flavours of the herbs didn’t seem to quite pull through somehow. We have had the Citrus Herb gelato with their house-made Choux Pastry; it might be likely that the inherent sweetness of the Choux Pastry could have taken the note of herbs away somehow as well. The Choux Pastry is pretty fresh; carried an evident crustiness on the surface whilst carrying a bit of heft when one takes a bite into it — the only qualm being how it did not really cut it when the Choux Pastry is served as a sandwich that is cut through all the in the middle with the scoop of gelato sitting in the middle. This meant that either the top layer or the bottom layer of the Choux Pastry could slide around and smearing the gelato all over the wrapper — makes the item incredibly difficult to eat to say the least. Having only tried a very limited selection of items which Arktos Gelato has to offer, we do feel that they do pretty good quality gelatos especially given how we felt about the Sake gelato; there are no doubt some elements which they can improve on however — this is especially so when it comes to the conceptualisation of their Choux Pastry with Gelato in particular. Looking forward to seeing these guys come out with new ideas for gelato flavours and plated desserts eventually — a decent spot to visit for some artisanal gelato around the bay.