With ice cream burgers and twenty different flavours of gelato – Badini is serving up a kid’s ice cream dream.
Badiani, the Italian gelato and dessert hotspot, has recently opened its doors on Hildreth Street in Balham.
It is the first shop offer a menu of fresh pasta alongside its award-winning gelato and decadent dessert options.
The eye-catching traffic green exterior is hard to miss, and the outdoor seating provided a great spot for customers to enjoy their treats on warm summer days - I can imagine the place bustling on weekend.
My choice of ice cream was a waffle cone with a chocolate-coated rim and sugar puffs around the edges, topped with a scoop of buttery salted caramel-flavoured gelato.
My partner went for a wilder choice and went for the ice cream burger, which consisted of a brioche bun and scoop of chocolate and nut gelato.
Surprisingly, the “burger” was toasted on an actual grill inside the shop and it smelt great.
Whilst it was definitely a novel experience the brioche worked well with the ice cream and complimented each other without being too sickly.
Throughout evening night, many children visited the shop and tried different flavours of ice cream with staff happily allowing them to sample each one.
This brought back fond memories of my own time visiting ice cream shops as a child as I know it was the highlight of their week.
The gelato selections were a hit, with the vibrant decorations and colourful display of flavours adding to the lively atmosphere of the shop.
Although I’m still not convinced that the pasta will be the main draw for customers, it offers a satisfying lunch option that is served quickly and reasonably priced for the quality.
The addition of food to the menu is a first for Badiani, with a focus on bowls of pasta.
I tried the truffle tagliatelle pasta with mushrooms and found it to be strongly flavoured in a sense that made it good comfort food.
My partner loves Gnocchi so went for the Pomodoro with tomato sauce and basil which he thoroughly enjoyed.
I had a bottle of ginger lemonade alongside the meal whilst my partner went for blood orange lemonade.
Whilst the primary attraction of Badiani is undoubtedly the delicious gelato, the shop also offers various tempting and funky-looking treats such as ice cream doughnuts and miniature cones that are stored in a cabinet for customers to peruse.
You can also get waffles and crepes if you fancy enjoying your gelato on top of something a bit more solid.
Badiani is just a brilliant option for a quick treat with plenty of options and flavours to delve into.
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