Bella Gelateria Gelato & Coffee — Restaurant in Vancouver

Second time here and it has always been good! Small and cozy area with lots of gelato-related articles on the wall.

I went here yesterday, and it was packed. There was a long line that can be easily seen from far far away. It freaked me out a little bit as first but since it was the only place near Burrard that was open later than 9PM, I thought it would be worth the wait.

It actually did not take that long. There were three female staffs, and they were all very quick yet concise and attentive. They ensured every customer got to try the flavours that he/she requested and all the gelato was nicely scooped. They were also very welcoming and patient when we were picking the flavour, despite the long line behind us.

I love the fact that they changed the menu accordingly to Star Wars theme in celebration of the release of Solo. It was very smart of them to play with words and made the gelato’s names Star Wars related.

The downside here is it made me I forget what I ordered, since I know very little about Star Wars. But the nice staff told me that I could simply just say “Choco Chips” and they’d understand :)

I ordered two-flavour cone, one was Chocolate Chip as mentioned, and one was Pecan with Vancouver Island sea salt. The Pecan was soooo amazing! I could taste the salt when having it and it blended in so well that I didn’t find it weird at all!

However, it was quite pricey to me though the portion was quite remarkable ($9 for one 200g two-flavour cone). The cone was very small, which I considered the factor that made the gelato part look significantly bigger.

Before ordering, I asked to try the Force dinLatte and Vader Vanilla. They were not too good yet not too bad, so not every flavour here was good, unlike other gelato places that I’ve been too.

Overall, fun experience :) Definitely recommend going here and doing a little research in advance about...

You might have heard rumours about Bella Gelateria. If they mentioned "The Best Gelato in the World" they were quite true! I swear if this shop was in San Francisco, I'd be there right now! We weren't even aware of it in the first place, if it weren't for our friend, who found an article online. So while we were in Vancouver this was on our to-do list.

But... be warned, there is a downside to this goodness. Okay, two downsides to be exact. You're gonna have to wait in line for this treat, for a while. And by a while I mean at least 20 minutes or more (that happened in our case). Yes, it is indeed a veeeeeery long wait for just a treat, especially if you're out in the sun. And people can get very fussy about it, so if you lack the patience, get someone else to stand in line for you. The second downside is the price. This gelato is indeed expensive (from $5.50 to $8 if memory serves me well - 1 to 3 scoops). Yes, they won the contest, but it really could be cheaper (just as good gelato in Italy will cost you half the price).

Once you manage to get to the counter you tell the lady what you'd like - a cone or a cup and how many scoops. They say you get more gelato in a cone, but it's definitely harder to eat, so I opted for a cup. Cones are $1.25 (CAD) more than a cup. You have the chance of sampling 3 tastes before your final decision (this is probably why the line is so long - even though the staff rushes you, sometimes in a very unfriendly way). It's difficult to decide, that's for sure, but my personal favourite is definitely Black Sesame. Oh, and Lavender with Earl Grey.

There's hardly any sitting room inside, so I'd suggest you to eat it somewhere outside (there are a few benches on the side of the building, or take a walk to the waterfront).

So all in all, it was great, but they could make some improvements on the waiting time,...

Questionable that last summer, when the prices increased, the gelato they served suddenly melted extremely quick. From the reviews, I can see that I am not the only one to have noticed that change either. I used to be able to walk around the waterfront without it making such a mess - that didn't start to curiously happen until last summer when new management was in place.

Management says they were forced to increase prices so that they could continue to use the best ingredients possible (at one point their price of 1 flavour in a cup was $5.50 - it is now $7). Not the case - your gelato recipe suddenly resulting in a fast melting product proves otherwise. Look it up, first of all - gelato in general (when made with correct ingredients) melts slower than ice cream. Why do all the local ice cream vendors (rain or shine, earnest, etc) have product that melts 10x slower than yours when yours is supposed to be the superior quality product?

People might be fooled to think that a gelato melting quicker might mean it's made from 'fresher' ingredients or be higher quality - but not the case. Low end brands of ice cream have an overrun of 100% which will result in the product melting faster. Overrun is the percentage of volume increase of ice cream greater than the volume of mix used.

This frustrates me because your store management claims nothing changed and that they are forced to increase prices due to sourcing great ingredients - but your own product is telling your long-time customers otherwise. You are trying to make a bigger buck off a good legacy, a legacy your new management's poor decision making is running...