Via Gelato — Restaurant in Honolulu

Who can take a sunrise Sprinkle it with dew Cover it in chocolate And a miracle or two Melissa Bow. Melissa Bow can. Melissa Bow can cause she Mixes it with love and Makes the world taste good!

How have I not written a review for this wonderful place?! Melissa Bow is the owner and the person who makes magic here. Magic in the form of gelato.

The gelato is the best in Honolulu. I love how light it is yet the flavors are able to come through!

This place is located by Hale Vietnam. She originally was a food truck I heard and sadly never tried until I stumbled upon them in her brick and mortar.

You can look for street parking or park in the lot behind and pay. This place can get pretty busy but you can call and order your pints to go if you know what you want. Also seating is limited...and has community tables so be prepared to be friendly and make a friend. But don't worry, you won't have to share your gelato unless you want to. I never want to....

The flavors change daily so follow their social media accounts to see what flavors they have, mainly their instagram @viagelatohawaii. They also serve lunch- soup and sandwiches. Oh and coffee. You can have an affogato here too which is amazing with dark chocolate sorbetto or vanilla bean! But come on, who are you kidding? You are going to come for the gelato!

There are four sizes (keiki, small, medium and large). You can choose up to two flavors which you definitely will since you won't know what to choose...so many good flavors. Gelato will run you $3.50-$5 for a cone or $3-$5 for a cup.

Some of my favorites...dark chocolate sorbetto for the richness, lilikoi sorbetto for the tartness, black sesame for the smoothness, frosted flakes for the sweetness, oatmeal cookie for the originality and gingerbread for the holiday spirit!

Everyday they have 10-15 flavors to choose from. Of course, the later you go...the less they have. They also make these wonderful handmade waffle cones. They tend to drip sometimes so get it like me...put a cone on it! Have your cone on top of your cup! See photos I've posted.

Melissa makes the world taste good.

Yummy gelato True flavors and not too...

First try was a disappointment. Place looks cool and flavor profiles are interesting. Sampled the strawberry and balsamic which didn't taste balanced. The honeycomb has good textures. Ordered 2 ice cream bars. AI 8$ each, that was eye watering. Uncle's is 6-7$ and certainly better - likely because of the higher fat content in ice cream but also the more robust flavor profile and tasty cookie. The lillikoi bar had ok flavor, but it was kept too cold and the gelato had crystallized even after warming it up for several minutes. The biscuit was bland which was a bad choice because with a mild gelato, it further watered it down. The other bar was supposed to be a lemony one. However I'm not sure if I choose the wrong bar because it tasted grassy, like matcha. The flavor was bland with little sweet which. The bar again was soft but not crumbly and lacked flavor. This shop unfortunately falls into the same trap a lot of gelato in Hawaii is in - the flavor is very mild which is exactly the opposite of what real gelato is known. The flavors should actually be eye popping, that's the strength over ice cream which is known for its sweet and creamy due to the higher fat content. All in all, I will try it again to sample more flavors but I would recommend against the sandwich bars for the price and poor product. The best ice cream sandwich is going to be uncle's - chunky monkey or Kona coffee imo. I give it two stars for good service and a nice shop to hang out in. No bathrooms...

I read and heard so many good things about this place that maybe I was too hyped or that our experience here fell short.

The better half and I brought my two nephews here as one is lactose intolerant and they had some nondairy options for him. The better half did some taste testing and decided on the toffee coffee and my eyes were locked on the beer butter but I saw that they had an affogato, so I changed my mind and got that. One of my nephews got the mango sorbet and the other one got some kind of oreo thingy.

We were so fortunate as just when we got our stuff a group of people stood up and left. My nephew quickly went and grabbed it for us. While the conversation was awesome no one said anything about what they were eating. When I dug into my affogato, the coffee was really strong and very bitter. It was just overpowering the whole taste that I would normally throw it away but i didn't want to be that negative Nelly and ruin the mood of our conversations. After getting home I asked the better half what did she think of hers. She said for the price that small little cup (like the one they give you at the dentist to rinse your mouth) for around $5 was not worth it. I'm sure my two nephews felt similar as they are usually really vocal when they eat good food but they didn't say anything.

Oh well, at least we got to try it. One and done...