Malai — Restaurant in Washington

For ice cream, soft serve, and sorbet with South Asian flavors, head to Malai, a woman-owned ice cream shop born in Brooklyn, New York. Opened in May 2024, here's why you should go.

1. Ice cream: Malai, meaning "cream," sells 12 different flavors that rotate every two months from a roster of 54+ flavors. (The owner said they will continue to develop new flavors.) The only flavor to stay on the menu is Rose with Cinnamon Roasted Almonds due to its popularity. To launch in D.C., they are offering the Cherry Black Cardamom flavor. They will always have 2-3 flavors that are dairy free like Passionfruit Cilantro Sorbet. They also sell two kinds of soft serve- Saffron and Pistachio. (I recommend getting the swirl to try both.) Also on the menu are baked goods, kulfi pops, cakes, and ice cream sandos. They also serve cold and hot chai drinks. They also sell pints of ice cream.

Each flavor is well balanced, and no single flavor overpowers the other. For example, the rose in the Rose with Cinnamon Roasted Almonds isn't too strong. There's a hint of star anise in the Strawberry Pie. My favorite is the Cardamom Pistachio Crumble with the texture of the actual crumble. It's so good!

2. Price: $6 for a single scoop, $7.50 for two, and $9 for three. Soft serve is $6 as are the ice cream sandos. Compared to local Ice Cream Jubilee, a single scoop here is five cents more.

3. Space: It's a small shop just off of 14th Street NW surrounded by other restaurants and cafes. There are a few small tables inside, but I'd imagine most will get their treats to go.

4. Story: When I went in during a preview (disclaimer: I got to sample the ice cream for free), staff were passionate and friendly. The owner used to live in D.C. twice and wanted to open a storefront due to a strong customer base and love...

I really wanted to like this place more, but at best, my first visit there was average.

I was in the mood for soft serve tonight, so I stopped by this spot on the way back from dinner. I went with the fig cardamom. It wasn't horrible; it wasn't amazing. It was a bit too sweet, and the texture seemed a bit off.

And then there was the service. Granted, it was a busy night, and I'm sure the employees had lost all f's to give long before I walked in. That said, one of the two servers behind the counter - when she finished accepting payment of the customers ahead of me - just sat there staring at me. She didn't greet me or ask me if she could help me. It was awkward af. So I casually offered my order hoping she would accept it? I was in luck - she hesitantly nodded her head while the other server actually got my ice cream. I paid, and then before leaving, I asked for a napkin. Without even looking at me, she just clapped back rather abruptly: "We're out." So I just took my mediocre ice cream and went along my merry way. And by merry way, I mean scrambling around the corner to get to the car before my maximum of ten minutes ran out on the mobile parking app.

I won't knock this place for being in the most absurdly busy and hard-to-park area of the entire city, but I will knock it for lackluster ice cream and subpar service. Whether I return depends greatly on whether I find myself in this area again, against my better judgment and without the trouble of parking. It has a cute little outdoor section so maybe there's promise for a second visit this Fall. If so, I'd def opt for the scooped ice cream and will, apparently, bring my own napkin and positive...

Super fun ice cream shop with a ton of unique, Indian-inspired flavors! I stopped by Malai on a Sunday evening in July, just a few weeks after they first opened. There was still quite a long line, but it moved pretty quickly and we were soon able to escape the swampy DC heat and cool off with a bit of ice cream (and AC). My friend and I were feeling indecisive about which of their many flavors we should get, so we ended up both getting two flavors and splitting them. She got the mango cream and fig on fig, while I got their two sorbets -- the pineapple pink peppercorn and guava chili.

Each of the flavors were phenomenal, but both of our favorites were the pineapple peppercorn and fig on fig. Both ice creams were rich and creamy, but the mango cream was a bit lacking in mango flavor. The fig, however, absolutely delivered on their promise of fig on fig, and had plenty of the complex, honey-like sweetness from the fruit. It had bits of fig mixed in, so there was the occasional crunch from the tiny seeds or bit of chewiness from the flesh of the fruit.

The sorbets were also both delightful, but it was a bit too much to get two spicy flavors together. It would have been a bit more balanced to get one peppery sorbet and pair it with a complementary ice cream, but we ended up basically achieving that outcome by sharing with each other. The guava chili had quite a kick, so it definitely would have needed creamier, richer pairing, but the pineapple peppercorn was a bit more subtle and leaned further into...