Cooler Ice Cream, Italian-Style at Lingxia Gelato Lab in The Crib

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream ... But gelato is not just the Italian word for ice cream, it is ice cream's better-looking, more stylish cousin. As craft beer is to mass-produced industrial lager, as free range chicken is to the battery hen, as handmade clothing is to cheaply manufactured T-shirts … Well, you get the idea.

Sadly we don’t have enough gelaterias in Beijing, but thankfully there’s a new venue bringing Italian cool to overheated Beijingers. On the second floor of The Crib, Lingxia Gelato Lab is an adorably bijou outlet with neat, minimalist, and appealing décor. The owner, Nicola Saladino, is an Italian architect based in Beijing, who also designed Sorì (the hidden-away Mediterranean tapas restaurant in the same venue), and now plans to bring the authentic Italian gelato tradition to China. Using only fresh ingredients, they lovingly craft the ice cream in eight different flavors. One scoop costs RMB 20, two are RMB 30, and three RMB 40.

The staff was open to sampling before we settled on a cone topped with a combination of pistachio and chocolate (RMB 35). The pistachio was flavorsome and full of roughly mashed pistachio, giving the ice cream bit and a nutty taste that balanced well with the sweetness. The chocolate scoop however was significantly more bitter, with extravagant cocoa notes. Though the cone was thin and crisp, we'd say it was almost too thin, becoming moist and flimsy as the gelato soaked in. An easy fix: eat it all faster! 

At Lingxia, the quality of the gelato shone through best in the dense texture, matching the rich flavors and making for an enjoyable change from lighter, more commonly available ice creams. The only real disappointment was having to leave before we could try all the flavors – now with autumn upon us you can bet we'll be back to collect them all. So, next time you're screaming for ice cream, stop yourself, take a calm breath, and yell for gelato instead.

Lingxia Gelato Lab
Tue-Thu, Sun 12-10.30pm, Fri-Sat 12-11.30pm. 2/F, The Crib, 1 Gongti Beilu, Chaoyang District
零下食验室：朝阳区工人体育场北路1号(育膳房2层)

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Photos: Tracy Wang