Rolled ice cream is one of the newest dessert sensations that’s been sweeping the nation and Momotaro has brought that newest craze right here to good old Happy Valley.

Located downtown next to Five Guys and Cafe 210, the dessert place has plenty of space for students to sit down and enjoy their food while also boasting several features that make the whole shop memorable. With plenty of desserts to try and a staff full of sweet tooths, we sent in two of our best ice cream connoisseurs to try the place out.

Joe Whitman

I wanted to like Momotaro, I really did.

When I first walked in, I was stunned. Momotaro is a beautiful little shop that has a relaxed, friendly atmosphere with interesting paintings all over and a neat wall with mugs hanging all over it. There was plenty of tables for seating, as well as very nice wood bar to sit at Even though there is nothing to look at outside, I was ecstatic. The display case next to the register was filled with beautiful candies and single serve cheesecakes, the really fancy kinds that you would see at world class chocolatiers, and the menu had all sorts of items such as coffee, tea, and of course, the hand rolled ice cream that is taking the internet by storm.

I am very sad to say that for me, it all went downhill once you stopped looking around and actually got in line.

This was the first time I have ever been to a place that served rolled ice cream, so I had no idea what to get but I knew I was excited! I asked behind the register what she recommended and she told me that the original and green tea were her two favorite flavors. Feeling adventurous I went for the green tea. I chose to get strawberries and raspberries as my toppings.

Even though I already looked at the menu and saw the price I was still in shock when she told me that it was $9.10. FOR ICE CREAM. I really wanted to try it out though, so with one tear filled swipe of my debit card, she was handing my receipt and told me that it’ll be ready in about 25 minutes.

I thought that was a ridiculously long waiting time for ice cream, but it gave me and my friend time to get some pictures and talk while we waited. It ended up only being about 15 minutes of sitting around before I heard the lady call from behind the counter call number 196 where I joyfully hopped up and retrieved my ice cream. I would like to say that I thought the ice cream looked great. If the only thing that mattered were appearances, Momotaro would be the hottest thing in the country, but sadly for me, what they call ice cream, fell short.

I worked at an ice cream shop back in my home town, and I like to consider myself a connoisseur of the frozen treat, but this was not ice cream. Ice cream is supposed to be smooth and creamy, but the rolls were crystallized like the worst freezer burnt ice cream you have ever had. The texture was repulsive, and the green tea tasted a little funky. My friend let me try his ice cream to see if I just got a bad batch, but I just was not a fan of his either. After a couple of bites, I could not stomach the rest and ended up just throwing it out. $9 down the drain, just like that.

In my opinion, the internet’s newest ice cream sensation was a bust. Not only will you be disappointed when handing over your card to pay for the overpriced rolled ice cream, but also when you bite into the crystalized concoction that has no right even calling itself ice cream. With other great ice cream places on campus or downtown like the Creamery and Cold Stone (that cost nowhere near what Momotaro charges), I would say don’t even bother. For roughly the same amount of money you will spend there, you can buy a milkshake for each hand from the creamery.

Steffen Blanco

I first heard of Momotaro when several of my friends talked about a new dessert place in downtown that ran out of bowls at its grand opening. Naturally any place that sells out on its opening day is a place that I’d be curious about. At first glance, I noticed that the dessert shop had a lot of room and had a lot of cool artwork on the walls. A wall made up of mugs and various writings on the wall added a very homey feel to the place. The desserts that they displayed were nice and well made too. Unfortunately everything was very pricey and even the main dessert, rolled ice cream, came at a pretty heft cost of $8 a bowl.

I decided to go with the safe choice and get oreo rolled ice cream, just cause I figured that it’s something that you can’t really mess up and would naturally be a popular choice among college students. The wait for my ice cream was around 15-20 minutes, which wasn’t that bad of a wait time since they were serving a number of students and chopping ice cream the whole day gets to be tiring. Once my order was called, I was greeted with an artistic creation that “looked” almost too good to eat. Unfortunately after a few bites, I came to the conclusion that this place was an overall dud for price point and it’s display.