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| - Move over, fro-yo! Thai rolled ice cream is the newest frozen dessert trend hitting US cities, and Naturoll is the first Pittsburgh shop to serve it up.
You choose your ice cream base flavor and the toppings. The base is poured onto an ice-cold cold metal plate, which causes it to freeze immediately. This crepe-like thin round of ice cream is then mixed up with your chosen toppings, chopped up, and re-spread into a thin layer. Finally, segments of the mixtured are gently pushed forward, each forming a separate roll.
The concept is definitely novel, and it's fun to watch the rolls being created.
That said, I was not super impressed with the ice cream itself. It's hard to tell whether it's just rolled ice cream in general, or this place. I like my ice cream super creamy and rich (for reference, my favorite ice cream in Pittsburgh is Millie's), and the rolls were very hard -- making them difficult to eat with plastic spoons until after many minutes had passed and they'd softened. They were also grainy, due to the chopping and rechopping and topping mixing process. Finally, I thought the ice cream was too sweet for my tastes. There were also some inconsistencies depending on who was making the ice cream. My friend and I ordered the exact same thing (both paying the same amount), and she got all kinds of toppings added to hers at the end, including pocky sticks and raspberries, whereas mine had basically no toppings beyond the ones that had been mixed into the rolls.
Overall, considering the price ($7+ per ice cream cup) and a longer wait than usual, I don't think the novelty and trendiness of this place are enough to get me to return.
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