Ice cream is very dear to me. It's the one item that carries most of my memories, not only as a child, but even as I grow up. Even before I knew how good food tastes like, ice cream has already been my constant companion, both through happy and troubled times. Now that I'm growing older, my love for ice cream is just growing stronger, especially that I have been introduced to the superior kind, the gelato. 

Chiara's is a dessert shop that specializes in gelato. They offer around 16 different flavors of gelato that change from time to time to ensure customers that there's always something new and exciting to come back to. On top of the freshly made gelatos, Chiara's also has a wide variety of cakes and drinks guaranteed to even more satisfy the sweet tooth in you. 

Team Kaladkarin had the opportunity to visit its branch at Venice Grand Canal Mall for a glorious dessert haven. We had servings of their gelatos, cakes, and drinks.


Gelato

• Pistachio: My absolute favorite! I'm sure Chiara's was pretty generous on the nuts to create this flavor. The taste of the pistachio was very obvious. 
• Hazelnut & Nutella: Both were good and tasted a bit similar. This is perfect for those who are not much into sweets, but love chocolate nonetheless.
• Strawberry: Although I've been repeatedly declaring my hate for almost anything strawberry flavored, I cannot say that I felt the same hatred for this one. Why? Because theirs is different. You can taste that real strawberries were used for this, instead of the artificial ones others use.
• Mango: The texture of their mango gelato was leaning closer to a sorbet than a gelato, although not too much. I don't know if it's just me xD Like the strawberry flavor, the mango also didn't taste artificial.
• Stracciatella: If you're looking for a milky and creamy gelato with some chocolate shavings to enjoy, then this is for you. 
• Mint: Heads up, solid mint lovers! You might want to try this one and get your money's worth with Chiara's. Their mint flavor has got to be the strongest one I've ever tried. 

Cakes

Tiramisu

Layers of novarini biscuits dipped in coffee syrup topped with mascarpone cheese and fresh cream, dusted with some cocoa powder. It had a really smooth texture. I didn't taste the coffee, which I liked because I don't like coffee. I also missed the mascarpone cheese, but it's probably because I only had a few bites of this. 

Mango Almond Delight

A layer of fluffy mango sponge cake and almond meringue filled with mango cream and real mangoes. This cake had a lighter taste than the other two, and also the cake favored by majority of the team.

Choco Hazelnut Royale

Layers of chocolate chiffon cake filled with choco hazelnut cream. At first I didn't notice that the filling was hazelnut. I kept thinking that it was caramel, only less sweet, until my friend told me that it wasn't. So, I tried to taste filling alone to prove to myself that it was indeed hazelnut, and I liked it better :) It might be a bit of a chocolate overload, but it's weird that it didn't taste too sweet for me, nor did it make my throat sore.

All of the cakes were great. It's hard to choose a favorite because each has its own attributes. For me, I liked the chocolate hazelnut best (probably because I was craving for a chocolate cake). 

Drinks

Drinks

Their drinks are a hit or miss. The hazelnut was bland, peach was weird (because it was sour but had milk as well. I don't know, I think it also depends on your personal preference), the coffee was okay. Note that these are juices, not milkshakes, so the consistency is thinner.