Pandan Crèmerie

Crèmerie Pandan has been on my list for a very short time. My friend Nantha, who is this uber popular Pop-Up chef in Montreal (and across the world for that matter) wrote something about his daughter opening up a crèmerie on Notre-Dame. Not any kind of crèmerie... one that makes thai rolled ice cream. Excuuuuuse me! I totes had to hit that.

Crèmerie Pandan is the little baby on Notre-Dame West, just in front of Rasoi, close to Nozy. VERY well located, normally. I say 'normally' because right now, there's so much DAMN construction on Notre-Dame, that no one has access to it. That's not true...but you have to be very motivated. Cars mostly cannot drive on that street and there's dust galore for the pedestrians and cyclists. All in all, a really freaking fun situation.

The place itself is tiny. Tiny, tiny, tiny! And so cute! Cute, cute, cute! It's all white with hints of light green and little plants. Very pure and simple: no fuss, no muss. I understand that it's too tiny to have chairs or stools in the actual crèmerie, but I would have loved to have at least a couple benches outside. I was stuck eating on the curb at the corner of Notre-Dame and rue Doré, lookin' somewhat like a homeless person. But enough about me being homeless, let's talk about ice cream. They use the freshest ingredients and buy their cream from Laiterie Chagnon, located in Waterloo, Québec. On top of it, all flavours and toppings are made in-house with fresh, local, and natural ingredients. Well, except the Asian ingredients. Duh. We love dem Asian ingredients.

Mango rolled ice cream with coconut on top. I asked the girlie working there what she suggested and without even thinking about it, she almost screamed 'mango'. Well, mango it was going to be! Just looking at her make the rolls of ice cream was fascinating. I was in a trance, fo sho! They pour the mixture of mango and a mix of 40% cream and 3.8% milk on a very VERY cold plate where they do a mix of spreading and chopping, and spreading and chopping. I was mesmerized. Mesmerized, I say!

How effin beautiful is this? On a scale of 1 to 10, the answer would be 8000. No doubt. Wow!!! I went outside and as I was sitting down, I took my first bite and...almost fell. O-M-G! I can tell you that I've NEVER had this good of an ice cream in ma mouth. I'm not even kidding! And I've had awesome ice cream over the years! And with that lovely coconut on top? Holy hell!!! It was like seeing God. I know what you're thinking: I'm exaggerating. Well, YOU try it and try NOT seeing the big man. It was like a splash of mango in my mouth! And we all know how well coconut goes with this awesome fruit. It had such a nice, smooth texture too. When I finished, I wondered, for literally a good 2 minutes, if I should just get more. I voted against it, because, well, let's face it, it won't make me any thinner.

I've looked online to see what peeps think about this heavenly place and I was flabbergasted ( yes, that much) by the bad press on this. Mainly, it was people bad mouthing the place because it took so long to get their ice cream.  People, this is not a normal scoop-and-go kind of establishment. It takes a moment for them to give you your dessert. There's a process. Don't think it'll take 30 seconds. It's written on a board right in front of you: it will take 3 to 5 minutes. It's worth it. Oh so worth it.

And now, the scores!

Food: 10.1 miiiiiiillion
Service: 9

Hell ya, I'll go back: I must bring all my friends!