Lavezzi Gelateria, Ringwood by Bilby Blue

Way back when I was a young bilby joey I used to head out to Ringwood to go ice skating. It was pretty rough – facilities were basic, the hire skates (and the venue) had seen better days and the other patrons… well let’s just say you didn’t want to stick around too long. All much like Ringwood itself.


Milo and Tim Tam gelati  

Ringwood has changed remarkably. The old Iceland is only a memory, and Eastland Shopping Centre has undergone a massive transformation, with glitzy shops and some impressive dining options. We had already sampled some excellent authentic pizza at 400 Gradi – now it was time to check out gelato options.

Lavezzi has quite a gelato pedigree. For over 140 years the Lavezzi family have been making gelato in Italy, and have now branched out with their first Australian store in the new Town Square precinct of Eastland.


With windows on two sides the gelateria is dazzlingly white, with a bold splash of colour from the sunshine yellow espresso machine. In a nod to the gelateria’s Italian heritage, a rather charming old photograph of a Lavezzi gelato cart has been blown up to cover an entire wall.


Everything is made in-house: gelato, cakes, and combinations of the two – gelato-filled cannoli, gelato-filled macarons and semifreddos.

The range of gelato flavours is seasonal, and according to our friendly server the gelato chefs are constantly devising new concoctions. Nonetheless, the classics are well represented, including both dairy and non-dairy (sorbet) options. It was Australia Day when Benny and I visited with the Alchemist and there were a few special flavours to mark the occasion: lamington, milo and tim tam, and raspberry and passionfruit pavlova.


While it was clear that tastings were normally offered, the friendly servers were under the pump dealing with hordes of gelato-seeking customers. Under such circumstances, it would have been unfair on everyone to hold up proceedings by asking for samples. So on this occasion, we made our choices – for our standard two flavours in a cone – without sampling first.


My two choices were passionfruit sorbet and hazelnut. The passionfruit was excellent – fruity and with a really good balance between sweetness and acidity. And, although it was a non-dairy sorbet, it was beautifully creamy.  The hazelnut was equally impressive – gorgeous nut flavour with hazelnut chunks.


Benny’s selection was bounty with lime sorbet. He described the bounty – coconut studded with chocolate – as very good (but not quite up to his all-time, best-ever coconut benchmark from Piccolina). Unfortunately the lime was a disappointment – Benny described it as a bit weird, and overly sweet.

The Alchemist opted for one of the day’s specials – milo and tim tam – as a single serve in a cup (see first pic). He enjoyed the flavour, but said that he wouldn’t have been able to pick out the key ingredients – only that it was chocolate-y with biscuit chunks.

Verdict

We really liked it (we would have loved it if it wasn’t for that weird lime).

Cheap eats.

Overall

Great to see quality gelato out in the far eastern ’burbs. The best of Lavezzi’s flavours are truly excellent, and we would be more than happy to return anytime to sample the rest of the menu.

Find it at

Lavezzi Gelateria
Eastland Shopping Centre
Level 3, Shop R02
Ringwood Vic 3134
Telephone: (03) 8845 9110