Mio Dolce, Moonee Ponds by Bilby Blue

How can anyone resist a window display packed full of Italian sweet treats? An Italian pasticceria is surely a wonderous thing. Even better, if the pasticceria is also a gelateria!

Torta Diplomatica

Mio Dolce is clearly very popular with the Moonee Ponds locals – a constant stream of people, including many who were clearly regulars, ordering special celebration cakes, making selections amongst a huge variety of biscotti to take home, and settling down for coffee and a pastry. The two cheery servers made sure everyone was well looked after.

Everything is made in the café’s kitchen – cakes, pastries and gelati. If you are eating in, there is room for just four tables inside, with another couple outside on the footpath.

It took Benny and I quite some time to get to the gelato cabinet right at the back of the café – the cabinets of cakes and biscotti were mighty distracting. There were only nine gelato flavours on offer, however our friendly server assured us the range changes regularly. Her favourite was cherry, but unfortunately for us it wasn’t available on the day of our visit. Samples were freely offered to help us make our selection.

As usual with our gelato tastings, we each had two flavours in a waffle cone.

My choices: mango and lemon, both sorbets. The lemon was outstanding – a tangy citrus hit. The mango was nice and fruity, but it was a bit overpowered by the lemon.

Benny chose Donatella (the classic match of chocolate and hazelnut) with cheesecake. The latter was lovely and smooth, with a slight cream cheese texture and a touch of a citrus tang. Donatella was good, and would have been even better if the chocolate had been a bit more intense.

All our flavours were good, however the gelati was not as creamy as some of the others we have tasted. Unfortunately our waffle cones were a little stale. Nonetheless we thought it was excellent value for money at only $5 for very generous serves of two flavours in a waffle cone (during the course of our gelato quest over the past year we have paid up to $7.20).

After our gelati, we could not resist some of Mio Dolce’s other sweet treats, to take home and enjoy later. Two large cannoli – one filled with ricotta, the other with chocolate – were excellent. Crisp pastry shells chock full of luscious filling. Small cannoli are also available.

As a special indulgence, Benny and I also shared a Torta Diplomatica – described by our friendly server as an Italian version of a vanilla slice (see first pic). Its layers (from the bottom) were pasta sfogliata (Italian puff pastry), then crema pasticcera (Italian pastry cream), rum-soaked sponge, more crema pasticcera, another layer of pasta sfogliata and a dusting of icing sugar. The pasta sfogliata was crisp and not nearly as flaky as English or French puff – unlike those the Italian version of puff pastry can contain white wine and eggs. The whole thing was rather scrummy and very light, but I was glad we were sharing – a whole (very generously sized) slice would have been a bit too indulgent for me.

Prices were exceptionally reasonable. Our cannoli and torta came to just $11.50, so a very affordable treat.

Verdict

We really liked it.

Cheap eats.

Overall

Offering some of the best value house-made gelati in Melbourne, Mio Dolce’s range is modest but the flavours are very good. But if you fancy another type of sweet treat, Mio Dolce has a large selection of Italian cakes and pastries at very reasonable prices.

Find it at

Mio Dolce
89 Puckle Street
Moonee Ponds Vic 3039
Telephone: (03) 9326 0402