Niska, Melbourne by Bureaucrat

Robots? Yes!  Ice cream? Yes!

Welcome to the future of ice cream, Melbourne!  Just in time for the school holidays, the Melbourne Show and the footy Grand Final, Niska has arrived in Australia.  It's a no-brainer that this futuristic robotic ice cream shop will be popular.  

Thanks, Pepper! I love it when my decisions are validated.

Niska's robots (named Pepper, Eka and Tony) are on-site to take your orders and serve up locally-made ice cream.  Customers put in their orders with Pepper via a touch screen.  You can order one or two scoops (from a choice of about 16 flavours) and a range of toppings.  

Ordering your ice cream with Pepper

A range of locally made ice cream is available

Once you've placed your order, a receipt is given.  And then Eka, a robotic arm, whizzes around and prepares the order by scooping up the ice cream.  

L-R: Tony and Eka (the robotic arm with the green patterned sleeve)

Once Eka is finished, the ice cream is passed onto Tony who adds the toppings and serves it to you via a booth.  To retrieve your ice cream, you put your receipt into the booth and the door opens up.

 

Boy Chick and I shared a scoop of rainbow ice cream and mango sorbet topped with mini M&Ms.  Of the two ice creams, the rainbow was a clear winner with us both.  It was wonderfully creamy and a far cry from the rather poor quality ones that you usually encounter.  That said, the mango sorbet was also very good - a very strong mango flavour.

Verdict

We loved it.

Cheap eats.

Overall

A wonderful addition to Melbourne - and especially at Federation Square!  Big and little kids will love the robots and the ice cream is actually yummy.  Well worth checking out when you're in town.  It's quite easy to find - it's just opposite ACMI.

The Eat And Be Merry Crew were guests of Niska.

Find it at

Niska
Tenancy 20
Federation Square