Long lines even at 10pm
Located on Cordova Street in Vancouver about a 5 minute walk away from Waterfront Station, Bella Gelateria has the best gelato in the world. Not even kidding. It’s won the people’s choice award in Florence, Italy and is crowed the best gelato in North America. You can check out there website to find out more about them and their philosophy on authentic handcrafted Italian gelato, so I’m only going to focus on my experience there.
I didn’t intend to go there, I’ve only heard good things about it but I didn’t really know what to expect. I walked past one evening, saw the line, and thought I might as well try it while I’m there! I arrived at about 9:30pm and stood in line until 9:55pm before getting to the cashier. The staff are mighty friendly and even told be about how popular the show was.
“Before the company allowed us to cut the line at 10pm, I once served the last customer at 2:45am. I had to walk home, but still loved my job.” ~ Cashier
They do live up to their claim!
But wow dude, this gelato is wicked good. There’s very little air inside so it feels dense, the whole milk makes it smooth as petroleum jelly, and the chocolate chips in the straciatella were made of premium Dutch chocolate. Straciatella is my favorite flavour having had it every opportunity I had when I lived in Berlin. Oh the memories!
