Restaurant: Soft Swirl
Location: F7 Markaz, Islamabad
Rating: 3.5/5
Items & Pricing:
1. Nutty Swirl Vanilla Cone - Rs 100
2. Chocolate Brownie Swirl Cone - Rs 120
3. Brownie Meets Vanilla Swirl: Rs 200
There is nothing more gratifying than the sight of an ice cream place on a hot day, nor is anything more delightful than the feeling of your favourite ice cream dissolving in your mouth after devouring a spicy meal. I spotted Soft Swirl in F-7 Markaz while roaming the streets of Bhittai, suddenly finding myself posted outside the shop the very next moment; not just for my love of ice cream, but for its azure monochromatic exterior that almost seemed like a mirage. It was nothing but soothing to the eyes.
With a legion of ice cream brands emerging to choose from, the standard for flavoursome ice cream is set up pretty high. That being said, I picked up their single-sheeted menu card. Creative food names always impress me but any place with excellent graphics to compliment said names always manage to score some brownie points in my books – pun intended. The menu card was well-designed and effortlessly thought out. Although, I was expecting a little variety in the flavours. While the parlour had different serving methods and topping options available, the only flavours they presented were chocolate and vanilla.
Given the shop’s limited variety, my friends and I decided to snag ourselves multiple treats off the menu out of curiosity as to how they would stand as opposed to one another. Their vanilla cone with a sprinkle of brownie crumbs, a chocolate waffle cone topped with nuts and their signature ‘Brownie meets Swirl’ which is a fudge brownie paired with vanilla soft serve. While their service was delicious, the muddled-up orders of vanilla now topped with nuts and chocolate dunked in brownie crumble proved that finding the right pace may be beneficial to customer care rather than half-hearted delivery. Nevertheless, the taste of the thick milky vanilla cone teleported me back to my childhood. Authentic milky ice cream within an affordable range used to be a thing of the past, but Soft Swirl’s vanilla cone brings back luscious cones that will not burden your pockets. The first taste launched me into a multi-textural experience; the saltiness of the nuts enhanced the sweetness of the soft serve, adding a crunchy balance to a smooth whirl of freshly churned ice cream. The savoury topping accentuated the brittleness of the waffle cone. The chocolate cone maintained a similar velvety richness. However, the mix up of the brownie crumbs resulted in the item being cloyingly sweet with no saline anchor to reel it back in. If I have to choose between this and the same variety of cones available at McDonald's Pakistan for rupees 170, I would prefer Soft Swirl for better quality and reasonable price.
The anticipation of trying Soft Swirl’s trademark, the Brownie Meets Swirl, left me on the edge of my seat. The combination of a piping hot brownie with a cool vanilla ice cream is the perfect blend of taste and temperature for me as it always manages to balance out my mood. However, that was not the case here. The ice cream was perfect as previously described but the brownie had an overly dry finish like that of a biscuit with no decadent fudgy interior to it.
The presence of six employees in a miniature store such as this one made me feel as if the walls were closing in on us. The presence of countless workers did not help much in the cleanliness of the shop as the machine oozed out melted ice cream from its notches, increasing the risk of cross-contamination. Despite the available space outside the shop, the seating arrangement, or lack thereof, fails to provide customers with a place to enjoy their ice cream in peace.
All in all, I would have to rate this swirly shack a whopping 3.5 out of 5 stars. I will be returning post-haste for the vanilla cone. The way it teleported me back to my childhood is a feeling I will forever be indebted to.
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