After a slight hiatus, we’re back and reviewing homemade ice cream like never before!
We’re certainly not the kind of people who believe that ice cream eating should be limited to warm temperature months. Our time at Morgenstern’s reflected that, as it was about 20 degrees outside and we ate our ice cream outdoors, as there was no indoor seating available due to the pandemic. We regret nothing.
Morgenstern’s has two locations in the city. We visited the one in Greenwich Village (the only one currently open). It had a very classy, old-school ice cream parlor look with lots of white (tiles, walls) with some black accents.
The flavor options were seemingly endless. Thankfully there was no one behind us in line, because it took quite a while to decide which flavors to try. The flavors range from the typical (Chocolate, Cookies & Cream, French Vanilla, Rum Raisin, to name a few) to the absolutely unique (Salt & Pepper Pine Nut, Burnt Sage, Caramel Corn, Pistachio Black Currant Jelly).
The only problem was that they didn’t do samples, so we had to decide what to try without tasting it in advance. So, while we wanted to try some of the most out-there flavors on the menu, we didn’t go for them as not to risk having scoops of ice cream that we weren’t fans of.
The Flavor Review:
Chocolate Oat: This was a winning flavor for me. Honestly, one of the best flavor concepts we’ve had in recent history. It had toasted oat ice cream with slivers of chocolate throughout. It tasted EXACTLY like eating a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. The toasted oat base had a yummy, slightly nutty flavor that was not overpowering, and paired perfectly with the small pieces of chocolate. It was a great flavor and we would go back to eat this again!
Salted Pretzel Caramel: This flavor was good! It had a very caramel-y base, that had a flavor similar to brown butter. The base was unique and slightly nutty-tasting, and paired well with the pretzels. Interestingly, the person scooping my ice cream put the pretzels in a container of the ice cream base, ground them up a bit, and then did the scoop. It led to pretzels of varied sizes, and we didn’t care for how large some of the pretzels were. Some mouthfuls ended up being ice cream with a normal sized pretzel. While we liked the base, as well as the salty/sweet combo of the base and pretzels, we didn’t like how the pretzels were large and seemed like an afterthought, as they were added to the ice cream base right before scooping.
Overall, the ice cream was good! The flavors were strong and the ice cream bases were unique and delicious. However, we weren’t huge fans of the texture of the ice cream. It tasted less thick than many of the homemade ice creams that we tried. We wished it was more rich and creamy. Further, it was kind of expensive. While we recognize that homemade ice cream (especially in NYC) is more pricey, these prices didn’t seem to match the quantity of ice cream that we received. We would have liked to see the prices be a bit lower, or the scoops be bigger.
Overall Scoops (out of 5):
3.5 Scoops: The ice cream bases were well-flavored and quite enjoyable to eat. Above all, the Chocolate Oat was truly unique flavor that was very memorable and delicious. We’ve never seen anything like it, and wish more ice cream places would give this flavor concept a try! Also, the amount of flavors and the variety was truly spectacular – there was easily something for everyone. However, we wished the ice cream was more thick/rich/creamy and didn’t think that it offered the best quantity for the price. (But we would go back for more of that Chocolate Oat).
The Inside Scoops 