Heartbrand Ice Creams, Europe

Update Review, 2020 Tasting

Yup, I've reviewed Heartbrand ice cream several times before, in Europe (below), and their equivalent in Australia (Streets).  So I'm quite familiar with their version of Drumsticks, dubbed "Cornettos".

I've always found Cornettos to be slightly better than similar US treats, but not exactly something I'd travel across the world for.  Ok, I still wouldn't travel just to get these, but, when I tried another variety last time I was in Munich, I deemed them the best Cornetto thus far ... 

Cookies & Dream Cornetto.

"Cookie flavoured ice cream with chocolate drops and core of cocoa sauce, in a cocoa wafer cone  with a cocoa coating, topped by a cocoa compound disc and cocoa cookie granules on top."

Um, wow, this was good.  Chocolate in so many forms.

I loved the disk of chocolate on top, thick, chocolately, and with some chocolate cookie bits on top for extra crunch.

The ice cream was decently creamy, melted nicely, and had bits of chocolate cookie all throughout, plus more chocolate sauce in the middle.  Lots of textures and good flavors.

The cone was even more interesting than usual, as it was a chocolate cone.  Not actually remarkable, but, different.   It was lined with even more chocolate, and had a ton of chocolate in the tip too.

Although there was a lot of chocolate in here - the cone, the lining of the cone, the core, the bits, the topping, it wasn't overly chocoaltely, balanced quite nicely by the ice cream.

I really enjoyed this, more than any other Cornetto.

Update Review, 2016

I've reviewed standard Heartbrand ice cream several times before.  But this is different.

When I was in Lisbon, I found a froyo shop that I kinda fell in love with, called Weeel, for their crazy liquid "rafaweeel" and quality fruit toppings (stay tuned!).  So a few days later, when Ojan and I were strolling through Cascais, I couldn't get ice cream, froyo, and other frozen treats out of my head, particularly when people kept walking by with cones in their hand.  I needed some.

Except, all we could find was gelato.  I wanted soft serve, not hard serve.  Frozen yogurt or ice cream, I didn't care which, but, I wanted soft serve.  Shop after shop had images of frozen delights in cones, but all were hard style gelato.  Gelato, gelato, everywhere.  Eventually, the sun started going down, it got much colder, and I stopped wanting ice cream quite so much.

Cornetto Soft Sign.

And then I saw a sign.  It showed soft serve ... Cornettos?  I didn't understand, but, I was interested.  I thought Cornettos were just pre-packaged frozen desserts, that I've reviewed many times (in Australia and elsewhere in Europe).

The flavors shown on the sign were strawberry, chocolate (chip?), hazelnut, vanilla, and caramel (at least, I think that is what they were?)

I had to go investigate further.

 My Cornetto Machine.

"The My Cornetto dispenser is so simple to use and maintain compared with commercial ice cream machines. Just plug in, insert your bottle and you’re ready to go!"

When I approached, I didn't see a normal soft serve machine.  I saw a plastic thing, that didn't even seem to take electricity, with a pile of cones nearby and a freezer.

And then I saw other customers order ice cream.  The store worker pulled out a plastic cartridge, put it into the machine, pulled the handle, and out came soft serve, directly into a cone.  What??!!

I found out later that the magic dispenser is called a "My Cornetto machine".  It is marketed as far easier to maintain than a traditional soft serve machine, and far more economical.  It seems to exist in a handful of countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

The cartridges look like push pops, and are frozen in a regular freezer, and just pulled out when someone orders an ice cream.  So, still just packaged ice cream.

Cornetto Soft, Caramel.

I quickly stepped up and ordered the caramel one.

When it was ready, the cone was handed over, as was the cartridge.  The server demonstrated that I should lick the remaining ice cream out of it.  No problem, I'm totally the girl who is always in the kitchen licking every spoon, bowl, beater!

Sure, what I was given didn't look like the photos, as the top didn't have a nice peak.  And, well, it clearly wasn't "real" soft serve, instead, it was ice cream extruded through a machine.  But it *was* fairly soft.

It seemed to have vanilla ice cream and caramel ice cream swirled together, and maybe some caramel sauce too?  And chocolate coated crispy things and caramel coated crispies?  I'm really not sure.

I liked it, partially out of novelty.  The caramel was very sweet however, so, I did need to take little breaks while eating it to not get a sweet overload.  I loved the crunchy things, whatever they were.  They kept me addicted, just like cookie dough bits in a pint, that you want to just keep digging for another one.

Certainly an interesting experience, better than just getting a pre-packaged ice cream at a convenience store, and I'd do it again, likely trying another flavor.

Update Review, October 2016

Another year, more travels to European offices with ice cream freezers, and thus, more chances to try Heartbrand ice cream.  As always, I suggest you start with my original review, if you want more background.

Nogger

In our Munich office, they had many fantastic ice cream selections so it took me a while to try the strangely named "Nogger" novelties, as they looked like kinda standard ice cream bars on sticks.  It turns out, the Nogger is the best selling ice cream novelty in Germany, and has been around since 1964.

But finally, I did try it, both the regular and the "choc" versions.  What is a Nogger?  My understanding is that the name "Nogger" comes from "nougat" a key component of the bars.  At one time there was also a "Nogger Black", with a black licorice coating (which sounds pretty interesting to me), but it turned into a racial controversy and was removed from the market.  

Nogger Choc.

Ok, so I let this one get a bit too melty.

That aside, this was a very good ice cream!

The center was "Nugatkremfüllung", er, nougat cream.  Basically, it was like nutella, in a slightly thicker form, still quite soft though.  It was crazy delicious.

Surrounding that was decent vanilla ice cream, needed to balance out all the chocolate and nut flavors.

The shell was milk chocolate studded with crunchy "weißen Nugat" (white nougat) and "Zwiebackstückchen" (biscuit pieces).  The shell had a nice snap to it.

Overall, every element of this bar was pretty good on its own, but it really combined together nicely.  Almost-liquid nutella-like center, creamy ice cream, crunchy, snappy shell?  Awesome.  I'd gladly get another.

Nogger.

After the success of the Nogger Choc, I tried the original Nogger.

It wasn't nearly as good.  The milk chocolate shell with bits of nougat was still good, the vanilla ice cream was still good, but, I didn't care for the center.  It was just ... chocolate ice cream, not particularly creamy.  Meh.  Stick with the Nogger Choc.

Magnum

I've had many Magnum bars in various locations, mostly in Sydney where they are sold under the Streets brand, but also a few last time I was in Germany.  None have been remarkable, but they are a solid choice, and I enjoy trying new flavors.

Pink Raspberry.

"Raspberry Ice cream with raspberry sauce, coated in milk chocolate, and an outer pink coating."

Well, meh.  This as pretty, but, that is about it.

The shell was a thick milk chocolate, coated in shiny pink.  It was really quite lovely, but, a lot of chocolate for the size of the bar.

The ice cream was raspberry flavored, very raspberry, kinda tart.  It was decently creamy, but I didn't care for the flavor.

I never found any raspberry sauce ...

Original Review, May 2014

As I mentioned last week, I was recently on a business trip in Zurich, where my office had ice cream freezers seemingly everywhere, always fully stocked.  As you can imagine, I ate a lot of ice cream in my few days there.

It was there that I discovered Mövenpick, probably the best commercially prepared ice cream I've had.  But I also got to try a slew of novelty ice creams by Heartbrand.

Unilever is a ridiculously huge company (the 3rd largest consumer goods company in the world actually), comprising 400+ brands, a slew of which are ice cream related.  They are the world's largest ice cream manufacturer.  They tend to make mostly the same treats in every country, just with different names for the products, and even for the product lines themselves. You know them in the US as Good Humor.  They even own Ben & Jerry's.  In Zurich, they sell under the Heartbrand name, which is what I got to enjoy on my trip.

Solero

When I first tried these, they reminded me so much of a treat I discovered when I was living in Sydney: the Pine-Lime Splice.  I adored these things.  Creamy vanilla ice cream inside, fruity lime ice outside.   On a hot day, there was nothing like standing outside in the sun, a pine-lime splice in hand, with the icy outer shell getting just soft enough to almost drip down your arm, the ice cream getting perfectly melty ... oh, I loved them so.

So I was a bit shocked when I had my first Solero, as it reminded me of a splice.  But the splice is made by Streets.  These were made by Heartbrand.  How could it be ...

First, Heartbrand is Unilever's largest ice cream line.  And, turns out, one of the slew of companies that Unilever owns is ... Streets!  And in Australia only, they sell Splices.  In other countries, they sell Solero bars.  Same concept, although in totally different flavors.  Well, no wonder these reminded me of my precious Splices!

(Side note: why do we not have any of these in the US?  Or do we, and they just aren't that popular?)

The most impressive part about Soleros (and Splices), is that they are really not that decadent.  ~100  calories each.  Sure, they aren't huge.  They aren't coated in chocolate or candy.  The ice cream inside is low fat.  But, they sure don't taste like you are skimping on anything, and are some of the most satisfying ice cream treats I've ever enjoyed.  And at ~100 calories each, you can have absolutely no guilt about having an ice cream every day.  Or two.  Or three.  Not that I've ever done that, of course ...

Solero Exotic.

"With delicious mango and pineapple pieces, Solero Exotic really is the perfect treat to cool you down in the summer sun"

Just like a Splice, the inside was creamy vanilla ice cream, with a icy "exotic" slush outside.  The slush had a nice mango-y flavor, and I do like the combination of vanilla ice cream and mango slush, but, this was just too sweet.   It appears that Solero bars also have a swirl of sweet sauce inside the ice cream.  The wrapper bragged that it had 30% more sauce.  More than what?  I guess it used to have less?  Perhaps I would have preferred the old version, as this was just way too sweet for me, and I have a sweet tooth.  Even the creamy vanilla ice cream inside couldn't cut the sweet.  Without the extra sauce inside, I might have liked it.

Solero Berry Berry.

"A fruit-lover’s dream. Indulge in the smooth centre and gorgeous fruit sorbet coating with delicious real fruit pieces".

The ice cream, or sortbet I guess, inside was incredibly creamy.  Nice berry flavor.  I don't understand how they can make it so creamy without adding tons of fat.  The quality of the ice cream/sorbet inside is much higher than most novelty ice creams in the US.

I loved the way both layers melted, the ice cream getting even creamier, the icy coating getting soft.  The outside was refreshing, like a popsicle, but balanced nicely by the creamy inside.  This one really reminded me of a Splice, and, although I still prefer a Pine-lime Splice, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Cornetto

Cornetto is Heartbrand's line of ice cream cones.  Unlike Drumsticks by Nestlé, the cones actually stay crispy and don't get soggy, but, just like Drumsticks, they are made with ice cream that fails to impress.

Cheesecake Glory Cornetto.

"Cheesecake ice cream and strawberry ice cream with a core of raspberry sauce with muffin and chocolate chips".

This sounded amazing: "cheesecake glory"!  How could you go wrong with that.  Plus, the packaging was much nicer than the packaged ice cream cones we get here, as it had a clear top, so you could see all the goodies on top.

Sadly, it looked, and sounded, much better than it was.  The ice cream inside, both the cheesecake and strawberry flavors, were very low quality.  They weren't remotely creamy.

The raspberry sauce was a fun touch, but, was just too sweet.

And the "muffin" bits on top were soggy and off-putting.  Also, why were there muffin pieces on a cheesecake creation?  Shouldn't they have at least been graham cracker crust bits or something?

The only redeeming part of this item is that the cone somehow did magically stay crisp, and didn't get soggy.

I didn't even bother finish this.

Erdbeer Fraise Cornetto.

"Ice cream with vanilla and strawberry sorbet with strawberry sauce, waffle and chocolate glaze. "

The packaging was all in Swiss, so I had no idea what I was getting.  Reading my notes was rather funny, once I looked it up online and found out what I had instead.

I thought the vanilla ice cream was "supposed to be whipped cream", although I noted that it was more like vanilla ice cream than whipped cream.

The strawberry sorbet I correctly identified as sorbet, not ice cream, but I thought it was raspberry.  It was very icy and not smooth.

Side View.

Like the other cone, the only really good part about this was the cone itself, it somehow stayed crispy. And, the chocolate lining of course.  But, still, I wouldn't get another.

Magnum

Magnum bars were introduced to the US in 2011, although I've never had one here.  But when I was in Sydney, Magnum bars were everywhere, although, sold there under the Streets label (but still called Magnum bars).  In Zurich, they are sold under the Heartbrand line.

Magnums come in a slew of flavors.  In Sydney, I tried all the standard ones, generally chocolate coated.

Magnum White.

"Rich vanilla ice cream, smothered in sweet, decadent white chocolate."

This was a fairly standard offering, although, like most Unilever products, it seemed a step above the confections we get in the US.

The ice cream inside was vanilla, it even seemed to have little bits of vanilla bean.  It wasn't amazing, but it was pretty good.  The coating was thick, and very creamy, sweet white chocolate.  White chocolate has a bad reputation, but sometimes you just want something sweet, and this fit the bill.

I don't really see a reason to get another one of these, but I happily finished it.

Kids

Push Up Haribo.

"Creamy ice cream with vanilla flavor and fruity strawberry sauce with a very special feature: Haribo Gold Bears in the solid stem."

Ok, I admit it, I got this one just for fun.  I had zero expectations for it.  But, it had GUMMY BEARS in the stem!  Sure, I dislike Haribo gummy bears in the first place, but come on, how could I not try this?

It was the worst of all the products I tried.  The ice cream was super low quality, not at all creamy, very icy.  The "fruity strawberry sauce" was just sweet.  And, you couldn't even access the gummy bears until you ate all the crappy ice cream.  Serious meh!

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Travelin' Tuesday: Lisbon, the master post

Yup, I went to Portugal for the first time, back in September.  I stayed primarily in Lisbon, although I ventured slightly further away for two days to Cascais.

I didn't pick Lisbon for tourism, and certainly not food the cuisine, I was there for a conference.  As such, my dining was mostly limited to large groups, although I did explore the bakeries a bit on my own.  While the majority of the dining was very lackluster, there were two strong points, that I still think back on and start to drool.

The reason to go to Lisbon: Life changing egg tarts.

Bakeries / Treats

• Go to Pastéis de Belém. That is all.
• Really good froyo, with a unique fun topping I can't stop thinking about, Weeel.
• A Padaria Portuguesa, where I discover just how good Pão de Deus can be! Soft, fluffy, slightly sweet, pull apart bread with a delicious topping ... swoon.
• Sacolinha, a bakery chain in Portugal.  I got to try some unknown items, but not were awesome.
• Soft serve Cornetto machine?!!

Breads & Spreads at Largo.

Restaurants

• Ground Burger: Great pedigree, but the restaurant crumpled under our group size.
• More large group dining at Largo. Meh. The bread and spread were good.
• Charming setting, not touristy, but, mediocre group dinner at As Salgadeiras.  
• Of course I went to McDonald's.  Had to check out the local specialties! 

Breakfast Feast @ Sheraton, Cascais.

Hotels

• Lobby Bistro:  large, but highly mediocre, breakfast buffet at the Sheraton Lisboa.
• A highly unimpressive club lounge, Sheraton Lisboa.
• Breakfast buffet at Glass, Sheraton, Cascais. Finally, an excellent breakfast buffet! Extensive selection, quality, and tasty!

Meal on TAP Portugal.

Airports / Flights

• A tale of two Pão de Deus in the Lisbon airport.
• TAP Airlines: The sandwich "snack" didn't impress, but the hot meal wasn't awful (although still economy dining). 

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Lisbon Airport Dining

My visit to Lisbon concluded at, well, the Lisbon airport.

Airport dining may not normally be high on anyone's list of things to get excited about, but I read online that Terminal 1 had a great new food court, featuring actual good versions of Portuguese baked goods, from some famed establishments from the city.  I of course welcomed this chance to get “one last pastry” before jumping on my TAP Portugal flight, where I knew the food choices would be abysmal.

Although I didn't have much time in the airport before boarding, I managed to scope out all the options, and visit not one, but two bakeries to get a pão de deus from each, since I discovered that I loved them at A Padaria Portuguesa at the end of my trip.

Pastelaria Versailles

I started at Versailles, the one I had read the most about.  It is a cafe that has been around since the 1920s, apparently with amazing elegant ambiance (think: crystal chandeliers, marble counters) at the main location in Lisbon.  I didn't visit the real cafe, only the airport location.  

Display Case.

The display counter was loaded with a fairly small selection of treats, far fewer than what I was used to from swinging by bakeries around town.

I was planning to get one last Bolo de Arroz, after being fascinated by the one from Sacolinha, but the ones at Versailles didn’t really look good.  I also had my eyes on one last pão de deus, but, alas, they didn’t have any plain ones, just ones stuffed with ham and cheese.  It wasn't quite what I wanted, but is what I went for, knowing I could discard the fillings (or, perhaps be a more reasonable human and actually have some protein with my sweets?)

The ordering/payment system was kinda crazy.  You order and pre-pay at one counter.  That made sense.  No card reader, but, they do take credit cards, they just have to pull out a machine every time.  For an airport location, this seems crazy.  Then, you are supposed to know to take a few steps over, put your receipt onto a tray, and then someone else will go begin fetching your goods.  If you, like me, just throw your receipt into your pocket, your stuff will never come.  Sigh.

Then your stuff is put onto a tray eventually, and you are supposed to be watching and grab it, as nothing is ever called out when your order is complete.

To recap: no orders are sent to be filled, no orders are called out when ready.  I struggled with strange ordering/paying/pickup systems all over Lisbon, but this was certainly the worst.

I was not the only one who was confused by all of this, as I watched everyone around me mess it up.  Anyway.

Pão de Deus Misto. 3.95€.

"Ham & Cheese Coconut Topped Bread".

I had only had two pão de deus at this point in Portugal, and was eager to get one last data point.  I loved the absolutely dreamy one from A Padaria Portuguesa, but I knew that was actually not the authentic style, as it was softer and had more of a coconut paste on top, and was not crispy.  I also had the horrible ones from the Sheraton Lisboa Bistro Restaurant buffet, hard and stale, but, I have a hard time believing those were a legit version either.

This one seemed to be more like what I read about.  The top was a bit crunchy and the bread was still fairly soft, basically a cross between the two versions I previously had.  The dough wasn’t particularly interesting, soft but not fluffy, not really sweet.  Better than the Sheraton version in that it wasn’t stale and it wasn’t hard, but, no where near the perfectly lightly sweet fluffiness of the one from A Padaria Portuguesa.  Same with the top - definitely not like a paste like the one from A Padaria Portuguesa, but not quite as crispy as the Sheraton one.  There wasn’t as much topping as the A Padaria Portuguesa one, but, again, I think this was a more authentic ratio.

Overall, kinda boring, honestly, but I think this is what the bun was supposed to be like.

The ham and cheese were just a thin slice of each.  No spread of any sort, aka, mayo or mustard, to jazz it up.  I’m not sure I understand the combination of sweet coconut bun, ham, and cheese, although I guess Monte Cristos are a mix of sweet with ham and bread …

Anyway, I was glad to have one last chance to try the version that I think is representative of what they are supposed to be, but, alas, I just wished I had one more of the dreamy, soft, fluffy, not authentic ones.  Ojan however said, “that is one of the better Portuguese desserty things I’ve had”. Later, he said, "That was pretty tasty, it was like honey ham, but, with the honey in the bread!".  So, I guess it had its place.

Pastelaria Aloma

I’m a strategic person.  Although I was grabbing the pão de deus to take on my TAP Portugal flight to Paris, I tried a bite immediately just to make sure I’d like it, else, I had to make a backup plan.

If you couldn't tell from my review above, well, I didn't really like it (not tons of coconut topping, crisp top, soft but not very sweet nor fluffy bread).  I really wanted something more like the version from A Padaria Portuguesa.

So, I hightailed it to another bakery in the airport, Aloma.

Croissants, Local Specialties, Sandwiches.

Aloma too had a display case loaded with goodies.

They had pastel de nata baked on site.  While literally every single merchant had nata, these folks had ovens, right there, in the middle, and they were coming out hot.  This seemed much more promising.

And ... they had pão de deus!  The pão de deus looked softer, fluffier.  And there was only one plain one left, over with the croissants on the far left.

Sandwiches, Croissant Sandwiches, Pão de Deus Sandwiches.

I quickly jumped into line to order the last one, hoping no one before me would get it.  That said, they also had a ham and cheese stuffed one, and plenty of those, so, I could have gone with that to compare.

This shop's ordering made sense: you ordered from one person, they got your food, and you paid there.  No crazy multiple lines, putting out your receipt, etc like Versailles.

Pão de Deus

This pão was indeed closer to the one from A Padaria Portuguesa.  It was softer, the dough sweeter than the Versailles version.  Not quite as soft, not quite as dreamy as the A Padaria Portuguesa one, but I’m pretty convinced that no where else’s compares to that.

The top was also soft, not crisp, and more like a coconut paste.  Again, not quite as good as the A Padoria Portuguesa version in that there wasn’t as much topping, and it wasn’t as sweet, but, still, I really prefer this to the authentic crispy style.

So, overall, it was ok.  If this was the first pão de deus I ever had, I probably wouldn’t have tried another.

Turns out, the first one I ever had really was the best, I should have just stopped there.

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Weeel Frozen Yogurt, Lisbon, Portugual

When in Lisbon ... get froyo?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I was supposed to be filling up on pastel de nata (which I did, at Pastéis de Belém), but, it was hot, and I wanted froyo.  What's a girl to do, particularly when she walks by a cute froyo stand in the mall food court?  I didn't even research Weeel before my visit, which is rare for me.  I'm glad I took the gamble, as it was excellent, and I returned every day I had left in Lisbon.

They offer only one flavor of yogurt (plain tart), with toppings, or made into shakes and parfaits.  At least, that is what I figured out from the menu and website.  The menu was very confusing, even though it had pictures.

The frozen yogurt comes in 3 sizes, always in a cup, no cones available, always with at least one topping.  That part was simple.

The other options, besides just froyo with toppings, are a "weeel shake" with frozen yogurt, fruit, and toppings, blended like a shake, or a "weeel fresh", which seemed to be some kind of fruit juice mix, or a "weeel up" which looked like a shake topped with more plain froyo and fruit, or a "weeel cool", which looked like a fruity ice mix topped with froyo and other toppings, and a "weeel done", a parfait, which I'll get more into below.

While the others shoppers weren't drawn to froyo and it was empty every time I walked by, the place does seem successful, as they have a few shops around the country, mostly in Lisbon, mostly in mall food courts.  They also have a few frozen yogurt trucks!  Lisbon is down with the trends, like serving milkshakes in mason jars at Ground Burger.

The yogurt and toppings were both high quality, and I really recommend Weel, if, you know, you wind up in Lisbon and want froyo.  It happens.

Toppings!

The toppings choices are extensive, ranging from liquids, to fruits, to candy, to cookies, to nuts.

Since they have only plain froyo, and all sizes come with at least one topping included, I guess this makes sense.

For liquids, there is dark chocolate, white chocolate, caramel, mango sauce, liquid nutella, and the fascinating looking "rafaweeel".  More on rafaweel soon.  Oh, and squeeze bottle of honey.

Next came fruits, including ripe mango chunks, watermelon (!), other melon, shredded coconut, fresh peaches, kiwi, apple compote, and a mixed berry compote.  Ojan lamented the lack of strawberries.

Candies included both milk and white chocolate pearls and mini M&Ms.

There were several types of cookie crumbs, including Oreos and caramelized biscuits.

And finally, nuts.  In addition to standard chopped nuts, there was also a caramelized nuts and seeds mix that I eyed, and granola crumbles.

Really, something for everyone here.  Most items were labelled in both English and Portuguese.

Pequeno with 2 toppings (mango, rafaweeel). 3.20€.

There is only one flavor of yogurt, plain tart.  On my first visit, I added "rafaweeel" and mango.

The yogurt was very good, it reminded me of Red Mango in the US, back when Red Mango was good.  Not too sweet, tart, decently creamy.  Clearly not trying to be ice cream, but very good frozen yogurt.

For my toppings, I was drawn in by nearly everything.  In the end, I decided to get one liquid and one fruit.  I really wanted a crunchy topping too, but, I was trying not to overdo it.

For fruit, I picked mango, as it looked really ripe and juicy.  It was indeed good, large chunks, although, only about 6 pieces were added to my froyo.  I wanted more!  Sadly, my camera did something crazy, and you can't actually see the vibrant, perfectly ripe, mango chunks on here.

For the sauce, I almost got the white chocolate, (or the nutella when I was considering a crunchy topping instead of mango), but last minute, I decided to try the rafaweeel.  I had no idea what it was, but it looked like white chocolate with stuffs in it.  Which ... it was.  I think.  Still not sure about the white chocolate part, it might have just been liquid yogurt coating?  Someone else thought it might be sweetened condensed milk?  Anyway, it was white and sweet.  Sure, it looked kinda odd against the white froyo, but it was tasty.  Inside was flakes of coconut, actually giving it a pretty good coconut flavor.  Coconut and mango were a great combination, so, I really lucked out.  There was also larger chunks of something, not sure of what, maybe waffle cone bits or something?  I appreciated the texture.

Overall, this was really quite good.  The froyo was good, the toppings were good, and the size was enough to be satisfied but not stuffed.  I immediately made a plan to return.

A small normally comes with 1 topping, medium and large with 3.  I wanted a small, but I really wanted 3 toppings.  I compromised and ordered 2 toppings.  I was told that small only comes with 1.  I asked if I could pay more for another topping.  Yes, yes I could.  So, a normal small is 2.70€, I paid 0.50€ extra for the second topping.

Pequeno with 2 toppings (caramelized seeds, white chocolate). 3.20€.

A few days later, after a large dinner at nearby Ground Burger, I wasn't really satisfied, and wanted something sweet to end on a good note.  Since we were only a block away, Weeel came to mind immediately.

Note: I was with a group of at least 40 people, and we had just finished devouring burgers, fries, onion rings, and milkshakes, and our next destination was a tiki bar.  Taking a "quick detour" to froyo was perhaps ridiculous, and I honestly didn't think everyone would follow me, I kinda assumed they'd continue to the tiki bar, and then a few folks would come with me and we could meet at the bar.  But instead, I lead a ridiculous entourage into the Il Corte Ingles mall, down to the food court, through the whole food court, and to the Weeel stand.  It really was quite comical, Julie leading a heard.

On this visit, I again asked for two toppings, which again required double confirmation that I was willing to pay extra.  Since I wanted the white chocolate last time and didn't get it, I got it this time, even though, I really wanted that rafaweeel again.  I decided to get my second choice from before of crunchy topping too, caramelized seeds, and skipped fruit, although, the mango looked excellent again.  So, basically, this was my second choice version of everything I got the day before.

And ... it was fine.  The froyo was again tart and creamy, and quite good.  The caramelized seeds were, well, crunchy, slightly sugar coated pumpkin seeds.  I liked the crunch, but otherwise they weren't actually amazing in any way.  The white chocolate was sweet and ok, but, no where near as amazing as rafaweeel.

Ojan was among the group I led there.  I told him how this place was like Red Mango from back when it was good, and assured him he would like it, but, he said he was too full and didn't want any.  He took one bite of mine, and then immediately got in line.  Lols.  He made a healthy version with mango and melon, and really liked it.  He wanted to retur as soon as possible, but we were out of days in Lisbon.

A few others in the group got the rafaweeel at my very strong encouragement.  They all gave it strong endorsements as well, even though they admitted that it looked scary.

So, overall, this froyo was only ok, but, that was my topping picks not being awesome.

If I had another day in Lisbon to get froyo, I'd definitely return.  I'd be pretty tempted to go back to mango and rafaweeel, and maybe add a third crunchy element like nuts.  Or, go for something with chocolate or nutella sauce.  So hard to get past that rafaweeel though ...

Weeel Done. 3.70€.

"Camadas de Iogurte Gelado com Toppings Crocantes, 3 Frutas e Topping Líquido Quente."

On my last visit, there was actually another customer, a lady, who ordered one of the items from the menu that wasn't just froyo with toppings.  It looked incredible.  I quickly asked what it was, and was pointed to the "Weeel Done".  On the menu display, it just showed froyo with some fruit.  Not really knowing what I was getting, I asked for one too.  It was my last visit to Weeel, and I wanted to go big!

It was a layered creation, starting with a little bit of froyo in the bottom.  Then my choice of crunchy topping (yes!).  Then my choice of not one, not two, but THREE fruits (!!!).  Then another crunchy topping (whee!).  Then more froyo.  And then a liquid topping.  Um, wow?  I could get ALL THE THINGS!

I didn't know I'd get all these choices, until it was being assembled.  My server added the froyo to the base, and then asked which crunchy topping I wanted.  I opted for the caramelized almonds, somewhat on a whim.  Then he asked me to pick a fruit, I said mango, since I liked that before.  And he said I got another fruit.  I said peaches, as they looked fresh.  And then he asked for another fruit, so I went with kiwi, mostly just totally randomly picking at that point.  He really loaded it up with fruit, far more per topping than on the regular froyo.

And then ... he asked for another crunchy topping.  I went with the caramelized biscuits, I don't even know why.  I wasn't expecting to get to pick so many things and was totally unprepared.  He returned to the froyo machine to add a ton of froyo on top, and then came back to ask my sauce choice.  That was no question.  Rafaweeel!  He handed over my creation, and I must say, I was pretty excited.  It was so much more than I was planning to get, just a simple small with perhaps two toppings!

The rafaweeel was again amazing, and this time I asked him what it was.  He said it is white chocolate, with coconut and biscuits, as I suspected.  I again loved it, sweet, coconuty, with a bit of fun texture.

The caramelized almond bits were also great, super sweet, nice crunch.  The caramelized biscuit though I didn't care for, as it was basically just cookie crumbs, which, it turns out, aren't very delicious when they get soggy in melty froyo.

The kiwi was hard and very lackluster, like all other kiwi I had on the trip.  I'm starting to think kiwi just isn't what to eat in Portugal.  The peaches were almost good, they had a nice flavor, but were still pretty hard, crisp to bite into.  Maybe that is how peaches are eaten here?  The mango was a mixed bag.  Some chunks were perfectly soft and ripe.  Others were kinda hard.

My parfait was a bit hard to eat, since I wanted to get to the mangos in the bottom, and had to dig through so much else to get there.  But besides that slight annoyance, it was pretty awesome.  Sure, the fruit wasn't all the ripest, and I wouldn't get the biscuit crumble again, but it was still really great, creamy, tart yogurt, a ridiculous amount of toppings, and, swoon, rafaweeel!

I would definitely get a Weeel Done again, if I was hungry enough, or if I had someone to split with, as this really is a bit of an undertaking.  Next time, I'd keep the rafaweeel (or maybe, maybe finally try the chocolate), I'd keep the caramelized almonds and perhaps try some of the chocolate candies, I'd keep the mango, possibly just double up on it, or pick something else that looked ripest.  If ... only there was another time!

I don't really understand the pricing at Weeel.  A small with 3 fruits, 2 crunchy toppings, and 1 liquid topping would be 5.70€.   When I ordered fruit toppings on my froyo, I got less of each on it than in here.  So this was more yogurt than a small, an equal amount of liquid topping, and 5 other toppings, all in more substantial amounts, for 2€ less?

Anyway, if you want a lot of toppings, clearly go this route, even if it is a bit hard to eat.

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Ground Burger, Lisbon, Portugal

I was recently in Lisbon for a conference.  Lisbon is not exactly known for being a culinary mecca (besides Pastéis de Belém, which was amazing!) and I had little time to do research before my trip.  Also I was basically looking for venues that could handle large groups with no notice.  On any given night, we had no idea if our group would be 5 people, 10 people, 30 people, or even 50.  Um, yeah.

This is no easy feat.  We managed to get a tables for 30 of us at Largo one night, where the food was pretty mediocre, but at least they had a good gin selection.  But the next night, we needed to be flexible and couldn't require people to RSVP.

I randomly stumbled upon Ground Burger when out for a walk one day, and decided to investigate.  Yes, a burger place, not not really authentic Portuguese cuisine, but, it would appeal to the masses.  Their tag line is "Burgers Fries Shakes Beer".  Pretty universal stuff there.

I did a bit more research.  The reviews were actually really, really good.  Not just for burgers in Lisbon, but, for burgers, anywhere.  People claimed the onion rings were the best they had ever had.  I pressed on.  I found out the beef is ground in-house daily.  They make their own buns, twice a day.  They make their own ice cream for the milkshakes.  Well, then.  This wasn't just any old burger place!

So, we went, a group of about 30 to start, and at least 15 more trickled in within 20 minutes of our seating.  The restaurant couldn't seat us all in one group, but we were able to take a bunch of tables, push some together, and take up about 80% of the restaurant.

So far so good.  But ... the staff just couldn't handle our group, even though we broke into multiple tables.  It was actually rather amazing how badly they dealt with us.  I understand getting a few orders wrong, but, I'm not sure anyone was actually delivered the right item.  Burgers were not cooked as specified.  It took 41 minutes after I ordered for my sparkling water to be delivered.  Other drinks took even longer.  The table next to us got their food before their drinks.  Our food was mostly stone cold.

The drinks and food were ready in a timely fashion, but, the staff just seemed entirely confused about what to do with them.  The bartender had all the drinks lined up on the counter, arranged by table, and a server would walk over, look at them, and turn away, walking in a random direction for a minute, going back, picking up one drink, wandering around, etc.  It was somewhat like watching a chicken with its head cut off.  I have no idea how they were so incapable of moving items from the counter to the tables.

So, anyway, I have a hard time evaluating Ground Burger, because maybe it really is wonderful, it sure sounded like it should be, but for us, it was highly mediocre and the experience was really not very enjoyable.

Setting

Outdoors.

The restaurant is located up on a raised platform, with a huge patio outside.  The patio looked idea for seating, but, they had none.  Maybe zoning requirements?

Inside Seating.

Inside was a large bar area, with craft beer bottles on display.

Tables were simple, chairs were wooden, and we were provided paper placemats. 

The light fixtures were fairly interesting, exposed bulbs in cages.

It was ridiculously loud inside, and it got worse as the night went on.  All hard surfaces in a fully filled restaurant doesn't work very well.

Condiments.

On each table was a box with ketchup, mustard, and salt.  No pepper.  Next to it was a paper napkin dispenser.

There was no cutlery on the tables, and none ever provided, even when people ordered salads.  Those folks ended up going back to the kitchen (!) to ask for a fork after waiting at least 20 minutes post salads being delivered for anyone to pay attention to us again.

Drinks

We ordered drinks soon after sitting.  It took 41 minutes for my sparkling water to arrive, and even then, it was brought to the person next to me, who ordered still water.  It took another 5 minutes for my cider to arrive, and it wasn't even brought to anyone, a server just walked around with it in her hand looking confused, saying nothing, until I realized it was mine and basically grabbed it from her.  The table next to us received their food before their drinks.  Emil's glass of wine was sitting up on the bar ready to be delivered to him for at least 20 minutes, and came long, long after mine, even though he was seated next to me.  They came by with a beer we didn't order at least 4 different times.  Yeah.

 Craft Beer Menu.

The first page of the menu, after the food, is entirely beer, featuring Sam Adams very prominently on top. They had a decent number of lagers, a few saisons, and tons of ales.  Given all the craft beers, I'm not entirely sure I understand the Samuel Adams thing?

Burgers and beers are a classic pairing, and the beer drinkers in my group were quite happy.

I'm very curious to know about this "Beer to go" ...

Beers, Part 2.

The next page?  More beer, tons of IPAs, and porters and stouts.

Again, very happy beer drinkers.

Wine and Cider.

And finally, wine, ciders, and ... Jack Daniel's.  Lols.  For wine, they had only two whites (only one by the glass) and 5 reds (again, only one by the glass).  Clearly, beer is the focus here, and wine was an afterthought.  Emil got a glass of red wine, and said it wasn't very good.

The cider menu was pretty good though, 5 different ciders by a Swedish brand, Kopparberg, all fruity varieties.

Kopparberg Morango Lima. 4.90€.

I went for the strawberry lime cider.  I may not like beer, but cider and burgers is a great pairing, and I was pretty happy to have choices.

This was not at all what I expected.  It was crazy sweet.  You could smell the strawberry aroma the moment I opened the can.  Sweet is good, and strawberry is good, but this was more like a malt beverage than a cider.  I would have loved it when I was in college and was into such things.

It really didn't have many cider qualities to it.  It was like ... carbonated strawberry juice with a hint of lime.  Sorta like a refreshing flavored iced tea.  Very drinkable, and likely would have been dangerous for that younger version of me.  I wasn't ever able to do too much damage with Zima, since, wow, too much sweet and you just can't pound those, but on a hot day, I think I'd find these way too easy to suck down.

But, um, with my burger and fries?  Not quite what I wanted.  Oops.  I didn't like it, but did not bother trying to order a second drink.

Milkshakes

"All shakes are made with our daily housemade ice cream.  We use only fresh, 100% natural ingredients and vanilla beans from madagascar. The recipe? It's secret!"

Milkshakes are a strange thing for me.  I like them, for sure.  But, they aren't quite a dessert to me, even though, um, they should be.  So I never know when to have one.  But, to pair with burgers and fries?  Yes!  Classic.

Ground Burger has only 3 milkshakes on the menu: chocolate peanut butter, vanilla, and strawberry.  While I agree that chocolate peanut butter is strictly an improvement over chocolate, I thought it a bit strange that they didn't have plain chocolate.

Anyway, given the description and claims of greatness, we obviously needed milkshakes.  I can't say they were anything special, although, they did look pretty impressive.

All milkshakes were served in mason jars, apparently trendy in Lisbon too.  All are topped with an impressive mount of "chantilly cream" and come with the sauce of choice drizzled down the sides of the jar and on top.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake. 6.90€.

"Vanilla ice cream, peanut butter, chocolate syrup, served with chantilly on top."

I went for the chocolate peanut butter, because I love peanut butter, and vanilla and strawberry were just a bit too boring.

The chocolate peanut butter milkshake had chocolate sauce drizzled around the perimeter of the jar, more on top, and obviously some integrated into the shake.  The mound of whip cream was impressive in stature.  It certainly *looked* impressive.

And, it was fine.  But, really, not remarkable.  It was decently thick, had decent peanut butter flavor, but the chocolate wasn't very strong.  The chocolate sauce was just generic, thin, kinda watery, likely Hershey, just, chocolate sauce.  The "chantilly" really seemed to be whipped cream from a can.

Again, fine, but certainly not special, and the handmade ice cream and other subtleties were lost on us.

Vanilla Milkshake. 6.90€.

"Vanilla ice cream, golden syrup, served with chantilly on top."

The person next to me got the vanilla milkshake, made with golden syrup.  It too had the syrup (in this case the golden syrup) drizzled down the sides of the mug and on top of the whipped cream.

I didn't take a sip of this as I didn't know my neighbor well enough to start demanding sips of his drink, but he said it was quite good.

Food

Menu.

Ground burger basically serves burgers.  And really, not much else.  The menu contains 9 different burgers, one of which is a veggie burger, but otherwise are all the same ground beef burgers with different toppings.  There are no other entrees available, nor other types of patty.

All burgers are served a la carte.  The sides offered are fries, onion rings, and a salad, plus, if you consider it a side, dipping sauces.

And that is it for savory food.  All of the savory food only filled the left hand column of the menu.

The right hand column had the milkshakes, desserts (ice cream or chocolate cake), and non-alcoholic drinks.

"Our burgers are housemade, certified 100% black angus beef, fresh ground daily in our kitchen, served on a toasted bun that we bake ourselves twice a day".

Like the milkshakes, these burgers certainly had a good pedigree, beef ground in house! Fresh baked buns!

Onion Rings. 4.90€.

"Crispy onion rings in Samuel Adams beer batter fried until golden served with GB Special Sauce."

The first food item to hit our table was one order of onion rings, long before the other food.  The basket contained 6 very large rings.

They were piping hot.  This turned out to be the only hot food we received, but that is mostly because the serving staff just really didn't do a good job of bringing food to the table.  I saw all our food sitting on the counter for a very long time before it was brought to us, and there was a 6 minute lag between this single order of rings and the next dish (fries) hitting the table, even though it was all ready at the same time.  Sigh.

Anyway, the ring.  These were pretty good.

The coating was thick and formed a very crispy shell.  They were oily, but not in a bad, greasy way, just in a clearly freshly fried way.  The slices of onion inside were white onion, not too slimy, and the batter didn't stick to them, nor did the onions slide out.  Very good execution of the rings.

The rings were served with the "GB Special Sauce", which I didn't actually love.  It was just a seasoned creamy sauce, and I really wished our side of 4 sauces arrived when these did, so I could try them with the rings.

Overall, good rings, and I'd get them again, but 2 of these was enough for me (they were massive though!)

French Fries. 2.90€.

"Delicious homemade crispy fries deep fried with garlic and rosemary, served with garlic mayo."

The fries were ... ok.  They weren't warm when I got them, so I'm sure that added a bit to the downsides.  Some were crispier than others, and I liked those the best.  The fries themselves were pretty meh.

They were fairly unique though, as mixed in with the fries was slices of fried garlic that was absolutely delicious.  Mmm, fried, soft, garlic!  There was also fried rosemary, which somehow wasn't burnt, just was really crispy, and quite fun to munch on.  The garlic and rosemary really helped add a lot of flavor to the fries.

Perhaps if fresh and warm, these fries would have been great?  Our table also somehow wound up with about 3x the number of fries we ordered, so I ended up munching on far more than made sense, given how mediocre they were, but, we were surrounded by baskets of uneaten fries.

Well, there was another reason I couldn't stop eating fries: the aioli.  Er, garlic mayo.

Now this was good.  It was creamy, it was garlicy, it was really, really good.  I could kinda care less what I dunked into it.  I was also really glad we somehow wound up with so many fries, as each one came with its own pot of aioli, and most of my dining companions were using ketchup.  I consumed an unreasonable amount of aioli, but, I really enjoyed it.

Combo 4 Sauces.  3.90€.

"Garlic Mayo, Chipotle Sauce, GB Special, and smoked BBQ sauce, our special recipe with spices smoked with Jack Daniel's wood chips."

And ... all the sauces!  They finally arrived way after everything else.

The garlic mayo in back was more of the same that I had with the fries, and I eagerly took the extra off of this platter too.

BBQ was next, so fancy in description with Jack Daniel's wood chip smoked spices, but, it was just kinda thin BBQ sauce, a bit too sweet.

Next was the Chipotle Sauce, another creamy sauce that I didn't care for, but I don't tend to like chipotle.  It did have a little kick to it.

The GB Special Sauce in front was the same as the rings, meh.

Baconcheese, Rare. 10.90€.

"100% Black Angus beef patty, cheddar cheese, smoked crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, fried red onion, with smoked BBQ sauce."

Finally, burger time.  Daily ground beef, housemade buns, yadda yadda.

I believe that these burgers could be good.  And I've seen photos of ones that were nicely cooked.  But, none of ours were.

Let's start with the done-ness.  Now, I wanted medium-rare, but I had read reviews that said to order under, so asked for rare.  This also matched with our experience the night before at Largo, where the folks who ordered medium got well done.

So, what was rare like here?  Um, well done.  Far past medium.  All our burgers wound up well done, which was a bit amusing, as they made a point of saying the cook level as they handed them out, inevitably to the wrong people.  But it wasn't that they handed them out wrong, literally, all were well done.  Ok, so, that was a problem, and made the patty pretty dried out and not particularly juicy nor flavorful.

Next, temperature.  It was stone cold when it arrived.  This was the servers fault.  I saw it happening, just like with the fries, just like with the drinks.  They just really couldn't seem to figure out how to get food to the table.

There was a pretty seriously large thick slice of cheese, nice crispy bacon, fresh enough lettuce and tomato, but, these things couldn't make up for a cold overcooked burger.  The bun was soft, fluffy, and glossy.

Overall, disappointing, but I believe they are capable of doing this right, our group size just ruined it.

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