Kids these days have it good – where we were once beholden to a choice of only vanilla or chocolate when it came to soft-serve ice cream, the options today are truly astonishing! But don’t take our word for it, try them for yourself. The owners of My Little Melbourne, already respected around town for its specialty coffee, have opened a new ice-cream venture on Madách tér: the Bon Dia Soft Serve ice-cream bar.
In 2012, Péter Balázsi and his wife Dia founded My Little Melbourne Café, then one of the domestic pioneers of new-wave coffee. During their travels around the world, they have picked up on new ideas and trends to introduce to their coffeeshop, and we can thank those travels for this latest adventure into soft-serve. Bon Dia is inspired by a trip to Barcelona – the name translates as ‘Good day!’, and is a further play on co-founder Dia Balázsi’s first name.
So what exactly is Bon Dia: café, ice cream parlour? Coffeeshop? It’s not easy to draw a line, and the cool, urban interior decoration doesn’t feel like a traditional ice-cream shop, either! It’s a mix of everything – and coffee is available, as well. Given the founders, it’s hard to imagine any establishment of theirs without coffee, and a common window with neighbouring My Little Melbourne connects the two businesses.
Step inside and the rainbow of flavours will have you feeling like a child in, well, a candy shop. If you’re looking for that traditional chocolate-vanilla combination of your childhood, however, you’ll be looking in vain. Instead, you come across artisanal and fascinating names like the Panna Rosa raspberry-lychee-rose, the Emma Green pistachio-matcha and the Melbourne Blue made of blue algae! But don’t be overwhelmed – there is that familiar staple vanilla, under the pseudonym White Flower. All the flavours are rotated every four days, but White Flower is always available.
Combine your coffee and ice cream in the Italian masterpiece known as affogato, a real summer luxury. No frappé can match this ice-cream-and-java combo.
Hop across the world when you walk through Madách tér, with Australia to your right and a pinch of Barcelona to your left, and enjoy an unadulterated summer experience. Ice creams are served in four sizes, priced at 400, 650, 950 and 1,250 forints, and come in a cone or in a bowl. Lots of sweet and savoury toppings can be added to your heart’s content, from candy and chocolate to caramel, pretzel and marshmallow.
Bon Dia
District VII. Madách Imre út 3
Open: Daily 11am-7pm
