Rubin Verebes is the managing editor of Foodie and is very opinionated. Transforming his hobby of eating and drinking into a career, he shares his account of Hong Kong’s F&B scene and the worldwide state of dining in Rubin’s Take, a monthly opinion column.
Hong Kong has gone gelato mad. Long before this delicious assault of Italian ice cream came raining down upon the city this year, XTC Gelato in Soho was the first to kick-start Hong Kong’s obsession more than a decade ago.
Then came Gelato-Go in Tsim Sha Tsui and Iscream in Yau Tong to tempt Hong Kongers with an alternative to traditional ice cream.
It was Messina’s arrival in late 2021 that brought the cold dessert to citywide attention. Some secret Italian culinary sleeper cell perfectly performed its task, formally instituting gelato as the it trend these days. Snack Baby in Soho, Tozzo at PMQ, TEEMTONEfai in Causeway Bay, and Liz & Tori in Central have all opened in 2024. This year was gelato’s year.
Similarly to the former popularity of frozen yoghurt, macarons, avocado toast, and pumpkin-spice-anything, Hong Kong can easily fall for a trend, with gelato being the latest one to sweep in.
A tranche of the city’s newest gelato shops opened during the summer, making use of the dessert’s sticky texture to prove its power over ice cream: it won’t melt, even when you will.
With Italian food numbering the most restaurants out of any European cuisine in Hong Kong, the city is familiar with flavours from the Mediterranean country, ensuring a gelato shop with low operating costs good to great success in the city.
Whether this gelato trend is here to stay or not is a matter of debate, yet the speed of gelato shop openings just this year is remarkable – and it makes sense. In Hong Kong, buoyed by platforms such as Instagram and Xiaohongshu, a colourful, tasty, affordable luxury that looks cute on social media and light enough to enjoy as a post-meal dessert has gamed the algorithm and our stomachs.
Countering misconceptions of Hong Kong’s spending habits during the past two years of economic anxiety following the pandemic, people still want to enjoy themselves. When a cup or cone of gelato can be enjoyed for HKD50 and up, it becomes evident why a trend like this has grown in Hong Kong.
Trends come and go fast in Hong Kong. I predict the initial second (or third? fourth?) wave of gelato mania to find a comfortable plateau in a couple of months yet remain strong as the city continues to fall in love (again) with this sweet treat.
This is not to say that Hong Kong diners are fickle – quite the opposite. We are constantly in search of top-quality food. Gelato has become the latest food to tickle our taste buds.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author’s and do not represent or reflect the views of Foodie.
