Yesterday, a colleage of mine and I decided to try out gelatos for the first time. Gelatos are an Italian, low-fat version of icecream - much smoother, meltier, and best of all, offering a wide range of exotic and familar flavours. Since Mama Mia! is the oldest and most well-established chain of gelato outlets in Kolkata, and since an outlet is located just near office, we decided to go there after work.
Before going, I found out a little bit about Mama Mia! outlets from a friend who’s been to the ones in Mumbai - she told me that they allow taste testing sessions, so one can taste a few different flavours before deciding, and upto 5-6 flavours can be tasted at a time. So, we dropped in at their outlet at Mani Square Mall, yesterday around 7:30 PM - and - mama mia! was the experience memorable - in a not-so-nice way!
Located on the ground floor of one of the newer malls in the city, the outlet is a small takeway which, at the time we visited, had about twelve-fifteen flavours on offer - at Rs 60 a scoop. We asked about a Forest Berries flavour which we had heard was good, and the guy manning the counter promptly told us that it had been on offer only temporarily, during the holiday season of Pujas two months ago.
We opted for taste-testing, in which a dab of the flavour one wants is placed on a small icecream spoon for tasting. I tasted three flavours (cheesecake, a strawberry flavour, and Belgian dark chocolate) in quick succession, and was just going to try out the fourth when the guy suddenly said that the maximum tastes allowed was four and I had already taken four!! Luckily (or lazily, since I had planned to dispose of all the spoons together after the session, and not one by one) I had three spoons in my hand - and I waved them before his face. Unfazed, he had the audacity to suggest that perhaps I had dropped the fourth spoon before showing him the three! My colleague supported me, and finally I had my fourth taste - grape wine - which is the gelato single scoop I chose finally - a pale pink creamy concoction in a waffle cone - smooth, flavoursome, with a lovely, slightly tangy smell of grapes - while my colleague took a nutty, almond-flavoured gelato - but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Worst of all, the person manning the counter didn’t even apologize for his rudeness! So our first gelato experience was a not-so-great one.
I plan to try out some other Mama Mia! outlet (or even Gelato, a newly arrived brand in the city) but the Mani Square outlet - never again. I only hope it was a one-off experience and the counter is staffed by more polite and customer-friendly people on other days - but no, I don’t want to risk their staff’s unwarranted rudeness again - even though the gelato may be tempting!