When customers visit Scarborough’s Pretty Sweet Gelato for the first time, there are two things they usually say to husband-and-wife owners Cathy Tsang and Ernest Yung:
“Your shop is really hard to find” and “Is that really lobster bisque gelato?”
The year-old gelato shop is tucked in the back of a plaza against the GO train tracks. Its neighbours include home renovation contractors, a ginseng wholesaler and a sign printing company. On a Friday night, lines are already out the door. That’s thanks to word of mouth and inventive Asian flavours worth the extra trek, now that matcha and mango are as common as vanilla and chocolate.
For palates seeking something more adventurous, a scan of the nearly 20 flavours available on a recent visit revealed a floral osmanthus with sweet fermented rice; spicy ginger milk; coconut red bean; earthy red date goji berry; white peach oolong; and the attention-grabbing lobster bisque. The lobster bisque has the faint briny flavour of house-made lobster stock followed by a smooth caramel finish. Cilantro, which started as an April Fool’s joke but stayed after positive feedback, hits with a lemony, peppery zip and a slight crunch from finely chopped herbs folded in. The weekend’s soft serve flavour is Yakult, the tart, fermented Japanese milk drink.
More familiar flavours (by Toronto 2026 standards) include a robust jasmine tea; Hong Kong milk tea; hojicha; mango-coconut; espresso; and a vegan yuzu sorbet.
“The ideas come from the food we like, and we turn it into gelato. There’s so much you can do,” Tsang said.
She brought out a sorbet marked “5 Green Juice,” named after a drink commonly found at Chinese juice stalls that’s made from celery, cucumber, apple, green pepper and bitter melon juices. It’s grassy, slightly sweet, bitter and refreshing, like a palate cleanser between courses — a freshly mowed lawn on a Saturday morning distilled into a cup.
Before getting into the gelato business, Tsang worked as a realtor and in property management for a client who owned several plazas around the city. When one of his tenants, a gelato maker, moved out, he suggested Tsang give it a try. The idea was for Tsang and her husband to start a wholesale gelato business so they could set their own hours and spend more time with their daughter, Hailey. Tsang’s parents, Kitty Lam and Andrew Tsang, now help look after the three-year-old at the shop.
A manufacturing plaza isn’t ideal for walk-in visibility, but Tsang said they needed a space with enough power and ventilation for wholesale production. They supply gyms, restaurants and cafés including Taro’s Fish and Hatch Coffee Roasters. The facility, located at 110 Silver Star Blvd. Unit 116, is also peanut-free because Tsang’s nephew has a peanut allergy. Although they initially wanted to focus solely on wholesale, after moving into the space in May 2025 the couple quietly added a retail gelato counter that July to meet demand from walk-in customers.
“At first we didn’t want to do Asian flavours, but people on Google review started saying we were an Asian gelato place,” she said. “It’s what people wanted, so now we’re not hiding that side of us. Even the guy who taught us to make gelato was saying we were making Chinese gelato because we were using 40 per cent less sugar.”
The name Pretty Sweet Gelato is a nod to the familiar joke that good Asian desserts are always “not-too-sweet,” but it also leaves room for a broader range of flavours, from cookies and cream to a sweeter lychee.
Asian gelato and ice cream flavours now sit alongside traditionally Italian flavours like tiramisu and pistachio. Since matcha is now a mainstream ingredient, dessert spots got more creative. Places like Good Behavior have black garlic miso caramel and sakura oolong. Ruru Baked has pandan, chrysanthemum, and a coconut ice cream take on a layered Vietnamese dessert called chè ba màu. North York’s Gelato North has yuzu cheesecake, as well as hotteok and injelomi to reflect its Korea Town North neighbourhood. Death In Venice and Kati Gelato have Thai iced tea, whereas Nani’s Gelato recently released a flavour inspired by besan, an Indian sweet made from roasted chickpea flour.
“It’s now pretty ubiquitous, whereas at one point it was me and maybe a couple of others,” said Ed Wong, who operated Mr. Wong’s Ice Cream in East Chinatown from 2017 to 2021. Wong made flavours such as salted duck egg, mooncake and White Rabbit candy, while on the west end, Kekou Gelato served durian and Vietnamese coffee (it has also since closed). “It’s rewarding to see it grow because the flavours are an expression of who they are, and ice cream is like an empty canvas you can paint on.”
Wong adds that Toronto diners, regardless of cultural background, already have a good understanding of Chinese cuisine and are increasingly open to unfamiliar flavours. That allows dessert makers to push the envelope each year. Since most ice cream shops offer samples, they’re also an easy way to try several flavours before seeking out the fruit, tea or dish that inspired them.
Despite being off the culinary path, diners have found Pretty Sweet Gelato through word of mouth and the occasional semi-viral Instagram post; its semi-hidden location ironically adds to the appeal. The GTA may have far more Asian gelato shops than it did a decade ago, but with such a wide range of fruits, snacks, and savoury and sweet dishes to draw from, there’s no limit to the flavours that can still be churned out.
