CLOSED: Berrissimo

I suppose I should disclose before I start that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Much more partial to salty, fried snacks but used to love a frozen yoghurt on a hot day at uni before I forsook such delights to maintain the moral high ground. So I was pretty excited when I heard Berrissimo had vegan options. I took a date there after a delicious lunch at Yong and I gotta say, I was sadly disappointed.

The day I went in there was only one vegan flavour - chocolate mousse, a childhood favourite of mine. "Wicked," I thinks. Nuh. I was expecting rich, delicious, creamy, cool chocolate but it wasn't really chocolatey at all. Just sickly sweet and left a greasy film on the roof of my mouth. Topping it with peanut fudge sauce and toasted coconut, I put together what I thought should've been a delicious sundae. The sauce didn't taste peanutty either though, just sugary. I don't expect this stuff to be anything other than sweet but I don't expect sugar to overpower any other flavour.

Now I've heard they have a few other vegan flavours, I might be tempted to give it another try if I happen to be on Brunswick St. Then again, for my money you'd be better off with a raw cacao shake from Yong every time. Or nick across to Casa del Gelato on Lygon for a sweet, icy treat.

Frozen yogurt seems to be a big thing at the moment. We popped into Berrissimo on a very slow day. There was a handful of flavours available, and three of the choices were vegan. We tried one small and two medium containers, with a mix of vegan and non-vegan flavours. We also added one topping each.

One of the vegan flavours was almost unidentifiable because it was so weak, though the dairy flavours seemed to be quite strong. On the whole, we gave the flavours about 7 out of 10 - not quite what we had expected. The toppings, however, were delightful - and very good value at $1. Unfortunately, the containers were just too small for the overall money we paid ($17 total).

We visited this venue just to try it out, but really, for that much money, there are many other dairy and dairy-free desserts that can be enjoyed in that part of Melbourne.