Sparrow Gelato & Espresso Bar, Crows Nest

I always struggle to think up places to go for dessert apart from the usual suspects (Max Brenner, Guylian, Lindt etc.) but Sparrow gelato in Crows Nest has become my fallback option for dessert if I’m in the north. It’s a great little gelato café near the council reserve where Montagu is located. The bonus is that it is open until fairly late and serves up the most delectable flavours such as Apple Pie and Pandan and Coconut, just to name a couple of the wide range of flavours they have.

Tonight I decide to try their Belgian waffle with a scoop of Kahlua and Honeycomb gelato as well as their Affogato with a scoop of Tiramisu gelato. There’s indoor and outdoor seating but since it’s so cold tonight, it’s an obvious choice to sit inside the cosy and modern café itself. Tonight is packed full with customers so there is a short wait before a table opens up.

Luckily, Sparrow has thoughtfully provided a stack of magazines for their customers to flick through so we set up ourselves with a couple of the magazines as we wait for our order. We manage to nab a table in the meantime, and the waffle with gelato comes out quite quickly after that. We are pleasantly surprised by the richness of the Kahlua and Honeycomb flavour; it is a divine caramel taste which complements the soft yet crunchy Belgian waffle.

Belgian waffle $4, Kahlua and Honeycomb gelato $3 for one scoop

Our Affogato follows shortly after and it is served in 2 separate cups – one for the shot of espresso and a cup for the huge scoop of Tiramisu gelato. Usually affogatos come with the icecream already in the cup with the espresso shot, and I assume that it is because the gelato ball is so big in this case that the baristas leave us to do the honours ourselves. So I pour the shot of espresso into the bigger gelato cup and notice that it barely comes up to halfway on the scoop.

Affogato with Tiramisu gelato, $6

Since there is so much “exposed” gelato in the cup, the only thing to do is to attack it with a spoon and see how the Tiramisu gelato tastes when it has been drizzled with espresso. As you would expect, the coffee flavour goes perfectly with the gelato and just adds to the overall richness of the Tiramisu taste. We don’t really end up drinking the affogato because the gelato to espresso ratio was so out of whack (in a good way), but we still enjoyed eating the gelato slowly before getting to the end as the gelato melted into the espresso and was able to be sipped finally.

If you’re looking for a post-dinner gelato or a coffee, head to Sparrow to fight for a table – it’s worth it to try a different way to enjoy an affogato, which allows you to kill two birds with one stone by mixing high quality gelato with smooth coffee.

Sparrow Gelato & Espresso Bar
2 Ernest Place
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Phone: (02) 9437 5090

Sparrow Gelato & Espresso on Urbanspoon

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