Kariton Sorbetes Chinatown

This ice-cream parlour’s name nods to sorbetes, the Filipino ice-cream that’s made with coconut and carabao milks and sold on street carts (karitons) in the archipelago nation.

While the team here makes gelato and sorbet – rather than the sorbetes found in the Philippines – all the classic flavours like ube (purple yam), keso (cheese) and abukado (avocado) are on offer. Since launching as a takeaway service in 2020, co-owners John Rivera ( Askal, ex-Lume and Sunda) and Minh Duong (ex-Maha) have made it their mission to bring these flavours to Melburnians and homesick Filipinos alike.

Ten of the 12 available flavours come from the Filipino-inspired core range – including ube halaya (purple-yam gelato with ube jam and latik, or caramelised coconut curds), keso (cheddar and bourbon-vanilla gelato with cashews and Sky Flakes, a Filipino cracker), mango float (mango sorbet and fior di latte gelato with mango jam and Graham-cracker crumbs), champorado (based on a Filipino breakfast rice pudding, made here with fish-sauce salted caramel and puffed wild rice) and leche flan (Filipino crème caramel).

Two slots are reserved for specials – past favourites have included the Milo Dinosaur, and a play on tiramisu: coconut and mascarpone gelato, coconut-soaked sponge fingers, Vietnamese coffee caramel and chocolate soil. You can get all the flavours as scoops, in tubs to take home, or inside pillowy bread rolls called pandesal, made in-house.

The taho soft-serve (silken-tofu-flavoured ice-cream topped with soy-milk panna cotta, boba pearls and oolong tea syrup) is also available, along with rotating slushies. The day’s menu is projected onto the curved ceiling, which is painted in sky-light hues.