Big Kid Ice Cream

Food

Ube Blueberry Muffin - I recently learned about ube and have grown to love this earthy-flavored purple yam that is making waves in the drinks and dessert scene. The blueberry muffin is very pronounced and the foremost flavour of this ice cream, where there are also sizeable chunks of muffin inside the ice cream adding a thicker consistency to the scoop. The ube was difficult to detect, although since this is not naturally a strong flavour I do think it helped to enhance the blueberry with its creamy, earthy, vanilla essences. This creation lived up to the namesake of the shop as it did remind me of eating childhood muffins akin to that of school lunch snacks and being a big kid again. This gave a nice sense of nostalgia to the flavour, however on the flip side.

Tahini Custard Cream - This was an interesting take on the classic British biscuit, where it wasn’t too overwhelmingly custard flavored but definitely heading more to the sweet biscuit flavouring. Sometimes with these types of ice creams, they naturally begin to taste like vanilla ice cream, however this was not the case for this scoop and you could tell that this was a very different flavour profile and it did bring me back to the recognisable flavour of a custard cream biscuit. This ice cream was well filled with chunks of biscuit which added a layer of texture, however since the biscuit was mixed in at sub zero temperature it doesn’t have the same satisfying bite but rather it crumbles in a disintegrating type fashion. The tahini was not noticeable which was a little bit of a shame, however as a stand alone custard cream scoop, this was still very enjoyable.

Dill Pickle - Seeing this on the menu did get me excited, as I feel obliged to give anything pickle flavoured on menus and shops a taste to see how they are. On this occasion, the taster sample was quite sizable and was served as a plain milky ice cream with actual chunks of dill pickle mixed in along with some of the pickle juice mixed into the ice cream. Unfortunately, this was a little lackluster and tasted a little too like plain ice cream with only faint pickle flavouring when you didn't get a solid bite of the pickle chunks. I don’t think this hit the spot for me as much as I would have hoped.

Marmite on toast - As someone who hates marmite I thought I’d give it a go in sweet treat form to see if this would change my mind to something I love. However, low and behold it did in fact taste exactly like a creamy version of Marmite so this opinion unfortunately remained unchanged. No notes on this, if you like Marmite then feel free to give it a go, else avoid at all costs

Watermelon Turkish Delight - This was the flavour I most wanted to try, however when I arrived this was unfortunately showing as sold out. Fortunately for me, they had started to restock certain flavours while I was eating my two scoops. After I finished, I went back to the queue and was able to receive another taster for this flavour. I should have expected it really, however this did encapsulate a Turkish delight a lot more than I expected, from the flavour of the flour on top of the Turkish delight to the feeling of biting into the gelatinous bite, this flavour seemed to encapsulate all of these flavours and feelings. The watermelon was a good choice of flavour as this was not a traditional flavour one may expect for a Turkish delight but it worked well, also containing small pieces of Turkish delight in the scoop which elevated the experience. Yet again it did really feel like this was created by a child. Superbly refreshingly different to any ice cream I had tried before.

Value

Big Kid's unique and premium approach to ice cream does come at a cost, with prices set at £5 for a single scoop, £9 for two scoops and £12 for three scoops. For those looking to elevate their experience further, selected flavours can also be served brûléed, increasing the price to £6.50 per scoop.

There is no avoiding the fact that this is an expensive ice cream, even by London standards, so if you are looking for value you may wish to look elsewhere. That being said it is unlikely you will find such wacky and interesting creations at many other places without paying a premium for them

Aesthetic

Their Kingly Street shop is situated just off the trendy Carnaby Street, Big Kid welcomes you into a small, hole-in-the-wall style ice cream shop where the focus is firmly on the creations themselves. The wacky ice cream flavours do look appealing, especially the more fruity and exotic flavours. Especially those with chunks in them as they protrude out of the ice cream to give the scoop that extra something. They have a couple of tables outside of the shop for you to enjoy their creations however these can also be easily enjoyed walking around. Every ice cream comes with a branded wafer that sits above your scoops. This tasteful touch enhances the overall appearance of your ice cream cup or cone and elevates the experience of eating a Big Kid Ice Cream.