Best Top New Vancouver Soft-Serve Ice Cream: UYU

Korean for "milk," UYU is the third soft-serve ice-cream joint to unveil in Gastown this summer, meaning a new contestant has entered the ring.

Here’s what UYU brings to the table: two rotating daily flavours (on our visit these were a tasty Belgian chocolate and Earl Grey, plus the omnipresent "original") and ice-cream bars ready for a white- or dark-chocolate dip. Toppings are … virtuous. No yogurt chips and mochi globules here, but haute little hits like black sesame powder, freeze-dried fruit and pumpkin seeds, as well as a variety of drizzles (free drizzles!). We’d go back just for the cool room, designed by Campos Leckie Studio (Small Victory) with white geometric-patterned walls. Plus, there was something strangely riveting about watching our server use a pair of tweezers to implant exactly four freeze-dried raspberries with surgical precision onto our chocolate swirl.

This is some serious soft-serve. —Adrienne Matei

UYU, 433 Abbott St., Vancouver, 778-379-9986, www.uyuicecream.com