Lab Made

This was delicious! So this store changes flavors every two weeks. It’s in the Tai Hang area alongside several dessert joints. I wondered what was so special about this place over other dessert places… They make their ice cream with nitrogen!
I tried the Jurlique x Labmade ice cream flower tea, a summer special. The staff was really good with accommodating my need to take a video and several photos!
I also tried the tai chi tofu pudding. DELICIOUS! There’s black sesame at the bottom and the ice cream on top. I’ll probably be back very soon to explore the other restaurants!

Food (**** out of *****); Is ice cream that is made with liquid nitrogen better tasting? Nope. Now that we’ve gotten this out of the way, let’s get on with the ice cream. Their ice cream is very good but not the best. However, I haven’t found the truly rich, sublimely creamy, smooth, and buttery mouth feel ice cream anywhere in Hong Kong that they serve at Amy’s Ice Cream in Austin, Texas. What I did find at Lab Made Ice Cream is creativity. From the neat fog that cascades over the counter when they make your ice cream to order, to the monthly changing menu, you will be thrilled with ice cream flavors you have never had before and after the end of the month, you’ll probably never again have that flavor in your life.
For example, while I was there, they served Ribena (black currant) ice cream, apple crumble, sweet rice ball soup, and mystery flavor. Yes, mystery flavor. If you choose the mystery flavor, then you will be the guinea pig for next month’s menu. They will give you ice cream and not tell you what you are eating. Then, you will vote on Facebook if you like it and try to guess the flavor. If you guessed it correctly, then you win some sort of prize (sorry, I don’t know what prize because my Cantonese is crap).
Service (***** out of *****); They answered my millions of questions, and let me take a billion pictures. Ice cream was made immediately after I ordered it. They have an English menu.
Atmosphere (**** out of *****); From the corny fake labcoats, to the «smoke» coming from their ice cream lab, I enjoyed the concept.
Conclusion (**** out of *****); This place is worth going out of your way to try. For unique flavors and a neat concept, try Lab Made Ice Cream.
P. S. Most flavors are 44 HKD for a scoop. However, for being a good sport and helping them test new flavors, the mystery flavor is only 30 HKD.

If you like gimmicks and ice cream, Lab Made is the perfect place for you. Their «menu» changes every month and they serve some of the most unusual flavors.
Perhaps nitrogen ice cream isn’t all that new in the grand scheme of things but they made it «Hong Kong». I mean, where else can you find Chinese Beancurd, Purple Rice, and HK Crispy Toast ice cream? Lab Made is also excellent marketeers and works with different brands to promote their products. (just like H&M X Alexander Wang)
At HK$ 4X, it’s pretty steep even for liquid nitrogen ice cream. But I still think it’s worth to try at least once!

single batch ice cream made with dry ice. now popular throughout the world but this place made it popular in HK. flavors rotate, but of course places that make it this way usually don’t have many choices and one disappointing try could ruin your opinion. even in the US, it’s a bit of a fad though.

I have only been here once and that will be it. A few friends of mine and I went to Hysan Place for dinner but skipped the dessert. Instead we decided to go to Lab Made for an ice cream and see what the hype was all about. On a Sunday evening, it was a little busy and, after making up our minds about flavors, we queued for a while to make our orders. As they are quite pricey, I was very much looking forward to experimenting with a new better flavor, texture, or whatever the nitrogen process did to the ice cream. I don’t have a sweet tooth and 99% of the time I don’t eat sugar, so this was an exception. The ice cream wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that amazing: not creamier or smoother than any other. It was nice to share the dessert with friends hanging out in the street, as the weather was great, but we could have done exactly the same having paid less than half. I must admit their marketing is great, and they’ve come up with an idea which is not only about food, but also entertainment. You go there because you’re curious how they make your ice cream too. That’s the whole point of this and you pay for that.
It’s also a pretty smart thing that they vary their menu, as this is a great way for them to experiment with people’s taste too — their flavor mixes are also really original (strawberry panda?). That was my only ice cream at Lab Made but I must admit that I took my sister to try… after all, it’s quite cool to see the guys making your ice cream!

I have been there a handful of times, once when it first initially opened, the other times were to bring tourists.
They have done a good job of promoting themselves and creating a huge hype, however, personally, I didn’t get it. It was ice cream to me. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it was bad, just that I don’t think it was necessarily worth it for the prices they are charging and to have to line up for. Fortunately every time I came, I was already in the area, I would not have made the trip out here just for the ice cream.
To me, the way they made the ice cream, using nitrogen, is definitely a gimmick. It is just a new way of making ice cream. I don’t think the ice cream necessarily tastes a whole lot different from the regular way of making it, and I do not think they have any actual benefits of using nitrogen instead of whatever they normally make ice cream with. What makes it so special?!
I mean, unless I compared two ice cream, same flavours, side by side, I don’t get why people get so excited about. (excuse my ignorance)
What I did appreciate was the flavour selection. They would always have a few unique flavours, whether it is milk tea, black gluttonous rice, or something interesting.
I mean, I think the prices are slightly over the top for just ice cream. I would come back to try again if they have any cool flavours, but aside from that, maybe I am just not a huge fan of gimmicky desserts. I would probably just be happy with a chain ice cream brand like haagen daz or godiva. Boring? Perhaps. Safe. definitely!

I’ve only been to Lab Made once, and while it was not bad, it didn’t live up to its hype. The ice cream at Lab Made is made using some kind of nitrogenous process — I’m not sure about the science behind it, but supposedly this makes the ice cream much smoother and creamier, but to me, it just tasted like regular ice cream. I do like that Lab Made is very creative with their flavors. The menu will feature four flavors that change every two weeks, and they have flavors like earl grey green tea, crispy mint chocolate chip, red bean tofu… etc. I’ve tried the crispy mint chocolate chip, which was not bad and had some chocolate chip pieces too.
I still don’t think the ice cream at Lab Made is as great as people make it out to be though. Even though it uses liquid nitrogen, it just tastes like regular ice cream to me. It’s one of the most expensive ice cream stores in HK too — some flavors are $ 39, and some are $ 44 which is a pretty steep price! The scoop is not very big either. I wouldn’t hesitate to return to Lab Made if the ice cream were a little cheaper, because they really are very unique with their flavors, but seriously, $ 44?! For this amount I’d rather get a double scoop at other places.