Dooley's The Ice Cream Tub, Apollo Bay 02-2016

Every beach (actually every city) needs an ice cream/gelato place. That one in Apollo Bay is Dooley's (aka The Ice Cream Tub). There's two things that are quite intimidating about the place when you walk in - one is the queue (not as large as Messina for example, but considering the relative market population) and the other is the enormous number of awards hanging on the walls.

The flavours that tend to win the awards are chestnut, licorice, lemon curd, vanilla, coconut passionfruit and many more.

I couldn't imagine licorice appealing so much so I tried a small sample. It's creamy and lightly flavoured and unexpectedly pleasant. Having said that I don't think I could handle an entire scoop.

What I do settle on is chestnut (a smooth mild flavour) and lemon curd (essentially a potent lovely lemon cheesecake flavour). What is distinctive is how extraordinarily creamy the ice creams are, but I suppose that's the key difference in fat content between ice cream and what I usually buy in gelato. It's incredible and some of the best ice cream I've had. Overall I think I prefer gelato in being more dense and discrete but this ice cream makes it a tough call.

They unfortunately didn't have pistachio that day so I'll have to take a raincheck on that.

The Ice Cream Tub Menu Reviews Photos Location and Info - Zomato