PETALING JAYA, Feb 25 — Fight the hot weather by getting your cool fix at Softsrve Ice-Cream & Dessert Bar, which serves ultra smooth creamy soft serve ice cream.

Opened yesterday, the latest ice cream and dessert spot is the brainchild of Softsrve founders Amily Chong and Redmond Ho. Both come from a graphic design and mulitimedia background with no previous F&B experience.

Their homegrown venture was inspired by the Korean soft serve ice cream craze, like Softree and Milkcow.

According to Redmond, they preferred creating their own brand versus getting a franchise. For their soft launch, there will be two flavours: cereal milk and chocolate.

Plans are also underway to introduce hot desserts like churros with soft serve ice cream, which they hope to launch by their grand opening on March 7. Up until their grand opening, Softsrve will also be giving a 20 per cent discount for their soft serve ice cream.

Softsrve has the distinction to be the first in Malaysia to serve cereal milk soft serve ice cream. The idea of cereal milk is not new. Its origins can be traced back to New York’s iconic Momofuku Milk Bar.

Essentially it’s the milk infused with the taste of cornflakes, usually found at the bottom of our daily breakfast bowl of cereal. According to Amily, there are multiple steps involved in the making of the cereal milk soft serve.

First, the cornflakes are lightly roasted then steeped in the milk, which is subsequently filtered and churned into ice-cream. Prior to making the cereal milk flavour, Softsrve tested many different brands of cornflakes to get the best flavour. “We chose a better one where the taste is more natural,” says Redmond.

You get a choice of four toppings with your cereal milk soft serve. The breakfast variant is highly recommended with its crunchy caramelised cereal. According to Redmond, it’s made by combining crushed corn flakes with butter, sugar, salt, a little caramel and baked for a crunchier bite that does not soften so fast. A macaron shell also tops this breakfast variant.

Meet the people behind Softsrve (from left to right): Amily Chong, Redmond Ho and Jack Liau.

Other toppings include a sweet-and-savoury version known as honey chips — a combination of crushed potato chips and a drizzle of honey. You also have a theatre variant, which combines everyone’s favourite cinema snack of Garretts popcorn with the smooth cereal milk soft serve.

“For us we believe Garretts serves the best popcorn and we want to create a brand that serves top notch ingredients,” explained Redmond. The other two toppings look similar to Milkcow’s offering in the Klang Valley, with a cotton candy and Himalayan sea salt combination, and one topped with a piece of honeycomb sourced from New Zealand.

Eat your breakfast or soft serve cereal milk ice cream topped with caramelised cereal and macaron shell.

For those who prefer a more decadent soft serve, don’t miss out on their luscious chocolate variant made from an Italian chocolate pre-mix.

It’s topped with a drizzle of chocolate sauce and a choice of homemade chocolate truffle, or crunchy baked nuts. Softsrve uses a mix of almond flakes, sunflower seeds and pistachios to create the special combination of nuts.

When the ice-cream is served, expect a “wow” factor, with billowing dry ice vapour seeping out from a bottom cup that supports a smaller cup filled with soft serve.

The effect of the dry ice is not just for looks, as it also serves a function that affects the texture of the ice cream. “The dry ice can maintain the coldness of the ice-cream, giving it a nicer texture as it melts slower,” said Redmond.

In future, Redmond hopes to introduce more flavours, like red velvet or the popular  matcha. Since they are new to the F&B industry and ice cream making, it’s been a trial-and-error exercise for the Softsrve founders. “We took like six months by trial and error and I do not know how many cartons of milk we bought to test,” explained Redmond.

Rich and decadent dark chocolate soft serve ice cream topped with homemade chocolate truffles and chocolate sauce.

Redmond takes inspiration from an artisan ice-cream maker, Fell + Cole in Seoul. If he has the chance, he would like to recreate their unique flavours at Softsrve. “They serve tasty ice-cream that is on a whole new level, like their burnt caramel with sea salt. It totally stuck in my mind as you can taste the distinct flavour of burnt caramel. Another flavour is olive oil.”

The choice to open at Damansara Uptown was also one they based on research and observing the different areas at night to determine the traffic of people moving around the area. “There’s traffic at Good Batch and Fat Spoon. Moreover it’s facing the main road.”

Good design is also important to Amily and Redmond, who decided to go for a cleaner Japanese look with the pinewood and white hues. “We feel this kind of style is more comfortable versus the black interiors that is an Australian inspired style.” The interior is still a work-in-progress, as there are plans to include a neon light signage and bookshelves to be filled with design magazines.

Since it’s also a dessert bar, Softsrve will also be serving a selection of cakes by a trusted supplier. “We will definitely get those basic ones like cheesecakes and maybe brownies or stuff, where we pair it with soft serve ice-cream.”

The choice to venture into this ice-cream and dessert business is out of interest for Redmond, who likes to eat these items. He also believes there’s definitely potential for this kind of business. The Softsrve founders say this is just the beginning as they hope to expand their offerings to also include other F&B items.

Enjoy your ice cream in the beautifully designed space with soothing pinewood and white hues.

For drinks, you have a selection of fruit flavoured sodas and Gryphon teas. Prices range from RM10 to RM12 for the ice-cream variants. The churros served with soft serve ice cream is priced at RM18.

Softsrve Ice-Cream & Dessert Bar, 31, Jalan SS21/1A (located between Capital Nasi Dagang and Tiramisu Cafe), Damansara Utama (Uptown), Petaling Jaya.

Open: 11am to 11pm.

Closed on Mondays.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/softsrve