May 2, 2026 · St. Louis Cafe PH

Where to find real gelato in BGC: a Manila scoop guide

An opinionated, in-house guide to gelato in Bonifacio Global City — what makes a scoop count, who's serving it, and where St. Louis Cafe sits in the BGC dessert lineup.

Most ice cream you’ll order in Bonifacio Global City isn’t gelato. It’s ice cream marketed as gelato — higher overrun, more air, more sugar, less churn time. Real gelato is denser, served warmer (around -12°C, not -18°C), and lives or dies by what’s in the base.

We make ours fresh in Manila each morning, in small batches, low-overrun, single-ingredient-led. So when people ask us where to find real gelato in BGC, here’s the honest take.

What “real gelato” actually means

  • Lower fat than US-style ice cream (typically 4–8% versus 12%+).
  • Lower overrun (less air whipped in — 20–30% vs. 50%+).
  • Served warmer so flavour comes through and texture stays creamy.
  • Made daily — not stockpiled.

If a tub looks fluffy and frost-bitten, it’s been frozen too cold for too long. That’s not gelato; it’s industrial ice cream wearing a label.

Who’s making proper gelato in BGC

The BGC gelato scene is small but real. The serious operators — alongside us — are:

  • Gelatissimo (Serendra) — Australian-origin like us; consistent classic flavours.
  • Casa Italia — broad flavour range, Italian-imported bases.
  • a mano — Italian dining with a tight house gelato programme.
  • Farmacy Ice Cream & Soda Fountain — premium parlour positioning, kid-friendly.

We sit alongside this group. Our angle is European-base recipes, retuned for Manila ingredients (calamansi sorbet, ube finishes, matcha sourced through a local tea partner) and 100% in-house churn.

Our pick if you have one scoop

Order the Matcha Dulce de Leche. It’s the cleanest expression of what we do — a stone-ground ceremonial matcha base ribboned with house dulce de leche. Bitter, sweet, vegetal in three bites.

If you want something only available in the Philippines, ask for the Calamansi Sorbet — that one is built from Batangas calamansi and isn’t on any St. Louis menu outside this country.

Where to taste it

We’re in two places in Metro Manila:

Either store, hand-crafted daily. Walk in.