I made the best possible use of the time off work for New Year to walk from Newhaven, through the old town and into the bright pink oasis of Sweet Paradice Desserts.
Yes, that’s quite a trek, but I really wanted ice cream, and Sweet Paradice Desserts had just scooped a small business award, so they had my attention.
The good news is that the gelato, cake and milkshake shop is on Deliveroo and rivals. That’s good news because Morningside has excellent cafes and cake shops. Sweet Paradice Desserts is up by the school, into Braid Hills territory, and you need to march past rivals to get to this flower-filled sugar haven.
Sweet Paradice is decorated with many (fake) flowers, so your visit can be an Instagram moment or TikTok. You can pose by the flower wall and then capture your delicious-looking desserts to make friends jealous and tickle the fancy of your followers. Unless you do what I do and get so excited by the incoming sugar rush that you barely remember you have a smartphone and leave with scarcely enough footage for a brief montage.
Sweet Paradice Desserts’ food and drink
There is a lot to pick from! If you have an indecisive teen or youngster with you, I’d encourage them to look at the menu in advance.
The Sweet Paradice Specials range includes wonders like Fettuccine Crepe, and I regret not trying that. There are also hot and loaded brownies, dutch pancakes, waffles and churros, plus savouries like nachos.
There is at least a page of cookie dough options, from white chocolate to red velvet and gluten-free options. The classic sundaes are as plentiful as the classic banana split, mint sensations and salted caramel. We’re still going, though, as there are stacked pancakes, crepes and ice cream.
Sweet Paradice offers cakes as well. I saw cheesecake, rainbow cake, sticky toffee pudding and others.
You can wash these sweet goodies down with a hot drink, including some rare options like Karak Chai tea or Kashmiri Pink, but I went for a milkshake with my “Jammin” stack of pancakes.
That’s a tick in the quantity box. What about quality? Well, clearly, I’d like to double or triple my test testing, but I’m confident I’ve done due diligence. Sweet Paradice Desserts offers good-quality ice cream and treats.
Does Sweet Paradice compete with the best gelato in Edinburgh? It does! If I (and I might) write a top five in the city, I’d put this ice cream parlour on the list.
Sweet Paradice Desserts’ vibe
It is a small shop, but not a tiny one, and I was greeted the moment I stepped in. It felt wholesome.
The flower wall and warm pink neon sign in the middle immediately turn the trip into a wholesome adventure. It’s also pretty clear that the hope is that you turn your visit into a social media experience; there wasn’t any pressure to do so (but I was waving a smartphone around from the outset).
I suspect the paper menus on the tables have seen better days, and I imagine excited toddlers have thrown them around, but there are simply too many options for a behind-the-scenes-cream-bar sign to list them all. Therefore, slightly battered tomes of temptation await us all. As noted already, though, while I can think of some friends with a more significant decision paralysis than I have patience for and whom I would not want to be stuck behind during a visit, I didn’t feel any pressure myself to make a quick decision.
Sweet Paradice Desserts has tables to retreat to once an order was placed, and I was comfortable on my seat looking out over Comiston Road. I didn’t have long to wait; my milkshake arrived first, then the pancakes, which had clearly been freshly made. I was glad I didn’t turn up during a school day as surely a gaggle of kids or tourists could ambush the busy proprietor with a challenging to-do list. Such a crowd would, I fear, change the chillaxed vibe I felt for my visit.
Things to do in Morningside
Sweet Paradice Desserts is near South Morningside Primary School, so I’m calling it Morningside. But I notice that Deliveroo has ‘Blackford’ in the URL, and that’s presumably for Blackford Hill (some distance behind it) but I suspect some locals might suggest the little cafe is in Cluny or Comison (it is on Comiston Road), perhaps even Braid Hills or the Hermitage. It’s a bit of a limbo.
Nevertheless, for those who want to walk off calories afterwards, there is Braidburn Valley Park up the hill, but the Hermitage is just there if you take a different fork in the road, and I think it makes for a better walk. If you have got a membership, then the Braid Tennis Club and Golf Club are about ten minutes away.
More to my taste, and about the same distance away, there’s the indie Dominion Cinema. However, just so you can say you’ve done it, Edinburgh’s secret/not secret failed Wild West cowboy street is in the very same radius and worth doing.
Overall
I’m glad I’ve now been to Sweet Paradice Desserts, and I think spending half of the last day of my New Year’s holiday to make the visit was worth it.
Overall, I was impressed by the range of options!
I’ve had larger portion sizes from dessert specialists, and I’ve been to award-winning gelato shops with enough staff behind the counter to fuel a speedy conveyor belt of friendly customer service. However, Sweet Paradice Desserts gave me a delightful balance of friendly local service, did not skimp, did not take too long and provided plenty of reasons why I should consider walking back over town for a second visit.
If you’re a student in Morningside or a visitor in a nearby Airbnb, and I assume there are hundreds, then Sweet Paradice Desserts should be on your ‘To Visit’ list.
A review of Sweet Paradice Desserts
Summary
Sweet Paradice Desserts is a pink oasis of sugar on the outskirts of Morningside, with a devilishly tempting range of ice cream, waffles, milkshakes and cakes. One visit here will meet your calorie and Instagram bragging quota for the day and be worth it.
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