Secret Menu Review: Ice Cream Nachos at Ice Angels

Ice cream nachos are a thing; you can enjoy them here in Edinburgh and help the planet.

In a first for Edinburgh Reviews, this review returns to Ice Angels to write a specific item on the secret menu*.

(Please note, the off-menu item is not always available, so it’s best to ask and hope for the best.)

Ice cream nachos are made from broken-up ice cream cones, with scoops of ice cream on top, plus sauce and toppings.

How do ice cream nachos save the planet?

Ice cream nachos reduce food waste. You see, ice cream shops like Ice Angels often find that many of the cones they buy are broken in the box. Broken ice cream cones are no good and can’t be sold to customers. Ice cream nachos are a dessert that finds an alternative use for these smashed-up cones.

What do ice cream nachos taste like?

The taste very much depends on the ice cream and sauce toppings you pick and, as a result, your choice here is vital.

The cone nachos are designed to be little more than a delivery vessel for standard ice cream and not made to have much of a taste themselves. After all, ice cream cones need to work with vanilla, chocolate chip, or wild flavours!

For my trip to Ice Angels, I thought I’d try to make my dish look like normal nachos as possible and went with chocolate ice cream. Yep, that’s my chilli beef nacho aesthetic.

Don’t skimp on the sauce! The bed of nacho cones can be dry, and you don’t want to save too many raw cone fragments for the end of the dish. Given that I recommend a liberal sauce topping, you’ll want to pick your ice cream companion accordingly.

As a suggestion, you could go for a uniquely multi-cultural Scottish food experience and try Irn-Bru ice cream with chocolate sauce. Alternatively, raspberry ripple ice cream nachos with raspberry sauce would be a nice theme.

How many people can ice cream nachos feed?

I wolfed mine down, but I think the portion I was given can be shared between two people.

Date dessert? You bet, but anything ice cream-related can get a bit messy if you take your time with it.

I suspect getting the volume right is the main challenge. There need to be enough broken-up ice cream cones to act as the base for the dish to have the structural integrity it needs. As a result, that leads to a fairly generous amount of ice cream and toppings to keep the ratios right. By necessity, ice cream nachos are a bit of an eating challenge.

The price? I think Ice Angels are still working that out, but I paid for the several cones that went into the base and then, effectively, the sundae topping. It was worth it!

Things to do nearby

Ice Angels is on Broughton Road and opens after 4pm on most days. As a result, if you’re not grabbing a Deliveroo then you might be coming back from Summit Fitness or Alien Bloc the nearby climbing centre. It’s also possible that you’ve stayed to closing at the Royal Botanic Gardens

I suspect, though, that many people are on their way home from dinner or the pub. It’s the chance of post date-pub stop-over that makes Ice Angels especially attractive. On that note, the Biscuit Factory is just down the road, and if you’ve a gig or even there, then Ice Angels is great for a calorie boost.

Overall

I enjoyed my secret menu challenge. I’m about ready to try it again but will rely on Ice Angels having a supply of readily broken ice cream cones.

Please note that these are off-menu items and, therefore, might not be available. I guess the more people who ask for ice cream nachos, the more likely the dish will get promoted to readily available.