What would be the Ideal place to have ice creams in Mangalore ? Well that’s a very easily answered question, as anyone with the slightest knowledge of Mangalore will know the legendary Ideal ice cream parlor.
As Wikipedia informs us, Ideal’s first parlor was opened on May 1st, 1975 by Prabhakar Kamath and they have now grown to six outlets in Mangalore city, including Pabbas which is named after him.
Now Prabhakar’s son Mukund Kamath runs the place with the same dedication and passion for achieving the Ideal outcome in every product that they create … a passion that has been the key to their stupendous success.
I have never had the opportunity of being resident in Mangalore despite being a native of the place but my childhood did include those infrequent visits to meet relatives or attend functions and the memories that are still fresh in my foodie mind are those visits to Ideal, to gorge on their signature Gadbad.
This innovative creation of theirs, is a decadent combination of jelly and mixed fresh and dry fruits, topped off with 3 scoops of ice cream and has become synonymous with their brand.
I do also have a faint memory of going bananas over their Dilkush which is an upscale variant of the Banana split and arrives grandly at your table with split bananas richly loaded with 3 flavors of ice creams, nuts, rose syrup and falooda strands.
On my recent trip to Mangalore where I was going after a long gap of 12 years, I had the honor of meeting Mukund Kamath who invited me to Ideal Cafe, which is the only outlet that serves snacks in addition to the desserts.
I was impressed that despite his busy schedule, he managed to spend a couple of hours with us explaining all about his brand and their commitment to maintaining the highest standards of quality.
It was amazing to know that they are so driven to excel, that at times they have gone through several months of research to perfect something that might sound as simple as a vanilla ice cream … a dedication that has paid off with the prestigious awards that they have won, including National awards for best vanilla ice cream and other flavors. It is admirable to note that even the ubiquitous Neer dosa has not be spared the experimenting, resulting in a lacy thin texture and lightness.
Well we could not leave the place without indulging in some of their famed concoctions, despite the fact that we had just come in from attending a wedding and were on our way to another 
We began with the Gadbad of course and the first creamy dreamy mouthful made some of us forget how full ‘they’ were and actually manage to demolish entire servings of this classic 
The Tropical Dhamaka with its combination of 4 flavors, appealed to me since it had my favorite fruit ice creams with the jackfruit, sapota (chikku), coconut burfi and mango flavors. The jackfruit with its bits of embedded fruit, still appears in my dreams I gave a miss to the cream decorating the bowl since I felt that it really had no place among the good stuff.
Mukund also insisted that we try the premium Swiss chocolate ice cream and this choco chip embedded decadence is sure to send chocolate lovers into raptures.
What stole our hearts though, were their endearing Ice Candies. The simple Bella candy is made from the local jaggery and the Panak candy uses jaggery, ginger, pepper and lime, which are the constituents of the local drink called Panankam.
These stick candies with their traditional and delightfully rustic flavors and wrappers depicting the Cycle used by ice cream men of yore, took us nostalgically back to our childhood. The astonishing price of Rs 10 a candy, also took us Half way back to our youth
Well as the pictures show, the ice candy was so enticing that my hand model (husband) went out of control and managed to nibble at it before I could get a shot. Hence I had to use my friend’s little nephew to model the second ice candy … a child with surprisingly good will power
Their menu is vast and we obviously could not taste anymore. But do try them out when in Mangalore. They have something to suit every taste and for those who cannot indulge due to health reasons, they have a few sugar free options too.
All their prices are truly reasonable as their noble aim is to serve quality food at affordable rates so that people from a range of economic levels, can experience their treats.
Truly amazing Ideals indeed.
For more pictures see My Facebook – Ideal Cafe, Mangalore
Jan 15,2017
