Masala chai swirls and Tastykake twists: Malai ice cream opens in Center City

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Zaida Kidane and Alexis Creagh chatted about passionfruit cilantro and rose cardamom ice cream as they stood in a line that wrapped around the corner of 18th and Spruce Streets. A passerby stopped and asked what they were waiting for.

“An ice cream shop opening,” Kidane said.

“A special type of ice cream?” the passerby asked.

“It’s Malai,” she responded.

Founder Pooja Bavishi opened Malai‘s third scoop shop in Philadelphia, following D.C. and New York, on May 17 with $3 scoops, free totes for the first 100 customers, and a special Tastykake-inspired flavor.

“Let’s be honest, Philly is one of the most underrated food cities,” Bavishi said. “I wanted to be a part of that scene. We’re open in Brooklyn and D.C. — people need Malai while they’re traveling the I-95 corridor.”

Philadelphia has a special place in Bavishi’s heart — she spent her early childhood just outside of the city. Opening a location “feels like coming home,” she said.

Hundreds of Philadelphians standing in the line for more than two hours said the ice cream shop’s inventive South Asian flavors were worth the wait. “I’ve had this before in D.C. so I know it’s worth trying,” said Satish Bhat, who waited for about an hour with friends Rupa Mehta and Snigdha Wadhwa.

The trio came from Fairmount to support the South Asian-owned business — and to try the passionfruit cilantro, masala chai, and cinnamon honeybun flavors.

Fareedah Haroun and Rithu Ramachandran, two fans of Malai, were excited to see the crowd — even if it meant waiting for an hour and a half for swirls of pistachio and saffron soft serve and scoops of rose with cinnamon and roasted almonds.

“We were just joking about how 1-900 [Ice Cream] is around the corner, probably shaking in their boots because this line is so long,” Haroun said. “This shop just has such different flavors, a different culture.”

Bavishi’s mission is to mainstream classic South Asian flavors one frozen dessert at a time. “We don’t want it to be the best Indian ice cream shop — we want it to be the best ice cream you’ve had overall. It should be normal to find masala chai in the freezer just as it is to find cookies and cream,“ she said.

Other flavors at the new shop include Tulsi chocolate chip, apricot mace, lychee, lemon cardamom, mango and cream, cherry black cardamom, sea salt vanilla, and strawberry pie.

The cinnamon honeybun flavor, created to celebrate the Philly location’s opening, was inspired by Bavishi’s childhood love for Tastykake Honey Buns. Housemade buns with spiced honey and cream cheese icing are folded into the cinnamon and cardamon-spiced ice cream.

Marquita Farmer Lewis waited two hours to try the special after she and two friends made an impromptu decision after brunch to check out the opening.

“It was totally worth it,” she said in between licks.