Morlene C.
Yelp
Up until recently, Murray Hill was sort of a dessert desert. Thankfully for my sweet tooth, with the introduction of Kaylee's Creamery, Van Leeuwen, Ralph's, Surreal Creamery, Holey Cream, & Tipsy Scoop, the neighborhood is now quite flush with frozen treat options in just a few years time. This second location of Soft Swerve is just the latest sweet treat spot to grace the neighborhood, and though it was risky to open at the start of the pandemic, humid summer weather brought out all the NYers who stayed to brave these sweltering streets. Every time I've walked past their little window stand in recent weeks there's always a short line. How would I rate their soft serve? As far as soft serve goes, it's pretty good, particularly if you enjoy asian flavors like ube, black sesame, and matcha.
As is the case with most soft serve, theirs melts incredibly quickly, and I find their formula just to be a tad too goopy, even for soft serve. If you can consume yours before it becomes a melty mess in your hand, the flavors they make taste great, and I almost always order ube or ube swirled with another flavor, like macapuno (coconut). I love eating frozen treats on a cone, but they only use Konery cones, which are beautiful and come in nice colors like blue and red, but the texture is just awful-- I can never bite into one without getting it stuck in my teeth. What's wrong with a simple sugar cone?
When they opened their LES location a couple years back, Soft Swerve was one of the few places in Manhattan where you could get ube flavored dessert, and my ube loving self was a very frequent visitor. There was a memorable special a few years back where they served a swirl of ube soft serve on top of a coquito flavored cupcake, which is a dessert highlight of my life.
These days I find myself enjoying the sturdiness and texture of ice cream over soft serve, but I think as the weather cools and melty messes are less of a concern, Soft Swerve's ube ice cream will be calling my name.