Mumbai-Based Ice Cream Spot Lands in DFW

Mumbai-based ice cream spot Maya Creamery debuted in North Texas earlier this year, with the long-awaited opening of its first North Texas location in McKinney. The shop, which specializes in Indian-inspired rolled ice creams, is the creation of the Singh family, who opened their first location of Maya Creamery in 1979 in Mumbai, India. Generations later, their grandson Sukhi Singh opened the its first U.S. locations in Arizona, and now — more recently — the suburbs of Dallas. And based on the line out the door on a weekday night, it’s receiving a warm welcome.

The McKinney shop is small but inviting. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the front of the shop allow for a glimpse of the ice cream-making inside. Murals on the inside trace the shop’s history back to 1979 Mumbai to seven U.S. locations. But naturally, attention doesn’t take long to shift from the murals to the menus behind the counter. Bring a sweet tooth and a sense of adventure. An Indian-inspired sugar rush is a guarantee. Maya Creamery is best known for its rolled ice cream, a delicacy crafted on a cold plate with a thin sheet of condensed milk scraped into rolls once frozen then melts almost unexpectedly upon first bite. A safe option is the rolled gulab jamun ice cream, which comes dotted with small bites of gulab jamun, a popular South Asian doughnut.

The motichoor is yet another experimental flavor, crushed with pockets of motichoor ladoo, a traditional crunchy Indian sweet made of fried chickpea flour. Exotic fruit options like the chikoo ice cream are mashed with slices of sapodilla fruit. A refreshing mango-lychee flavor hides pockets of tropical lychee. The most exciting part is perhaps watching the ice cream get mashed, spread and rolled with two simple spatulas and a cold plate.

But the selection ventures beyond just rolled ice cream. They have South Asian falooda, a drink that vaguely resembles an Indian boba, filled with ice cream, nuts and condensed milk with chewy tapioca noodles and basil seeds for some texture at the end of each sip. Flavors like pistachio and rose both take a backseat to Maya Creamery’s most popular, the rabdi falooda. The cream-based drink is sprinkled with roasted almonds and layered with rabdi, a condensed milk-based drink infused with subtle notes of cardamom. Falooda is served with both a spoon and straw for enjoying. Use both. Trust us: you’ll need them.

Other options like boba, crepes and macarons also make an appearance, although not nearly as popular (by our observation) as the ice cream. Flavors like the sapodilla fruit, rose falooda and kesar pistachio are also available to go in quarts, for just under $12 each.  Lines can get long, but there’s extra seating in the lounge area in the back. The kid-friendly space has a big TV screen and lots of LED lighting for extra ambiance. We suggest dine-in so that melting ice cream and sticky fingers aren’t a problem. And, of course, the vibey lounge-like seating space is a plus.

Owner Sukhi Singh refers to the shop as a “family legacy,” a nod to his roots in India.

“Growing up, ice cream and sweets were a big part of family tradition,” Singh says. “I had to bring some of that here when I moved to the U.S.”

The family-owned ice cream parlor has plans to open more locations in Irving, Frisco, Plano, Dallas and Prosper in the coming months, Singh tells us, where the shop will sell a similar selection of Indian-inspired ice creams and sweets.

If the line at their pioneer Texas location in McKinney is any indication, we anticipate a warm DFW welcome.

Maya Creamery, 7650 W. Stacy Road, McKinney, Monday - Thursday Noon - 11 p.m.; Friday - Saturday Noon - Midnight