At Surreal Creamery, Toppings Overshadow Melty Soft Serve

Surreal Creamery, a new ice cream spot in Dallas sells – if it’s as advertised – some surreal frozen treats.

The chain, which has locations in five states and 13 cities, is known for its Mason jar desserts, which come stacked about 5 to 6 inches with layers of swirled ice cream. Choose from flavors like purple taro, earthy matcha or lightly flavored Earl Grey vanilla.

The tall swirls are coated in different flavored syrups, then showered in toppings like Oreo crumbles and crushed Biscoff cookies. The soft serve here is melty, drippy and sticky if held on to for too long. These desserts make a great model for the camera lens before quickly thawing into a milky puddle. But we wanted to see if they taste as good as they look.

To our dismay, the signature take-home Mason jars ($11.50) were sold out when we visited.  An easy fix is to try the same creations in a cup or a cone ($8) instead. Sure, It’s slightly smaller, maybe just 4 inches instead of 5. But even 4 inches of soft serve is harder to digest than you might think.

While the idea was birthed in New York City, portions – it seems – have always been Texas-sized. Even smaller-sized cups and cones overflow with mounds of soft serve and toppings. While it means it’s messier to eat, it also means that Surreal caters particularly well to those who want to swap out an entire meal in favor of dessert.

A “Know Your Roots” sundae naturally catches the eye when menu-browsing. The signature creation starts with a taro-flavored soft serve base packed with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, rolled in chocolate cookie crumble then drenched in a thick chocolate syrup. The taro root extract provides a clever name and a light purple tint to the sundae, which makes it stand out from its siblings on the menu.

A bright blue Nom Nom Cookie sundae is just as visually appealing, jacketed in layers of cookie cereal and marshmallows.

While the soft serve is creamy, flavors are light and unfortunately overshadowed by sugary toppings. Surreal Creamery’s soft serve melts into the background as a secondary player of sorts to heavy toppings and thick syrups. This might be one of the first spots we’d suggest skipping on the add-ons.

It’s not just the signature sundaes that come in large sizes with grandiose sugar levels. Surreal also serves Floateas ($10.25), a witty term for what’s essentially a glass of boba tea with a monstrous swirl of ice cream floating on top. The Floateas get toppings, too: Biscoff cookies, chocolate wafer straws and marshmallows.

We’re still not sure of the best way to approach Surreal’s desserts. Not surprisingly, five-inch towers of ice cream melt and drip quickly. Either bring a group to share with or a willingness to store leftovers in the freezer back home. Either is a good way to avoid both sticky fingers and a surreal sugar rush.

Surreal Ceamery, 6915 Hillcrest Ave. Monday – Friday, 2-10 p.m.; Saturday – Sunday, noon – 10 p.m.