Gelateria Naia

Naia’s brightly lite green & white shop was a total beacon calling us in as we were walking to Berkeley Rep
Pumpkin & TCHO Chocolate for me! The pumpkin was light & subtly pumpkinny — nowhere we delish as Mitchell’s Pumpkin but was still a nice welcoming to my fav season of the year… PUMPKIN season!
TCHO was amazeballs! So chocolaty & creamy — this will have to be a go-​to for every Naia visit
Pumpkin & Mojito for BF — loved the pumpkin but not so much the mojito… I could have told him that. But then again, mint is on my naughty list
Would make this a regular stop before all Plays
CASH ONLY — BOOOO!

One of the many places I loved in Berkeley. Actually, this is my #1 place to go well because I love gelatoes and sorbetos. They had a few sizes available to satisfy any crazing size from a baby to a football player. For flavors, there’s a ton. There’s soy based flavors for some, fruit-​based flavors for the sorbeto lovers, and many more for gelato. My personal favorites were the Ferrero Rocher, watermelon, and strawberry.
A side note is that my uncle says I should consume more sweets if I want to have a son. Unsure what scientific proof he has but I’ll continue eating sweets just because I want to.
Second note: I just realized this place is closed from a fellow Unilocaler’s review. Sad.

Imagine the freshest gelato, the friendliest service, and being able to come in on a late night with your best friends.
Fig, rose, nutella, every flavour you can imagine with the richest, creamiest base ever.
Now imagine how I feel now that I just found out Naia closed. My heart hurts… and nothing but their gelato can fix it.
They should reopen for another 10 years!

There’s always room for gelato, especially on a hot day!
For a seemingly small cup, you actually get a whole lot of gelato with whichever two flavors your heart (or stomach) desires. I had Ferrero Rocher and Mint Chip, which were finger-​licking delicious! I would find it hard not to get them again when I come back.
Cute place. Great service. Cash only.

After 10 years in business this gelato shop is CLOSING. The SF and Walnut Creek stores will remain open.
Although nowadays I seldom visit the East Bay, in the past I’ve enjoyed their refreshing gelato. Only 4 stars because the best gelato I’ve tried was in Las Vegas.
Farewell party is @7pm, on Sept 25 — $ 5 buys u as much gelato scoops as u can eat.
Proceeds benefit the Alameda County Food Bank.

I wasn’t just impressed by the wide array of flavors available to try here, I was impressed by the customer service we got from the girl behind the counter (I wish I had gotten her name). From the moment we walked in she was super cheerful and was eager to have us try sample after sample of the gelato, and it felt like she was genuinely happy to do it.
And sample, I did — the banana, soy banana, watermelon, strawberry, dark chocolate, and that, erm, other chocolate flavor that wasn’t the TCHO, were all super delicious, but the ones that blew me away were the rose, jasmine tea, and saturday morning cartoons. Yes, they have a gelato named after watching cartoons as a kid, and it tastes exactly like the milk in the bowl of your favorite childhood cereal when all the cereal is gone. The rose and the jasmine tea were incredibly fragrant and light.
I ended up getting a small cup of the soy banana (it tastes better than the regular banana to me, because they roast the bananas in the soy flavor, which brings out more of that banana-​y taste) and the dark chocolate, which was only $ 3.25. A great flavor combo!
It’s cash only here, so be prepared. I don’t know what was better, the gelato or the service, but both are an incentive to return.

So many different, unique flavors to choose from! Kind of like the Ici of gelato. The weirdest flavor I’ve ever tried here is probably parmesan cheese, which was their weekly special awhile back. I could definitely taste the savory parmesan, but it was sweet still so it made for an interesting paradox. The workers are really nice and let you try as many samples as you want without being pushy or impatient for you to decide. They have two display cases of gelato, one filled with fruity flavors and the other with the not so fruity flavors.
Some of my favorites:
— Earl grey
— Tiramisu
— Blue bottle iced coffee
— Young coconut
— Mint chocolate chip
I always get the Piccolo size (small) which costs $ 3.75, but they let you pick up to two flavors, so it’s the perfect amount for me and is even big enough to share if I’m not feeling too hungry or come here for dessert after a meal. There’s a nice seating area also and they provide water!

Gelato selections in the heart of Berkeley!
Friendly staff.
Sample, choose, and enjoy!

This was the best gelato that my friends and I have ever had. Everything is made from scratch every day and made from just a few ingredients. The owner is very accommodating and let us try quite a few flavors since it was our first time there.
I chose the Whiskey flavor with the Lemon (Kind of like a Whiskey Sour, and don’t worry you won’t get drunk or anything). It was delicious! Other good flavors are Blue Bottle Coffee, Rose Pedal and everything else.

Geleteria Naia popped up when I was doing a nearly fruitless Unilocal search for Vegan desserts in Walnut Creek. Fast forward a few days to a recent visit to Berkeley and there it is again. I think this small chain Gelato place is calling my name.
With nearly half of their Gelato case display fruit based, soy based or otherwise vegan, Geleteraia Naia is a tasty and convenient choice for folks looking for a Vegan dessert option. Pay attention to the color coded signs in order to steer clear of the dairy based stuff if that’s not your thing.
Of the samples we tried, the Dark Chocolate was a winner. I’m thinking on our next visit of mixing that with some banana for an instant classic. Probably the best part about this place is that no matter what size cup you order, they will mix ‘n match flavors as long as it will fit in the cup. Especially good since their small cup is a pretty decent size to begin with.
I went with the Peanut Butter this time since I didn’t know about the mixing and the matching of flavors before I ordered. This is one of the two soy based gelatos, or Sorbettos that were being offered. It was actually pretty creamy for a non-​dairy treat. Too bad the same couldn’t be said of the other scoop we had, Cookies ‘n Cream. The consistency was a little more icy & less creamy than the peanut butter. It was still sweet and more than edible enough though.
*Seating is available inside unlike some other dessert places around. The interior is bright and cheery.
*The square tipped spoons are pretty cool and unique. Good for hacking your Gelato and scraping the sides of the cup.
*Open ’til 11pm weekdays and 12am Fri-​Sat so you can get your late night sugar buzz.
I’m sure we’ll be back when we’re looking for a sweet ‘n creamy treat in the area or wherever else they are conveniently located. I just wished they made that Whiskey flavor in a Vegan-​friendly version…

Ice cream is always a welcome addition on a warm day in Berkeley. We stopped in for a cup before heading to the Bart station.
There’s quite a few flavours in the case and I *love* the decorations on the ice creams (such as a large mango on top of the mango flavoured ice cream, cookies decorating the cookies and cream, and nuts scattered atop the pistachio). There’s a few flavours done in soy for the lactose intolerant /​vegans, and unlike many ice cream shops that have a few boring flavours in soy or sherbert, these are repeats of the dairy-​based ones!
Price is what you’d expect for a small single serving, not cheap but not unreasonable. The quality was right on, we both enjoyed our choices (peanut butter chocolate chip for me, burnt caramel/​vanilla for him). The plastic serving cups (which I’m assuming/​hoping are compostable or biodegradable) are a nice touch.

Friends and I stopped by here for some dessert. When I walked in, the place seemed clean and modern. I had two flavors: Stracciatella, which was okay but didn’t have much chocolate flavor. There weren’t enough chocolate chunks/​bits for me. I also had Coconut which had a great flavor of young coconut. It was not overly sweet and definitely not overpowering.
I tried my friend’s Ferrero Rocher flavor, which was rich and yummy. I liked it a lot. The employees were nice and didn’t seem too annoyed that we all wanted to sample many flavors. They have some cool flavors like corn! I liked that they had a lot of fruity flavors you can choose from.
CASH ONLY!

+ Generous scoops
+ Friendly, unpretentious servers
+ Interesting & unique flavors
Gelato and ice cream places come and go but I sure hope Gelateria Naia sticks around forever for my unlimited indulgence.
Their flavors are interesting, unique, and bold. There’s something for everyone’s palate — just let them know what you’re looking for. Sweet? Creamy? Tart? Fruity? Boozy? They’ve got you covered.
For an intensely tart sorbetto, go with the lemon.
For boozy, go with the whiskey (made with single-​malt whiskey).
For floral, go with the rose or lavender.
For creamy, you can’t go wrong with anything in the brown-​beige color family.
P. S. I don’t think you can go wrong with a seriously tall and dapper well-​groomed dude offering you spoonfuls of gelato-​fied whiskey. Hawwt.

Their gelato is AMAZING! And SO many flavors! And best of all, they let you sample as many as you want! I really liked the Rose flavor (better than Ici’s rose ice cream) and all the fruity flavors are really great. I was excited to try Ferrero Rocher, but it didn’t taste as good as the other hazelnut flavor they have (forgot the name).
It’s rather pricey, but then again, it’s gelato.
Their customer service is great, and I’ll definitely be back for more!

While exploring Berkeley on a hot day, I decided it would be perfect to get some gelato. I had read great reviews about Gelateria Naia and wanted to give it a try.
The first thing I noticed was that there were so many unique and wonderful flavors to try. Some of the flavors I remembered was tiramisu, thai tea, earl gray, whiskey, cassia cinnamon, mandarin dream, easter cream egg, and rose.
I ordered the chocolate marzipan and brown butter banana gelato and was blown away by the quality, taste, and textures of the gelatos. The brown butter gelato was so delicious and I could taste butter and real bananas! I have never tasted a banana gelato as good and unique as this one. The chocolate marzipan was good as well but it could have done with a little more marzipan flavor and less chocolate.
I also sampled the earl gray flavor and found it to be very flavorful and delicious. It is perfect for all you tea lovers out there.
Overall, I would highly recommend Gelateria Naia for their diverse and wonderfully delicious gelatos. It’s a must if you are near the downtown Berkeley bart station!

Once you get pass the piss smells & voices on the street singing with dogs howling you will enter a cloud of weed smoke .Then appears a bright light welcome to Gelateria. A nice chill joint with smooth music and a great color scheme. Once you enter the girl at the counter will tell you about the snowflake please don’t try is not good «it needs some rock candy or something»;-) So check this place out you wont be disappointed.

The gelato is okay, but WOW some of them really need to work on better service. One of the girls helping me and my friends was pretty nice but another girl who was working there with dyed neon hair was being really impatient. She acted like we were just going to try samples the whole time we were there, but we each did buy our own cup of gelato so she shouldn’t be quick to judge.
Here’s the little convo between the two workers
Girl #1: Did I tell you I saw a roach today?
Girl #2: Don’t say that!
Girl #1: What? I don’t want them to come back
Girl #2: You shouldn’t say that in front of customers
Girl #1: I don’t want them to come back… bye!
Yes that conversation actually happened between two people working there, and yes me and my friends were offended. Even if the girl wasn’t talking about us and talking about an actual roach encounter that can’t be good for this place and for business. But we were pretty sure she was talking about us. We weren’t being nightmare customers at all. This is unacceptable service. Next time i’m craving gelato I will definitely avoid this place because that was such a bad experience.

This place is pretty cool for a gelato place because it gives such a great give to the customers. I like the lounging feeling and colors that bright the room. I honestly didn’t feel the texture of the gelato was GELATO. it had more of an ice cream texture to it which is kinda disappointing but the flavors are amazing. So many flavors to serve.
What made my night was the service provided by Jessie. He gave me and my gf a spoon after spoon for samples constantly. It was amazingggg. He made the night with his tone of voice and presents. I give this guy a lot of credit for keeping the momentum of his personality even through midnight!
Really good place but it is clearly NOT gelato.

Got to this place after catching a show at Impact and just before closing at 11pm. Staff was super friendly and they let you sample til you find the right flavor. I had black sesame which tastes like an Asian dessert and chocolate orange was irresistible. They’ve kept their hanger one St George’s whiskey, Numi’s earl grey, tcho’s chocolate and Blue bottle’s brews which we sampled on their debut.
Can’t beat its convenience to BART, cleanliness and fun atmosphere. What’s not to like about gelato?

Papaya.