The week before last we said we'd be happier going out to the mall than some fancy restaurant for Valentine's Day, especially if the last course was served at Hungary's first-ever dedicated Häagen-Dazs ice cream parlor, over at the recently-opened Arena. In the end, no one asked us out for VD, so we didn't get to check it out until this past weekend. And that's not the only sadness.

The good news is that the place indeed exists, and is pretty spiffy. As for the bad news, we'd say it comes in two flavors. One is that OMG it's not cheap, with a single healthy-size scoop setting you back Ft 660 (€2.50) and each additional gombóc Ft 450. Second, the stuff itself didn't seem to taste as rich or flavorful as the fake Danish fagyi of our American youth, or the Ben & Jerry's we occasionally pick up over at our local branch of Culinaris. While we put our disappointment down to excessively high expectations, and won't claim that the stuff is some sort of "low definition" HD specially watered down for Hungarian consumption, our date said she thought hers actually "sucked."

So in conclusion, yes, there's really a Häagen-Dazs parlor at the new mall, and if you're a big fan of ice cream (or at the mall already) you should probably stop by for a few wallet-melting scoops. But true love it ain't.