I've driven past that Empire Mall strip more times than I can count — you know, that stretch off 41st where everything looks a little too shiny and new. Boki Gelato sits in there, tucked next to the usual suspects, and I'll admit I walked right past it the first time because ice cream shops in Sioux Falls mostly blur together.
But gelato's different, and Boki knows it. The cases are full of colors that don't quite exist in nature — pistachio so green it looks painted, hazelnut the color of October leaves, stracciatella with those dark chocolate shards running through it. They make it in small batches, the Italian way, which means denser and silkier than the stuff you grew up getting at drive-throughs on Minnesota Avenue.
I tried the salted caramel on a Wednesday afternoon when the mall was half-empty and the girl behind the counter let me taste three flavors before deciding. It's rich enough that you actually slow down — not soft-serve you inhale in four bites on the way back to your car. The texture matters here. You can taste the difference between this and what gets shipped in frozen from some warehouse in Omaha.
The rating's honest, though — 3.6 tells you something. Service can be hit-or-miss depending on who's working, and I've been there when they were out of two flavors by six o'clock on a Saturday. For a place banking on being artisan, that stings a little. The space itself is fine but forgettable, the kind of bright-white storefront that could be selling phones or smoothies if you changed the sign.
Still, when you want gelato and not just ice cream, when you want something that tastes like someone actually thought about what they were making — Boki delivers that. Not every time perfectly, but enough that I've gone back.
— Grace