Tofu is usually served savoury, but one Brisbane CBD couple has turned it into the city’s newest dessert obsession, drawing queues that stretch past the entrance.
Sharon Sia and Albert Maung are the married couple behind it. Their shop, Sōfu Gelato, is now considered Australia’s first dedicated silken tofu gelato venue, though a handful of interstate dessert spots have served tofu-based scoops without building a whole shop around it. News of the opening began circulating in mid-July 2026. These days the doors run Tuesday to Thursday, 11:30am to 10pm; Friday and Saturday until 10:30pm; Sunday until 10pm. Mondays, the shop rests.
A Neighbourhood That Found Its Feet
According to the owners, Elizabeth Street was the original plan, but rent proved too steep for the space they wanted, so a leasing agent steered them toward Edward Street instead — an area that, at the time, saw relatively little foot traffic. Would it work? They weren’t sure.
But San Telmo opened across the road not long before Sōfu Gelato launched, and the block has since filled in around them, with Golden Avenue sitting next door and several other venues nearby, turning a once-quiet patch of the CBD into a livelier dining strip. The shop itself sits in a timber-lined space close to the intersection of Edward and Mary streets, an area that has drawn a growing crowd of venues in recent months.
A Career Change Sparked the Idea
Before any of this, Albert Maung was working a corporate job in Ireland. He decided on a career change, and silken tofu gelato became the vehicle for it, partly because of how rare the concept still was in Australia. The idea itself traces back further, to travels Sia and Maung took through Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, where silken tofu ice cream has built a loyal following, drawing queues in Seoul and Singapore alike. The concept is older than most people would guess, too. A patent for tofu-based ice cream was filed in the United States back in 1922. The modern wave, though, is widely linked to Gangneung, a South Korean city known for its soft sundubu tofu, which locals there have long turned into soft-serve.
For Sia, the motivation came down to taste rather than trend-chasing. She and her husband love dessert after a meal, but standard dairy gelato in Brisbane, she has said, tends to feel too heavy and too sweet, sometimes leaving them feeling unwell after a few spoonfuls. Tofu changed that equation, offering something lighter that blends into other flavours instead of overpowering them.
What’s Actually in the Gelato
Behind the counter, the gelato is churned continuously in full view of customers, with the churning station doubling as the display case so people can see which flavours are freshly ready. Seven flavours make up the menu. Original tofu, matcha, black sesame, oolong milk tea and pandan coconut sit on the more familiar end, chosen deliberately because the concept itself was already new to most Brisbane customers. Sweet corn and purple sweet potato sit on the more adventurous end, included to introduce flavours common across Asia but still rare locally.
Worth noting: despite the tofu base, most of the range still contains dairy. Only three flavours — original tofu, black sesame and pandan coconut — are fully vegan, made with plant-based milk and cream instead. Cones come house-made, flavoured with either black sesame or thyme. Customers can also order gelato as an affogato, with a well scooped into the centre and filled with either espresso or freshly made matcha. Alongside that sits a matcha latte, an Earl Grey matcha latte, and a rotating list of specialty drinks themed around weather, including one built around espresso and sweet corn and another layering matcha beneath a dusting of roasted soybean powder.
Long Lines and a Few Growing Pains
Opening weekend, a queue was seen stretching from the entrance well down the block, and it barely thinned out from the Thursday soft launch through the following Tuesday. Sia has since admitted the demand caught them off guard — badly enough that Friday’s opening hours had to be pushed back just to restock.
Public reaction since then has leaned strongly positive, with black sesame, pandan coconut and oolong milk tea coming up repeatedly as favourites, praised for being silky without tipping into overly sweet territory. As with any new venue managing unexpected demand, some feedback has pointed to longer waits during peak periods — a growing pain that tends to come with a concept this new still calibrating against a crowd nobody fully predicted.
What Comes Next
Another tea-based flavour is already in development, driven largely by how well matcha and oolong milk tea have performed. Sia has also flagged the possibility of expanding the vegan lineup further as the business settles into something closer to a routine.
Published Date 27-September-2026
