Paciugo

Paciugo has CLOSED!
A new gelato place has taken over this location though — La Coppa. A friend and I ate there this past weekend and they were very good — just need to expand their variety of flavors to some that a little more inventive, as Paciugo did.

I wanna eat the very best
Like no one ever has
To eat them all is my real test
To enjoy them is my cause
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Each gelato to understand
The taste that is inside
Gelato, its you and me
I know it’s my destiny
Gelato, oh, you’re so delicious
you melt inside my mouth
Gelato, your milky goodness
always put me in a good mood
You tempt me and I’ll eat you
Gelato, gotta eat ‘em all!
Anyways, if that wasn’t enough to convince you to go to Paciugo’s, then I don’t know what will. I know this might be blasphemous, but the gelato at Paciugo is comparable to those I’ve had in Italy. And trust me, I’ve had a loooot of gelato.
This place has, hands down, the best gelato in America.

They have ROSE flavor!!! Was good but not as great as what I had in Paris. They have lots of common and unusual flavors. Service could of came with a smile thou.

The first time I had Paciugo’s was at a mall in the food court. It was a heavenly memorable experience.
When I saw the one within biking distance on State Street, I squealed with happiness!
(Recently relocated to Madison from Ohio).
Rotating flavors, something for everyone. Decadent. Incredible. Delicious.
I die. Sorry, FroYo… over you :)

I was excited to see a familiar shop in Madison. Paciugo, my go-​to for gelato in Chicago is in Madison too! We had to stop in. I got a small cup of roasted banana cashew heath crunch, carrot cake, and pistachio almond. Yummy!

Good gelato in Madison. Nothing amazing, but there is a good selection of flavors. Free samples are often given outside the store, but if you want to try more than one flavor, you have to go inside. I had a coupon for a free cup of gelato, and free’s always good!

Paciugo serves gelato that may be just as great as the frozen desserts that I had in Rome, Italy. The flavors I got were rich, smooth and creamy and full of flavor. They were happy to let you sample the twenty or so various flavors and I took advantage unabashedly of the gelatos I was truly interested in. I enjoyed their offerings so greatly that I visited the shop three times during my stay in Madison, twice in one day. They prepare and change out about half of their flavors each day. I recommend trying Cheesecake Raspberry Swirl, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Raspberry Swirl, Fondente, Mint Cookies’n Milk, Peanut Butter Raspberry Swirl, Tiramisù Cheesecake and Turtle Cheesecake. My only small qualm is that for the multi-​flavor cups, they don’t give you equal amounts of each flavor requested. But overall, this gelato café is a must-​try if you have a serious sweet tooth.

The gelato is great, it’s rich and creamy and made fresh daily! It’s a little on the pricy side but they give you a lot so it’s well worth the money.

Stopped by after dinner today; they had several tasty options of gelato. Very nice.

They always have new flavors (although the tried and true, like chocolate and tiramisu, stick around) and you can get a sample of any gelato that you want. Portions are small but satisfying. All the flavors I’ve had here have been good. Even the olive oil and black pepper gelato is good. They also have women’s magazines if you want something to read while eating, and I believe they have Wifi too.

I’ve always wanted to try rich creamy gelato and this was the perfect place to do that. The Mediterranean Sea Salt Caramel was to die for. The kids were happy with their Bubble Gum choice.
The manager was so nice. He let the kids try all of the flavors and was very informative. He told us all about the different flavor and how often they change the flavors for the day. I only wish we lived closer to try them all.
It was a bit pricey but well worth it given the fact you could mix and match. This is a definite must do on any trip to Madison.

This place makes great gelato at reasonable prices. I think they could offer more variety in terms of vegan options (most were fruit-​based, other than one chocolate option), but this was good stuff on a whole: creamy; rich; unusual.
I like that you can mix and match and get a large cup with three different flavors. The chocolate was excellent, as was the strawberry lemonade.
I’d probably come here over The Chocolate Shoppe down the street, which does offer soy ice cream, but isn’t that great.

When I left to Italy over a year ago, I was incredibly depressed knowing I’d probably never be able to find that quality of gelato ever again in America. I was so wrong.
A few months later, I stumbled into Paciugo on a whim – it’s one of those things you pass by on State St. and can easily miss if you’re not paying too much attention. But if you do, that’s an honest to god tragedy.
Paciugo is, hands down, the most creative «ice cream» place in Madison. They change their flavors regularly, but I’m always excited when they have any Amaretto-​based flavors. Their Wedding Cake and Caramel flavors are so rich and taste like you’re honestly eating a piece of the finest wedding cake you’ve ever had in your life.
It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s not pricey either. You get three flavors in a small and its a decent size as well. I would most definitely pick this over Coldstone, though.

Paciugo is one of the best places to go in downtown Madison if you have a sweet tooth. Over at Cold Stone you get an ugly pound of mashed ice cream. Over here the gelato is so savory that you only need to eat a small spoonful at a time. And because of that, their smallest cup (which is less than $ 5) is enough to satisfy you and another person.
On top of that, even the smallest cup comes with 3 different flavors of their ice cream. You get an additional flavor for each size. And there’s so many unusual and amazing flavors. On my last visit, I had a Chocolate Hazelnut, Peppermint (which tastes like actual peppermints), and Chocolate Raspberry. There’s so many more, that it’s really difficult to not find something that you’ll like. You can take as many samples as you want before you actually pick something.

Delish! It’s awesome getting so many flavors in one little cup, and they were all fantastic. (Today: Pistachio Almond, Chocolate Peanut Buttter, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Peanut Butter Cookies & Cream)

I was driving home to Minneapolis from Chicago and had a major craving for sweets. I pulled out my nifty Unilocal iPhone app and searched for the nearest Gelato.
Paciugo popped right up and it was only about a 5ish mile detour from the highway.
This place is so awesome. There are so many flavors! In between the boy and I, we had 5 different flavors. Everything was so delicious. They are pretty inventive with what they make. I saw a lot of combinations I’ve never seen before. I was like Gelato heaven. :) It is way too bad that I live in Minneapolis… I will be back again next time I head east on I-​94!

Very delicious! I’m not going to rave about all the flavor blah blah blah. because everyone already has int their reviews!
The boy and I just returned from Italy 3 weeks ago, and this place still seemed pretty authentic considering it’s in Madison.
Why the 4 stars?
The woman behind the counter was friendly and helpful. until we asked for brewed coffee.
She didn’t have a pot ready.
Her response. «Well, I guuuuueess I could put one on for you. It’ll take a few minutes.»
Not rude, just put out sounding.
Which was strange. Since her ENTIRE job is to serve customers their orders.
And ours wasn’t complicated, or annoying or even strange.
Just wanted some coffee with our gelato.
We didn’t wait, just took the yummy gelato goodness to go.
But really.4 very pleasant customers, 2 of whom want coffee… is that so hard/​annoying?

I appreciate the innovative flavors. The chocolate coconut curry (though these are three of my very favorites things on earth) is a little too strange to eat a full serving of, but great to taste! The sea salted caramel is fantastic.

Even though Paciguo is a franchise they still produce a quality gelato and they have some really interesting flavors. It’s less fattening than ice cream but seems to be much more flavorful and since it’s semi-​frozen it’s easier to eat. Not that I’m complaining about ice cream being difficult. I’d recommend a fruity sweet flavor coupled with something savory like olive oil and black pepper. Trust me it’s worth it.

The variety of flavors is impressive. Don’t get two flavors with black pepper together for instance, it builds, otherwise one (olive oil and black pepper for example) with other flavors is very good. The Berry White is good, as is the Coconut. The Italian Wedding Cake is also good, if a bit sweet. I think it would be very difficult to complain about choosing bad flavors because they will allow you to sample just about as much as you want.
It does tend toward the pricey side but that is the reality of ice cream and gelato places. It’s worth going to. Even if you end up with a ‘normal’ flavor like triple vanilla or coconut (my favorite), you can try crazier ones and everyone wins.