Choc-top review aka Multiplex me

I have been to the movies twice this week. Twice! High-fives for holidays, people!...and so on. The first time was for cheap at the Nova on Monday to see Fantastic Mister Fox. The second was at Hoyts Victoria Gardens to see the Princess and the Frog.


At both these cinema experiences I have done what any self-respecting movie goer would do, and purchased a chop-top, and now I am doing what behoves any self-regarding blogger to do, and publicly comparing them. 

It's sad news for the Nova and their 'home-made' choc-tops, because their choc-top performed very poorly indeed. Here's everything that was bad about it:

• The only available flavour was Vanilla. I realise Monday's are busy days at the Nova. Surely their managers realise this too, and would have extra stock available? But no. Vanilla.
• It was pretty small.
• The ice-cream had that icy quality of having been thawed and refrozen a few times, and was not very nice.
• There was a massive air pocket between the chocolate and the ice-cream, ie. not much ice-cream at all.
• The cone was pretty stale.
• It was over-priced (in the tradition of all cinema snacks).

Here's what was good about it:

• It was covered in chocolate.
• The cone was a waffle cone (but remember, a stale one)
  

By comparison, the Hoyt's choc-top performed very well. Here's what was good about it:

• When informing us that not all flavours were available, the staff member apologised politely for the reduced choice. Apologised! Take that, coolsie Nova staff!
• The reduced choice still left us with three delicious flavours to choose from - chocolate, banana and boysenberry. I had boysenberry. Yummo.
• It was pretty big.
• The ice-cream filled the cone and the entire chocolate dome.
  
• The ice-cream was really creamy and tasty.
• The cone was a waffle cone and really fresh, crunchy and sweet.

Here's what was bad about it:

• It too was over-priced.

Frankly, the exotically flavoured home-made choc-tops were to me the only real perk of the Nova, because the screens are tiny, the seats tiny, the other cinemagoers are too often wankers, and the queues ridiculous. The failure of their choc-tops is a death knell for the Nova in my internal list of preferred Melbourne cinemas. Victoria Gardens on the other hand is large, cool, is conveniently located near Minh Minh for a meal adjacent to the movie, and has boysenberry choc-tops even on a busy day. Decision: made.