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Best ice cream in NYC?

I love ice cream. Love it. I do love soft serve but recognize that the best is creamy, flavorful and usually hard.

Where can I get great ice cream in NYC? (We are not talking tasty delight here folks, or Mr. Softy for that matter).

25 Comments:

have you tried the frozen custard at shake shack?

You're talking ice cream not gelato, not custard, not frozen yogurt, and not soft serve ice cream? I feel that overall NYC might be a little lightweight on the non-gelato/non-froyo front.

Because Chikalicious Dessert Club has some great vanilla soft serve ice cream. And the custard at the Shake Shack is great! But it's not ice cream, it's custard.

come check out Blue Marble and the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory in Brooklyn as well as the Van Leeuwen ice cream truck on 7th ave (park slope) on Saturdays.

Ciao Bella (technically gelato), Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory in DUMBO, Van Leeuwen (who also have a truck on Bedford Ave in Wmsburg on weekends now), Chinatown Ice Cream Factory (weird-awesome flavors).

Yep Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

i like "sundaes and cones" (weird flavors) on 10th street and "ronnybrook dairy" (classic flavors) in chelsea market.

for pints, there's an ice cream place in columbus, ohio that is truly the best in the country - it's called jeni's. they will ship it and also i think dean and deluca recently picked them up - so you might be able to get a pint from a d&d store.

Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
.....try the Almond Cookie!!!

Echo the Factories - Bklyn Ice Cream and Chinatown Ice Cream. Latter faves are red bean and taro!

I have a friend who doesn't like Chinatown Ice Cream factory because its "too creamy". How can Ice Cream be too creamy????
My favorite flavors there are almond cookie and black sesame
(ok sounds gross.. but its so much like the creamy cold version of Black Sesame Soup)
green tea, mango sorbet, ginger, red bean, lychee, taro. They have a lot of fruity flavors too.

I also am a fan of Sundaes and Cones for regular ice cream. But Chikalicious definitely has the best soft service vanilla ice cream I've ever tasted. And Jacque Torres for icecream sandwiches.

If you're at the South Street Seaport foodcourt, or at Penn Station, get great ice cream cones at Sedutto. My favorite flavor is cappachino. Also, if you can find LaSalle brand (pints sold in some supermarkets and convenience stores), you might find it (as I do) to be better than Haagan Daz. Their cherry vanilla and dolce la leche is great!

Hey, this is Ryan at Jeni's.

Couple things:

(1) You *can* order pints online from Dean & DeLuca (and from us, directly), but you can't get pints at physical D&D stores.

(2) You can, however, pick up pints of Jeni's at Foragers in DUMBO.

Thanks for the love, kristin314 -- much appreciated :)

I'm more of an Otto gelato fan, but I also love the ice cream at Payard (pistachio and caramel flavors) and Maison du Chocolat (salty caramel, chocolate). Maison du Chocolat only serves icecream during the summer and I've only seen it at the Madison Ave. branch.

P.S. Here's today's piece from Tasting Table:

http://tastingtable.com/ecs/801.htm?sid=53834

My favorite ice cream shop is the aforementioned Sundaes and Cones (here's a post about my fave flavors). I don't know that the necessarily make the best ice cream, but they make my favorite flavors (generally only found at Asian ice cream shops): taro and black sesame.

However, my favorite "frozen anything" shop in the city is L'Arte del Gelato, which I go to waaaay more than S&D. Their pistachio is my favorite. Otto's gelato is even better (except for the pistachio!), but it's not as convenient to go to since its a restaurant. L'ARTE ALL THE WAY!

Aaaand the frozen custard at Shake Shack is great.

oh, yes, maison du chocolat has amazing chocolate ice cream... amazing!

Shake Shake (though technically custard) and Cones (though technically gelato) are good spots. However, I will say that you can't knock Mr. Softee when it's a sunny Summer afternoon in the city and you just need something to take the edge off...

I'm on the bandwagon for Blue Marble & Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory.

Trois Pommes Patisserie in Park Slope on 5th Avenue. They made my ice cream wedding cake last year and it was amazing.

Have you had Uncle Louie G's? it's good, but not as good as the three above.

Also Jacques Torres now has an ice cream shop in Dumbo, have yet to try it.

I know it's vegan, but Lula's Sweet Apothecary (www.lulassweetapothecary.com) is really outstanding. On most flavors you don't miss the dairy and it can go toe to toe with most of the other places people have mentioned.

I really enjoy the ice cream at Otto's, as well as at Grom (I know everyone knocks it for the price, but some of the flavors are really good e.g. Torrone). L'Arte is probably where I end up most convenience for flavors/location/consistency reasons - I like the mouthfeel the best, I think it's the only place from where I can finish a whole one myself.


Vegan: Stogo's is really excellent, I liked Lula's as well and it's good if you prefer chunkier flavors.

For me, personally my list goes:

Gelato: Grom. I want to try Otto's though.
Soft Serve: Momofuku's creamy flavors (Rosemary this month is nice)
Ice Cream: Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
Vegan: Lula's, for sure. I know Stogo's mentioned too, but Atlas Cafe also had some vegan ice cream last time I checked.

I know that Cones is primarily gelato, but they do a Latin American corn ice cream that is DEE-licious.

But yeah--my ice cold treat place of choice is absolutely L'arte del gelato, although I'm also a fan of Shake Shack custards.

That's great that Jeni's got a shout-out on a New York discussion! I can't even buy Jeni's in-store, in Cincinnati so I'm pretty jealous right now.

Anyway, back to the discussion, I was curious about New York ice cream too because I'll be visiting Brooklyn in 2-3 weeks. I heard Jacque Torres' new ice cream place is pretty good. Anyone know?

I also like Blue Marble - just had the cinnamon flavor this weekend at the Brooklyn Flea and thought had just the right hint of cinnamon without being overpowering (a difficult feat for such a strong spice) and more importantly, it was wonderfully creamy and rich. Like ice cream should be :)

You have to get to this great boutique called Borne Confections, they sell all kinds of luxury confections and they serve the most incredible gelato. They are on Park Ave btw 58 and 59th st, it’s so creamy and delicious. It is only served it in this boutique, it’s called Taste Gelato Artigianale. They make an amazingly creamy sorbet which my lactose intolerant friends love. You have to check it out…

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