New York City is a well-known international culinary hub and foodie paradise, and that’s no different when it comes to everyone’s favorite icy desserts. There are thousands of ice cream shops spread throughout New York City, and ice cream lovers can find all types of establishments: the cutting-edge newcomers, the ever-experimental culture fusion enthusiasts, to the decades-standing shops that make NYC ice cream history. From sundaes to sodas, soft-serve cones to ice cream cakes, vanilla to honeycomb to black sesame to chai: this is a guide to the (some of) the best ice cream New York has to offer.
10 Ample Hills Creamery
Since its foundation in 2010, Ample Hills Creamery has seen some ups and downs, but its ice cream has remained a crowd-pleaser. It is known for having off-the-wall, fun flavors, and incorporating pastry delights into ice cream. of the sorts of the crowd favorite Ooey Gooey Butter Cake, Breakfast Trash, and summer-perfect Summer of Love. The ice cream base at Ample Hills is made in their own factory in Red Hooks, as are all the cakes, cupcakes, and pies that are used in their chunky and fun scoops.
9 Taiyaki NYC
Taiyaki NYC's adorable colorful ice creams served on a taiyaki shell made foodies across New York scared of the Instagram fever: yes, it's beautiful but is it you know… good? Luckily, the answer is yes! Taiyaki NYC specializes in soft-serve ice cream with traditional Japanese flavors like green tea, black sesame, and cherry blossom served in the infinitely Instagrammable fish-shaped ice cream cone. Taiyaki NYC twists the taiyaki, prosperity and good fortune treat that goes back to the Edo Period in Japan, into an ice cream cone. Taiyakis consist of a sweet waffle batter baked or fried in a fish shape and filled with sweet red bean paste. As tasty (and historical!) as it is beautiful.
8 Mikey Likes It
Nationally famous and locally beloved, Mikey Likes It is Michael “Mikey” Cole’s brainchild, uniting a love of community, pop culture, and, of course, ice cream! With inventive flavors and even more inventive referential names, Mikey Likes It has served strawberry cheesecake dream Pink Floyd’s and triple vanilla Ice Ice Mikey’s to the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Hillary Clinton, Jay-Z, and thousands of ice cream-loving New Yorkers (visitors included). It hardly gets better than this!
7 Big Gay Ice Cream Shop
A proud and fun twist on the favorite ice cream parlor staples is what customers can expect from Big Gay Ice Cream. Starting in 2009 as a food truck and growing into a successful franchise, owners Douglas Quint and Brian Petroff sought to elevate the beloved - but sometimes debated as plain - soft serve ice cream to a decadent experience. It’s easy to get the idea with the house special Salty Pimp, a lightly salted (yeah, that’s right!) soft serve cone infused with dulce de leche and covered in a chocolate shell.
6 Eddie’s Sweet Shop
Beyond an ice cream shop, Eddie’s Sweet Shop is a dessert-full time travel experience. The oldest ice cream shop in the city, Eddie’s Sweet Shop in Forest Hills has been serving ice cream on the same fridge, countertops, sundae glasses, and silver plates since 1925, nearly 100 years ago! Families have been going to Eddie for generations to eat ice cream the same way their grandparents did: in-house soft serve, banana splits, soda floats, epic sundaes, all with lots of fresh whipped cream, with, of course, a cherry on top.
5 Max & Mina’s
Max & Mina’s is the place to go get ice cream for all the truly eccentric flavor lovers. Entirely home-made and kosher, Max & Mina’s has a rotating wheel of experimental flavors like malt, beer, Cajun, rum and raisins, coconut and Ferrero Rocher, and many others. Sound strange? Well, strange can be delicious, as Max & Mina’s proves by being a local and national favorite since 1997. The décor of the 97’ Queens shop reflects the quirky flavors of these unique ice creams and is a must-stop for any and every adventurous foodie.
4 Creme & Cocoa
Inspired by the wonderful, tropical flavors of the Caribbean, Creme & Cocoa Ice Cream offers a variety of ice creams and sorbet to anyone looking to add a taste of the islands to their summer. Papaya, soursop, sorrel, and passion fruit are always served side by side with chocolate, cookie n’ cream, and vanilla (Caribbean vanilla, of course!). Fun for the adults, Creme & Cocoa also has a menu of delicious boozy options like mango & coconut rum, vanilla & hibiscus bourbon, or stout beer & brownies.
3 Caffè Panna
Inspired by the Italian affogato - a popular dessert in Italy, made with gelato or ice cream ‘drowned’ in espresso - Caffè Panna seeks to unite two of life’s core principles: ice cream and coffee. Using both locally sourced and Italian ingredients, Manhattan’s Caffè Panna’s specializes in affogato sundaes: homemade bases like Oreo brittle or caramel swirl, in-house scoops, or sorbets, and a shot of fresh espresso topped with panna (cream) shipped from Italy.
2 Van Leeuwen
With a belief in pure, classic ingredients of the highest quality, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream started as a food truck in 2008 with a mission to “make good ice cream that makes you feel good”. With simple, locally sourced ingredients and plenty of vegan options, Van Leeuwen serves simple but exquisite ice creams; as perfectly captured by their crowd favorite Honeycomb ice cream, a vanilla-honey crunchy sweet concoction that has won the tastes of people all over New York and beyond.
1 Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
More than an ice cream shop, the (original!) Chinatown Ice Cream Factory is a New York institution. Opened in 1978, it is one of the oldest Chinatown establishments and a staple of the neighborhood and the city. Known for decades for unique and interesting flavors inspired by Chinese cuisine, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory was ahead of the curve. Lychee, mango, green tea, and taro are house staples, and coffee, vanilla swirl, and chocolate chip are exotic flavors.