The 22 Best Ice Cream Shops in LA

Photo courtesy of Monty’s Good Burger

In LA, where it ’ mho about constantly ice cream weather, artisanal ice rink cream shops proliferate on practically every corner—and we ’ re here for it. When summer calls for a coldness, dessert, satisfying exclusive, our city has no dearth of options, from soft-serve innovators to Mexican-style paleta masters and ice cream makers churning new, mind-bending, melt-in-your-mouth profiles. ready to grab a scoop ? Read on for 22 of the best places in LA.

Photo courtesy of Smize Cream

Smize Cream

Santa Monica
Ice cream might not be the first base thing that comes to mind when the name Tyra Banks enters the conversation, but the internationally recognized supermodel, television receiver manufacturer, and talk indicate host recently forayed into premium freeze custards with the launch of her Santa Monica Smize Cream shop. Inspired by the after-school ice cream dates she used to have with her mother, Smize Cream urges diners to dig deeply for their dreams, angstrom well as for a sprinkle-covered chunk of truffle cookie dough that ’ mho at the bottom of each cup. The stigmatize launched with seven touch flavors that are similarly nostalgic, like Purple Cookie Monster & Me, a rich, fresh cream-based custard that ’ s swirled with crunchy crumbles of Oreo cookies and naturally dyed with carrots to achieve a bold lavender color. The supermodel-turned-entrepreneur even tapped the earth ’ s entirely methamphetamine cream scientist to ensure that she gets her flavors and textures precisely correct.
How to order: In-store or online for local anesthetic and countrywide shipping .

Photo courtesy of Haute Mess

Haute Mess

Fairfax
Haute Mess launched its gelato stripe earlier this year, making this region italian commercialize one of LA ’ s best clandestine places to get the richest, creamiest gelato. Their 12 farmers-market-driven flavors—including Amarena cherry, orange yellow rosewater, and lavender poppy seed—are made with natural ingredients, using mystery recipes and techniques they ’ ve perfected to keep you coming back for more. Pro tip off : Don ’ t sleep on the cocoa, a delectable jazz band of dark and milk chocolate that ’ second packed with astuteness and saturation. Along with Haute Mess ’ s picnic-friendly epicure sandwiches, bread, and pastries, vitamin a well as its expertly curated survival of wine, artisanal cheese, and more, you can take home any gelato flavors by the pint—including several cashew-milk-based vegan options.
How to order: In-store or via web site, Postmates, and Grubhub for pickup/delivery .

Photo courtesy of Monty’s Good Burger

Monty’s Good Burger

multiple Locations
Fans of Monty ’ second often say its vegan burgs are much identical from non-vegan burgers. The lapp goes for the cult-favorite restaurant ’ s 100 % plant-based milkshakes, which are fabulously chummy and creamy the room all shakes should be. Made with a base of organic soy vanilla soft suffice, they ’ re available in mouthwatering flavors like chocolate, salted yellowish brown, or DodgerBerry ( a strawberry/blueberry blend that ’ s a delectable tribute to the team ) with well-considered toppings like brownies or Sonoran cowboy cookies.
How to order: In-store or via web site for cartridge .

Jollibee

multiple Locations
This Filipino fast-food joint, much dubbed the McDonald ’ south of the Philippines, is possibly most celebrated for its hand-breaded fried chicken. But wear ’ thymine sleep on Jollibee ’ s colorful take on halo-halo, a traditional Pinoy dessert that means “ mix-mix ” in Tagalog and offers up a odds and ends of flavors in one credit card cup. Cold fruits, jellies, angelic beans, and coconut kernel are layered with shave ice and topped with creamy caramel flan and a heaping soap of ube frosting cream. Like the name suggests, you ’ re supposed to mix the versatile ingredients for a symphony of textures and tastes that are absolutely delicious together.
How to order: In-store or via DoorDash for pickup/delivery.

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Courtesy of Magpies Softserve

Magpies Softserve

multiple Locations
Owners Warren and Rose Schwartz are both professional chef who wanted to create an exalted claim on Dairy Queen. Magpies is their brainchild—featuring a made-from-scratch ice cream base, and flavors that remind you of the classics but are boundlessly more sophisticate and upscale, like malted milk chocolate and sweetened cream. besides on offer ? Flavors that evoke the Schwartz ’ s own childhoods, including honey matcha, Cracker Jack, and corn almond, arsenic well as made-in-house toppings like chocolate-covered honeycomb, almond brittle, and butterscotch rice krispies. If you ’ rhenium lucky, their celebrated fried ice skim proto-indo european will inactive be available—can ’ t-miss layers of hedge, ice skim, candy honeycomb, whipped cream, and fried corn flakes that meld soft, crunchy, and cold textures all in one celestial bite.
How to order: In-store or via web site for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Wanderlust Creamery

Wanderlust Creamery

multiple Locations
What started off as a belittled shop in Tarzana promptly turned into a family name ( to ice cream lovers at least ) after partners Adrienne Borlongan and Jon-Patrick Lopez opened a booth at Smorgasburg LA, american samoa well as locations in Atwater Village, Venice, Fairfax, and Pasadena. If you couldn ’ metric ton think, the flavors here are inspired by far-flung destinations ; Thailand ’ s celebrated dessert is channeled into a rice milk with coconut cream and twirl of mango, China gets an frosting cream made from the beloved Chinese white lapin milk candies, and the Philippines are embodied by an ube malted crush influenced by Adrienne ’ s Filipino-American upbringing.
How to order: In-store or via web site for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

multiple Locations
Founded by Jeni Britton Bauer in 2002, Jeni ’ second is less about crazy, out-of-the-box flavors and more about concern pairings—often inspired by her childhood memories—that ice cream consumers find unambiguously delectable. This Certified B corporation chain of outdo shops, which inaugural opened in Ohio, ditches synthetic flavors, dyes, stabilizers, and emulsifiers to whip up stuff like brambleberry crispen ( which is peppered with oat streusel chunks based on a family recipe ) and gooey butter cake ( a flick on the the damp yellow cake Jeni ’ randomness ma would bake for especial occasions ). Most of all, however, they ’ rhenium known for ice cream with alone texture—thanks to a buttercream-like body, it ’ s got a smooth-yet-slightly dense and chewy consistency.
How to order: Takeout or via web site for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams

McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams

multiple Locations
McConnell ’ s international relations and security network ’ thymine barely an internal-combustion engine cream shop with cool flavors like Eureka lemon and marionberries—it ’ s an actual dairy located in downtown Santa Barbara that ’ s been around for decades. alternatively of slapping its sword on an outdoor manufacturer ’ south ice rink cream, McConnell ’ s makes everything from scratch, using grass-grazed Central Coast milk and cream and working entirely with local farms. The family behind McConnell ’ south, now in its third generation of ownership, is obsessed with creating absolutely balanced scoops ; the higher percentage of milkfat and lower share of overrun ( the amount of air pushed into the ice skim as it ’ mho made ) results in a excellently creamy intersection.
How to order: In-store, via web site for curbside pickup, or via Postmates, DoorDash, Seamless, and Uber Eats for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Coolhaus

Coolhaus

Culver City
Co-founders Case and Estreller were inspired by architecture when they beginning started baking cookies, making agio ice skim in boundary-pushing flavors, and combining the two into creative “ cool houses ” ( hence the mention Coolhaus ). Along with their now-famous pre-packaged sammies, which you can find in the deep-freeze aisle of hundreds of grocery stores across the country, they ’ ve expanded Coolhaus to include dairy and dairy-free pints in a stove of crowd-pleasing flavors—like street cart churro boodle ( which combines brown butter ice cream with a sugary cinnamon boodle ) or campfire ‘ smores ( a hard-to-put-down salted vanilla swirled with graham cracker cookie butter ). For the true Coolhaus experience, a memory chew the fat to create a request sandwich—consisting of a impertinently bake cookie, ice cream, and toppings—is a must.
How to order: In-store or via Postmates, Uber Eats, Caviar, and DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

Scoops

multiple Locations
One of the first modern artisanal frosting creameries to open up denounce in LA back in 2005, Scoops set the bar with their cult-favorite flavor—an innovative, Grape Nuts-based brown university bread—that ’ s nowadays the alone one they offer day by day. While the master Scoops in East Hollywood has now closed, the other outposts in Highland Park, Chinatown, and Torrance rotate between flavors like banana malt burn boodle, almond horchata, or mint whiskey—relying on the faint, less fatty base they ’ ve used for years that allows you to taste the nuances in each scoop.
How to order: Takeout only or via web site ( for Chinatown location ) .

Courtesy of Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream

multiple Locations
Over the by ten, Van Leeuwen has come a long way—from its humiliate beginnings operating out of a jaundiced, refurbished frost cream truck, to its now-ubiquitous pints in visualize grocery stores and expanding brick-and-mortar locations ( 24 and counting ). even 13 years after the company kicked off, Van Leeuwen silent makes all its ice cream from scrape in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, using alone a handful of ingredients, including bracing milk and cream, cane sugar, and egg yolks. They ’ ve besides become long-familiar for decadent vegan scoops—made with either housemade cashew milk or oat milk that ’ s combined with coconut skim, cocoa butter, and coconut oil for you-won ’ t-believe-it ’ s-not-dairy taste and texture.
How to order: In-store or via web site for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Salt & Straw

Salt & Straw

multiple Locations
This Portland-based, small-batch ice cream shop now has even more locations in LA ( seven ! ) than in its Oregon hometown. That ’ s a testament to how a lot Angelenos go crazy for its tasty scoops and innovative concoctions, much made in partnership with local vendors. In addition to shilling “ classic ” flavors which are anything but—like rainbow-sprinkled birthday cake folded with blackberry jam, or a spectacular learn on cookie dough that ’ s made with massive, salty, malty chunks—they have a monthly season series that ’ s resulted in some cult favorites, like March ’ s Pots of Gold & Rainbows. Each class, the Salt & Straw kitchen sorts hundreds of boxes of Lucky Charms® by bridge player, infusing the farinaceous cereal pieces into odoriferous cream and stirring marshmallow charms into the finished product for a relish that tastes precisely like the bottom of your breakfast cereal bowl ( only far better ).
How to order: In-store or via web site, Postmates, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Happy Ice

Happy Ice

Fairfax
A erstwhile tattoo artist and reality television star, felicitous Ice founder Lemeir Mitchell has enjoyed an improper path to becoming a purveyor of water ice—a type of Philly-style italian frosting that ’ mho rarely found its way out of its hometown. As a born-and-raised Philadelphian, Mitchell was determined to introduce the iconic treat to Los Angeles, which you can now find at his roaming food trucks and Melrose shopfront. If you ’ ve never had Mitchell ’ mho water ice before, the ultra-smooth, internal-combustion engine cream-like texture might tempt you into thinking dairy is involved, but his rich, frigid treats are vegan-friendly and nut-free. In brilliantly colored flavors like strawberry lemon alcoholic, mango fury, or rainbow rocket ( a vibrant jazz band of all eight flavors that ’ randomness highly Instagrammable ), these cool concoctions are the ultimate summer treat.
How to order: Takeout merely or via DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Mizlala

Mizlala

multiple Locations
Although Mizala is billed as a Mediterranean grillroom specializing in spit-roasted shawarma and downy falafel, one of its best-kept secrets is the dessert—specifically the shakes. In three flavors—halva cinnamon, chocolate almond, and salted caramel—these creamy concoctions are rooted in tahina, a compact, earthy glue derived from flat coat sesame seeds with a peanut butter-like texture. liberally spread in the restaurant ’ s stuffed pita sandwiches and frequently accompanying assorted plates, the balmy paste is blended with soy sauce milk, ice, and dates for an fabulously rich people dessert that tastes like a bonafide, full-dairy milkshake.
How to order: In-store or via web site, Postmates, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats for pickup/delivery . Mateo ’ s Ice Cream & Fruit Bars

| Courtesy of Sean Cooley

Mateo’s Ice Cream & Fruit Bars

multiple Locations
Founded by the late Oaxacan native Priciliano Mateo, beloved Mateo ’ randomness has made the fruity, Mexican-style popsicles called paletas for years, and its brilliantly colored passionfruit, guava, tamarind, and soursop treats match the vibrant interiors of its shops. If you ’ re not companion with paletas, the fantastic flavors featured here might be singular to your palate, such as fume milk with cactus fruit, mammee apple ( a berry many trace as a crisscross between a pumpkin, peach, and sweetly potato ), and black sapote ( much called chocolate pudding yield ) —although you ’ re merely american samoa probable to find strawberry and banana split on offer, besides.
How to order: Takeout entirely .

Kansha Creamery

Torrance
Founded by brother-and-sister couple James Tatsuya and Elaine Yukari, this South Bay gem churns ice cream fresh five days a week. While they ’ ve experimented with dozens of flavors over the years—many of them Asian-inspired, like japanese barley tea, black sesame, and kumquat marmalade—they merely carry about five a day, arsenic well as a handful of parfaits. ( The matcha is peculiarly popular, a medley of methamphetamine cream, matcha jelly, syrup, mochi, corn flakes, and sweet crimson bean paste, and whipped cream ). At Kansha, which means “ gratitude ” in japanese, the stress is always on giving back to the community— whether it ’ mho by utilizing organic ingredients from local farmers or donating a percentage of sales to charities around the world.
How to order: Takeout only or via web site for pickup/delivery .

Saffron & Rose

Westwood
Some people say persian ice cream ( known for its stretchable consistency ) international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate for them because some flavors—such as lavender, white rose, and jasmine—are evocative of perfume. Don ’ thyroxine listen to these naysayers. Located in Westwood ’ s Little Tehran, Saffron & Rose often has a line of eager customers snaking out the doorway, waiting for its dense, gooey ice creams ( and yes, flavors that much sound like bouquet notes but taste incredible ). If you ’ re into sweet-tasting scoops, they ’ ve got you covered with milky cookies and cream or a juicy caramel crunch, while those with a preference for fruity flavors should order the light, delightfully refreshing cucumber or watermelon.
How to order: In-store or via Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Seamless for pickup/delivery . Sweet Rose Creamery

| Abby Mahler

Sweet Rose Creamery

Brentwood & Santa Monica
Part of the Rustic Canyon restaurant group—which includes Santa Monica stalwarts like Cassia, Huckleberry Bakery & Cafe, and Milo & Olive—Sweet Rose Creamery follows in the custom of its sister eateries and utilizes the nearby Santa Monica Farmers Market for seasonal ingredients. That ’ s what gives each season a discrete freshness, from year-round offerings ( like fresh mint made with organic red gum leaves ) to seasonal worker options ( such as stone fruit water ice ). The farm-to-spoon creamery tied offers to-go bundles for picnic-friendly consumption, including a $ 110 frosting skim ice-cream sundae party pack that includes six pints, a jar of hot fudge, toppings, and everything else you need for the perfective summer good afternoon.
How to order: Takeout entirely or via Postmates, ChowNow, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

Midori Matcha Cafe

little Tokyo
This little cafe only has a few soft-serve flavors—matcha, black sesame, and hojicha—but they do all three exceptionally well. Their matcha uses organic, ceremonial-grade, japanese green tea that gives it a ample so far elusive season that tastes legit, while the hojicha has an earthy, ridicule timbre for a bold appeal. If you can ’ thymine decide, opt for a eddy !
How to order: In-store or via Postmates, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

Mashti Malone’s Ice Cream

Hollywood & Westwood
Long-standing Mashti Malone ’ south is a direct rival of Westwood ’ s Saffron & Rose, but we ’ five hundred be derelict not to mention both on this number. Like its rival, Mashti makes delectable irani ice rink cream in flavors like rosewater, lavender, and orange blossom—all colored and flavored naturally using herbs and spices from Lebanon, India, and other countries—and, if you so hope, topped with sour cherry syrup or lemon juice. Ask for a “ Mashti ” alternatively of a cone, and you ’ ll get a fat exclusive sandwiched between two crisp, paper-thin wafers and rolled in crunchy pistachios. Order the “ Malone ” to get your ice cream served on a zoolbeyah—an irani lead on the carnival funnel cake that ’ s french-fry and lusciously fresh.
How to order: In-store or via Postmates, Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

POPS Artisanal Creamery

San Fernando & Van Nuys
From six generations of frost cream makers, this retiring shop turns out a massive variety show of melt-in-your-mouth tropical ice cream, served in standard cones or Instagram-friendly coconut stadium. Go for the exotic profiles like lucuma, a peruvian superfruit with a maplelike smack ; sugar corn, which owner Marthin Ken ( whose father-in-law operated the original Helados Pops ) perfected based on an old family recipe ; or almond avocado, an inordinately unique season jazz band you ’ five hundred be distressed to find anywhere else.
How to order: In-store or via Grubhub, Uber Eats, and DoorDash for pickup/delivery .

Courtesy of Gelateria Uli

Gelateria Uli

Downtown & Beverly Grove
When owner Uli Nasibova traded in her finance career for freeze treats in 2014, no one could stop raving about her speculoos relish, infused with crushed, caramelize bits of the beloved belgian spice cookies. now that it ’ mho been seven years since she opened her first placement in downtown ’ mho Spring Arcade—often credited with helping usher in the area ’ s renaissance—we ’ ve discovered that the remainder of her made-on-site, silky-soft gelatos and sorbets are just as delicious. Profiles like horchata and black sesame are inspired by the city ’ s diverse communities ; yellow spill the beans and blueberry water ice represent the region ’ s seasonal produce ; and stracciatella and pistachio pay court to classic italian gelatos.
How to order: In-store or via web site, Postmates, DoorDash, Caviar, Grubhub, and Uber Eats for pickup/delivery. Sign up here for our daily LA e-mail and be the first gear to get all the food/drink/fun Los Angeles has to offer .Tiffany Tse is a writer for Thrillist and has been researching for this article her entire ice-cream-eating life. Follow her adventures around town at @twinksy