Locations: Brooklyn (Prospect Heights, Gowanus, and Downtown Brooklyn), Manhattan (Hell’s Kitchen and Meatpacking District)
This Brooklyn-born ice cream shop is where you go when you want to feel like a kid again. Flavors are packed with sweet and salty snacks like Ritz crackers, potato chips, cookies, and butter cake … and then can be tucked inside a pretzel cone. It’s one of the most whimsical ice cream shops in the city — and also one of the best. You can also purchase pints at the shops or other retailers around the city, or order online to be shipped nationwide.
Sample flavors: The Munchies (pretzel-infused ice cream with Ritz crackers, potato chips, pretzels and mini M&Ms), Ooey Gooey Butter Cake (vanilla ice cream with St. Louis-style Ooey Gooey Butter Cake), Snap Mallow Pop (marshmallow ice cream with Rice Krispie clusters)
Locations: Manhattan (East Village, West Village, South Street Seaport, Meatpacking District, pints available at various stores throughout the New York tri-state area)
Big Gay Ice cream started as a tricked-out Mr. Softee truck, offering soft serve topped with ingredients like wasabi pea dust, curried coconut, and olive oil and sea salt, and cones named after the Golden Girls. It still serves all of those, but with rich soft-serve made in-house at two Manhattan shops and a Philly outpost — plus affordable pints can be found in stores all over the New York tri-state area.
Sample flavors: Salty Pimp cone (vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche, dipped in dark chocolate with salt), Bea Arthur cone (vanilla soft serve with dulce de leche and crushed Nilla Wafers), American Globs cone (soft serve with dark chocolate and pretzels)
Cedars Pastry Shop
Location: Brooklyn (Bay Ridge)
This small bakery in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is the only place we know of where you can get dondurma, the Turkish ice cream with a sort of stretchy consistency that comes from mastic, a gummy plant resin. It comes in classic chocolate or vanilla, but for something different try the kashta, a sweet cream flavor with pistachios. (It’s also a bargain, at only about $2 a scoop!)
Sample flavors: Kashta with pistachio, chocolate, mango
Location: Manhattan (Chinatown)
At this tiny 40-year-old shop in Manhattan’s Chinatown, the “regular” flavors here are Chinese favorites like red bean, green tea, and pandan, and on the “exotic” ice cream list you’ll find American classics like strawberry, Oreo, and Rocky Road. Lines usually out the door, but it’s worth the wait.
Sample flavors: Zen butter, Thai iced tea, lychee, durian
Location: Manhattan (West Village)
This under-the-radar Argentinian ice cream and gelato shop features an insane selection of flavors that stand on their own without extensive mix-ins.
Sample flavors: Corn with cinnamon, maté, cantaloupe sorbet
Locations: Manhattan (Lower East Side, Times Square)
Ice & Vice calls itself an “experimental ice cream shop” and it’s not kidding. Most of the flavors sound completely bonkers, with obscure ingredients and surprising combinations, but while some food purveyors do this for the novelty, Ice & Vice does it because this shit tastes good. The shop also offers flavored waffle cones from the Konery, and they regularly collab with other exciting businesses for exclusive specials. Go there and taste everything.
Sample flavors: 9AM (Vietnamese coffee, donut truffle), Opium Den (white sesame, toasted poppy seed, lemon bread crouton), Tea Dance (Nilgiri tea leaf, lemon charcoal, salted caramel)
Location: Manhattan (Lower East Side)
This Lower East Side shop, in the neighborhood since 2002, isn’t kidding when it calls itself a laboratory. Over 200 traditional and experimental flavors of small-batch gelato are made on site, most of them pure flavors with few mix-ins.
Sample flavors: Mascarpone, root beer, toasted white sesame
Location: Manhattan (SoHo)
This nostalgic ice cream parlor boasts a huge selection of small-batch ice creams made with high-quality ingredients — we’re talking three varieties each just of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, caramel, and coffee. You’ll also find offbeat flavors, a selection of sorbets, and a robust sundae menu. Plus, It’s also the only spot we know of with vegan soft-serve on hand.
Sample flavors: Bourbon vanilla, salt & pepper pine nut, banana curry
Location: Manhattan (East Village), Brooklyn (Williamsburg)
Oddfellows’ flavors tend to live up to the shop’s name: There’s always something on the menu that’s a little bit out there, whether it’s bacon, miso paste, or maitake mushrooms. Don’t let that deter you, though — you may be surprised at how well some of the offbeat combinations work (and they’re always happy to give you a taste before committing to a scoop).
Sample flavors: Miso cherry, maple bacon pecan, raspberry pink peppercorn sorbet
Location: Manhattan (Lower East Side)
This Lower East Side shop specialized in soft-serve ice cream in Asian-inspired flavors like green tea and black sesame — made more exciting when loaded up with toppings like mochi, Cocoa Puffs, and more.
Sample flavors: Black sesame, green tea, ube (purple yam)
Location: Manhattan (East Village)
Yes, this is a tiny, tiny veggie burger/fast food joint — but if you know that it’s run by James Beard Award–winning pastry chef Brooks Headley, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the shop’s dessert game is on point. There aren’t typically more than two gelato and sorbet flavors at a time (at least one of them vegan), but you’ll always find the highest-quality in-season ingredients and unexpected flavors. Whatever they’ve got is certain to be amazing.
Sample flavors: Orange blossom labne gelato, fig leaf gelato, red plum sorbet
Locations: Manhattan (East Village, West Village, South Street Seaport), Brooklyn (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Boerum Hill)
Van Leeuwen is the best place one of the best options for lactose-sensitive ice cream lovers or vegans who are tired of resorting to the typical sorbet option or two. The shop offers traditional and dairy-free version of classics like strawberry, coffee, mint-chip, and chocolate-chip cookie dough, plus some more unique options like banana cream pie or honeycomb. If you want it to go, you can buy pints at Van Leeuwen’s shops or Whole Foods, Fairway, and more.
Sample flavors: Chocolate chip cookie dough, honeycomb, Sicilian pistachio (all dairy and vegan versions)