The Coolest Ice Cream Parlors in NYC Right Now

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Milk & Cream Cereal Bar is quickly winning over hearts and stomachs for its cerealiously fun creations, like Froot Berry Bliss (cereal soft serve, blended with Froot Loops, strawberries, and blueberries, and topped with Fruity Pebbles and gummy bears all on a birthday cake cone).

Dubbed the “Willy Wonka of ice cream,” this Flushing institution is famed for its whimsical homemade ice cream. Think: cotton candy pop rocks, Cookie Monster, SpongeBob, and peppermint marshmallow. Be sure to bring your appetite because the scoops keep coming.

Ice & Vice churns out unconventional ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Stop by for outrageous, seasonal scoops like Ants on a Farm (raisins, celery, and gianduja chocolate chips) and Pickles of the Caribbean (rum, coconut, and pickled pineapple jam).

Located in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Ample Hills Creamery is a true neighborhood shop, beloved for its playful, nostalgic scoops—like Ooey Gooey Butter Cake (vanilla ice cream with chunks of St. Louis-style Ooey Gooey Butter Cake) and The Munchies (pretzel-infused ice cream with Ritz crackers, potato chips, pretzels, and mini M&Ms)—plus scratch-made mix-ins.

Soft Swerve  

When you’re craving ube (purple yam), there’s only one place to go. Self-proclaimed “New York’s Yammiest Ice Cream,” Soft Swerve swirls up 20 pounds of ube everyday—plus other equally exotic flavors like macapuno coconut, matcha green tea, and black sesame soft serve.

The art of small batch ice cream is alive and well at OddFellows (both the OG Williamsburg location and East Village outpost). A rotating roster of creative flavors—from buttermilk honey blueberry and Thai ice tea to black pepper fig and juniper grapefruit—means, on any given day, you could very well find your new favorite.  

And the award for the cutest darn cones goes to Taiyaki NYC. This Chinatown sweetery is renowned for its fish-shaped cones (known as taiyaki). Try it with sweet azuki red bean filling, matcha, and black sesame soft serve, colorful mochi, and a wafer.

Van Leeuwen  

With multiple trucks and brick and mortar shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn (as well as Los Angeles), Van Leeuwen is quickly becoming an artisanal ice cream empire. The menu features classics and seasonal specials—both vegan and regular—like honeycomb, earl grey, turmeric, and passionfruit layer cake.

Bingbox Snow Cream specializes in contemporary Korean-style shaved ice (known as bingsu) and soft serve. Do yourself a favor and order a red velvet waffle bowl with Thai tea and lychee swirl, rainbow mochi, and a waffle cookie.

Morgenstern’s is a retro ice cream parlor with new school flavors. You may have noticed people are posting pics of goth-like frozen goodness all over Instagram. That’s the buzzy black coconut ash ice cream, which debuted last summer.

This rock ‘n roll-inspired ice creamery has been satisfying Bostonian’s sugar cravings since 1975. With locations on the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, and Brooklyn Heights, New Yorkers can get in on the sweet action, too. Try a scoop of signature grasshopper pie ice cream in a Fruity Pebbles cone.