The best ice cream in Los Angeles

The James Beard Award-winning writer and ice cream whiz Jeni Britton Bauer extended her Ohio roots to Los Angeles with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and now you can find it in Venice, Los Feliz, Larchmont, Playa Vista, Beverly Hills and Calabasas. The scoop shops offer an eclectic choice of more than 20 flavors, with options such whiskey and pecan; brambleberry crisp; cold brew with coconut cream; and riesling-poached–pear sorbet. Looking for something traditional-leaning? Even the Milkiest Chocolate in the World is killer. You truly can’t go wrong. If there isn’t something on the signature menu, the limited-edition menu will surely have options that catch your attention and makes use of whatever’s in season.

There are plenty of artisanal ice cream shops at our disposal in L.A., but this might be the first one that inspires us to hop on a plane. The flavors at Wanderlust Creamery in Tarzana, Atwater Village, Venice, Pasadena, Sawtelle and Fairfax include options such as Thai iced tea, Vietnamese coffee, Australian pavlova, and a truly phenomenal (and vegan) sticky rice with mango—essentially, the vacation you’ve been meaning to take. Everything is made in-house, including flavored cones (we’re partial to the ube and green tea options). On a monthly basis, Wanderlust also releases a selection of seasonal flavors that keep us looking forward to every visit, so make the trip for a couple scoops—you won’t even need your passport.

Sure, it was founded in Santa Barbara, but McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams has more than taken over L.A. with some of the silkiest scoops around, and they’re made with dairy from Central Coast creameries. You can find its elegant and classic flavors in Grand Central Market, Studio City, Santa Monica and the Palisades, and for that we are eternally grateful. Where else would you get a scoop of salted caramel so decadent it should be illegal? Where else could you get flavors like cardamom and Swedish gingersnaps? McConnell’s, you make us melt.

Chef-driven, somewhat pricey and fully vegan, Zen Ong’s ice cream shop inside West Hollywood’s Dayglow Coffee serves high-quality, coconut-based ice cream made with gourmet ingredients: think scoops flavored with Gaviota strawberries from Harry’s Berries, Valhrona chocolate and Balinese vanilla beans. A second location in Larchmont offers an expanded menu that includes blueberry lavender, blue yuzu lemonade and chocolate flavored with kluwek seeds, a rare Indonesian fruit only rendered edible after fermentation. Unlike other plant-based ice creams, Awan’s scoops completely disguise the taste of coconut for an ultra-smooth, creamy base—the perfect blank canvas for Ong’s Indonesian-inspired flavors, seasonal produce and everything else in between.

Chunks of cream known as khameh make all the difference at this family-run Persian ice cream shop in Westwood, where fragrant flavors like saffron pistachio, white rose and orange blossom reign supreme—though you’ll find classics like chocolate and vanilla too. Compared to American ice cream and Italian gelato, the thicker consistency of Saffron & Rose’s ice cream stretches without breaking up, for an iconic Tehrangeles treat dating back to 1974. If it’s your first time, we recommend the bright-yellow saffron ice cream studded with pistachios and anointed with rosewater and the vegan-friendly faloodeh, a chilled lime and rosewater sorbet that folds in rice noodles for a pleasing, slightly chewy, almost crunchy mouthfeel.

Since 2006, Silver Lake’s Pazzo Gelato has churned out artisanal small-batch gelato made with farmers’ market produce, and the results are nothing short of spectacular. Of the eight different gelaterias in the city we’ve tried in the last year, we liked Pazzo Gelato the best—the sorbetti here distill the essence of each respective fruit, and the creamy single-origin chocolate gelato offers the sort of intensely creamy-meets-cacao flavor one would expect from Italy’s most famous cultural exports. At any given time, Pazzo also carries roughly a dozen flavors, so you’re bound to find something you love.

With a slew of Middle Eastern flavors and high-quality ingredients, this tiny Iranian-Egyptian creamery in Pasadena is serving some of the most unique, delicious ice cream we’ve had in a long, long time. Owners Maria Oveysi and Moe Kamal got their start at Smorgasburg (where they still pop up every Sunday), but you can also catch them at their new Old Town brick-and-mortar, where they serve a larger menu of flavors like sour cherry topped with Iranian fairy floss; a stretchy Egyptian-style mint chip; a crunchy, honey-sweet walnut baklava; and kunefe, also known as knafeh, which tops sweet cream with baked phyllo to mimic the traditional Middle Eastern dessert. Those who appreciate tangy desserts will appreciate the lavashak ice cream, which tops a blended tamarind-pomegranate base with strips of traditional Iranian fruit leather. For those driving to Kinrose, we recommend skipping the immediate parking lot (it’s quite pricey) for the dirt-cheap public garage at nearby 33 East Green Street.

Saffron & Rose might have our hearts whenever we’re in Westwood, but anywhere else in the city, you’ll find us digging into a bowl of Mashti Malone’s, a longtime Persian ice cream shop with locations in Hollywood and Silver Lake. Similar to Saffron & Rose, Mashti offers delicately perfumed ice cream flavors in rare flavor combos like ginger and rose water; orange blossom with pistachio; Persian cucumber; date; Alfonso mango; and saffron rose water. Where they differ, however, is in the excellence of straightforward stalwarts like cookies and cream, strawberry, and mint chip, so you can mix and match to your heart’s content. You can even get them blended into a shake or squashed between two wafer cookies (a Persian ice cream shop classic).

Given all the superb ice cream options in L.A., it's easy to overlook this Santa Barbara-based scoop shop with Westside locations in Santa Monica and Beverly Glen. But you shouldn't, because Rori's serves impossible-to-put-down artisanal ice cream that will have you hooked once you've tried it. Made with milk and cream from dairy cows raised along the Central Coast, the shop offers a blend of classic, occasionally seasonal flavors perfect for mixing into a hot fudge sundae or add-on toppings. The dye-free honey lavender offers the right blend of floral and sweet, and the chocolate options here (“serious” dark, coconut base, milk chocolate with chocolate shavings) are second to none. At a time when other artisanal L.A. shops are capitalizing on novelty in the form of limited releases and rotating monthly flavors, Rori's makes a great case for not fixing what isn't broken; sometimes, a classic scoop is all you need.

Run by the couple behind Ruen Pair next door, this new fusion-style dessert shop in Thai Town serves creamy, not-too-sweet gelato in Asian flavors like candle-smoked salted egg yolk, butterfly pea coconut, tamarind and durian. While you can’t go wrong with a scoop of the Thai iced coffee or Thai tea, our favorite of the bunch is the pandan milk, which offers the lightly grassy, vanilla-like Southeast Asian flavor entombed in a sweet, creamy gelato. For a quirky, ultra-carby treat, order your ice cream wrapped in a Thai-style kanom pang—a hot dog bun topped with coconut jelly, sweet corn, sticky rice, grass jelly and palm seeds. If you manage to grab a table within the tiny, usually crowded shop, we recommend take advantage of the extra surface area by ordering one of the Korean bingsu-inspired shaved iced desserts or one of the custard toasts, both of which come topped with gelato.

Look: We’d never turn down a cup of soft-serve from Magpies, CVT or Milk Bar, but the pastel-colored swirls coming out of the machines at Koreatown’s Bumsan Organic Milk Bar approach an entirely different level of airy creaminess. Since 2017, the bright pink Koreatown stand has served soft-serve made with South Korean organic milk in flavors like matcha, chocolate, pink guava and taro milk tea. The “true milk” flavor is better at Honeymee, our other favorite L.A. soft-serve spot (which also has a location in Koreatown), but the taro milk tea, pink guava and chocolate flavors here aren’t just photogenic—they’re goddamn delicious.

With locations in Marina del Rey and Hermosa Beach, Capri Gelato has the right idea. After a day at the beach or out sailing, there's nothing better than a refreshing scoop of gelato, especially when the quality of the ingredients is this high. Of the Westside frozen dairy options we've tried, Capri Gelato is among the best of the bunch. We're talking gelato made with pistachios and hazelnuts from Italy, locally sourced seasonal fruit and ultra-creamy milk chocolate. The vegan-friendly sorbetto selection is no slouch either, from dairy-free 70 percent dark chocolate to seaside pineapple and red raspberry. Since Capri Gelato also operates an espresso bar, you can also order an affogato—and, if you arrive earlier in the day, freshly baked croissants to go with your ice cream.

This best-in-class Mexican paleteria with locations in Culver City, Mid-City, Pico-Union and West L.A. stocks over thirty different flavors of Oaxacan-style ice cream bars including juicy watermelon, tangy chile-dusted mango and the smoky, must-try leche quemada. You’ll also find gelato and sorbet on the menu, but the move here is to order a paleta—the icy, fruit-filled treats are just as delicious as your standard scoop on a cone.

If you can get past the oh-so-cheeky name, the New Zealand-style ice cream at this Hermosa Beach takeout window is some of the best in the South Bay. Inspired by the ice cream shops back home, co-owners Duncan Parsons and Joe Wedd blend together fruit with a milky (or vegan-friendly oat) vanilla ice cream base—and while that might not sound all that exciting, the end result is a cloud-light frozen dessert like nothing else you can find in Los Angeles. Each order is blended fresh for every customer and can be modded out to your exact specifications. For those who crave extra sweetness, there’s the Hokey Pokey (honeycomb toffee), but we like the mixed berry variety best. In a cup or in a cone, the fresh fruit ice cream is a soft-serve lover’s dream—and a refreshing, lighter treat for hot days or whenever you find yourself at the beach.

Located directly across from Koreatown’s Boiling Crab is Honeymee, an ice cream shop serving luxuriously creamy not-too-sweet “pure milk” soft serve with pure honey. The move? Get the Sweetie, which displays the honey in gorgeous amber swirls, or the Honeymee, which features a giant chunk of honeycomb on top (who needs a cherry?). There are chocolate sauce, matcha and affogato options as well, but let’s be honest—you’re here for the honey. You can also find Honeymee along Sawtelle, in Little Tokyo and further-flung locations in Gardena and Buena Park.

Tucked away in the sleepy one-stoplight town of Sierra Madre, Mother Moo is one of the best places for classic ice cream in the San Gabriel Valley—a part of L.A. County that’s chock full of artisanal creameries. Locals stop in for root beer floats, milkshakes and ice cream in flavors like salty chocolate; peppermint stick; roasted banana; raw honey; and triple milk, which combines buttermilk, cream and nonfat milk. Owner Karen Klemens handcrafts her ice cream using local, seasonal produce and organic dairy, and you can really taste the difference in each bite. A newer line-up of dairy-free sorbets makes it easy for anyone who’s lactose intolerant to join in on the fun, and there’s homestyle pies, cakes and cookies—perfect for making into Mother Moo’s delicious ice cream sammies.

This Alhambra institution is like a leap back in time: Fosselman’s opened in 1919, and though it moved to its current location more recently (‘74, to be exact), it still provides all the old-timey charm of an old-school ice cream parlor. The flavors are almost all straightforward and classic, while the operation is run by third-generation Fosselman’s who offer half-gallons, choose-your-flavors ice cream cakes, and six-packs of ice cream sandwiches featuring chocolate cookies. Their most popular flavors include the Cookie Monster, which mixes Oreos, graham crackers and cookie dough into a bright blue vanilla base.