15 best ice cream shops in Tokyo

You might miss this ice cream shop if you’re not looking hard enough. Sharing a space with a hair salon in Nakameguro, John’s Ice Cream offers unique and inventive flavours that are not commonly found in Tokyo. Expect peculiar creations such as amanatsu orange with black pepper and olive oil, black chocolate bamboo charcoal, and boozy concoctions like cognac with fruit and nuts. The flavour selection changes regularly, so check the shop’s Instagram to see what’s in store.

While the unique flavours are definitely worth a try, John’s is also known for its OTT ice cream creations, topped with colourful sprinkles and sugar cookies courtesy of cookie artist Cookie Boy. It costs an extra ¥1,000 for a cookie or ¥400 for other toppings.

You’ll be hard pressed to find proper frozen yoghurt in Tokyo, but thankfully there’s Wood Berry’s. The froyo shop has two locations in Kichijoji: a small takeaway stand and this larger café with seating. Wood Berry’s frozen yoghurt is made to order, and you’ll get your choice of fruit mixed in with the tangy yoghurt base. There’s always a generous selection of seasonal fruit to choose from, much of it sourced from the shop’s own farm in Yamanashi prefecture. During the warmer months, you can expect cherry, lemon, ume plum, watermelon and peach. 

Aside from the standard froyo, you can also order yoghurt-based desserts including beautiful parfaits and yoghurt lattes. The shop has an online store, too, where you can order frozen yoghurt for home delivery (within Japan only).

This ice cream shop started in Kobe in 2017 and now it’s opened a second location in Hiroo. All the selections here are made in-house using premium Hokkaido milk, and feature six unique flavours including salt and cream cheese, chocolate and brownie as well as butterscotch and pecan. You’ll be glad to know that these frozen treats contain natural sweeteners only instead of white sugar. 

Three kinds of non-dairy ice cream are also available daily, made entirely with vegan plant milk. They come in two rich flavours: coconut and soy maple cookie as well as black sesame miso and black cookie. There’s also a refreshing mixed berry sorbet if you prefer to have something without the creaminess. Get your treats in a cup or a freshly made cone which is also vegan.

In a city that often takes its desserts more seriously than its politics, judging the best ices on offer can be a thankless task. Japanese Ice Ouca ought to come out near the top of any best of list, however, for the simple fact that nearly everything it turns its icy hands to tends to work. The constant rotation of flavours on offer are homemade and seasonal. Expect fruits like watermelon and apricot in the summer to sweet potato and chestnut during the cooler months.

Cups start at ¥500 and you get your choice of three flavours to fill your cup (four flavours if you opt for the large). Your order also comes with a smattering of salted kombu flakes that cleanse the palette once you've had your sugar overdose. 

Chavaty operates as a tea shop serving classic treats like scones, but the store also serves delectable tea-flavoured ice cream that are worth stopping by for when exploring the backstreets of Omotesando. Hojicha, or roasted green tea, has an earthy, toasty richness that makes it perfect for desserts, especially in the summer. To ensure that its soft-serve has the same depth of flavour year-round, Chavaty sources its tea leaves from different prefectures across Japan according to season.

NYC streetwear guru, designer and Kith owner Ronnie Fieg is also a passionate cereal fan. He opened his very own cereal bar in the Big Apple after 20 years of pondering, and has now brought that same operation to Tokyo. The backstory is that young Ronnie's parents forbid him from eating cereal as a child, so he'd secretly get his own by exchanging it with the packed lunch he brought from home. Here at Kith Treats, breakfast meets dessert with the delicious cereal-infused ice cream, milkshakes and ice cream sandwiches.

This long-standing Italian gelato shop found fame thanks to Audrey Hepburn’s 1953 film 'Roman Holiday'. Till now, it continues to churn out crowd-pleasing gelato made with the brand’s secretly guarded original recipes.

You can order gelato in a cup or cone, but we highly recommend you go for a double order, so you can try at least two flavours. Giolitti’s classic range include pistachio, hazelnut, white chocolate blueberry and dark chocolate, but there are Japanese flavours, too, such as yuzu ginger, black sesame and hojicha (roasted green tea).

This ice cream churner in Jiyugaoka specialises in craft creations made with premium ingredients handpicked from producers in 50 different locations across Japan. It prides itself on being transparent with its operation, often listing the provenance of its ingredients as well allowing its customers to peek into the ice cream making process through the shop’s glass windows. The flavours change seasonally; so you'll have to check back frequently to see what's in store.

Daily Chiko is no regular ice cream stand. If you're around Nakano Broadway, you definitely won't want to miss their eight-layered 20cm tall soft serve. The flavours change once in a while depending on how the manager feels, but vanilla, chocolate, matcha and ramune soda seem to be staples. Though this monstrous dessert looks intimidating, the ice cream itself is surprisingly light and only packs a third of the calories in a typical soft serve. Daily Chiko also operates an udon shop next door, so you can fill up on noodles before moving on to the main dish.

This hip and popular roastery-café on Harajuku's Cat Street is one of the city's flashiest specialist coffee haunts. Every day, you'll get to choose from two kinds of single-origin beans for your espresso-based drinks, but its soft serve is especially noteworthy. If you can't decide between the espresso or milk flavours, just go for a mix of both, which, come to think of it, is essentially a frozen latte. 

Shizuoka-based matcha sweets purveyor Nanaya teamed up with venerable Asakusa tea shop Suzukien to bring you the richest green tea gelato in Tokyo. Go for the Premium No. 7 gelato, which apparently is certified as the ice cream with the world's highest matcha content – and this shop is the only one stocking it outside of Shizuoka prefecture. While the matcha gelato also comes in six other levels of intensity, most customers only come here for the 7.

Vegans usually get stuck with sorbet when it comes to finding dairy-free ice cream. That isn’t the case at Premarché Gelateria, where, on top of fruity sorbets, the store also serves vegan gelato that’s so creamy you’d never believe it’s completely milk-free. Japanese varieties here range from shiso sorbet to roasted sweet potato gelato, but the tartness of the refreshing kishu nanko ume (Japanese plum) makes it especially popular in the summertime.

Located just a short walk from Gakugei-daigaku Station, this established cake shop has been turning out all sorts of sweets since 1952. Here you'll find everything from classic strawberry shortcakes and mont blanc cream cakes to pudding and tarts. The attached tea room, on the other hand, is worth a visit for its parfaits and ice cream, with one of their most popular items being the mocha soft serve. It comes in a sundae glass, on a bed of coffee jelly and with an ice cream cone attached to the side. Not a fan of coffee? You can't go wrong with one of their fruity sherbets or the classic chocolate and vanilla ice cream. 

As the name implies, the gelato at this Asagaya shop is simple, honest and delicious. Made with fresh, seasonal fruit, the selection varies throughout the year but you can expect the same high quality throughout. You'll find this shop close to the Matsuyama-dori shopping arcade north of Asagaya Station.

Shiroichi’s cones are something to marvel at. These soft serves are unusually long and thin, so you’ll want to devour yours quickly before it melts or topples over. That’s not hard to do, though – the fresh milk frozen treat is utterly irresistible.

Shiroichi’s ice cream stands out from the rest as the store doesn’t boil the milk to make the sweet treat. Instead, fresh milk from Hokkaido is used to make ‘raw’ ice cream so that the rich dairy flavours are enhanced.