LDNGuide
14 Ice Cream Spots You Don’t Want To Skip This Summer
A perk that comes with living in a city that has roughly one week of sun a year, is that you learn not to let the weather dictate when you can and cannot have an ice cream. It’s called being adaptable, look it up, Then add it to your CV under organised and perfectionist. With that said, we’re not going to deny that sun and ice cream are an unbeatable combination, so here are our favourite places to get ice cream during that one week of sun.
The Spots
We don’t know a word that starts with unico that doesn’t bring a smile to our face. And it’s no different with this Italian caffe. With locations in Notting Hill, St John’s Wood, Fulham, and Bromley, you can get some of the creamiest gelato in London to go. You shouldn’t miss the classics like pistachio and hazelnut, but you should also keep an eye on their gourmet flavours like panna cotta, and rum chocolate. They’re also delivering tubs from all four locations.
The soft serve at Bake is fantastic. This old-school bakery in Chinatown serves a wide range of pastries, and they’re also known for the taiyaki - a Japanese fish-shaped waffle situation - which they also happen to use as the cones for their soft serve. You can go for the matcha, vanilla, or a mix of both, but when the cone’s this good, we’d keep it simple with the vanilla.
This family run gelateria and all-round wholesome cafe/restaurant/bed & breakfast in Chiswick has been serving its ice-cream since 1978. You can get delicious sorbets, ice-creams and some top quality banter from owners Maria and Luciano. Walk-ins are welcome, but you can also order for collection, or delivery to certain postcodes in West London. And they have two other stores in Fulham and Kensington.
It’s a fact that anything you put inside a milk bun becomes roughly ten times more exciting to eat. And the ice-cream at this Filipino spot in Kentish Town comes in a number of different flavours like ube (purple yam), milo (chocolate malt), and black buko (black coconut), all of which can be eaten in bilog form. Which is basically a pandesal ice-cream sandwich. And we’re into it. They do also serve their ice-cream in scoops if you’re more into a classic cone situation.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
The team who run Bocca Di Lupo are also behind this ice cream shop in Soho, which means you know it’s going to be good. But it’s not just good, this gelato is excellent, with flavours like honeycomb, malted milk stracciatella, and tiramisu served until 10pm. They also deliver half-litre tubs across London.
This Crouch End gelato spot might not win any prizes for having an imaginative name, but that should absolutely not stop you from heading down. All of their branches (they’re also in Covent Garden and Stratford’s East Village) serve a seasonal selection of small-batch gelato which they produce daily. Flavours like honey, rosemary, and orange zests, and basil and chilli will knock your standard go-to mint choc chip clean out of the water, and their white chocolate and pistachio is a thing of local legend. They also do a great line in vegan sorbet, and you shouldn’t snooze on the Alphonso mango if it’s on.
It’s your classic love story. Cream meets a freezer, they have beautiful gelato babies. The rest, as they say, is history. That’s what Shakespeare was on about right? This artisan gelateria in Stoke Newington serves some wonderfully creamy gelato. There are plenty of options like white chocolate, hazelnut, and ricotta with caramelised figs, but if the biscokrok is on you shouldn’t hesitate to get it. Plus, the black cherry praline is some of the best vegan gelato we’ve tried. Don’t miss the mini ice cream cones that you can use as a spoon, which is basically the single most useful invention since someone came up with big ice cream cones.
The candy floss ring around Milk Train’s ice cream cones is a good way to make sure whoever you’re with keeps a social distance from your ice cream. Plus, the ice cream tastes very good. Specifically the cookies and cream flavour. And if you’re a go-hard-or-go-home kind of person (our kind of person) then make sure to add mini Oreos on top. They’re only open on the weekends for now, but have recently launched a nationwide ice cream delivery service.
Oddono’s is the girl next door of ice cream shops. Unpretentious, charming, and everybody loves it. It’s the kind of place where you go in for an innocent ice cream, and leave knowing that you will probably be returning at least once a week. The sorbets are good, particularly the mango, but the ice creams are where it’s at. Basically, if you go without trying the hazelnut and cookies and cream then you’re doing it wrong. There are branches in Stoke Newington, South Kensington, Battersea, Hampstead, East Dulwich, Chiswick, and Wimbledon, plus, you can get it delivered if you live near any of those locations.
You remember when you were young and naive - approximately two-weeks ago - and you used to eat crushed ice to help you cool down? Well this Korean Bingsoo spot on Greek Street is making flavoured crushed ice. OK, so it’s actually shaved ice, and it’s topped with things like condensed milk or fruit syrup and your choice of sweet stuff, like Oreos, fresh mango, and strawberries. So really it’s nothing like your crushed ice phase, but you get the idea. There’s seating downstairs if you want to eat in, but you can get it to takeaway. P.S. we’d go for the Oreo.
This Boxpark Shoreditch spot has some mildly insane, sugar attack candy floss toppings on offer, but we prefer to keep things on the simple - and cheaper - side with the classic cone and matcha soft serve. This place also does freakshakes that, frankly, we’re not sure how you eat without a blowtorch and a machete, but they’re potentially worth keeping in mind if you’re a serious sugar fan.
Much like algebra, quantum physics, and Kevin Federline’s wrestling career, we don’t entirely understand Chin Chin Labs. More specifically, we don’t know how they make their ice cream. We do know that it involves nitrogen, and, you know, science. Regardless, however they do it, it’s excellent. It’s super smooth and although they don’t serve your classic flavours like vanilla or strawberry, there are plenty of interesting options from vegan passionfruit kombucha to burnt butter caramel, as well as ice cream sandwiches. As well as offering weekly ice cream shipments right now, they also have outposts in Soho and Shoreditch
Being given a rose is cool and all, but have you ever been given a rose you can eat? You’ll never be happy with a basic rose again. Global ice cream chain Amorino has spots dotted all over London, over 20 flavours to choose from, and gives you the freedom to pick as many as you want. The sorbets are great, the stracciatella is great, and the fact that they shape it into a rose is just the aesthetically-pleasing cherry on top. FYI, they’re also delivering tubs and gelato macaroons all over London if you check out your usual delivery apps.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
This spot is Permanently Closed.
Ruby Violet might sound like the protagonist of a Tracey Beaker spin-off but it’s actually a particularly cute ice cream parlour in Tufnell Park. Ice cream is available as pre-packaged pots right now at both their Tufnell Park HQ and in King’s Cross, and they’re also doing delivery.
