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The Ice Cream Map of San Francisco

The Ice Cream Map of San Francisco

53 min read
Saul Sugarman

San Francisco is not an ice cream town the way a place with an actual summer is an ice cream town. We eat it anyway: in the fog, in a fleece. Then we get our four real days of heat in February and October, lose our collective minds, and eat ice cream.

I went looking for all of it. The institutions, the gelaterias, the Asian soft serve counters, the restaurants quietly sneaking a sundae onto the dessert menu, the truck idling by the de Young. I do mean "all," though I also know there's no such thing as a definitive list; somebody's favorite scoop is always missing, and that somebody is going to email me. The following is as thorough as I could get.

All the Ice Cream I Could Find in San Francisco — The Bold Italic

All the Ice Cream I Could Find in San Francisco

Ice Cream
Gelato
Asian / Specialty
Restaurant / Other
Showing 100 of 100 spots

In Brief

Bi-Rite Creamery.

The Mission

Humphry Slocombe Dogpatch.

Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, and Mission Bay

  • Humphry Slocombe Dogpatch — 699 22nd St · humphryslocombe.com
  • Happy Cow Creamery & Tea — 2291 3rd St · Yelp
  • Milkbomb — 1717 17th St · Yelp
  • Loard's Ice Cream & Sandwiches — 1601 20th St · loards.com
  • The Baked Bear (Thrive City) — 680 Terry A Francois Blvd, Space 26, in Thrive City · thebakedbear.com
  • Somisomi — 1350 4th St · somisomi.com
  • Locksley Creamery — 601 Mission Bay Blvd North, inside Spark Social SF · Instagram
  • Che Fico Pizzeria — Mission Rock, 1 Warriors Way · Yelp
Cafe Nagomi.

SoMa, Mid-Market, and Yerba Buena

  • Icu Market Deli & Ice Cream — 514 Minna St · Yelp
  • ICICLES — 829 Mission St · iciclescreamroll.com
  • Uji Time Dessert (Metreon) — 121 4th St, Ste 135, in the Metreon · ujitimedessert.com
  • Cafe Nagomi — 74 New Montgomery St · Yelp
  • Yuja Kitchen — 396 Harrison St · Yelp
  • Turquaz — 1198 Mission St · Yelp
San Francisco's Hometown Creamery.

Hayes Valley

Oishii Matcha.

The Castro and Noe Valley

The Ice Cream Bar Soda Fountain.

Cole Valley, the Haight, and Lower Haight

  • The Ice Cream Bar Soda Fountain — 815 Cole St · theicecreambarsf.com
  • Cantata Coffee Company — 1708 Haight St · Yelp
  • Ben & Jerry's — 1480 Haight St, at Ashbury · benjerry.com
  • Candy's Candy Shop — 1352 Haight St · Yelp
  • Loving Cup — 608 Divisadero St · lovingcup.com
Miyako Old Fashion Ice Cream Shop.

Fillmore, Japantown, and Pacific Heights

  • Miyako Old Fashion Ice Cream Shop — 1470 Fillmore St · Yelp
  • Philmore Creamery — 1840 Fillmore St · philmorecreamery.com
  • Salt & Straw (Pacific Heights) — 2201 Fillmore St · saltandstraw.com
  • Angela's Ice Cream (Cow Hollow) — 3108 Fillmore St · angelasicecream.com
  • Matcha Café Maiko — 1581 Webster St, Ste 175, Japantown · matchacafe-maiko.com
  • Uji Time — 22 Peace Plaza, Ste 440, Japantown · ujitimedessert.com
  • Belly Good Cafe & Crepes — 1737 Post St, Ste 393, in the Japan Center West mall · thebellygood.com
  • Maruwu Seicha — 1737 Post St, Ste 368, in the Japan Center West mall · Yelp
Caffe Greco.

North Beach, Russian Hill, and Jackson Square

  • Caffe Greco — 423 Columbus Ave · caffegreco.com
  • Cavalli Cafe — 1441 Stockton St · Yelp
  • The Baked Bear (North Beach) — 303 Columbus Ave · thebakedbear.com
  • Z. Cioccolato — 474 Columbus Ave · zcioccolato.com
  • Gelato Delicatessen — 503 Columbus Ave
  • Alimento — 507 Columbus Ave · Yelp
  • Lush Gelato — 520 Columbus Ave · Yelp
  • Flour + Water Pizzeria — 532 Columbus Ave · Yelp
  • Entropy Creamery — 576 Union St · entropycreamery.com
  • Gelateria di Cotogna — 596 Pacific Ave · Yelp
  • Swensen's Ice Cream — 1999 Hyde St · swensensofsf.com
Over The Moon.

The Marina and Cow Hollow

  • Gio Gelati — 1998 Union St · Yelp
  • Over The Moon — 2144 Chestnut St · Yelp
Koolfi.

The Embarcadero and the Financial District

  • Humphry Slocombe (Ferry Building) — 1 Ferry Building, Ste 8 · humphryslocombe.com
  • Flora Gelateria — Ferry Plaza Farmers Market · florasf.com
  • Gott's Roadside — 1 Ferry Building, Ste 6 · gotts.com
  • Angler — 132 The Embarcadero · anglerrestaurants.com
  • Hila Gelato Caffè (popup at One Market) — 1 Market St, in One Market · hilagelato.com
  • Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop (Palace Hotel) — 2 New Montgomery St, in the Palace Hotel · ghirardelli.com
  • Koolfi Creamery and Cafe — 50 Fremont St, Ste 125 · Yelp
  • Polly Ann Ice Cream (FiDi) — 120 Pine St; flagship out in the Outer Sunset · Yelp
Easy Breezy.

Inner Sunset

  • Easy Breezy Frozen Yogurt — 718 Irving St · Yelp
  • Sweet Glory — 1336 9th Ave · Yelp
  • San Francisco's Hometown Creamery — 1290 9th Ave · sfhometowncreamery.com
  • Tokyo Cream — 1838 Irving St · Yelp
  • OH Dessert Cafe — 1919 Irving St · Yelp
Polly Ann Ice Cream.

Outer Sunset

  • Polly Ann Ice Cream — 3138 Noriega St · pollyann.com
  • Gordo Ice Cream Shop — 2146 Taraval St
  • Marco Polo Italian Ice Cream — 3886 Noriega St · Yelp
Toy Boat by Jane.

The Richmond

Twirl & Dip.

Golden Gate Park and the Presidio

  • Twirl & Dip — 335 Martin Luther King Jr Dr, at the Music Concourse, plus a Presidio cart · Yelp
  • Aunt Fanny's Cafe — 100 Montgomery St, in the Presidio · Instagram
  • Presidio Tunnel Tops Pop-Up — 210 Lincoln Blvd, around the Tunnel Tops and Visitor Center · presidio.gov
The Barb Shop.

Bernal Heights

Lappert's Ice Cream.

Fisherman's Wharf

More detailed entries

The Mission

Bi-Rite Creamery

3692 18th St.
biritemarket.com

The one with the line snaking toward Dolores Park, and the line is correct. Salted caramel is the order of record; the buffalo-milk soft serve is the sleeper. You'll tell yourself you're sharing a pint in the park. You won't.

Mitchell's Ice Cream

688 San Jose Ave.
mitchellsicecream.com

Open since 1953 and basically shorthand for "San Francisco ice cream." Family-run, 16% butterfat, and the place that introduced the Bay to mango back in 1964, plus a deep bench of flavors like ube and buko. Get a split and don't apologize.

Garden Creamery

3566 20th St.
gardencreamery.com

Asian-leaning flavors (thai tea, black sesame, butter mochi) and a non-dairy section vegans actually rave about. The tea flavors, hojicha especially, are the move. Expect a daily line out front.

Hila Gelato

951 Valencia St. Closed Wednesdays.
Yelp

Sicilian-style, female- and LGBTQ-owned, with a rotating fruit-forward case that tastes like a Central Valley farm stand wandered into the Mission. The minimal Valencia shop is the original; an FiDi popup at One Market extends the brand downtown. Exactly the thing for a 72-degree SF "heat wave."

Nieves Cinco de Mayo

3052 16th St.
Yelp

Family-run, with a little grocery in back and the best mangonada in the city up front: mango sorbet, tangy chamoy, fresh fruit piled past the rim. The Dolores Park walking dessert, full stop.

St. Francis Fountain

2801 24th St.
Yelp

Open since 1918, which makes it the oldest ice cream parlor in town. Come for a counter milkshake and the feeling of time travel; stay for the full diner menu and the weekend Benedicts.

The Coffee Movement

2814 19th St.
Yelp

A coffee bar moonlighting with an espresso soft serve that out-coffees most actual coffee: velvety, specked with ground bean, bitter in the right places. Check their Instagram before you trek out; the soft serve keeps its own hours.

Ernest

1890 Bryant St, Ste 100.
Yelp

A genuinely great restaurant where the move, after the uni toast, is the vanilla soft serve with a chocolate magic shell poured tableside. Yes, I'm putting a date-night dessert on an ice cream map. Sue me.

Dogpatch, Potrero Hill, and Mission Bay

Humphry Slocombe Dogpatch

699 22nd St.
humphryslocombe.com

The new flagship, now in the old Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous / Sunday Social space and still slinging Secret Breakfast, Cornflake Crunch, and the kitchen mischief that launched a thousand imitators back in the 2008 Mission days. Build a sundae weird. That's always been the point.

Happy Cow Creamery & Tea

2291 3rd St. Closed Mondays.
Yelp

A snug Dogpatch counter doing rolled ice cream alongside crème brûlée milk tea, jianbing, and occasional savory crepes. Small enough that you'll find it by accident and start quietly telling three friends.

Milkbomb

1717 17th St.
Yelp

The signature is ice cream packed into a halved glazed donut, griddled warm, then torched with marshmallow fluff. The bun goes soft, the scoop stays miraculously firm, your willpower does not. Get thai tea or avocado if they have it.

Loard's Ice Cream & Sandwiches

1601 20th St.
loards.com

The East Bay legend (since 1950) finally jumped the bridge and parked itself at 20th and Connecticut, doing 40-plus retro flavors out of pink vinyl booths. And, yes, actual sandwiches now too. The recipes haven't changed since Eisenhower; that's the entire point.

The Baked Bear (Thrive City)

680 Terry A Francois Blvd, Space 26, in Thrive City.
thebakedbear.com

The Mission Bay entry in the Baked Bear's three-shop SF empire (North Beach, Wharf, Thrive City), parked next to Chase Center. Same warm cookie sandwiches with the ice cream of your choice, with a captive game-night crowd. Post-Warriors, post-Valkyries, post-concert; the line will tell you how the home team did.

Somisomi

1350 4th St.
Yelp

The Korean-American taiyaki soft serve chain in a tidy Mission Bay storefront. Order an Ah-boong: a fish-shaped waffle filled with red bean or Nutella, topped with a tall swirl of ube, milk tea, or matcha. A short walk from the ballpark and the arena.

Locksley Creamery

601 Mission Bay Blvd North, inside Spark Social SF.
Yelp

The ice cream stand inside Spark Social, the food-truck lot down by the bay, scooping local heroes Mitchell's and Double Rainbow into over-the-top sundaes like the Mudslide Brownie and the loaded PB&J. The closest thing the new Mission Bay has to a neighborhood scoop counter.

Che Fico Pizzeria

Mission Rock, 1 Warriors Way.
Yelp

After the pizza, the swirl. The strawberry and chocolate sorbetto are dairy-free and somehow as creamy as the gelato beside them. Get the swirl; you came to a ballpark-adjacent patio to have fun.

SoMa, Mid-Market, and Yerba Buena

Turquaz

1198 Mission St.
Yelp

The only maraş dondurma I've found in the city: dense, chewy, faintly elastic Turkish ice cream served as a solid bar, one flavor, milk-and-sugar simple. Let a piece of their baklava crash the party.

Icu Market Deli & Ice Cream

514 Minna St.
Yelp

A genuine corner-deli situation hiding a surprisingly good hand-dipped ice cream counter alongside the spaghetti trays and the pre-packaged groceries. They'll fall back to Ben & Jerry's pints at no markup if they run out of scoops. The kind of small SoMa business this city still has, if you go look.

ICICLES

829 Mission St.
iciclescreamroll.com

The Thai-style rolled ice cream spot that's been on Mission since 2015, where the show is half the point: cream poured onto a frozen metal plate, scraped into spirals in front of you, then loaded with unlimited toppings. Get the Nutella and banana. Vegan options for the cousin who doesn't do dairy.

Uji Time Dessert (Metreon)

121 4th St, Ste 135, in the Metreon.
ujitimedessert.com

The Yerba Buena outpost of the Japantown taiyaki specialist, parked inside the Metreon food court. Same fish-shaped waffle cones, same matcha and ube soft serve, same dangerously photogenic build. The right pre-movie order at the AMC upstairs.

Cafe Nagomi

74 New Montgomery St.
Yelp

One flavor, no toppings, no notes. The matcha swirl is thick enough to survive a tumble dry and just bitter enough to keep from cloying. Add the strawberry-matcha latte while you're at it.

Yuja Kitchen

396 Harrison St.
Yelp

A rice-bowl counter hiding a Beijing-style frozen yogurt you won't find anywhere else: tart, barely sweet, served in a giant coffee cup with house lemon curd and blueberry. At $4.50, the best value on this entire list.

Hayes Valley

San Francisco's Hometown Creamery

432A Octavia St; original at 1290 9th Ave in the Inner Sunset.
Yelp

Small-batch, house-made everything, parked right at Patricia's Green, with a rotating board that runs to coffee-and-donuts and a real fresh-mint chip. Order "smidges," golf-ball scoops built for the commitment-averse taster.

Smitten Ice Cream (popup at Hometown Creamery)

432A Octavia St, inside SF Hometown Creamery.
smittenicecream.com

After Smitten closed its Mission storefront on Valencia, the liquid-nitrogen original now runs as a popup inside Hometown Creamery, still churning each scoop to order with the Brrr machine and the seasonal earl grey lavenders that made the brand. The Patricia's Green shipping container is gone too; this is the SF Smitten now.

Na Ya Dessert Cafe

535 Octavia St.
Yelp

In the old Loving Cup space, an Asian-style dessert cafe doing toasts stuffed with ice cream, bingsu shaved ice, and dessert crepes (try the mango sticky rice crepe with coconut ice cream). The Outer Richmond original is still over on Geary, but this is the easier walk for most of the city.

Salt & Straw

586 Hayes St. Open till 11 p.m.
saltandstraw.com

The Portland import with the line and the dare-you flavors, ten of them churned monthly with fussily sourced ingredients. Sample six, agonize, get the honey lavender anyway. Bless them for the late hours.

The Epicurean Trader

465 Hayes St.
theepicureantrader.com

Not an ice cream shop, but the Hayes Valley specialty grocery and café where the freezer case earns its place on this list. A curated lineup of premium pints to grab on the way to Patricia's Green, plus a real sandwich situation if you need actual food first.

Souvla

517 Hayes St.
souvla.com

The fast-Greek standby's frozen Greek yogurt is the real sleeper: tangy, cold, dressed with baklava, sour cherry, or olive oil and salt. I crave it Pavlovianly the second the sun comes out.

RT Rotisserie

101 Oak St. Closed Mondays.
rtrotisserie.com

Rich Table's chicken-and-bowls spinoff also pulls a sweet-milk soft serve plus a rotating seasonal sorbet. Swirl them. Closed Mondays, like everything good in this town.

The Castro and Noe Valley

Oishii Matcha

2299 Market St, Ste A.
Yelp

A modern twist on cold treats right on the Market Street spine of the Castro: high-quality matcha soft serve, plus Japanese crepes and boba if you're building a whole afternoon out of it.

U:Dessert Story

3489 16th St.
Yelp

An Asian-inspired café built for the camera, doing ice cream, milk toast, and towering multi-layered crepe cakes. Photogenic to the point of being a little ridiculous. Go anyway, and let the line behind you wait while you frame the shot.

407 Castro St. Open late: till 11 p.m. weekdays, 2 a.m. weekends.
hotcookie.com

Famous for the warm cookies, including the famously cheeky ones you're picturing, but you can pair a scoop with them to build your own custom situation. The late hours are doing exactly what you think they're doing for the post-bar Castro crowd.

Double Rainbow

415 Castro St.
doublerainbow.com

A homegrown San Francisco brand since 1976, and this Castro storefront is the place to get it by the scoop rather than the supermarket pint. Super-premium and unapologetically nostalgic; the local answer to the national chains, sitting right next to Hot Cookie so you can make your questionable late-night decisions in sequence.

Aegean Delights

545 Castro St.
aegeandelights.com

A Castro dessert shop run by a husband-and-wife team, Greek husband and Turkish wife, doing the rare cultural mash-up of baklava, kataifi, Sultan's Hat, and a deep case of Turkish Delight cubes, plus ice cream and a Turkish coffee that actually tastes like Turkey. Glass chandeliers, a wall of Aegean knick-knacks, and the kind of hospitality that talks you into a sampler box on the way out.

Angela's

3751 24th St.
Yelp

A North Bay darling's Noe Valley shop (with a newer Cow Hollow sibling up on Fillmore), scooping mousse-light ice cream in 30 flavors. The Lemon Bar with curd and crushed shortbread is the one. The sidewalk's wide; loiter, and plot your second scoop. (Note: the Castro Fountain has closed, though its crew decamped to the Ice Cream Bar in Cole Valley.)

Cole Valley, the Haight, and Lower Haight

The Ice Cream Bar Soda Fountain

815 Cole St.
Yelp

A working 1930s-style soda fountain with a phosphate menu and, if you want it, a real booze list. The Dublin Honey shake (Guinness, port, honey) is the splurge; the malted peanut butter cookie scoop is the reason to come sober.

Cantata Coffee Company

1708 Haight St.
Yelp

A cozy, vintage-decked, veteran-owned Haight Street coffee shop that also happens to scoop gelato (mango sorbet, pistachio, espresso almond crunch, blueberry cheesecake) and pull a respectable affogato. Tiny inside, decorated floor to ceiling, with drinks named after famous personalities. The dessert stop you didn't know you wanted on the way to Golden Gate Park.

Ben & Jerry's

1480 Haight St, at Ashbury.
Yelp

The Vermont chain on the most photographed corner in hippie tourism. Locals roll their eyes; the line of teenagers does not. Sometimes you're just standing at Haight and Ashbury and you want a Phish Food. No shame. (Wharf sibling at 333 Jefferson, for the other tourist gravitational center.)

Candy's Candy Shop

1352 Haight St.
Yelp

A Swedish-leaning Upper Haight sweets shop where the owner hands out samples and actually knows what every weird gummy tastes like. Freeze-dried candies, sours, licorice, novelty oddballs; ice cream isn't really the point, but if you're building a sugar walk down Haight Street, this is a stop.

Loving Cup

608 Divisadero St.
lovingcup.com

The surviving SF outpost of the hand-churned, mix-in-style frozen yogurt brand (the Hayes Valley sister closed and became Na Ya). Nonfat probiotic yogurt blended to order with cookies, fruit, candies, peanut butter, or sauces, with signature combos like the Brian Boitano and the Dirty Hipster for the indecisive. Rice pudding too, for the off-script.

Fillmore, Japantown, and Pacific Heights

Miyako Old Fashion Ice Cream Shop

1470 Fillmore St. Cash only.
Yelp

A snug Fillmore landmark since the early '90s and one of the neighborhood's oldest Black-owned businesses, walls papered floor to ceiling with 100-plus flavors from Mitchell's and Dreyer's. They do not skimp the scoop. Get the ube.

Philmore Creamery

1840 Fillmore St.
Yelp

Gelato in the classic register, pistachio, stracciatella, vanilla bean, with the option to drown a scoop in espresso. Order the affogato and window-shop your way down Fillmore.

Salt & Straw (Pacific Heights)

2201 Fillmore St. Open till 11 p.m.
saltandstraw.com

The Pac Heights twin of the Hayes Valley shop: same flavors, same line, same painted-Victorian backdrop. The one to hit if you're already up here judging boutiques.

Angela's Ice Cream (Cow Hollow)

3108 Fillmore St.
Yelp

The follow-up to the Noe Valley shop, now scooping the same mousse-light, 30-flavor case at the top of the Fillmore strip. Same Lemon Bar with curd and shortbread, same Tiramisusie, an easier walk if you're already up on this side of town.

Matcha Café Maiko

1581 Webster St, Ste 175, Japantown.
Yelp

My phone's maps app thinks I live here. The matcha soft serve is impossibly smooth; the boba sundae with house kuromitsu syrup is the version worth the calories.

Uji Time

22 Peace Plaza, Ste 440, Japantown.
Yelp

Fish-shaped taiyaki cones filled with soft serve in flavors from hojicha to Thai tea to seasonal cherry blossom. Swirl two, crown it with matcha Pocky, photograph it, then eat it fast before it betrays you.

Belly Good Cafe & Crepes

1737 Post St, Ste 393, in the Japan Center West mall.
Yelp

Japanese-style crepes folded around scoops of ice cream and sculpted into kawaii animal faces (the Happy Face crepe is the icon). The crepe is the package; the ice cream and whipped-cream art are the showpiece. Bring a child or admit you're one.

Maruwu Seicha

1737 Post St, Ste 368, in the Japan Center West mall.
Yelp

If it hasn't met tea, it's not on the menu. The almost-pudding soft serve comes matcha, tea-spiked Hokkaido milk, or Japanese taro, with cheese tarts on the side. Eat it on a mall bench like the locals.

North Beach, Russian Hill, and Jackson Square

Caffe Greco

423 Columbus Ave.
Yelp

A 30-plus-year Italian café at the heart of Columbus, with the espresso, cannoli, and tiramisu you came for; the gelato (vanilla bean, spumoni, dark chocolate, white chocolate raspberry) is the open secret. Sit in the window and pretend you're somewhere else.

Cavalli Cafe

1441 Stockton St.
Yelp

A genuinely old North Beach business; the family started here as an Italian bookstore in 1880, brought the first Italian-language newspaper to the state, and turned the storefront into a café in 2007. Cannoli to order, homemade desserts, and an old-Italian vibe that nobody's manufacturing anywhere else. The kind of place worth visiting because it still exists.

The Baked Bear (North Beach)

303 Columbus Ave. Open till midnight nightly, 2 a.m. on weekends.
thebakedbear.com

The Columbus Avenue entry in the Baked Bear's three-shop SF run (North Beach, Wharf, Thrive City). Pick two cookies, pick an ice cream, they griddle it warm. The 2 a.m. close on weekends is the entire point; nothing else nearby is doing that.

Z. Cioccolato

474 Columbus Ave.
zcioccolato.com

Family-owned chocolate shop, beloved for fudge made fresh daily, also scooping gelato and stocking the kind of candy that gets bought by the pound. Not the gelato destination, but a real Italian-American North Beach institution that closes at 10 p.m. on weekends.

Gelato Delicatessen

503 Columbus Ave.
Yelp

A Columbus storefront doing exactly what it says: gelato plus a deli case, the order of operations entirely up to you. Late on Sundays, when most things in the neighborhood are folding up.

Alimento

507 Columbus Ave. Open till midnight every day.
Yelp

A 10-year-old shop that feels more like an old-school deli, with cured meats hanging from the ceiling and a wall of wine, plus 24 flavors of gelato (lemon cookie, caramel balsamic, banana heath bar). Open till midnight seven days a week, which is the right time of night to be eating gelato in North Beach.

Lush Gelato

520 Columbus Ave.
Yelp

A small, fast-rotating case of grown-up gelato: brown butter and chocolate honeycomb, cardamom with lemon bar chunks, real mint chip, dulce de leche. Carry it across to Washington Square and people-watch.

Flour + Water Pizzeria

532 Columbus Ave.
Yelp

The pizzas and mozzarella sticks are the headline, but the soft serve is the secret: fior di latte and salted caramel under fancier-than-average toppings like brown-butter cereal crunch and olive oil and sea salt. Swirl it, obviously.

Entropy Creamery

576 Union St. Saturdays and Sundays only, 2 to 9 p.m.
entropycreamery.com

The weekend-only Lush Gelato spinoff doing brioche buns stuffed with gelato, waffle-bowl affogatos, and gelato cakes by the slice. Same hands behind the case, more chaos in the format. Sat-Sun only; don't get cute and try a Tuesday.

Gelateria di Cotogna

596 Pacific Ave.
Yelp

Cotogna's viral summer-only gelato cart finally got its own brick-and-mortar a block from the restaurant, with the mousse-textured vanilla and honeycomb that started the whole obsession plus a rotating four other flavors. The cart still comes out in warm months too; this is the rest-of-the-year answer.

Swensen's Ice Cream

1999 Hyde St.
Yelp

The 1948 original, still on the Russian Hill corner where it started, with a house-made waffle cone nobody has ever regretted. Black raspberry marble, thin mint, cookies 'n cream. The cable car clangs past while you dither.

The Marina and Cow Hollow

Gio Gelati

1998 Union St.
Yelp

Ultra-smooth Italian flavors plus fruit-forward vegan ones, and the genius option to stuff a scoop into a split brioche bun. Get a cannoli filled to order on the side and count the passing dogs in fitted jackets through the window.

Over The Moon

2144 Chestnut St.
Yelp

Warm-from-the-oven cookies plus ice cream, assembled into a massive sandwich, or scooped into a chocolate chip or snickerdoodle cookie cup if you want to skip the pretense. An efficient delivery system for an impending sugar rush.

The Embarcadero and the Financial District

Humphry Slocombe (Ferry Building)

1 Ferry Building, Ste 8.
humphryslocombe.com

The downtown counter for Secret Breakfast and Cornflake Crunch. Build a sundae and eat it on a bench facing the bay. Their pints turn up in groceries all over town if you can't make the trip.

Flora Gelateria

Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Saturdays 8 a.m.–2 p.m.
florasf.com

A Saturdays-only farmers market stand from Christine Law, a 20-year fine-dining pastry chef who trained in Bologna and went entirely plant-based. The cashew-milk base does not taste like a compromise; the gelato gets scooped onto a house-made vegan, gluten-free Belgian waffle and the line forms because it's that good. The most chef-driven gelato in the city, and you can only get it one day a week.

Gott's Roadside

1 Ferry Building, Ste 6.
gotts.com

A burger stand that also pulls excellent soft serve, fior di latte or salted caramel, with a topping bar and cookies next door for a DIY ice cream sandwich. The dependable Ferry Building swirl.

Angler

132 The Embarcadero.
Yelp

If you like your soft serve in formalwear, this waterfront seafood room dresses a sundae in peppered caramel, smoked salt, and cocoa nibs. A fitting last course after the oysters and the tartare.

Hila Gelato Caffè (popup at One Market)

1 Market St, in One Market.
Yelp

The Mission Sicilian gelateria opened a popup inside the lobby-level One Market dining room, bringing pistachio, ricotta, saffron, and house cannoli to the FiDi lunch crowd. Same recipes, same Italian owners, dressed for the financial district. Hours follow the building.

Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop (Palace Hotel)

2 New Montgomery St, in the Palace Hotel.
ghirardelli.com

The downtown cousin of the Fisherman's Wharf flagship, tucked into the lobby of the Palace Hotel since the historic property added it back in. Same World Famous Hot Fudge Sundae, smaller crowd, infinitely more grown-up backdrop. Order under the chandeliers and pretend you're staying upstairs.

Koolfi Creamery and Cafe

50 Fremont St, Ste 125.
Yelp

Indian-inspired kulfi-style ice cream at the Transbay end of downtown: golden chai, cardamom, toasted black sesame, and a gulab jamun sundae that's genuinely worth the detour. The dairy-free chocolate has converted skeptics on my watch.

Polly Ann Ice Cream (FiDi)

120 Pine St; flagship out in the Outer Sunset.
Yelp

The downtown outpost of the avenues legend (more on which below). A quick scoop when the FiDi craving hits and you need it stat.

Inner Sunset

Easy Breezy Frozen Yogurt

718 Irving St.
Yelp

A woman-owned Inner Sunset spot doing frozen yogurt, custard, and a genuinely good vegan soft serve. Self-serve, by the ounce, and exactly the right move after a Golden Gate Park walk where you accidentally clocked five miles.

Sweet Glory

1336 9th Ave.
Yelp

Technically not an ice cream shop, but this Inner Sunset dessert cafe doing handcrafted crepe cakes and Basque cheesecakes belongs on any walking sugar tour of the neighborhood. Pandan, taro, sesame, tiramisu in the case, plus matcha and sparkling teas. The crepe cake is the order.

San Francisco's Hometown Creamery

1290 9th Ave.
Yelp

The original of the two, a few steps from Golden Gate Park, with the same smidges and rotating board. The mint chip made with real mint is the house flex.

Tokyo Cream

1838 Irving St.
Yelp

Soft serve thick enough to plaster a wall. Black sesame, Hokkaido milk, or both swirled, carved out with a little wooden spoon. Skip the frills and get the basics; they deliver.

OH Dessert Cafe

1919 Irving St. Evenings only, closed Tuesdays.
Yelp

An Asian-style dessert cafe that opens around dinner and stays till 11 p.m., doing toasts, ice cream sundaes, and small plates aimed squarely at the after-dinner crowd. The right Irving Street move when Tokyo Cream up the block has already closed.

Outer Sunset

Polly Ann Ice Cream

3138 Noriega St.
Yelp

The avenues institution, with a flavor wheel you can spin to let fate pick among durian, jasmine, black sesame, and Turkish coffee. Soft serve, cakes, shakes, the works. The correct antidote to a foggy Sunset night.

Gordo Ice Cream Shop

2146 Taraval St.
Yelp

A small Taraval Street neighborhood scoop counter you walk past three times before noticing. Scoops, sundaes, ice cream juices and treats; the kind of low-key Sunset spot the avenues do well and the lists usually miss. Hours can be a moving target; check before you walk.

Marco Polo Italian Ice Cream

3886 Noriega St.
Yelp

Asian gelato, which is rarer than it sounds: red bean, pandan, coconut, durian, and a black sesame thick enough to frost a cake. That density is the sign of a scoop done right.

The Richmond

Genki Crepes & Mini-Mart

330 Clement St.
Yelp

A Japanese-style creperie attached to a mini-mart of curated snacks and drinks from across the Pacific. Order a strawberry-banana-kiwi crepe with mango ice cream and chocolate sauce; browse the shelves while it builds; eat it on the outdoor bench because there's barely any seating inside.

Toy Boat by Jane

401 Clement St.
Yelp

A decades-old Clement Street fixture, now run by Jane the Bakery, where you can ride a coin-operated pony and get a wildly over-built sundae (Double Rainbow, Mitchell's, and Hometown scoops under marshmallow fluff and graham). And yes, bread, somehow.

Kowloon Tong Dessert Cafe

393 7th Ave. Open till midnight nightly.
Yelp

A family-owned Hong Kong-style cafe a block off Clement, doing mango sago, ice cream waffles, the legendary salt-and-pepper pork chops, and the late-night HK comfort menu my Cantonese friends keep ranting about. Open till midnight every night, which makes it the right answer to the Richmond at 11:30 p.m.

Kiss of Matcha

750 Clement St.
Yelp

Matcha soft serve thick enough to hold upside down without losing a drop. Order the parfait, dripping with matcha syrup, mochi, brown sugar jelly, and a croffle. Five steps wide; you're in and out.

Let's Roll Ice Creamery

2421 Clement St. Closed Mondays.
Yelp

The Thai-style rolled ice cream spot that got knocked out by the pandemic on Irving and came back deeper in the Outer Richmond. Cream poured onto a frozen plate, scraped into spirals, loaded with toppings, the show as much the point as the scoop. The Strawberry Cheesecake roll with Fruity Pebbles is the tutorial order.

Sweet Mango Dessert & Cafe

5217 Geary Blvd.
Yelp

An Inner Richmond Asian dessert cafe with a mango bias, doing honey toast castles, durian crepe cakes, ice cream crepes, mango pomelo sago, eggettes, and a savory HK-cafe menu running till midnight on weekends. The dessert-cafe move when you want options, plural.

Na Ya Dessert Cafe

5338 Geary Blvd.
Yelp

The original Na Ya, well before the Hayes Valley sibling moved into the old Loving Cup space. Toasts stuffed with ice cream, bingsu, crepe cakes, the mango sticky rice crepe with coconut ice cream that is the order.

Joe's Ice Cream

5420 Geary Blvd.
joesicecream.com

Family-run since 1959, beloved for a texture that's pure creamy nostalgia, and yes, they griddle burgers too. A true Richmond hidden pleasure that has quietly outlasted half the city.

Bella Trattoria

3854 Geary Blvd.
Yelp

The rare sit-down gelateria, attached to the Italian restaurant, with a long communal table and a dozen flavors including dairy-free fruit ones. Amarena and mint chip for me. A nice change of scenery for dessert after the handmade pastas next door.

Happy Yogurt

503 33rd Ave.
Yelp

A tiny self-serve frozen yogurt spot off Geary, the kind of unassuming neighborhood counter that's been there forever and isn't on anyone's "best of" list. Open till 8 p.m., closes early because it's the Richmond.

Angelina's Deli-Café

6000 California St.
Yelp

A do-everything Outer Richmond deli whose sleeper hit is the soft serve, served in a cup or cone, plain or rolled in peanuts. Order a sandwich, leave with dessert.

Golden Gate Park and the Presidio

Twirl & Dip

335 Martin Luther King Jr Dr, at the Music Concourse, plus a Presidio cart. Daytime hours; weather permitting.
Yelp

The truck by the de Young, Cal Academy, and the Japanese Tea Garden, slinging chocolate-dipped vanilla soft serve studded with sticky honeycomb candy. Fridays and Sundays at the Concourse, Thursdays and Saturdays in the Presidio. On a clear weekend, expect a line, and expect it to be worth it.

Aunt Fanny's Cafe

100 Montgomery St, in the Presidio.
Instagram

A Main Post café doing hot chocolate, soft serve, and other warming/cooling counter-service essentials a short walk from the Officers' Club. (Not to be confused with Aunt Fanny's Hot Pretzels at Pier 39, though both are scooping in their own corners of the city.)

Presidio Tunnel Tops Pop-Up

210 Lincoln Blvd, around the Tunnel Tops and Visitor Center. Seasonal hours; check the Presidio calendar.
presidio.gov

The rotating food-cart gathering scattered around the Tunnel Tops park, anchoring a cluster of frozen-treat vendors when the weather cooperates. Among the regulars: Jolly's Old-Fashioned Teas Cream, an ice cream cart stationed by the Outpost Playground off Mason Street, and The Pop Nation, a dairy-free, gluten-free popsicle cart with flavors like Bangkok Night Market and Sea Salt Dark Chocolate. Watch the schedule; the vendor lineup rotates, and the carts pack up when the fog rolls in.

Bernal Heights

The Barb Shop

605 Cortland Ave.
Yelp

A gender-inclusive barbershop on one side of the room and a retro soda fountain on the other, doing soft serve, shakes, and the kind of haircut-and-cone combo you can only get in Bernal. Vanilla, chocolate, or a swirl, built sturdy enough to survive a leisurely walk up the hill. You don't even have to commit to the bangs.

Vega Pizzeria

419 Cortland Ave.
vegapizzasf.com

A Roman husband-and-wife joint a few doors down from The Barb Shop, where the right order after the gnocchi is the house-made tiramisu or a scoop of ice cream on the dessert menu. The kind of low-key Cortland Avenue Italian where the owners actually own the place and the recipes came with them from Italy.

Mitchell's Ice Cream (Bernal/Mission edge)

688 San Jose Ave. See full entry in the Mission section.
mitchellsicecream.com

Technically just over the Mission line, but Bernal claims it too. The 1953 institution, the 16% butterfat, the ube and macapuno and halo halo. Walk down the hill, get a split.

Fisherman's Wharf

Norman's Ice Cream & Freezes

2801 Leavenworth St, in The Cannery.
normansicecream.wordpress.com

A 25-year-old Wharf institution, tucked into the historic Del Monte Square Cannery, scooping Mitchell's premium ice cream into what the place calls (and many regulars agree is) the best hot fudge sundae in San Francisco. The right answer to the Wharf line at Ghirardelli.

The Baked Bear (Fisherman's Wharf)

2824 Jones St. Open till midnight nightly, 2 a.m. on weekends.
thebakedbear.com

The Wharf entry in the Baked Bear's three-shop SF empire (North Beach, Wharf, Thrive City), doing the warm cookie sandwich with the ice cream of your choice. Get the bear bowl (cookie + ice cream + a spoon) if you'd like to look slightly less like a baby eating their first birthday cake.

Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop

Ghirardelli Square, 900 North Point St.
ghirardelli.com

The Fisherman's Wharf flagship, the hot fudge cathedral, recently remodeled, where tourists and the occasional homesick local split a too-big sundae under the clock tower. You know exactly what you're getting. Get the hot fudge. (There's a quieter Palace Hotel sibling at 2 New Montgomery if the Wharf line scares you off.)

Ben & Jerry's (Fisherman's Wharf)

333 Jefferson St.
benjerry.com

The Wharf scoop shop of the Vermont chain, a few steps from the sea lions. Dipped waffle cones, milkshakes, sundaes, the Phish Food that the Haight tourists also can't resist. Catering and event service runs out of this one too.

Atalia's Gelato

Pier 39, Space B-2.
ataliasgelatopier39.com

A genuinely good Italian gelateria on the Pier itself, with the kind of waterfront view that's worth at least a small cup. Open till 10 p.m. on weekends; an alternative to the long-form chains across the way.

Lappert's Ice Cream

Pier 39.
lappertspier39.com

The Hawaiian-Bay Area chain (since 1981) does a Kauai Pie that rotates Kona coffee ice cream with macadamia nuts, coconut, and dark chocolate fudge. The closest you'll get to Hawaii at Pier 39 without booking a flight.

The Berry's Boba Matcha

Pier 43 ½.
Yelp

A small new boba and matcha bar with the kind of menu the Wharf doesn't usually see: ceremonial-grade matcha, espresso drinks, Dubai chocolate, bubble waffles, and yes, ice cream on the rotation. The right detour off Pier 39 if you'd rather drink (and lick) than line up at a chain.

A note on pints and the freezer aisle

Not all of the city's best ice cream lives behind a counter. Bi-Rite Market (3639 18th St and 550 Divisadero St) keeps the creamery's pints in stock, and Humphry Slocombe and Mitchell's turn up in grocery freezers across town. And no SF ice cream story is honest without It's-It, the chocolate-dipped oatmeal-cookie ice cream sandwich born at Playland-at-the-Beach in 1928 and now lurking in nearly every corner-store freezer case in the city. It is the closest thing we have to an official municipal dessert.

There's also a small fleet of carts and party trucks (Bliss Pop, the Mexican-ice-cream cart Puddle of the Frogs, and others) that surface at Stern Grove, street fairs, and birthday parties rather than fixed corners. If one rolls past you on a rare warm afternoon, that's the universe telling you to stop walking.

This guide was reported and verified in spring 2026; hours, seasons, and the occasional rebrand shift, so call ahead for the deal-breakers. The summer carts and the park truck especially keep weather-dependent schedules. Found a scoop I missed? Tell me.

Saul Sugarman is editor-in-chief and owner of The Bold Italic.

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Tagged in:

Ice Cream, Food & Drink, Homepage Story, San Francisco, Dessert, Desserts

Last Update: May 27, 2026

Author

Saul Sugarman 151 Articles

Saul Sugarman is editor in chief and owner of The Bold Italic. He lives in San Francisco.

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