One of my favorite indulgences is ice cream– coconut, green tea, or honey lavender ice cream to be specific. Since these aren’t necessarily the most common of flavors or the easiest to come by, David and I have been on a hunt this summer for the best ice cream places that offer a wide variety of specialty flavors. Our hunt has spanned multiple cities in the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, and in this post, we’ll provide you with a detailed list of all the places we’ve enjoyed (in no particular order). I hope some of you will find this helpful, and any additional suggestions are gladly welcomed! Let the ice cream fest commence– after the jump!

All photos by David Ou

1. Scream Sorbet
This place is bit pricey, and the flavors are for those with a more sophisticated flavor palette. They’re a little too obscure for my taste (citrus fennel, anyone?) but if you like innovative flavors, then this is definitely the place for you! Here, David and I got two sorbet sandwiches: pistachio sorbet with orange cardamom and pluot sorbet with snickerdoodle.

2. Ici Ice Cream
If you live in the Bay, then you know what Ici is. The line is always down the block, but it is so worth it. I love their honey lavender (which always runs out- so frustrating), green tea ice milk, and saffron rose flavors, plus their affagato is the best. David and I check their daily flavors via their twitter, so we know which days are worth it to wait in line. They have some really interesting flavors, such as rosemary pinenut praline, maple candied bacon, and cardamom black pepper sour cherry.

3. CREAM (Cookies Rule Everything Around Me)
Again, be prepared to wait. You get to customize your own ice cream sandwich and for $2 a pop, it’s worth it. They’ve had either green tea or coconut the two times that I went this summer, so it’s a winner in my book!

4. Lush Gelato
Similarly to Scream, their flavors are obscure. It took me awhile to decide, but I finally chose one scoop each of the earl grey and orange cardamom, both of which were good. 

5. Bi-Rite Creamery
Bi-Rite is the reigning star creamery of San Francisco. There’s always at least a 20 minute wait out the door if you come on even just a slightly sunny day, but it’s worth it. The first time I went was more than a year ago, and I couldn’t quite understand all the hype. But my second time back I was instantly won over by their honey lavender (fully in stock). David got the brown butter cookie coffee ice cream sandwich.

I think I need to come here again to form a full opinion about this place. There wasn’t a lot of variety to choose from, so we settled for a Blue Bottle Vietnamese iced coffee, which was good.
This place has been around since the 50s and is quite popular among older generations. It’s basically like another Fenton’s, which I’m not a fan of. They have a huge variety of flavors, but they’re all too generic and commonplace– mostly flavors that you can find in the frozen desserts aisle at a local supermarket. Here I got the mango jasmine sorbet, which is probably the second most experimental flavor after horchata.

8. Smitten Ice Cream
This place recently opened in Hayes Valley and makes your ice cream on the spot while you watch. They only have four ice cream makers, one for each flavor of the day, and they use fresh, seasonal ingredients. I was a bit underwhelmed at their lack of variety at first, but after trying their creme fraiche glazed with pear caramel, I was instantly satiated. Seriously, it was delicious. 

I really want to like this place. Their lavender (when in stock) is really good, as is their green tea. But after trying this place on three separate occasions this summer, I’ve left the store feeling frustrated every time. They’re inconsistent with their flavors (the flavors they stock in store is not what they claim is in rotation that day online) and the staff is unfriendly. 
If you’re interested in a more in depth review of any of these places, head on over to David’s yelp list!