Where's all the good ice cream at?

[cruisingmickey]

Hello,

What are the best ice cream places in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area?

Thanks

[meg3325]

I love Mikawaya's in Little Tokyo. It's a Japanese pastry shop, but they also serve ice cream, gelato and shaved ice. My fav is red been or green tea. Good flavor and not too sweet.

-----
Mikawaya
118 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, Los Angeles, CA 90012

[wienermobile]

My favorite gelato is Grom in Malibu. This is their first store in California and yes it's the same Grom from Florence Italy. Wonderful fresh natural flavors.
http://www.grom.it/eng/index.php

-----
Grom Gelateria
3886 Cross Creek Rd, Malibu, CA 90265

[bg90027]

On days when Scoops has a good selection of flavors, it's by far the best. There are days though where their combinations just don't work and I'm not much of a fan of the brown bread flavor which is the only one they offer every day.

Pazzo Gelato is pretty good and Paradis is also pretty good if you are in the Los Feliz/Silverlake area.

I've only had Sweet Rose Creamery and Delicieuse once but wasn't that impressed. It's hard to judge a place from one visit though. Scoops certainly has it's off days. I'm not sure that I'd go back to Delicieuse though because I thought the serving size was really small for the price.

-----
Delicieuse
2503 Artesia Blvd, Redondo Beach, CA 90278

Sweet Rose Creamery
225 26th St #51, Los Angeles, CA 90049

[Dommy]

Have you tried the Brown Brown Bread flavor they have at Scoops Westside? I was not a fan of the Brown Bread flavor, but this new version is totally crave worthy!

--Dommy!

-----
Scoops Westside
10640 Woodbine St, Los Angeles, CA 90034

[bg90027]

No, I've never been to the westside location. I live much closer to the eastside location. Maybe I should try that if I find myself near that one.

[Dommy]

Yeah, it's not far from the Overland Exit on the ten...

Best!

--Dommy!

[bulavinaka]

Scoops is a completely different "ice cream" type and experience from both Sweet Rose and Delicieuse - just my opinion. I prefer the later two to Scoops, so it my just be an issue of style/personal preference/taste. I think the appeal for Scoops is the innovative flavor choices - it's been hit & miss for me. The texture often reminds me of slightly fattened ice milk, so certain flavors will work better than others in this kind of base. Like many, I find the brown brown bread appealing (the Thai ice tea flavor still sticks with me as well. I've only been to the Overland shop so my experience with the various flavors is somewhat limited, But at the same time, the appeal of Scoops Westside hasn't been strong enough to constantly pull me back.

Sweet Rose and Delicieuse seem to match flavors that work well with specific bases (e.g., varying levels of fat in ice cream; yogurt, sorbet, goat's milk). It's only once in a while that I have a taste experience that takes me to another time and place. The flavor of the strawberry goat's milk ice cream at Delicieuse took me to a farm where I could hear goats bleating from fields of strawberries. Sweet Rose's coconut Kaffir lime sorbet reminded me of holiday in Thailand.

The quality of all three are (from my view) very worthy, and each has their own style and techniques. But if I had to choose one ice cream shop for my desert island for the rest of eternity, it would be Sweet Rose.

[bg90027]

That's certainly true that Scoops and Sweet Rose/Delicieuse are very different types of ice cream and I'd agree that a lot of any preference for one over the other has to do with style preferences more than relative quality.

[TonyC]

spot on. I will go 1 further and say Sweet Rose/Delicieuse is ice cream, that other one is... milk slushy.

Delicieuse's goat strawberry is so pure, but absolutely fortified by essence of goat milk. Nothing rivals that combination in LA. Sweet Rose, alas, is still too fat heavy (and a sugar bomb) for me. Delicieuse, Bulgarini, or Mother Moo. Rest of the town's ice cream is hardly worth eating (tho I will hat tip Paradis for its fantastic sorbets).

-----
Delicieuse
2503 Artesia Blvd, Redondo Beach, CA 90278

Mother Moo
17 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre, CA

[L.A. Jay]

You had me at "fat heavy". Sweet Rose here I come!

[JudiAU]

Lots of good recommendations here, my current favorite is probably Sweet Rose because of the superior cone. Organic milk. I like their simple flavors best, especially the lovely ice cream.

We also like Carmela (also sells at the Hollywood Farmer's Market) and they get special credit for doing very nice catering at a reasonable price point. Organic milk

Milk has some solid flavors plus good pozole on Sunday. Not organic.

Scoops also sells at Golden State, but my love affair may be almost over. More often than not the flavors taste more experimental rather than just good.

-----
The Golden State
426 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036

[orythedog]

Go to Bulgarini in Altadena and you will never eat icecream again. Totally worth the drive.

[Robert Thornton]

Bulgarini is among the best I've ever had. I tend to go more gelato or sorbet than ice cream, like the intensity of flavor over milkiness. If you want really pure, intense flavors, you can't do better than Bulgarini.

[granadafan]

Try Mashti Malone's on La Brea near Sunset. It's Persian ice cream with rose water ice cream with different flavors.

-----
Mashti Malone's Ice Cream
1525 N La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028

[maudies5]

Nothing could be better than Sweet Rose Creamery. Even their cones are delicious without ice cream.:) The ice cream sandwiches with ginger ice cream and chocolate cookie is great. Homemade marshmallows, homemade cookie crumbs are some of the topping options.

-----
Sweet Rose Creamery
225 26th St #51, Los Angeles, CA 90049

[HaroldandMaude]

We struck out at Sweet Rose. The banana had too-strong a taste of overripe bananas, more like caramel banana, and I like "fresh banana" ice cream. The peanut butter brownie chunk was also a bust, the pb flavor was too strong and the brownies were a waste of calories, crumbled up so small that you couldnt' even taste them, almost pulverized.

[TailbackU]

I'm really loving Paradis in Los Feliz. Their salted caramel flavor is to die for.

[TonyC]

Bar none, the most "balanced" ice cream in Los Angeles (county) is Mother Moo in Sierra Madre. It's right next door to Lucky Baldwin's, so after ice cream, you can, and should, get rightfully trashed on pricey Belgians.

Still love Bulgarini for gelato, but Mother Moo, with the Straus Creamery base, imparts the perfect ice cream texture with tolerable milk fat levels (yielding far superior post lick mouth feel than Carmela/Sweet Rose) that San Franciscans -- clearly Cali's small batch ice cream capitol -- have come to love so much. While the flavors not quite as adventurous as say, Slocombe, I'd like to think of it as LA's own I'ci, with Mother Moo's re-use metal tasting spoons and fantastic ginger ice cream.

-----
Lucky Baldwins
17 S Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA 91105

Mother Moo
17 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre, CA

[kevin]

i'll definitely have to try Mother Moo's

-----
Mother Moo
17 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre, CA

[HaroldandMaude]

If Mother Moo's is a hike for you, call first to check todays' flavors, she only had a few on the day that we visited and none appealed to us. At all.

-----
Mother Moo
17 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre, CA

[TonyC]

You no like Ginger? Or Concord Grape Sorbet? Or Lemongrass? Oreo cookie?

I haven't tried 1 flavor that wasn't better than anything from Scoops.

[ipsedixit]

The Madagascar Vanilla rocks.

[cartbaby]

There's also a Carmela on Washington and Altadena.

[Ogawak]

Hi,

You seem to ask for a lot of advice from our board, but I see no reports or feedback. It would be nice to hear from you the results of your food adventures.

Having said that, for the Hollywood area, I highly recommend Milk for great ice cream sundaes. I also recommend Scoops for the most interesting flavor concoctions. Also LA Creamery at the Americana in Glendale. Farther out, I really like Carmela's in Pasadena. A traditional favorite in Alhambra is Fosselman's.

I second the Handel's recommendation as well.

[madsp33d]

Dr. Bob's is amazing, only place i've seen it is at the county fair.

[running pig]

Small specialty stores in the L.A. area offer Dr. Bob's. Wolfe's Market in Claremont had a decent selection.

[happybaker]

Figueroa Produce also carries a small selection of Dr. Bob's. Or they used to - haven't been in in a while... (Shame on me!)

http://figueroaproduce.com/

[HaroldandMaude]

They scoop 8 or 9 Dr. bob's flavors at Frank's Famous on Verdugo, north of Glendale. Frank's makes the cookie dough that Bob uses in the cookie dough icecream.

-----
Frank's Famous
3315 N Verdugo Rd, Glendale, CA 91208

The Verdugo Bar
3408 Verdugo Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90065

[happybaker]

Oh holy cow - REALLY?! I had no idea.

Guess where I am going this weekend : )

[wienermobile]

In Brentwood from the people that own Huckleberry and Rustic Canyon, Sweet Rose Creamery is my favorite in town. Everything made in house. Love their fresh mint chip. Some of their October flavors include:
Caramel Apple Ripple with Granola
Cheesecake with Huckleberry Swirl
Rose Geranium with Raspberry Ripple
Rocky Road
Riesling Pear Sorbet
Pineapple Guava Frozen Yogurt
http://www.sweetrosecreamery.com/

Handels in Redondo Beach also has some great flavor like this month's fresh Pumpkin Pecan.
http://www.handelsicecream.com/home/i...

-----
Sweet Rose Creamery
225 26th St #51, Los Angeles, CA 90049

Handel's Ice Cream
1882 S Pacific Coast Hwy, Redondo Beach, CA 90277

[valleygirl617]

Yum, those sound good!

[bulavinaka]

+1 on wienermobile's recs, and add Delicieuse in Redondo Beach (limited hours to the public).

-----
Delicieuse
2503 Artesia Blvd, Redondo Beach, CA 90278

[DrBruin]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/507051