Garden Creamery Black sesame and oolong ice cream: By now, I've become wary of long lines in San Francisco, and there is nowhere else where this sense of trepidation is stronger than in the Mission, the tech-saturated, ultra-entitled west coast version of Williamsburg. Regrettably, I do find myself here once in a while, often to see a show at the neighboring Chapel, which is exactly what brought me to Garden Creamery, an ice cream shop squarely at the halfway point between the 16th and 24th street Mission BART stops. I had some extra time to kill in between doors and the opening time slot and could afford to wait 15 minutes in line on a weeknight. Garden Creamery's rotation of colorful flavors draw largely from Asia like Thai tea, matcha, and black sesame, but they still offer standards like strawberry and chocolate. All names are hand-written directly on the glass. I got one scoop with two flavors: black sesame and oolong tea. Unexpectedly, the black sesame was one of the best I've had, with a nutty and predominantly savory flavor, and the oolong tea was clean yet creamy. This was a rare instance where the line was worthwhile. Will be back to try the mango sticky rice and pandan flavors, but I probably won't wait in line for the Instagram-friendly churro cone. 4.0/5.0

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