Berkeley Bowl Pumpkin Ice Cream: Actually from Loard's Ice Cream, a chain based in Oakland, the Berkeley Bowl Pumpkin Ice Cream is sherbert orange with specks of brown throughout. If you let it sit out at room temperature, it takes on a whipped consistency almost like whipped cream cheese (I prefer this to the otherwise firmer, more dense texture). Sweet but endearingly so, like a dessert made with far too much cream but with a lot of love. 3.5/5.0
recommended berkeleybowl pumpkin cream 3.5 icecream
Cheeseboard Buffalo Milk Soft Serve Ice Cream: Regrettably, I ordered the swirl of chocolate and plain milk flavors, and while the texture was smooth and creamy, the chocolate had a generic taste that masked the more mild milk flavor. While it was higher quality, this ice cream did remind me a bit of the little cups of vanilla and chocolate ice cream you ate with a wooden spoon as a kid. Not bad per se, but not great either. 2.5/5.0
icecream cheeseboard buffalo milk soft serve ice cream 2.5 softserve
Uji Mochi Ice Cream: Offering over 12 different mochi ice cream flavors, Uji in Berkeley is taking a unique spin on this classic Japanese dessert. They take it very seriously, serving their mochi with bamboo sticks that are meant to be used to prod the mochi, ensuring that it's soft enough to eat. After ten minutes of waiting, though, I got impatient and held the container in my hand to try to bring the mochi down in temperature quicker. I tried the Ginger Zing (a mild, rather than spicy, sweet ginger flavor)... (read more) 3.0/5.0
berkeley pumpkin lychee ginger uji mochi ice cream 3.0 ujitime
Saffron & Rose Faloodeh and pistachio Turkish ice cream: Returning to this small ice cream shop after 3 years, I found Saffron & Rose has all grown up. Gone are the glass walls, replaced by an orange red drywall, and the generic white cups have been styled with their logo printed on the side. Also missing was the kind owner, who relentlessly handed me every flavor in the shop to sample (without me even asking). Luckily, the offerings remain true, with elastic ice cream in traditional flavors, many flavored with rosewater. The pistachio was creamy ... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended icecream losangeles turkishicecream saffronrose faloodeh pistachio turkish ice cream 4.0 dessert
Honeymee Honeymee Milk Ice Cream and Raw Honey: Honeymee's namesake dessert is a milk ice cream drizzled with raw honey topped with a cube of honeycomb, all served in a branded plastic cup. The milk ice cream is an excellent neutral base – creamy, barely sweetened, and aerated - the closest in texture to soft serve of any ice cream I've had. It makes eating the honey more manageable, but together, it's still overly sweet, especially if you leave the honeycomb until the end. You could just purchase the milk ice cream on its own, but wit... (read more) 3.0/5.0
desserts icecream losangeles honeymee milk ice cream raw honey 3.0
Smitten Salted Caramel Ice Cream: The two things I dislike about the Bay Area are 1) almost everything is overpriced, and 2) people see technology as the solution to everything. If there were any type of snack that represented these fundamental problems, it would be Smitten. At Smitten, ice cream is made to order using liquid nitrogen, which, in theory, freezes ice cream faster and produces smaller ice crystals and, as a result, a smoother texture. Because each flavor is produced on its own machine, Smitten can only carry... (read more) 2.5/5.0
icecream sanfrancisco smitten salted caramel ice cream 2.5