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
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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
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Lush Gelato Mango Sorbet and Ricotta Lemon Zest Gelato: Located in the back of The Epicurious Garden in Berkeley, this Lush Gelato location has a rainbow assortment of sorbets and gelatos made with ingredients proudly sourced from local farms. (This all sounds very befitting for a spot in the Gourmet Ghetto, I know.) I sampled the Vietnamese cinnamon (which tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch) before deciding on their mango sorbet and ricotta lemon zest. For all three flavors, I found them to be overly sweet for my taste, and while the texture w... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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John's Ube Ice Cream: Neighboring the Berkeley Bike Station is a small ice cream shop named John's with barely enough room for two sets of freezers and a single-file queue that regularly extends well past the doors. Given the size of the establishment, it wouldn't be inaccurate to credit these lines simply to space limitation rather than the quality of John's products. But a comic-sans printed sign outside the door advertises what is likely the biggest draw: $1.50 scoops (the $0.50 handwritten and appended to t... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous Cookies and Cream Ice Cream: An all-too-familiar story: San Francisco ice cream shop with a 15 minute line, wrapping around the corner. Organic Strauss milk and cream sign. $16 bag of peanut brittle, $9 bag of chocolate malt balls at the register. $5.50 for a single scoop. Really creamy but otherwise unremarkable set of everyday ice cream classics (I ordered the cookies and cream - other flavors on the day I went included chocolate chip, sweet cream, burnt sugar, e.g., flavors you can easily find in the grocery aisl... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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San Francisco Hometown Creamery Corn ice cream: This ice cream shop in Inner Sunset claims to be the first to make small batch ice cream completely in house in San Francisco. It has a small town neighborhood vibe, with varnished wood beams and hand-painted murals that are more charming than artistic. Their seasonal corn ice cream had a pastel daisy-yellow color and tasted mostly of cream rather than sweet corn. Its texture was icy, with frozen hard bits or corn throughout (even those pieces did not have an identifiable corn flavor). Based... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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