Ranking of the 25 most popular ice cream parlors in America

iStockphoto / Kerdkanno / Rawpixel

six waffle cone ice cream scoops in front of a background of Ube ice cream

Ice cream the season is just around the corner. Summer is PEAK ice cream season, scooping scoops upon scoops across the country as temperatures rise.

We are less than a month away from National Ice cream Day (July 19), one of the extremely limited number of made-up holidays that I accept, and as we march towards that glorious day, it seemed a perfect time to celebrate the most popular ice cream parlors in Americabased on how many times each store has been “saved” in Yelp. Although I am not an ice cream connoisseur (Connor is!), I’ve been lucky enough to eat at many of these places.

Ranking of the 25 most popular ice cream parlors in America right now

Cass Anderson / Brobible

maple creami ice cream from Vermont

One thing to note about this list is that Yelp compiled the data using “saved data” as the primary metric. Of course, that’s a major predictor of popularity, and Yelp has ~2.5 million daily users, almost 30 million monthly users, and over 300 million reviews. Although ‘stored data’ is not a direct representation of actual visits, it does measure someone’s ambition to visit the store. That said, some of the places on this list are quite… how do I put this… touristy.

Yelp published the full rankings as ’50 Most Saved Ice Cream Shops in the US 2026′ but I thought we’d shave off a few scoops and narrow them down to the 25 most popular ice cream shops in America for the purposes of this article.

Mitchell’s Ice Cream, San Francisco, California
Soft swerve, New York, New York
Mashti Malone’s, Los Angeles, California
Bumsam Organic Milk Bar, Los Angeles, California
Meadowlark Dairy, Pleasanton, California
il laboratory of gelato, New York, New York
Toscanini’s Ice Cream, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Little Man Ice Cream, Denver, Colorado
Azucar Ice Cream – Little Havana, Miami, Florida
Henry’s Place, Honolulu, Hawaii
Figo Il Gelato Italiano, New York, New York
Tasaka Guri Guri Shop, Kahului, Hawaii
KITH Treats, New York, New York
Margie’s Candies, Chicago, Illinois
Frankie & Jo’s – Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
Fifty licks, Portland, Oregon
Island Cream Co, Lahaina, Hawaii
Sweet Republic, Scottsdale, Arizona
Via Gelato, Honolulu, Hawaii
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis, Missouri
Milk Jam Creamery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Scooter’s Frozen Custard, Chicago, Illinois
Torico Ice Cream, Jersey City, New Jersey
The Bent Spoon, Princeton, New Jersey
Nielsen’s Frozen Custard, Las Vegas, Nevada

Let’s pick a few at random to see what those ratings are and what people are eating… At number 1 is Mitchell’s ice cream in San Francisco. It has a 4.6 star rating and over 5K reviews. People are raving about the Grasshopper Pie, Halo Halo, Thai Tea Ice Cream, and Ube Ice Cream… I don’t know when this Ube Ice Cream craze blew up recently, but I’m 100% here for it. I had the Ube Crunch ice cream at Wanderlust Creamery in Venice, California last week and it was delicious, and had it at an Asian food festival about two weeks earlier. Big fan!

Soft swerve on #2 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side has a 4.3 star rating and 1.8K reviews. People are super excited about the Black Sesame Ice Cream, Toasted Coconut Ice Cream and the Fruity Pebbles Waffle Cone. Let me tell you, I recently made some Fruity Pebbles Rice Krispies treats at home and ate a bowl of cereal the next morning before going for a 90 minute run, and those cereals go HARD. If you’re looking for easy carbs to fuel your running/cycling, consider Fruity Pebbles.

Hellen T. via Yelp

Bumsan ice cream covered with fruity pebbles, served soft

Back in California at number 4 is Bumsan Organic Milk Bar. They have a 4.2 star rating with 1.6K reviews. People are lining up and raving about the True Milk

Coming in at number 9 Azucar ice cream – Little Havana here in Florida. They have a 4.4 star rating with 1.4K reviews. Customers rave about the Arroz Con Leche, Key Lime Pie and Red Velvet Ice Cream. I got a Key Lime Pie ice cream sandwich from Jeni’s last night and as a born and raised Floridian I don’t know why it’s taken so long for the world to catch up with Key Lime Pie as a flavor, but I’m glad it’s happening.

At number 10 we have that Henry’s place in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is a large sorbet place with the top flavors being Mango sorbet, Pineapple sorbet and Chocolate ice cream. Hawaii makes really good ice cream. Especially fruit flavors.

Lower down the list to number 23 in the country is Torico Ice Cream in Jersey City. Their Black Sesame Ice Cream seems to be the most popular item on the menu, followed by Vanilla Ice Cream Cake, Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Rocky Road. I 100% enjoy this mix of new age flavors with classics.

How many of these 25 most popular ice cream shops in America have you been to? Let me know in the comments below! And for links to each ice cream shop, follow the link at the top of this article to the Yelp survey.