London’s Best Ice-Cream Parlours
Udderlicious
With sites in Islington and Covent Garden, Udderlicious is a popular haunt for vegans (the vegan Oreo flavour is eternally popular) and non-vegans alike. All freshly made in store, one of the parlour’s highlights is the fact that visitors can vote for which flavours they’d like to eat each month (this month’s combinations include banana-caramel and rhubarb and fig). The team, led by husband and wife Raj and Raj, can also make ice-cream cakes for birthdays and celebrations.
187 Upper Street, Islington, N1 1RQ and 24 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9LN
Visit Udderlicious.co.uk
Biscuiteers Icing Cafe
Mainly known for its delectable biscuit boxes filled with iced designs, Biscuiteers Icing Café in Clapham now offers the only biscuit-topped ice-cream in the capital. Getting in on the summer vibes, the biscuits – made by the in-house experts – are intricately designed to resemble fruits slices such as watermelon, kiwi, lime and orange.
13 Northcote Road, Clapham, SW11 1NG
Visit Biscuiteers.com
Grom
Opened last summer, this Piccadilly branch of Italian gelato purveyors Grom was the very first to land in the UK. Specialising in naturally sourced, traditional gelato, the team only use carob flour as a thickener, ensuring that the gelato is as authentic as possible. Popular flavours include ‘Crema di Grom’ (pastry cream gelato with corn biscuits and chocolate chips) and ‘Gianduia’ (made with Venezuelan chocolate and hazelnut chips). Takeaway tubs are also available.
18 Piccadilly Avenue, Piccadilly, W1J 0DF
Visit Grom.it
Fortnum & Mason
Fortnum & Mason has sweet stuff down to a fine art with its ice-cream mecca, The Parlour, which serves everything from knickerbocker glories to coke floats and hot chocolates. Its afternoon tea sundaes span flavour combinations from mint and cucumber sorbet to more traditional rose-ripple ice cream, and both come topped with Italian meringue, popping candy, rose eclair, strawberry preserve and a cream scone.
181 Piccadilly, St. James's, W1A 1ER
Visit FortnumAndMason.com
Bubblewrap
Bubblewrap in Chinatown puts a delicious, Instagrammable twist on waffles. Having originated in Hong Kong, these unique egg waffles cause two-hour queues for a taste of the sweet and savoury creations. Resembling bubble wrap, the waffle is shaped into a cone and filled with everything from matcha gelato and KitKat to berries and cream, with a helping of Oreos, fudge or pistachios for good measure.
24 Wardour Street, Soho, W1D 6QJ
Visit BubblewrapWaffle.com
Nonna’s Gelato
The inspiration behind Nonna’s Gelato is owner Sophia’s Italian grandmother. From the family-run kitchen in Highbury, the team infuses, pasteurises, ages and churns all its batches by hand, before heading to market to sell takeaway tubs of its delicious gelato. Our favourite flavours include Five Points porter and chocolate ripple; blackberry and vanilla crumble; and chocolate and Sicilian blood orange marmalade sorbet.
Find Nonna’s Gelato at Broadway Market each Saturday and Church Street Market each Sunday
Visit NonnasGelato.com
Mamasons
Filipino ice-cream parlour Mamason’s introduced its street-style “dirty” ice-cream to the streets of Chinatown last summer. The site sells a range of Instagrammable pan-Asian puds, including its signature sell-out dessert, the ‘Bilog’: a traditional Filipino milk bun (pandesal) filled with ice-cream, toasted in a hot press and dusted with icing sugar. Mmm.
32 Newport Court, Chinatown, WC2H 7PQ
Visit DirtyIceCream
Smith & Wollensky
Smith & Wollensky has launched its ‘Sundae Sessions’, where guests can create their own ice-cream sundaes from a table heaving with toppings. Here, guests can create their own sundaes or get access to bottomless ice-cream and unlimited toppings for one hour. Over 15 toppings are on offer, including S&W wafers, homemade honeycomb, raspberry marshmallows, fresh berries and salted caramel sauce.
1-11 John Adam Street, Covent Garden, WC2N 6HT
Visit SmithAndWollensky.com
Matcha And Beyond
Situated between The Ivy Chelsea Garden and the Chelsea Town Hall, Matcha And Beyond is an alternative to the high street coffee shop chains, offering premium quality matcha drinks, matcha treats and more. The team’s new vegan matcha ice-cream with homemade toppings is a must-try this summer. Refreshing.
191 Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3 5ED
Visit MatchaAndBeyond.com
Flat Iron
The home of £10 steaks now serves up a selection of ice-creams. Flat Iron in King’s Cross offers up fresh ice-cream created on its cold-stone ice-cream bar. Guests can customise this made-to-order treat with a range of sauces to perfectly round off a signature steak meal.
47-51 Caledonian Road, Islington, N1 9BU
Visit FlatIronSteak.co.uk
Hoppers
Sri Lankan restaurant Hoppers at St Christopher’s Place has started serving a 'Love Cake Ice-Cream Sandwich’ – creamy frozen yoghurt sandwiched between round slices of spiced ginger cake. It’s the perfect way to round off a spice-laden meal.
77 Wigmore Street, Marylebone, W1U 1QE
Visit HoppersLondon.com
Jinjuu
Judy Joo’s Soho restaurant is the best place to try bingsu, the popular Korean summer dessert made with shaved ice and a variety of sweet toppings. Jinjuu have added two new bingsu flavours to its menu for summer: rhubarb and strawberry (rhubarb shaved ice, vanilla ice-cream, strawberry, poached rhubarb, condensed milk, almond crumble, lemon meringue and strawberry poky stick) and honey-butter French toast (Shokupan French toast with potato chip crust, honey butter syrup and crispy streaky bacon).
15 Kingly Street, Soho, W1B 5PS
Visit Jinjuu.com
Mariage Frères
With a selection of over French 1,000 teas, Mariage Frères is one of the UK’s largest purveyors of luxury teas. Here, desserts include a refreshing trio of tea-infused sorbets and ice-cream. We like the rich crème brûlée flavour and ‘Berry Lover’, blend of black and red berries accompanied by a chilled tea-infused blackcurrant macaron and red tea syrup.
38 King Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 8JS
Visit MariageFreres.com
Venchi
Launched in 2007, gelato maker Venchi produces fresh gelato in full accordance with Italian tradition. Straightforward and genuine, Venchi gelato is produced solely from selected ingredients such as fresh, high-quality milk, Piedmont hazelnuts and green pistachio from Bronte. This summer, Venchi has introduced three fresh seasonal flavours – all of which are vegan friendly. New flavours include tropical lychee sorbet, tangy tangerine and passionfruit sorbet and fruity Piedmont plum gelato.
Locations in Covent Garden, South Kensington, Kings Road, Hampstead and Richmond
Visit Venchi.com
Radio Alice x GAIL’s
This collaboration between Radio Alice Pizzeria and Gail’s Bakery combines the pastry skills of Roy Levy with Matteo Aloe’s signature pizza dough to create profiteroles that hark back to their Florentine heritage. Filled with vanilla gelato and topped with organic chocolate hazelnut sauce and crunchy peanut butter, these dessert specials will be available throughout the summer at all three Radio Alice locations.
16 Hoxton Square, Hackney, N1 6NT; 24 Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf E14 5NY and 67 Venn Street, Clapham, SW4 0BD
Visit RadioAlicePizzeria.com
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