Best Ice Cream in Salt Lake City: 11 Favorite Spots

Is there a more nostalgic food than ice cream? One bite of its creamy, sugary goodness and you are taken back in time to a celebratory cone with your dad after scoring a goal at your soccer game, a Friday night with friends crammed into a booth at your local spot, or a scoop on a hot summer day after spending all day in the pool. Ice cream is the perfect food for when you are sad or happy, and as the saying goes, you always have room for it because it “fills in the cracks”. We can’t wait to share the best places to get ice cream in Salt Lake City when the inevitable craving hits.

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11. Joy Pops

Joy Pops is the cutest food truck featuring refreshing and gourmet paletas (Mexican ice pops). The owner started Joy Pops at just 17 years old after being inspired by her favorite treats on family vacations. Here you will find nostalgic and fresh flavors with something for everyone. You must try the fruity bites, berry cheesecake, and cookies and cream flavored popsicles. If you’d like to give one of these delightful treats a try, they can be found at events throughout Salt Lake County and at the American Express Market in Vivant Arena. Joy Pops are also available for catering. Follow @joypopsicles to see where they are headed next.

10. Hatch Family Chocolates

Hatch Family Chocolates is a Female Foodie favorite in Salt Lake City. We love their heavenly chocolates, and their ice cream is absolutely worth a visit as well. The ice cream at Hatch is made in-house (of course) and features the homemade dark and milk chocolates they use in all their other specialty products, making for a truly magnificent treat. While you can’t go wrong with a scoop (rocky road and salted caramel are phenomenal), the real standout is their frozen hot chocolate. This rich and creamy milkshake features actual melted chocolate mixed into ice cream and is topped with a dollop of whipped cream. Don’t just take our word for it- you’ll find a long line out the door on a hot summer’s day.

9. Doki Doki- Japanese Dessert Café

A unique selection of sweet treats is waiting for you in the heart of downtown at Doki Doki. This Japanese dessert café has cream puffs that look like charming little bears, slices of crepe cake that melt in your mouth, and soft-serve ice cream sundaes with flavors that pack a punch. Pop in for a taiyaki ice cream sundae featuring a custard or Nutella-filled fish-shaped waffle, your choice of ice cream, toppings, and a decadent sauce. We recommend trying some unique flavors such as the lemon or ube (a Japanese sweet potato) soft serve topped with a raspberry or passionfruit sauce.

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8. MONKEYWRENCH

Real talk: before we tried MONKEYWRENCH, we thought, “Maybe it’s just really good for vegan ice cream”. Ladies and gentlemen, this isn’t just good for vegan ice cream, it’s some of the best ice cream in Salt Lake City period. Dairy-free friends will finally feel like they’re not settling when they get ice cream MONKEYWRENCH. Budderfinger is top-notch, featuring homemade peanut butter candy bars and chocolate. It’s the most popular flavor for good reason. Banana brownie and grasshopper are also menu standouts. Whether you eat dairy or not, give MONKEYWRENCH a try asap.

7. Spilled Milk

Cereal lovers, rejoice! Spilled Milk is one of Salt Lake City’s most unique ice cream shops, and its specialty is cereal milk-infused soft serve. This might just be the most comforting ice cream around, as it transports you back to the days of watching Saturday morning cartoons with a big bowl of your favorite cereal. The “Over the Rainbow” cone features Fruity Pebbles and Captain Crunch-flavored ice cream in a creamsicle cone topped with a rainbow sour rope. It’s exciting, fruity, and just plain fun. We are also huge fans of the “Fried Ice Cream” cone with cornflake and Cinnamon Toast Crunch ice cream, a coconut-flavored cone, and caramel and chocolate sauces.

6. Sweetaly Gelato

It’s no secret that we love Italian food, which is why we are huge suckers for the elevated sweet treats from Sweetaly Gelato. Sweetaly sources ingredients straight from Italy, so you know you’re getting the best possible gelato around. Gelato is the silkier, smoother version of ice cream, and we absolutely love it. Our taste buds shout for joy over the blackberry and salted caramel flavors. Tangy, bright, salty, and sweet- what more could you ask for in a dessert? The next time you are longing for a vacation to Italy, let Sweetaly temporarily transport you there.

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5. Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream

If you are an ice cream lover living in Salt Lake County, chances are you’ve heard of Handel’s. It’s not uncommon to find a line out the door in the summertime and for good reason. While Handel’s isn’t a local Utah company, it’s quickly becoming a very popular spot, with locations popping up around the valley. We love that Handel’s has so many flavors to choose from. We can’t recommend their most popular flavor Graham Central Station enough. This delicious ice cream features a graham ripple and chocolate-covered honeycomb. We promise one bite won’t be enough. Not a graham cracker person? Monkey Business and Cherry Cordial are close seconds.

4. Nielsen’s Frozen Custard

A tried and true classic, Nielsen’s Frozen Custard is a pillar of the Salt Lake City ice cream scene. Since 1981, Nielsen’s has been serving up thick, creamy custard up and down the Wasatch Front. There’s something special about custard, and regular soft serve just isn’t the same. We love that Nielsen’s has the classic chocolate and vanilla flavors (both are incredible, by the way), but also features a third daily rotating flavor. Listen to your heart (and stomach) and build your own custom creation with whatever sounds good that day, or get a caramel cashew concrete, which we might not be able to live without. Vanilla custard is swirled with sweet caramel and salty cashews, and it’s truly irresistible.

3. Blacksmith Ice Cream Co.

Just a quick drive from Salt Lake City, Blacksmith Ice Cream Co. is located on Main Street in Bountiful. They deserve major props for their dedication to creating the highest quality ice cream by hand churning their small batch flavors daily. We absolutely adore the fresh raspberry flavor. The tartness of the berries is the perfect compliment to the luscious, creamy ice cream. For our classic cookies and cream fans (we see you!), try Blacksmith’s fun twist on the flavor aptly named “Dough N’ Cookies”. With a goal to release more interesting and unique flavors this year, Blacksmith is well worth the short drive up I-15.

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2. Normal Ice Cream

Normal Ice Cream is anything but normal. They feature some of the most fresh and exciting soft serve ice cream flavors in the city, and it was a no-brainer to include them in our guide to the best ice cream in Salt Lake City. Be prepared to try something unexpected at Normal: previous monthly soft serve flavors have included pomegranate, balsamic, horchata, and apple cider. It’s no wonder Normal was recently nominated for a James Beard award, which is pretty much the food equivalent of the Oscars. Each month, Normal releases five new “composed cones”, deluxe ice cream sundaes that will knock your socks off. We highly recommend any of their fruit flavors or anything mixed with their salted vanilla bean ice cream. Feeling extra nostalgic? Definitely give one of their dipped cones a try.

1. Rockwell Ice Cream

In a state that loves ice cream, it’s not easy to crown “The Best Ice Cream in Salt Lake City”, but Rockwell is absolutely the best of the best. After being a Utah County favorite for many years, they recently opened an eagerly awaited new location in Salt Lake City. Rockwell’s ice cream is special for so many reasons, and we love that it’s always fresh and contains no artificial ingredients. Rockwell incorporates less air into their ice creams during the churning process, making them dense and extra creamy. They have the classics covered, like cookie dough and mint chocolate, but also have fun new favorites like muddy buddy and honeycomb. You truly can’t go wrong with any flavor at Rockwell.