N’Ice Cream Nielsen’s Homemade Gelato & Sorbet

N’Ice Cream officially opened up this weekend on Abbot Kinney. Immediately next door to a Pinkberry, a renovated garage has now become a cute little gelato shop. This place stands out to me because not only are their limited ice cream / gelato places (that aren’t corporate) in the area, but the owner I met was friendly and talkative (not too talkative though, just right talkative). I love when proprietors are social, it makes the experience more enjoyable; it’s good to know that someone cares about their product and their customers. Apparently, the owners are from Denmark (cool!) and are keeping N’Ice Cream a mom&pop place (not selling their souls franchising).

They make their gelato/sorbet fresh everyday (you can even watch them as they make it through a window). The day we went had about 10 standard gelato flavors, which is good for people like my boyfriend, but I love crazy ridiculous flavors. This is not to say I did not enjoy what I ordered. I am sure they will expand on that in the future. I chose a combination of Coffee, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Vanilla. Each one was wonderful in their own way. The chocolate hazelnut had pieces of hazelnut in it, making it my favorite of the cup. The vanilla had little black vanilla bean dots making it the most aesthetically pleasing. I regretfully did not get the white chocolate, but I heard people talk about how amazing it was. This place is great. In the heat, it will become quite popular especially since it is so close to the beach. They also do To Go packs. And they take credit cards. Go check it out.

N’Ice Cream
1410 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291

Diddy Riese

If you are willing to drive and hunt for parking, Westwood is a great place for ice cream/frozen yogurt. Diddy Riese is a popular place for their inexpensive but delicious treats. You wait in line (there is more often than not going to be a line), make your order, quickly receive your order and then pay. It’s fast paced and there is very little seating in the small establishment, but that’s okay because Westwood is the type of place you can wander around. They use Dreyer’s ice cream and have the following flavors: french vanilla, cookie dough, rocky road, mint chocolate chip, strawberry, chocolate, espresso chip, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake chunk, peanut butter cup, chocolate chip, and cookies & cream. They make fresh homemade cookies everyday: chocolate chip, chocolate chip with walnuts, oatmeal raisin walnut, sugar cinnamon, white chocolate chip, peanut butter, double chocolate with nuts, candy, chocolate with white chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia nut. For $1.50, you can purchase an ice cream sandwich. In the picture above is one chocolate chip cookie hugging peanut butter cup ice cream while reaching over for it’s dissimilar friend the chocolate white chocolate chip cookie. Best friends forever. In the picture below is on the left two chocolate chip cookies and espresso chip ice cream and on the right is two chocolate white chocolate chip cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Cash Only.

Diddy Riese
926 Broxton Ave.
Westwood, CA 90024
(310) 208-0448

Scoops

Salty White Chocolate and Black Sesame. I know, I repeated the Salty White Chocolate, but it’s so good! They made a great pair together. The Black Sesame was a soft and subtle toasty-sweet taste. It was the quieter one of the two flavors.

Winner: Salty White Chocolate

Scoops
712 N Heliotrope Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 906-2649

Angelato Café

One would think that by the ocean in a state where there is constant sunshine and warm weather, there would be infinite ice cream / gelato/ frozen yogurt locations. Sadly, this is not the case in Santa Monica. My roommate and I stopped at the one gelato place near the Promenade called Angelato Café. Gelato is the Italian version of ice cream but with significantly less butterfat than ice cream making it less solid and frozen (melts more quickly in your mouth), gelato is of a higher density because it is produced without the addition of air, and it is served slightly warmer (10-15 degrees less) than ice cream. All three differences gives gelato a richer, more full flavored taste than ice cream.

Angeleto offers an array of standard and unique flavors of gelato, sorbetto, tofulati, yogurt, and sugar free products. There is supposedly over 100 flavors but I was not counting. I ordered a strangely amazing combination of Green Tea Gelato and Chocolate Grand Marnier. Although this is not as good as what you would find in Italy, it is still creamy and rich. I especially enjoyed the Green Tea Gelato; it was a treat to taste this flavor in any form other than Soy Dream or Pinkberry. Cash Only.

Angelato Café
301 Arizona Ave
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 656-9999

Carvel Ice Cream

My roommate and I were craving ice cream, but did not want to drive very far. We did a quick internet search and found Carvel Ice Cream on the West Side. Neither of us really knew what Carvel was, but were willing to check it out. Upon arrival, it was awkward and chaotic. There was neither a queue or queue etiquette which is necessary for such a small location. The ice cream looks similar to gelato but from what I  tasted, it was mediocre. I chose the classic soft serve Coffee ice cream on a cone. As you can see in the picture, it was a giant disappointment. In fact, when the girl handed it over to me, she apologized! It tasted okay; a bland and subtle coffee flavor that melted fast. I secretly wished we had gone to Bigg Chill. Oh well, lesson learned. The ONE positive to Carvel is that they take credit cards.

Carvel Ice Cream
11037 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025

Get Directions(310) 444-0011