Ranking The 25 Most Popular Ice Cream Shops In America This Summer

Ice cream season is upon us. Summer is PEAK ice cream season with scoops on scoops on scoops getting scooped across the nation as temperatures soar.

We are less than a month away from National Ice Cream Day (July 19th) which is one of the extremely limited number of made up holidays I accept, and as we march toward that glorious day it seemed like a perfect time to check out the most popular ice cream shops in America, based on how many times each shop has been ‘saved’ in Yelp. While I’m no ice cream connoisseur (Connor Is!), I have been fortunate enough to eat at many of these spots.

Ranking the 25 Most Popular Ice Cream Shops in America Right Now

One thing to note about this list is Yelp compiled the data using ‘saves’ as the primary metric. That is, of course, a major predictor of popularity and Yelp has ~2.5 million daily users, nearly 30 million monthly users, and well over 300 million reviews. So while ‘saves’ aren’t a direct representation of actual visits, they do measure someone’s aspiration to visit the shop. With that said, some of the spots on this list are quite…how do I say this… touristy.

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

1. Mitchell’s Ice Cream, San Francisco, California
2. Soft Swerve, New York, New York
3. Mashti Malone’s, Los Angeles, California
4. Bumsam Organic Milk Bar, Los Angeles, California
5. Meadowlark Dairy, Pleasanton, California
6. il laboratorio del gelato, New York, New York
7. Toscanini’s Ice Cream, Cambridge, Massachusetts
8. Little Man Ice Cream, Denver, Colorado
9. Azucar Ice Cream – Little Havana, Miami, Florida
10. Henry’s Place, Honolulu, Hawaii
11. Figo Il Gelato Italiano, New York, New York
12. Tasaka Guri Guri Shop, Kahului, Hawaii
13. KITH Treats, New York, New York
14. Margie’s Candies, Chicago, Illinois
15. Frankie & Jo’s – Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington
16. Fifty Licks, Portland, Oregon
17. Island Cream Co, Lahaina, Hawaii
18. Sweet Republic, Scottsdale, Arizona
19. Via Gelato, Honolulu, Hawaii
20. Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis, Missouri
21. Milkjam Creamery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
22. Scooter’s Frozen Custard, Chicago, Illinois
23. Torico Ice Cream, Jersey City, New Jersey
24. The Bent Spoon, Princeton, New Jersey
25. 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 #1 is Mitchell’s Ice Cream in San Francisco. It has a 4.6-star rating and 5K+ reviews. People are hyped on the Grasshopper Pie, Halo Halo, Thai Tea Ice Cream, and Ube Ice Cream… I don’t know when this Ube Ice Cream craze exploded recently but I’m 100% here for it. I had the Ube Crunch ice cream last week at Wanderlust Creamery in Venice, CA and it was glorious, and had some two weeks prior at an Asian food festival. Big fan!

Soft Swerve at #2 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan has a 4.3-star rating and 1.8K reviews. People are super hyped on 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 then had a bowl of the cereal the next morning before a 90-minute run and that cereal goes HARD. If you are looking for easy carbs as a fuel source for runs/bikes, consider Fruity Pebbles.

Back in California at #4 is Bumsan Organic Milk Bar. They have a 4.2-star rating with 1.6K reviews. People are hopping in line and raving about the True Milk X Matcha Swirl Organic Ice Cream, Milk Tea Ice Cream (pictured above), and the array of soft serve flavors.

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

At #10 we have Henry’s Place in Honolulu, Hawaii. It’s a big sorbet spot with the top flavors being Mango Sorbet, Pineapple Sorbet, and the Chocolate Ice Cream. Hawaii does ice cream really, really well. Especially fruit flavors.

Moving down the list to #23 in the nation 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 can 100% get down with this mixture 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 down in the comments section below! And for links to each ice cream shop follow the link at the top of this article over to the study on Yelp.