Beat the Summer Heat: 11 Ice Cream Shops in Toronto

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably started to crave all the interesting pics of ice cream and desserts on your stories. Now that the lockdown has been pushed to open at the end of this week, one thing you’re probably dying to know is where to get the best scoops in the city. Here’s a curated a list of some of the top tier, Instagrammable ice-cream that will get you pumped!
Photo by @Rurubaked
Located at 659 Lansdowne Avenue, Toronto, RuruBaked’s no-preservative, no artificial flavouring and colouring, custard-based ice cream comes in many fun sizes and flavours. Here, delightful and delicious flavours such as “Pecan Party”, “Black Sesame” and “3X Choco” are enjoyed. Also, kids’ single, double and flight scoops have a choice of any one of these Asian inspired fillings, plus a cone hat!
Photo by @ihalokrunch
Located on 2114 Bloor Street West, High Park offers Halo Krunch as Toronto’s first charcoal ice cream. Having many other locations around Toronto and a high volume of appeal around the city, Halo Krunch serves anything but your traditional ice cream! Their signature black cones are all natural and coloured with activated charcoal from coconut and husk. They are also served fresh as cones are rolled daily with a sweet treat at the bottom. They offer single flavours, twists and combos and past special releases which introduce signature flavours including Filipino ube, coconut and charcoal, Japanese green tea and Madagascar vanilla bean.
Photo by @ihalokrunch
Located at 394 Queen Street West, Kekou has some of the best gelatos you’ll come across. Not only does this fancy little shop serve exquisitely tasting local gelatos but also serves handcrafted bubble tea, all Asian inspired. Kekou focuses on serving the highest quality of gelatos and gelato floats with many different flavours, such as “Almond Tofu”, “Vietnamese Coffee” and “Thai Iced Tea”, all from simple ingredients. All delicately crafted bubble teas are made with select loose leaf teas, fresh milk and house made fruit syrup. Some of the well selected choices include “Thai Tea”, “Earl Grey” and “Black Matcha”. All syrups and bases are made from scratch.
Photo by @tourdefud
On 617 Gerrard Street East, there lies a very unique and irresistible Asian inspired home to ice cream, Wong’s Ice Cream. With an undeniable trace of Asian heritage in the city, this is surely a must-try and an all-time favourite when it comes to superb ice creams. Ice creams are served in unique and ingenious oyster pails with lookalike chopsticks! Here, “Hong Kong Milk Tea”, “Boozy Eggtart” and “Rosewater White Chocolate Jasmine”, among many, all reflect the ingenuity of Wong’s.
Photo by @dutchdreams
This shop is well known for its variety of ice cream flavours and toppings. This parlour offers sundaes, sherbet and milkshakes. They make their many flavours in-house. It goes well with the variety of cones they offer. A customer favourite is Royal Dutch Banana Split. This treat comes with homemade waffles with three scoops of your choice of ice cream with banana, chocolate and butterscotch sauce. They offer some tasty topping options including fruits, whipped cream and cotton candy. You can visit them at 36 Vaughan Rd.
Summer’s Ice Cream has been in business for more than 35 years at 101 Yorkville Ave downtown. This shop offers homemade ice cream, yogurt and sorbets. The treats here are creamy and don’t melt so easily in the warm weather. A customer favourite is the apple cinnamon ice cream. This delicious treat tastes like actual apple pie and comes with real apples and cinnamon. Summer’s Ice Cream has a great selection of flavours to choose from. The flavours are always changing so there’s something new every time.
Photo by @milkcowcanada
Milkcow Cafe is found at 2651 Yonge Street offering both delivery and takeout. This Korean dessert café shop serves a variety of organic soft serve ice cream and is sourced without preservatives. The ice cream here is light and creamy. A customer favourite is Milky Cube. This soft-serve ice cream is drizzled with honey and is served with a piece of honeycomb. This treat is sweet but it isn’t overpowering. People have enjoyed ordering this treat with cotton candy.
Photo By Uber Eats
This highly rated shop is found on 93A Ossington Avenue. Bang Bang Ice Cream is known for their twist on ice cream sandwiches and offers vegan options in addition. A customer favourite is a bubble waffle cone filled with lychee rosewater raspberry ice cream. The rich flavours work well together, and the ice cream is well worth the price. You can even get a tapioca topping to go with the dessert. They do have a bunch of other unique flavours to try from as well. People have also enjoyed the burnt toffee ice cream. It comes with an everything cookie with chocolate, pretzel chunks, peanut butter and oatmeal. Although summertime is their busiest season, lining up is worth the wait.
This shop is found at 120 Dundas Street West. All Butter Baker treats are made with natural ingredients. This includes using free-range eggs, fresh fruits, with no artificial flavours or preservatives. If you’re looking for a meal I recommend trying the smoked salmon croissant made with sour cream, capers, salmon all squeezed in the freshly baked butter croissant. End your meal with some delicious birthday cake gelato that comes in layers of gelato, chiffon cake, cookies, sprinkles and glaze of your choice.
Located at 207 Queens Quay West, the fix ain’t no regular ice cream! In collaboration with Shaw’s ice cream, The Fix offers its own in-house soft serve ice cream with flavours such as vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter and mango-pineapple! Signature flavours include “Campfire”, “Love is Love” and “The 6 Fix”, along with a variety of scooped and milkshakes options…and chocolate, caramel and birthday cake sauces and toppings that keep you wanting more.
At any one of its 10 locations at D Spot and plenty of dishes worth drooling over, you’ll get a variety of milkshakes and sweet treats. Customers have recommended getting the Rosy & Nutty milkshake, a blend of rose & nuts ice cream with chopped pistachios and almonds. This delicious concoction is topped with whipped cream. I recommend trying this drink with a Dream Come True. This dish comes with a Belgian waffle with moist brownies, topped with chocolate and served with vanilla ice cream.
Come try any of our top spots for ice cream worth a picture. We are sure to cool off your dampened day and add something fun to your feed!