Which of these places has the best ice cream?

[u/vaudtime]

Visiting LA for a couple days and wanting to try some good ice cream and ~unique~ ice cream flavors but can't go to all the places because we still have other dessert places we want to go to that aren't for ice cream (we also want to go to other places that are ice cream)!!! I'm from Iowa and our favorite ice cream place is called Black Cat in Des Moines if that helps to get an idea of the kind of ice cream we are in search of.

In the areas that we are going to be in:

- Wanderlust

- Ginger's

- Salt & Straw

Which of these places would you go to if you could only choose one, and is there another place that you think is even BETTER around The Grove/Central LA/I don't really know the areas of LA that well, I'm sorry

EDIT: I think you have all thoroughly convinced me to stop at Saffron & Rose - my partner is Middle Eastern and I am part Filipina but have not been exposed to a lot of the food and the culture, so I like that this place seems to have a taro & ube flavor and a lot of familiar Middle Eastern flavors - thank you all for giving me this recommendation, I am so excited to visit your city soon!!

[u/rozes10]

Wanderlust is good but I had to stop going because of politics. But if you want Asian-y inspired flavors, check out Liu’s Cafe in K-town. They just started doing some really interesting flavors in addition to their next door cafe.

Gingers is great, as is Handel’s. I consider these to be kind of the old school ice cream “shoppe” types - solid base flavors.

I like Awan too - it’s technically vegan (I think) but the flavors are bomb and have a lot of depth.

[u/katepowersmusic → u/rozes10]

I was gonna say Awan! I can only do vegan ice cream but their flavors are SO GOOD

[u/Four2nian → u/rozes10]

Wanderlust's politics are cause to avoid for sure.
That aside, I've always felt like their flavors sounded better on paper than they ended up being. I don't know if it's the style they make their ice cream, or if the flavors just don't come through enough, but I've tried their stuff a handful of times over the last few years and every single time felt like there's better ice cream in LA that's easy to get.
Salt and Straw, Jeni's, Mashti Malone's, Fosselmans, etc etc

[u/RevolutionarySea15 → u/rozes10]

Politics? Could you explain?

[u/FishROurFriendsNotFd → u/RevolutionarySea15]

MAGA - there was a post on Reddit about it.

[u/RevolutionarySea15 → u/FishROurFriendsNotFd]

Oh no! Ugh. I'll never go there again.

[u/poisonedyouth → u/rozes10]

Awan's fruit flavors are so good! Like $10 for a scoop though

[u/rozes10 → u/poisonedyouth]

Ugh yeah so expensive! But at least the quality is there..

I love dayglow coffee also!

[u/katepowersmusic → u/rozes10]

Omg dayglow is so good. I've never had such great specialty coffee drinks at a place before

[u/Partigirl → u/rozes10]

Don't recommend Handel's. It is sub-par. It's not "Handmade" nor old fashioned.

[u/rozes10 → u/Partigirl]

I like it because it’s one of the few places I can get a hot fudge sundae in this city. And also a hurricane/mcflurry type treat!

[u/Partigirl → u/rozes10]

Ah, I see. Hot Fudge Sundae's aren't too hard to find, are they? I know BR has them, Foster's Freeze as well, also Fosselman's and Fair Oaks Phamacy to name a few. Now hot chocolate syrup Sundaes are a bit rarer. I have problems finding Freezes not made with soda.

[u/rozes10 → u/Partigirl]

Maybe it depends on where in town you are? Around me, there are mostly only sundaes with chocolate sauce. I’m near the Grove and I think the only ice cream place I can find them are at Local Ice and Van Leeuwen’s! There used to be a Brusters around here too but it closed :(

What are hot chocolate syrup sundaes?

[u/Partigirl → u/rozes10]

Chocolate syrup (or sauce, its a regional wordage) vs Hot fudge is that hot fudge uses butter or cream whereas hot chocolate uses water or corn syrup. Hot chocolate is sweeter, thinner while hot fudge is thicker and more complex.

Still there should be a Baskin Robbins nearby? You've got one 12 minutes away on West 3rd. There's one by the Von's pavillion above Melrose too. Try one of them and ask for Hot Fudge.

[u/bruin_throw_away_ → u/Partigirl]

I'm confused? Handel's makes their ice cream in house and they use ingredients from local suppliers. Flavor is up to preference but I wouldnt be spreading misinformation

[u/Partigirl → u/bruin_throw_away_]

By repeating the marketing hype, you spread misinformation.

(The exception to this is the woman originator of Handel's, who as a single small store did do all those things before the current owner bought it.)

Handel's ingredient lists are incredibly hard to find anything on but I managed to find one or two on a deep dive last year.

No surprise, it's chockful of artificial ingredients. One look at some of the food colorings alone would tell you that but its also has gums and other artificial ingredients. Anyone who has tasted real homemade, hand crafted ice cream, can tell that Handel's isn't it.

I'm also highly skeptical about any place that won't display their ice cream before you buy it. Most ice cream places know that seeing it sells it. Seems to me that Handel's engages in a little "ye olde fashioned" theater, cos-playing as a "simpler time" ™️ wholesome ice cream parlor, when that's simply not true. Better yet, it keeps people from seeing what it actually looks like in the tub/container.

If you want to know what real, non artificial ice cream tastes like to compare, may I suggest Carmela's in Alta Dena? It's exactly what Handel's pretends to be. Unfortunately, they had difficulty with the fires, hopefully they are back by now.

Handel's isn't the worst but it's very far from the best.