London’s best ice creams.

Oddono's (motto: "Life's too short to eat bad ice cream") consistently offers some of London's best scoops (image credit below)

I love ice cream.

And I have to say London doesn’t score awfully well against the best Turkish dondurma parlours or the top Italian gelati joints.

Considering that even until a decade ago ‘ice cream’ to many English children meant Walls Arctic Roll, that’s hardly surprising!  But look closer and you’ll discover some truly excellent ice cream, even in London.

It’s not surprising for example that Fortnum & Mason does great ice cream.

Nor is the fact that it’s rather pricey – £12 for an ice cream sundae.  But these aren’t normal ice creams – they’re very much a special treat.

The ‘Beekeeper’ for example is real cottage garden Olde England in an ice cream – stem ginger, borage honey, vanilla and praline ice creams with a honeycomb topping.  There’s also strawberry ice cream with balsamic vinegar and crushed meringues.  And even an ice cream pina colada.

And you can of course have hot chocolate sauce on your ice cream too!

A delicious "beekeeper sundae" at Fortnum and Mason - one of the best (albeit expensive) ice cream choices in London (image credit below)

But it seems to be a London law that the further out of the centre you go, the better the ice cream gets.  A trek to north London or Docklands pays rich dividends in the ice cream stakes – if you know where to head.

Marine Ices, Haverstock Hill (opposite Chalk Farm tube station) has an Italian restaurant attached, but hey, it’s the ice cream we’re interested in!  Quite a few people have said that this is the best ice cream in London.

All the typical Italian flavours are there – coffee, hazelnut, pistachio, stracciatella and marsala, as well as a bunch of tempting fruit sorbets.  You can grab a cone or eat in – in which case your difficulties multiply, because on top of choosing a flavour at the ice cream counter you’ve also got options like “coppe”, “bombe” and sundaes to sort through.

Oddono’s (pictured at top), which is available in Selfridges, has a slightly different take on Italian ice cream.  It offers cookies-and-cream and ricotta flavours – a bit chunkier and more ‘chewy’ than the traditional ice.

Then there’s Zaza in Canary Wharf (easily reached via the Docklands Light Railway).  There are 60 different varieties of gelato plus milk shakes and a marvellous idea: ice cream served in a croissant!

You could almost have that for breakfast – if only London’s weather were a little more predictable!  Zaza’s chrome-and-glass styling is not to everyone’s taste, but the ice cream will appeal to just about everyone.

At Zaza, which serves 60 gelato flavours in Canary Wharf, they helpfully provide you with instructions! (image credit below)

In fact, you may love it so much you might want to book one of our suggested best hotels in Canary Wharf to ensure you’re always close at hand!  Including potentially the best Hilton in London.

Try the pistachio, coconut or chocolate flavoured miniature cones – a quality, home-made version of a Walls Cornetto, with chocolate covering or flaked coconut dusting.  It’s fairly expensive but you’re definitely worth it!

Then there’s also Scoop in Shorts Gardens (near buzzy Covent Garden) – which claims to sell “the best Italian gelato in London”.  Some of the gelati here are real favourites – for example the mandorla (almond), and bacio (hazelnut and chocolate) flavours are real gems.

Try the unique Crema Buontalenti – based on acacia tree honey and cream on an old Florentine recipe – as well as a strong amaretto ice cream.

Scoop Covent Garden has some of most creative flavours in London (image credit below)

So London certainly isn’t short of good ice cream when you look in the right places.  And yet I still haven’t found my absolute favourite flavour in London: sweet chestnut, where art thou….

If ice cream is important enough to you to motivate you to choose a hotel within walking distance of Scoop, do check out our recommended top-rated hotels near Covent Garden and stylish Soho.

Thanks to guest writer Andrea Kirkby for her collaboration on the above article.

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Photo credits: suziedepingu’s photostream, gruntzooki’s photostream, rivalee’s photostream, Yukino Miyazawa’s photostream.