We All Scream

Get the scoop on Austin's 9 best ice cream shops

There are many things Texans love about the long hot summer: frozen margaritas, crisp watermelon, backyard swimming, barbecue road trips, fresh-from-the-vine peaches and bowls of ice cream. Yes, after a cool swim at Barton Springs or a long Sunday shopping session, nothing sounds quite as delicious as a scoop — or two — of ice cream. And lucky for us, Austinites have plenty of options! Ice cream parlors, shops and companies permeate the dessert landscape, but there are a few that churn out some real magic.

Check out our list of Austin’s 9 best ice cream parlors (and brands).

Teo Espresso, Gelato and Bella Vita
Teo Owner Matthew Lee debuted this lovely gelato shop years ago, bridging his knowledge of authentic Italian gelato preparation with a variety of Texas-inspired flavors and ingredients. His craft has earned national and global awards, and lucky for us, we get to devour creations like goat cheese and cherry; Hill Country peach; Poteet, Texas strawberry; and an array of other wonders.

Launderette
When Laura Sawicki exited her position as executive pastry chef of La Condesa and Sway in 2013, devout ice cream fans were distraught. Though she is celebrated for all of her homemade sweet treats, Sawicki is most known for her ice creams. At the newly opened Launderette, Sawicki is churning out delicious options once more, including the popular birthday cake ice cream sandwiches, coconut ice cream with chocolate chunks, apple pie with sour cream ice cream and more.

Lick Honest Ice Creams
It's hard not to fall in love with Lick. The sweet shop wields seasonal frozen treats (loquat margarita, sweet pea and sorrel, peaches and rosemary) as well as permanent fixtures (Texas sheet cake, dark chocolate with olive oil, and sea salt and roasted beets). It also showcases Texas makers, including the likes of Austin Honey Company, Texas Olive Ranch and Great Bean Chocolate.

Sweet Ritual
Sweet Ritual makes vegan-friendly ice creams. Located inside Hyde Park's JuiceLand, this ice cream shop boasts a menu of dairy-free scoops, including salted caramel, peanut butter cup, Cubano coffee, toasted coconut and more. While it's hard to imagine ice cream without the dairy, Sweet Ritual will make you a believer.

CoolHaus
This California import found a cult following through music festivals like Coachella and ACL, and customers just can't get enough of the signature sweet sandwich. With two mobile trucks in Austin, CoolHaus dishes out fun, quirky options, utilizing soft cookie shells (think: confetti whoopie pie, double chocolate with sea salt, vegan carrot cake, snickerdoodle) and ice cream fillings like avocado sea salt, cinnamon cookie dough, beer and pretzels, fried chicken and waffles, olive oil, honeycomb, and balsamic fig and mascarpone.

Dolce Neve
Like Teo, Dolce Neve sources a selection of well-crafted, Italian gelato. In fact, Francesa Ferrarese, one of the owners, actually studied authentic gelato-making in Bologna, Italy. The shop's menu of natural and freshly made gelatos features standouts like buttermilk and cherries, organic pistachio, Tainori chocolate and over a dozen other rotating flavors.

Amy's Ice Creams
An oldie but a goodie, Amy's Ice Creams can never be dismissed. There's a vast menu, but fans never have trouble choosing their favorites. Mexican vanilla is by far the bread winner, but that shouldn't stop you from venturing out to sample experimental concoctions like Belgian Oreo, blueberry muffin, French toast, peanut butter and jelly and more.

Spun Ice Cream
This East Austin ice cream shop hasn't opened just yet, but its unconventional business model is already inspiring excitement. Sisters Ashley and Christina Cheng use liquid nitrogen techniques to whip up individual servings right on the spot. Utilizing local dairy, the Cheng girls have crafted options like brown butter ice cream that you won't find anywhere else. Keep your eyes peeled for this shop's opening.

NadaMoo!
Though NadaMoo! doesn't have a brick-and-mortar location, we found it criminal to leave off one of Austin's most popular ice cream companies. This vegan establishment (NadaMoo! makes ice creams with coconut milk and natural ingredients) features enviable flavors, including the newly released cookies and creme as well as creamy coconut, sweet cherry lime and more. You'll find it hard to believe the ice cream is actually a healthy indulgence (120-150 calories per half-cup).

Lick Honest Ice Cream.

Photo by Lindsey Stump

Lick Honest Ice Cream.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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