Recommended

Tier 1

• Frankie & Jo's
  • Seasonal flavors are where they shine; vanilla also good
• Parfait (closed)
  • Get: vegan double chocolate dip bars, vegan chocolate, matcha
• Lick Pure Cream (closed)

Tier 2

• Pink's/ Macadons*
• Seattle Pops
• Ice Cream Sandwich Window (by Temple Pastries)
• Sweet Alchemy
  • Highlights: seasonal strawberry rhubarb, seasonal sakura, Tale of Two Teas
• Hellenika Cultured Creamery
  • New concept from Ellenos founders. Based in Pike Places, also shows up at farmer's markets
  • Highlights: ube coconut, marionberry

Tier 3

• Fancy Screams* (closed?)
• Nutty Squirrel Gelato
• Milk and Leaf Collective* (closed/hibernating)
• Molly Moon's
  • They've been slowly declining over the years ):
  • Get: waffle cone, chocolate hard shell
• KRYSE* (dormant?)
  • Trivia: Kryse & her ex-husband used to run Central District Ice Cream, which we didn't like because the flavors never lived up to promise. But her solo venture is quite the opposite
• Kurt Farm Shop (closed)
  • Owner now works full time on his farm on Vashon Island, hosting classes and lectures
  • Also runs an Airbnb on the farm. Pro tip: take a class and booking a night's stay for an indulgent getaway
• Sugar Plum (closed)

Decent

• Bluebird
• Cupcake Royale
• Milk Drunk
  • Soft serve
• Indigo Cow
  • Tastes like it's made of good quality fresh milk, but there's not much flavor
  • Highlight was actually the Theo chocolate hard shell

Not recommended

• Salt & Straw
  • Interesting sounding flavors rarely live up to expectations
• Full Tilt
  • Thai Tea and Ube are decent sometimes
• Fainting Goat
  • Weird because they are basically the same store as Nutty Squirrel (owned by either parents/children of FG's owners)
• Shug's
• YoYo and CoCo

To Try/ retry

• Laina's
• Matcha Man Ice Cream & Taiyaki