The world’s
best ice cream
Ice cream worth travelling for.
We’re searching the world to answer one deceptively simple question: Which city has the best ice cream in the world?
Find ice cream worth travelling for
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50 cities. 250 spots.
One question.
Which city has the best ice cream in the world?
- 50
- Cities in research
- 48
- Guides published
- 224
- Spots selected
- 33
- Countries covered
Ice cream worth travelling for
Selected spots · 8 of 224
gelato
Shinpachi Chaya
Kyoto
A 1941 family business at the foot of Togetsukyo bridge that turned itself into a competition-winning gelateria without leaving its own tradition. Its Kyo gelato line, running since 1993, is built on Kyoto ingredients named individually — Morika tofu, Uji tea — and its granita, made without milk, eggs, stabilisers or emulsifiers, has won in Sicily where granita comes from.
gelato
Tomomi Gelato
Kyoto
A maker who trained alone in Italy and came back to build gelato around Japanese agriculture rather than around Italian flavours. She visits the producers herself and names them on the product. There is almost no fixed menu — each year's recipe is retuned to that year's fruit — and when a batch is gone, that flavour is finished for the day rather than held over.
gelato
Yuwado
Kyoto
A neighbourhood gelateria at the west approach to Shimogamo Shrine that makes everything in the shop kitchen and says so plainly: no colourings, no eggs, sugar held down so the fruit reads. Seasonal produce comes from the Kyoto Central Wholesale Market and direct from growers, and the shop is explicit that it wants to be local rather than a destination.
gelato
SHUKA
Kyoto
A hundred-year-old sweet-bean house that spent five years learning to make gelato, and made it out of what it was already throwing away. About a fifth of the formulation is upcycled syrup from the amanatto process. Every one of the six flavours names where its ingredient comes from, and the whole range is built on soy milk from a single named Kyoto producer rather than dairy.
gelato
Caffellatte
Kyoto
A Venetian recipe carried to Kyoto by hand. The owner trained under a gelatiere who had spent forty years in one small town in the Veneto, then moved to Japan in 2006 with his master's recipes and opened here with his wife. Each flavour is remade every couple of days, and the matcha is built on tea from Ippodo, a Kyoto house that has been selling it since 1717.
gelato
Premarche Gelateria
Kyoto
Placed at an Italian international competition three years running with gelato made without emulsifiers, refined sugar, flavourings or colourings — and competing against conventional entries rather than in a category of its own. In 2020 it was the only Japanese entrant to place in the chocolate compulsory category.
gelato
SUGiTORA
Kyoto
A family fruit shop stood on this site for over a century and closed in 2008. The son came back in 2017 and reopened it as a gelateria — having in the meantime represented Japan at the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie and taken silver. About eight flavours at a time, changing with the season, and the shop closes when they run out.
ice cream
Gion Kinana
Kyoto
One ingredient, taken seriously: kinako from Tamba black soybeans, in a shop that began as a dessert at the owner's slow-food restaurant downstairs. No synthetic colourings, no preservatives, no eggs, and fat kept deliberately low — and an owner who says in as many words that he refuses to trade on the words Kyoto and Gion, which in Gion is a position rather than a platitude.
What makes an ice-cream city?
Six dimensions
- 01Strength of selected spots
- 02Depth and specialist density
- 03Distinctiveness and sense of place
- 04Heritage and ice-cream culture
- 05Innovation and momentum
- 06Professional recognition
Voices from the ice-cream world
“She makes gelato in which the character of the ingredient stands out. She went with a Japanese ingredient, sansho, and came back having won outright.”
Eri Sekiya · Kyoto food writer and author
“Recomiendo Paral·lelo Gelato, por su manera de trabajar el producto de temporada.”
Alfredo Machado · Gelato maker, Gelato Collection, Barcelona
“Albert firma uno de los helados mas sorprendentes que he probado: Mango Campeon, una combinacion de mango, rosa y almendra que resulta fresca, aromatica y perfectamente equilibrada.”
Jose Manuel Marcos · Gelato maker, Candela La Gelateria, Alicante
The Gelato Cities Index 2027
The 50 Best Ice Cream Cities in the World
GelatoSpots’ annual ranking of the world’s best cities for ice cream.
Which city, or ice-cream spot, belongs in the search?
Makers, chefs, food professionals, specialist journalists, knowledgeable locals and travellers with well-supported recommendations.