Restaurant rating and ranking site Yelp has just released its 2025 list of the Top 100 Ice Cream Shops in the U.S., and coming in hot — or rather, cool — at the number one spot is a Phoenix, Arizona artisan ice cream shop called Novel Ice Cream. According to Yelp, the reason this purveyor of chilled treats claimed the top spot is because, “Everything is ‘novel’ … from the unique flavors to the clever way they’re presented.”
One of the more jaw-dropping ways Novel elevates its ice cream sandwiches is with a sweet breakfast swap — it serves its ice cream sandwiched between a halved homemade glazed donut, offering a delightful contrast in temperatures between the warmth of the donut and the somehow-still-cold ice cream within. The shop also uses Belgian waffles as a vehicle for the ice cream, in a dessert it calls the Leslie Knope.
Novel Ice Cream features eight always-available flavors, including hits like Bourbon Caramel Toffee Crunch and Honey Lavender, plus four that rotate. There is also an abundance of toppings to choose from to make each cone or sundae a truly personalized experience.
Yelp’s second and third-place winners
Unable to quite overcome Novel Ice Cream’s novelty is the second-place finisher, Let’s Chill Homemade Ice Cream, out of Coral Springs, Florida. This small-batch ice cream shop uses only natural ingredients for color, and if you find yourself unable to pick just one flavor, you’re in luck — you don’t have to, because the shop offers flights of four (it’s chill like that). Let’s Chill features both exclusive flavors — like its alcoholic Rum Raisin, which contains real rum-soaked raisins — and inclusive ones, as it also offers several dairy-free options made with coconut milk on its menu.
Rounding out the top three is Ben Scoops, located in Carson, California — a shop that no doubt contributes to the state’s highest-by-volume ice cream consumption. Ben Scoops offers both classic flavors and Filipino-inspired scoops such as mango and ube. The shop exclusively sells Mitchell’s Ice Cream, a San Francisco-based icon established in 1953, renowned for its ultra-creamy texture.
