Frankie & Jo’s makes the best ice cream in Seattle. This 100% plant-based and gluten-free shop is proof that great frozen desserts don’t need dairy or wheat to be the greatest. Every flavor here delivers, from the fermented “crème fraîche” with a rich berry swirl and cubes of delicate lemon cake that we haven't been able to stop thinking about since 2018 to oat milk vanilla with sticky brown sugar blondies and coconut caramel.

We understand, though, that most ice cream does contain dairy—and the best cow milk-based stuff in town doesn't come from a scoop shop. Enter Lupo, a pizzeria in Fremont where you come for the blistered sourdough pies but stay (please, stay) for the house-churned ice cream. This stuff is flawless, with flavors like custardy sweet cream with vanilla bean flecks, silky double chocolate chip loaded with an ideal surplus of salt, and greatest pistachio we have literally ever tasted.

Hidden in a Lake Forest Park strip mall, you’ll find serious ice cream that’s up there with any shop within Seattle city limits. The owners draw on their South Asian roots for things like pistachio cardamom scoops, a floral rose flavor with a fudgy swirl, and gulab jamun sundaes. The ice cream’s texture is excellent, with ample creaminess and a stretch just shy of soft serve. We’re particularly impressed with the honeycomb, a sweet cream base interspersed with honeycomb candy.

Whimsical signage and all, Marmalade is here to completely ruin you for every Seattle-born gelato henceforth. Their freshly spun dairy is fluffy-light, and the flavors trend non-traditional without being hokey. Imported white chocolate imparts buttery depth to a scoop. Salted graham is as nuanced and nutty as advertised. And strawberry lemonade sorbetto has the velvety texture of soft serve. Grab a colossal “Americano” cup, or order in affogato form.

Yes, it's technically frozen Greek yogurt, as evidenced by Hellenika's sour tang and subtle sweetness—but this custardy stuff from the team behind Ellenos is better than most ice cream shops in town, and well worth almost tripping on all of that Pike Place cobblestone to get there. It’s textbook frozen Greek yogurt, with a sour tang and subtle sweetness. Watch them churn the probiotic goods in front of your face in flavors like lemon curd, marionberry, dutch chocolate, and ube coconut.

Usually, we like to think we’re cooler than Portland (because we are), but they did a valiant thing by bringing us Salt & Straw. Whether you’re keeping it simple with chocolate gooey brownie flavor or sea salt with caramel ribbons, or going completely off the rails with pear and blue cheese, everything here is something you want to eat. There’s one location on Capitol Hill and one in Ballard, and the lines at both can get ridiculous but are worth it in the end.

You’re coming to this newer Rainier Beach scoop shop for two flavors in particular, which taste great by themselves or stacked up in the same waffle cone: lemon raspberry cheesecake and banana pudding. The cheesecake is tart and tangy, with sweet raspberry swirls and shards of nutty graham crust to give all that citrus a break. Then there’s the banana pudding, which tastes kind of like a spoonable smoothie with chunks of frosty banana and vanilla wafer cookies.

Husky Deli has been a West Seattle staple for more than 80 years, and with good reason. Their ice cream is perfectly creamy but also light, and there’s a ton of variety—you can get peppermint, caramel pecan fudge, rum-spiked Kona coffee, and blackberry cheesecake. Good luck deciding on a flavor. They also serve Oreo, chocolate Oreo, mint Oreo, and coffee Oreo flavors. Talk about getting your priorities straight.

In general, Seattle has some pretty wacky ice cream flavors, and sometimes you don't want smoked vanilla and pine needle-steeped coconut milk, or pear with blue cheese. Sometimes you just want rocky road, and Lil' Tiger understands this. This Lake City shop keeps it simple, and the result is an old-fashioned, fluffy scoop that satisfies a frozen dessert craving even though there's no artisanal dairy, housemade shortbread, or farmers market produce.

We all know how your relationship with Molly Moon’s goes. You stroll past and catch the scent of hot waffle cones wafting across the block, something inside of you snaps, and you immediately hang a sharp turn inside and order a triple scoop. Their flavors focus on local products, like organic Washington peppermint, lavender harvested from the Olympic peninsula, and chocolate spun with melted Theo bars.

If there were ice cream shops as good as Sweet Alchemy near every college campus, nobody would graduate. This University District spot has flavors like makgeolli, banana Nutella, and Persian rose, and every mix-in—like chocolate sandwich cookies and brownies—is completely homemade. Our favorite is the Jitter Bars, which is overloaded with caramel and homemade espresso shortbread (something we could have used a whole lot more of in college).