Many of the scoops at Rori's—a fancy ice cream chain from Montecito—are so crammed with chunky mix-ins that they’re almost miniature sundaes. The peanut butter ice cream comes bulked up with crushed housemade peanut butter cups, and the milk and cookies is studded with big shards of cookie. The texture is stretchy and smooth, but it melts fast, so eat it with urgency. We also appreciate that they offer an itty-bitty cup size (about as big as a golf ball) for when you want a tiny taste.

We’ve bought more Jeni’s pints from the freezer aisle than we’d care to admit, but heading to one of this Ohio-based chain’s pastel-colored shops is worth it for the full experience. Our favorites tend to load up the dense and thick custard-style ice cream with jammy or crunchy mix-ins, like the brown butter almond brittle and the brambleberry crisp with berries and oat streusel. But really, it's hard to go wrong.

Awan serves creamy, plant-based ice cream from a tiny takeout window in West Hollywood. You come to this Indonesian-inspired dessert shop for refreshing flavors like blood orange, lemongrass, and rhubarb pie—not a basic scoop of chocolate on a sugar cone. The vanilla beans here are imported straight from Bali and the strawberries come from renowned farm Harry’s Berries in Oxnard. Expect to walk away holding a beige cup full of something wonderful and unexpected.

Tucked next to the sibling spot Liu’s Cafe, this evenings-only operation feels like a low-lit speakeasy as much as it does an ice cream shop. The flavors here channel Taiwanese night markets—there's honey toast, Ovaltine, ginger pear, and vanilla-y Taiwan milk— and the thick, custardy texture is a solid base to mix and match toppings like doubanjiang fudge, chili crisp, or cured egg yolk. The best bet is to order one of the creative sundae options.

At Old Town Pasadena’s Kinrose Creamery, toppings are just as important as the ice cream. The flavors at this former Smorgasburg vendor turned brick-and-mortar draw from Iran, Egypt, and across the Middle East—stretchy Egyptian mint, lavashak, saffron pistachio rose—and each scoop comes topped with garnishes like rose buds or phyllo crumble. Kinrose serves a tight list of eight flavors, but limited choices aren’t an issue when they're all this elaborate and delicious.

This Thai dessert shop by the Ruen Pair folks serves a few different sundae riffs, and none of them disappoint. That’s mostly because each comes with Kanomwaan’s custardy Thai gelato, which is as delicious as it sounds. The most Thai thing about these scoops are the flavors, like mango sticky rice, vanilla-y pandan, coconut milk with butterfly pea, and smoked salted egg that tastes like the smell of blown-out birthday candles. The basic cup is a two-scoop minimum, but we have no complaints.

Mashti Malone’s is an LA institution that’s been serving Persian-style ice cream in the heart of Hollywood (and now Westwood) for almost 40 years. The menu is large, with nearly 50 different flavors served on any given day, but what makes this tiny shop so special are its fragrant flavors that stay on your tongue all afternoon. Think ginger rosewater, saffron, and roasted pistachio-infused heaven.

Thank you, Portland—along with professional baristas and an appreciation for Subarus, you’ve also given us some of the best ice cream in LA. You’d probably assume a place with flavors like avocado sherbet and black olive brittle with goat cheese wouldn’t be for everyone, but you’d be wrong. Because Salt & Straw adds stuff you should never put in ice cream, and somehow still makes it taste delicious.

Between their Oaxacan-style paletas, super-creamy gelatos, and sorbets that taste like freshly juiced strawberries, this incredible Mexican dessert shop reminds us of an enchanted bow and arrow, or Olivia Colman’s IMDb page: it simply doesn’t miss. There are a few locations throughout the city, with each storefront stocked with over 30 different flavors of paletas, including watermelon, mango dusted with chile, and leche quemada.

This sibling-owned scoop shop in North Torrance is ideal for when you’re craving ice cream that’s a little more balanced than a nine-topping sugar bomb. Kansha’s flavors are kept simple to highlight star ingredients: intense dark chocolate with roasted barley tea, nutty black sesame, or milk ice cream with caramel and fresh-baked oatmeal cookies. If you see any seasonal fruit flavors on the menu, prioritize—they often source from growers at the Torrance Farmers’ Market.

Along with the trying samples at the Aesop store, Bacio di Latte is one of the few places at the Century City Mall where you can have a moment of uninterrupted peace. This serene, all-white gelato shop serves a dozen rotating menu flavors, including red velvet, biscotto with big chunks of spice cookies, and passionfruit cream. Their two best-sellers, though, are what we gravitate toward: the excellent, not-too-sweet pistachio and the bacio di latte.

Saffron & Rose is one of the largest brands of Persian ice cream in America and can be found in markets nationwide, but nothing beats a visit to its original location in Westwood. Located just south of Wilshire in Persian Square, the tiny shop has been cranking out thick, Persian-style ice cream for almost four decades and still has lines out the door. Almost everybody is eating the saffron and pistachio flavor, but we never leave without getting at least one scoop of the orange blossom as well.

Greetings from the grandaddy of all LA ice cream. Established in 1919, Fosselman’s is the definition of a classic, and if you haven’t gone to the Alhambra location at least once, you can’t really say you know LA ice cream. This is the kind of rich, creamy, old-school ice cream you crave when you’re home plowing through a season of Law & Order you’ve already watched. The fudge sundae is a must. Warning: cash only.

Add an extra 30 minutes to the parking meter because you don’t want to rush yourself at Fatamorgana. With locations in Beverly Hills and Studio City, this Rome transplant stocks over 60 gelato flavors, and you’ll want to sample as many as possible. There are classics like stracciatella, an entire section of just chocolate flavors, Mexican-inspired sorbettos, and creations that belong on a fancy dessert menu.

Ginger’s is a relatively new addition to the LA ice cream scene, but this corner shop in Culver City has become a local favorite thanks to the huge number of flavors, super creamy ice cream, and genuinely good vegan options. They’ve got everything from lavender honeycomb to Vietnamese coffee, but you’ll probably find it hard to go past the “Billionaire Brownie.” You can get your ice cream in sandwich form, or you could go the ice cream pop route. Live your truth.

This Santa Barbara original has been making ice cream for 70 years, and it shows. They know their way around the classics (the vanilla bean is a real best-in-show) but also make fancier flavors like boysenberry rosé milk jam. They have locations in Grand Central Market, Studio City, and Pacific Palisades, and also do nationwide shipping. Always get the turkish coffee flavor.

Wanderlust’s schtick is ice cream inspired by countries around the world. What does that look like? Stuff like olive oil with chocolate-dipped baguette (Catalonia), Thai Tea, pretzel and rye crumbs (Iceland), and their signature purple flavor, Ube malted crunch (Philippines). The whole thing could be stupidly precious, but the ice cream itself is amazing. There are several locations around LA, and all of them rotate their flavors monthly—and we've yet to sample anything we didn't love.

This quirky Echo Park shop looks like a retro soda fountain designed by Pee-Wee Herman (RIP). There’s an old-school gumball machine dispensing Lactaid pills, a jukebox sporting deer horns, and a Saturn-shaped lamp towering over the ice cream case. Fluffy's keeps its dozen or so house-made flavors simple—there are staples like chocolate, strawberry, and mint chip, plus twists like honeydew sorbet and princess cake. Fluffy stays open until midnight.