The Best Chocolate Ice Cream in San Francisco

oldnavy1A couple weeks ago my summer intern, Maddie, and I went on a very serious mission to find the best chocolate ice cream in San Francisco all in the name of finger licking blog content. It was a grueling few hours, we hit up Ice Cream Bar, Bi-Rite Creamery, Mitchells, Smitten, and Joes. Our hard work paid off and the answesr to all our burning questions about chocolate ice cream in SF have been answered (phew!)

Keep reading to see what chocolate ice cream we gave the blue ribbon to and some other super important notes for all you chocolate ice cream fans wandering the streets San Francisco looking for the perfect cone…

oldnavy4Featuring items from Old Navy: Rockstar coated leggings in wine country (love these!) and black, short suede boots in wine country, zip front military jacket, sequin tank.

Also: High top chucks, leather sleeve tee, and vintage leather jacket (similar)

Photography and styling by Liz Stanley. Modeling by Maddie Bachelder

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-1This post was sponsored by Old Navy. Check out Old Navy’s latest fashion lineup in store or online at oldnavy.com

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oldnavy5BiRite Creamery: This has been widely accepted by the San Francisco community as the best ice cream in the city, as evident by the mile long line outside the store on any given day (tip: try the brand new location on Divisadero!). We tried the dark chocolate (we had the option to choose dark chocolate or coconut chocolate and dark was recommended as better). It was not too dark or bitter, and if you like dark chocolate it tasted like a fudgey delicious dark chocolate bar. Deeelicious of course. We weren’t flipping out about it though, even if part of me was willing to go with crowd favorite.

oldnavyAlso, can we talk more a minute about these awesome coated leggings in the perfect fall maroon color? I almost picked up a pair for myself, but would have had to try and guess at my post-pregnancy size (always a little dangerous). Love them though, and on sake through 10/2!

Okay, moving on…

oldnavy2The Ice Cream Bar: Located in Cole Valley, this is way underrated as an ice cream shop (they’re mostly known for their ice cream floats which are incredible and I did a sites and bites about them here). Their homemade waffle cones are not to be missed, or their fudge sauce. But today, we were just testing chocolate ice cream. We had to focus. They had both dark chocolate sorbet and milk chocolate. The milk chocolate was delicious, although not very chocolately. More caramel to us. But amazing! The dark chocolate sorbet was what stole the show. True dark chocolate goodness, it was wonderful. A front runner for sure especially for dark chocolate fans. Second place for us!

oldnavy3Joes: This is our neighborhood spot we hit up on a very frequent basis. They’re known for their classic unpretentious flavors like rocky road, oreo, chocolate peanut butter, and bubble gum (Henry’s favorite although I think it tastes like toothpaste). The chocolate is good, as expected, but nothing too special and not especially creamy or rich. Ehh. My favorite here is actually pumpkin but that’s not what we were looking for.

Mitchells: Tucked down in Noe Valley it’s been a front runner for a long time for best ice cream in SF. Mostly traditional flavors, they seem to be one step up from Joes in creaminess which is big. The chocolate was the most traditional of the chocolates we tasted, and a real contender for sure but not winning any ribbons today.

Smitten: This place is really unique in the way they make their ice cream. With dry ice! The ice cream mixture is fresh and liquid until you order and then they freeze it on the spot for you. How amazing is that? Something about that process makes it so so creamy and rich, and true milky chocolate with a touch of salt. The verdict? Perfection in a chocolate ice cream cone (they make fresh waffle cones too but not as good as The Ice Cream Bar). This was our favorite.

Smitten wins the blue ribbon for best chocolate ice cream in San Francisco! Hooray! The search is over my friends. You can all sleep soundly now.

Comments

Hmm, I see that being your intern is pretty horrible, awful work. Can’t believe you can even find someone willing to be paid to try ice cream flavors. I’d personally need to be paid at least forty cents an hour to take on such responsibilities.

Have you ever seen posse.com – sounds a bit weird, but you create “streets” filled with your favourite things (e.g. san fran ice cream stores) & people can look up your streets for recommendations (particularly if they’re from out of town). I’m not sure i have explained it well, but it would be a cool way to keep a record of things like this post.

I recently tried Humphrey Slocombe’s Mexican Chocolate at the Presidio’s Off the Grid on Sundays….seriously, amazing. Chocolate ice creams are my thing, and this was at the top of my list! Please try! 🙂

What a fun post! I will definitely save this for the next time I visit San Francisco. And I will be checking out these pants at Old Navy for sure! And I’m not thin or skinny but I love how skinny jeans look on me!

My friends and I have done a pizza crawl, taco crawl and a salted caramel ice cream crawl through SF. (Each on different days of course.)

BiRite one for salted ice cream over Smitten and Three Twins.

Liz, get thee to Mitchell’s post-haste for the Mexican chocolate!!!! Although I’m afraid you’ll end up having to add a correction to this post 🙂 It is remarkably good – deep dark chocolate with cinnamon deliciousness. Now I want some …

Wish you had posted this on Monday so I could’ve gone to Smitten when I was in the city on Tuesday! When Elise come out in a month or so we are totally going. This is absolutely our sort of taste test.

I don’t know if I could pull off the jeans, but I know you would look adorable in them anytime! Can’t wait for your little girl to arrive! So excited for you

Bi-Rite is definitely my favorite for Lavender Ice Cream, but Smitten wins for technique! Love those coated skinnies on you 😉

I agree, their technique is amazing. And FYI that’s not me in the photos, it’s my intern Maddie she does look great in the jeans i agree!

I’ve tried smitten’s chocolate and it was good but, to me at least, it pales in comparison to Mitchell’s mexican chocolate. I don’t even like chocolate (more of a vanilla girl) but that stuff is amazing.

Ahh, mexican chocolate. we didn’t try that one, just the regular. good to know though, will have to check back at mitchells!

This post makes me want to run out to get chocolate ice cream immediately!!
Love the coated leggings- do you think they are appropriate for someone in their late thirties or have I missed my chance? 🙂

No way, you could totally pull them off. I’m in my mid thirties and I’m fully planning on it after I pop this baby out.

To me they are just skinny jeans. Not everyone should wear skinny jeans. If you are pear shaped (me!), they just aren’t very flattering unless I wear them with a tunic. Skinny jeans are meant for thinner, straighter bodies. Some people won’t agree with me, but not every fashion trend is for every person. The goal is to dress your body to the best of your abilities, and for me personally that means I should wear straight-leg or wider-leg pants:). The pants look fabulous on Liz; its not about age, its about her body’s proportions!

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