A 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…
Featuring 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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This 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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BiRite 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.
Also, 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…
The 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!
Joes: 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.