Like the city’s larger food scene, Portland’s ice cream options expand far beyond the typical scoop shop, and each has their own distinct identity. Got an Italian nonna who likes to stick with the classics? Take her to Pinolo Gelato for pistachio and stracciatella. Looking for Indian kulfi in both traditional and deliciously unconventional flavors? Head to Kulfi. Want to try a bona fide Portland institution, still innovating today? Wander to Salt & Straw. If you’re plant-based, gluten-free, or lactose-intolerant, Kate’s Ice Cream is a safe haven. Through lines include Oregon-made mix-ins, seasonal flavor inspirations, and a willingness to push against conventional ice cream wisdom.

Kate’s Ice Cream

Boise, Northwest District

This pair of devoted vegan and gluten-free parlors serves coconut-based favorites that hold their own among the city’s best. If you’re looking for bona fides, the peanut brittle flavor was even recognized by the North American Ice Cream Association. Try the supremely pastel-colored pistachio or ultra floral rosewater cardamom almond, available in house-made waffle cones or sandwiched between house-baked cookies. For something a little wilder, the Cookie Monster arrives in its cone bright blue, like our friend on Sesame Street, and packed with various cookies. Vegans hoping to relive childhood birthday parties should peruse the shop's ice cream cake selection.

Lovely’s Fifty Fifty

Boise

They say you’re never too full for ice cream, and that’s especially true after housing one of Sarah Minnick’s nationally celebrated pizzas. But pizza isn’t a prerequisite. In fact, they’re treated with equal reverence here—it's right in the restaurant's name. Stop by for a scoop or grab a to-go pint from the case at the restaurant’s front counter. Look out for the classic buckwheat honey toffee, the chocolate malted milk ball with tiny-crunchy-chocolaty flakes, and the can’t-miss salted caramel, plus a rotating cast of oddball flavors like fennel-vanilla or sour cherry buttermilk.

Corent’s Dairy Queen–inspired peanut buster.

Cornet Custard

Richmond, Sabin

Pastry chef extraordinaire Mika Paredes’s frozen custard shop (don’t call it ice cream) began as a side project in the late chef Naomi Pomeroy’s Ripe Cooperative. Now with a Division scoop shop (plus a case of pints inside the flower shop Colibri), it carries the restaurant’s high standard for quality ingredients and seasonal produce. The key to Cornet’s custard? A high concentration of egg yolks. They make the custard stiff and rich, and because the structure comes from eggs rather than sugar, the resulting treat is a little less sweet than you’ll find at other shops. Act quickly when you find a favorite flavor. Varieties, mostly rooted in nostalgia, change every two weeks, from blood orange creamsicle to strawberry shortcake.

Cloud City Ice Cream

Woodstock

While Cloud City gets its tricks in, it leans more nostalgic than the rest in Portland’s inventive ice cream scene. It looks and feels a bit like someone bought an old Baskin-Robbins and made the ice cream better, without changing much else. The sea salt cookie dough offers more dough than delightfully simple sweet cream base. The aptly named Better Than Therapy combines bright, tangy lemon curd base with gluten-free ginger cookies. But our all-time favorite is the marionberry crisp, a mascarpone base with a berry swirl and gluten-free oat clusters.

Ice Queen

Hosford-Abernethy

If you’ve had Ice Queen’s signature paletas from a retailer around town, stop by the brick-and-mortar for an expanded range of the high-end Mexican popsicles, plus vegan soft serve and chocolate-dipped frozen bananas. Paleta flavors run from indulgent (fudge or oatchata) to tropical (mangonada or hibiscus) to unprecedented (carrot-ginger or pickle). Get them dipped in chocolate, drizzled with chamoy, or sprinkled with toppings like shredded coconut or sprinkles. Soft serve comes as custom sundaes or floats, sandwiched between oatmeal cookies, or blended with mix-ins to create a ThiccFlurry—which we’re partial to with a heap of De la Rosa mazapan.

Pinolo Gelato

Richmond

“Gelato: The Not-Ice Cream of Italy” reads Pinolo’s window. Ingredient-focused flavors like pistachio and stracciatella help explain: gelato is served slightly warmer than ice cream and uses milk instead of cream, which means it’s denser and velvetier, yet somehow lighter and more intensely flavored. Pinolo’s is top-tier, not just for Portland but for the United States, and dare we say, Italy. While gelataio Sandro Paolini generally sticks to classic flavors—check out the plain milk flavor, fior di latte, and the extensive run of dairy-free options—he also innovates, as in the summer foresta flavor, which pairs pine bud tips with a local strawberry and elderflower sorbet.

Eb & Bean

Irvington, Richmond, Northwest

This is the alternative to the floodlit, mass-produced feel of most fro-yo shops—the yogurt here is organic and the vegan alternatives are plentiful. Try the passion fruit caramel flavor with oat milk or the almond-based brown sugar butter pecan. But fro-yo is nothing without toppings, and here they come carefully curated. No banal shower of off-the-shelf sprinkles; instead, find the flaky roasted peanut butter Tom Bumble Crumble or cacao nibs and Jacobsen salt.

Fifty Licks

Buckman, Hosford-Abernethy, Northwest

This Portland mini-chain—with outposts in Slabtown, Division-Clinton, and a prime spot on East Burnside opposite the Laurelhurst Theater (the Burnside location is temporarily closed after a fire)—gets a lot of credit for being especially friendly to vegans, the gluten-free, and those with myriad other dietary restrictions that one might not generally associate with an ice cream shop. Fortunately, zero is sacrificed in taste and nothing is overly sweet and cloying. Flavors change with the seasons, but you can always count on finding the rich, custardy yet somehow vegan Mango Sticky Rice and the get-down-to-business Chocolate AF.

Kulfi

Vernon, Boise

Imagine ice cream, but with a dense, extra-chewy texture and supercharged milky flavor, and you’ve got kulfi, a traditional Indian frozen dessert. Some bars lean on classic Indian flavor profiles, like pistachio-saffron, malai (caramelized milk), and mango lassi; others are classic Northwest, like the marionberry cheesecake, or wacky dream creations like the blue spirulina-tinged Cookie Monster. Also look out for nondairy pops like the coconut Vietnamese coffee, strawberry-mint lemonade, and jackfruit. For the full experience, get the falooda: rice noodles and a litany of jellies and seeds in a cup of sweet milk, with a Kulfi stuck in it for good measure.

Salt & Straw

Various locations

Yes, Salt & Straw made it big. It’s everywhere, even Disneyland! But it became a national sensation for a reason—it's still really great. Standbys like summery honey lavender and silky freckled mint chocolate chip have been there for many a Portlander over the past decade, and seasonal collaborations, even if at times a bit past the threshold of deliciousness (deviled egg and balsamic marshmallow?), always make a provocative splash. If you’re new in town, Arbequina olive oil scoops and pear and blue cheese are legend. Hint: waffle bowls aren’t explicitly advertised, but they’re the ultimate vessel for chocolate gooey brownie.

Ome Calli

Beaverton

Get your tropical fruit fix in the form of Mexican ice cream and paletas at this Beaverton shop. Sweet potato–like mamey, creamy guava, tangy soursop, and sour-spicy chamoy (made from chile salted plum) are some of the highlights among the fruity scoops. If you’re after something richer, try the Horchata and spicy Mexican chocolate flavors, or decadent sunflower seed tequila. Paletas come in a rainbow of flavors, with an entire selection devoted to spicy pops, like chile pineapple and chile tamarind, plus a wide range of exotic fruits represented (think tangy yellow nance and cola-like black sapote).

Pronto Gelato

Cully

This collaborative walk-up window spot brings Downtown legend Spella Caffè together with the Woodlawn pasta heroes at Campana. If you’ve had one of Spella’s famous shakeratos, you know the espresso gelato is obligatory; and there’s of course a full espresso bar for your affogato dreams. We’re all for basking in a single flavor, but Pronto’s option to collage two or three is hard to resist. Oregon hazelnut, California pistachio, and grapefruit Campari flavors are particularly inspiring, so intense and concentrated that they hold their own even when blended at your whim.

Sugarpine Drive-In

Troutdale

Despite its old-school name, the soft-serve sundaes here would fit any dessert menu in town. The Larch Mountain is a must-try for all Sugarpine newcomers: chocolate-vanilla swirl topped with brown butter blondies, blueberry-lavender sauce, and pine nut honeycomb crunch. While the ice cream flavors are limited to two dairy and two plant-based options, the toppings are why you come, which range from miso caramel and matcha magic shell, to nostalgic classics like birthday cake crumbles and honey hot fudge.