The Best Ice Cream Shops in Dallas

This Sunday, July 20, is National Ice Cream Day. In honor of the occasion, we've updated our list of favorite spots around Dallas.

For Sunday, only a few places are running specials:

Jeni’s is giving away free drizzles of its brand-new sundae fudge sauce with an order from their scoop shops.

If you’re in the area, Dippin’ Dots is giving away free mini cups at the Town East Mall in Mesquite and other franchise locations.

Van Leeuwen ice cream is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its popular Honeycomb flavor by offering $3 scoops of Honeycomb at all Dallas shops from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET on July 20.

It’s a bit underwhelming this year, but we’ll take what we can get, we suppose.

Here are some of our favorite ice cream shops in Dallas for any day of the year. If you prefer gelatos, we made a list of Dallas' best gelaterias recently too.

Bazaria Sweets

700 W. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano

Bazaria is a locally owned shop that carries almost any cold treat you can imagine, from frozen yogurt to milkshakes to homemade gelato, and it's all Halal certified. A must-try here is the chocolate mousse frozen yogurt, which comes with a creamy chocolate base and fresh chocolate shavings spread throughout. It's almost like eating a real chocolate mousse cake — except, well, it's frozen. Bazaria’s gelato is a real showstopper, too. Made from scratch, the flavors like almond fig and cherry cheesecake make Bazaria stand out among other gelato shops on the area's dessert scene. Especially in the 100-degree Texas heat, Bazaria might just become your new go-to.

Beth Marie’s

1020 W. Main St. (Denton), 1020 W. Main St. (Carrollton) and 419 W. Main St. (Grapevine)

Beth Marie’s started serving old-fashioned ice cream on the south side of Denton’s Historic Square in 1998. The ice cream here is classified as certified premium quality because it contains 14% butterfat. It’s churned in a machine that was designed in 1927, which can make 10 gallons of ice cream in 18 minutes. Whatever that means, it must be impressive. There are more than 150 flavors in their wheelhouse, between 48 and 64 of which are served at any given time. The retro shop started in Denton and has since spread to Grapevine and Carrollton.

Casa Del Bro

5444 FM 423, Frisco

With a menu full of items like steak tacos, cheesy quesadillas and chicken tinga burritos, Casa Del Bro in Frisco doesn’t seem at first like the go-to neighborhood stop for ice cream. But it is. Batches are made from scratch in flavors that include cookie butter and strawberry cheesecake, both with a creamy base studded with globs of cookie butter and fresh chunks of cheesecake. The ice cream here is whipped up every morning, which makes it softer than your average scoop. Top your dessert off with sprinkles or get it in a waffle cone. Just make sure to get here early. Scoops run out fast.

Churn x Bake

2707 W. 15th St., Plano

Churn x Bake is an artisan ice cream and bake shop in Plano where flavors are Asian-inspired and made in-house. They could have stopped with the interesting flavors like best-selling ube coconut crunch and peach oolong tea, but they decided to take things up a notch with customizations. They’ll plop a scoop or two of ice cream in a bubble waffle cone and even serve you additional desserts like crepe cakes and viral sweets like Dubai chocolate. Can it get any better? Yes. They also serve bubble tea.

Handel’s Ice Cream

4200 Legacy Drive, Plano

A chain that originated in Youngstown, Ohio, Handel’s has since brought its ice cream to five different locations in the Dallas area. The ice cream shop is perhaps best known for its 120+ rotating flavors, all made fresh in-house each day. Try the best-selling Oreo cheesecake flavor, a vanilla base loaded with huge chunks of cheesecake and Oreo cookies. Seasonal summer favorites include the Key lime pie, pineapple upside-down cake and strawberry cheesecake chunk. Bring your kids, friends and an appetite. Handel’s doesn’t skimp on flavors or portions.

Melt Ice Creams

405 N. Bishop Ave., Bishop Arts

Melt Ice Creams, originally out of Fort Worth, has a shop in the Bishop Arts District and can also be found in retail outlets like Whole Foods. You can also have it shipped to your door via Goldbelly. Melt crafts premium small-batch ice cream with a high percentage of butterfat for extra creaminess. The house-made waffle cones have real butter and heavy cream. Check out the vegan and dairy-free options if that's how you roll. The real draw here is a constantly evolving menu of "sometimes" flavors, like peach cobbler cheesecake, which has a base of peach ice cream infused with swirls of housemade boozy peach caramel, chunks of housemade creamy cheesecake and a graham cracker crust.

Parlor's Ice Cream

6465 E. Mockingbird Lane, No. 465

Parlor’s takes its concept of nostalgic ice cream to heart. Flavors like milk and cookies, made with a light vanilla ice cream and cookies loaded into the crevices, are sure to incite a sugar rush while reviving some fond childhood memories. Using flavors and ingredients sourced locally and from scratch, owners Brandon and Kellie Stoll are making ice cream as fresh as it gets.

Pure Milk & Honey

5321 E. Mockingbird Lane

This hidden soft-serve spot in Dallas lives up to its name: in pure ingredients and pure flavor. Located in Mockingbird Station, Pure Milk & Honey has been serving cold desserts to Dallas since 2019. With a from-scratch business model, the locally owned spot makes all of its soft serve using milk from Texas dairy farms and fresh honey from local beekeepers. It’s churned in-house to spawn an ultra-creamy soft serve that melts almost instantaneously when it hits the tongue. Order in small cups, large waffle bowls or even sandwiched between layers of house-made cake. It’s all fresh and pure.

Sugar Pine Creamery

6832 Coit Road, Plano

Good-quality soft serve is something you could never find in Dallas, until Sugar Pine Creamery came along in 2019. They offer six different soft serves at any given time, two of which are always dairy-free. You’ll usually get a heads-up before they drop a new flavor on their website or Instagram account. Unique combinations and fun twists on classics are their playground. Sapporo beer and cherry, cardamom mascarpone and taro are a few in the archive. If you can’t choose, you can also get two flavors swirled.

Sweet Firefly

2701 Custer Parkway, Richardson

Sweet Firefly is a locally owned ice cream shop that serves small batch and gourmet scoops, candied treats and adult ice creams from Cow Tip Ice Cream. Every month they have a new rotation of flavors announced on their Instagram, which is usually something unique like cotton candy, but they always have the classics like vanilla, cookie dough and butter pecan. With how generous the scoops are, you’d swear you know the staff personally. They’re very involved with the local community and can make a Dallasite feel at home in their suburban creamery.

Sweet Pearl’s Ice Cream

305 Coneflower Drive, Garland

Second chances are the foundation of Sweet Pearl’s Ice Cream. After owner Will Gibson suffered from a horrific bicycle accident, putting him out of work, he looked to making ice cream at home to keep himself busy. In just a few short years, it evolved into a thriving business. He makes regular, vegan and gluten-free flavors. Sea salt caramel, sweet pearl and Saigon cinnamon have the hearts of many ice cream aficionados. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to meet Pearl herself, the rescue dog that’s the face of the shop.

Swirled Peace

309 W. Eighth St., Bishop Arts

Swirled Peace serves plant-based soft serve with ample toppings to choose from. The spot is from Bishop Arts resident Sara Saginaw, who saw a gap for those looking for a plant-based lifestyle. So she leaned on her background in chemistry and created an ice cream shop for all. Swirled Peace even has a "magic menu" with THC-infused treats and teas for those 21 and up. Perhaps a magic THC milkshake with chocolate ice cream is exactly what you need today.

Tongue in Cheek Ice Cream

526 W. Arapaho Road, Richardson, and 3505 E. Park Blvd., Plano

The original Tongue in Cheek location is in the heart of Richardson, but there's a new shop in Plano too. If you’re looking for big portions and cheap prices, this might become your new favorite ice cream spot. Try the best-selling banana pudding, a banana-flavored ice cream giving way to fresh wafers in each bite. Another popular option is the Caramel Crack, which comes with a rich caramel base and crispy chocolate balls sprinkled throughout. Ordering your ice cream is only the beginning of the fun here, though. Be sure to grab a spot on one of the swings while you eat. Swinging with a cone in hand makes an ice cream outing all the more fun.

The Spelled Milk

712 W Davis St., Bishop Arts

At The Spelled Milk, the “kid in a candy store” trope comes to life (or the dream hangout for your next case of the munchies). They serve over 100 different kinds of cereals, including those that are rare and hard to find nowadays, with milk, whipped cream, ice cream or all of the above. Using your imagination, you can create combos of your favorite cereals, or choose one of theirs, like the Shipwrecked, which is a bowl of Reese’s Puffs, Cap’n Crunch and finished with “the spell”, the shops signature nut topping. There are no rules in this ice cream shop, and their menu urges you to try and top the last order. If you can.