The Resy Guide to D.C.’s Must-Try Ice Creams

At the end of a meal filled with its quintessential housemade pastas, this moody Italian eatery gives you some of the most inventive options in town for gelato and sorbets. The Reveler’s Hour dessert sampler comes with three scoops, including seasonal offerings, like ricotta and peach gelato for summer, and old standbys like vanilla custard and chocolate sorbet.

Chef Andrew Markert is truly a kid at heart, with a dessert menu that prominently features ice cream sandwiches combining eye-catching colors and inventive flavors like vanilla-funfetti and banana walnut bread.

This plant-focused restaurant takes ice cream seriously — with seasonal flavors like basil and lavender ice cream during the summer months, and sticky toffee pudding topped with banoffee ice cream and cookie crumble for any time you need to eat your feelings.

The flavors at Patrice Cleary’s Filipino restaurant should be savored to the very last bite. And indeed, Purple Patch’s dessert menu comes filled with ice cream treats, unique in their colors and flavors. From a bright purple ube cupcake with ube ice cream, to a frozen mango ice cream float with Nilla wafers, this is one of the D.C. restaurants where dessert is a must.

What’s not to love about an all-day French brasserie that serves ice cream from a scoop cart? If it’s the weekend, look out for Le Diplomate’s ice cream cart — serving classic ice cream flavors and fruity sorbets to go. Or walk inside, and take a seat for a classic dessert — profiteroles served with banana-vanilla ice cream and bittersweet chocolate.

This Hong Kong-style spot, tucked away in Shaw’s Blagden Alley, is of course known for its vibrant menu of Chinese noodle dishes, now overseen by new chef Simon Lam, an alum of restaurants from Peter Chang (Chang Chang, Baltimore’s NiHao) and José Andrés.

It’s also the perfect place to order a cocktail and savor ice cream desserts at the 360-degree bar. Try the Monkey King Bread with banana dulce ice cream or the Chinese S’more with roasted marshmallow, chocolate five spice streusel, and vanilla ice cream.

Having moved on from offering one of the city’s finest tasting menus (Komi) to opening a pizza and natural wine shop (plus ice cream), the team behind this Dupont Circle landmark has been pulling in crowds with their splendid frozen treats, served in sourdough waffle cones. The flavor ranges are ever changing, so check Instagram for daily offerings like olive oil with cocoa crumble, popcorn caramel and corn cake, and dark chocolate fudge with orange zest. Pints are also offered for order-ahead and to-go service. 

Walk-ins welcome.

Be a kid again at this arcade bar and restaurant, with a dessert menu filled with housemade gelatos and a splurge-worthy sundae. This is a deep serving of nostalgia — one that starts with a hot fudge brownie and vanilla gelato, which is then topped with caramel, chopped chocolate, and whipped cream. Like we said, they know us well.