Best Icecream in Melbourne

Updated on March 12, 2021

Best Ice Cream & Gelato in Melbourne.

Ice creams and Gelatos are up there with the finest of foods these days, they have come a long way since last century and Melburnians have become quite discerning about these delightful treats.

The History of Ice Cream. No specific person has officially been credited with inventing ice cream. Its origins date back as far as 200 B.C., when people in China created a dish of rice mixed with milk that was then frozen by being packed in snow. Source: Today I Found Out…

Gelato dates back to the 16th century. There is some confusion in the origin as to where or who really invented gelato. As most stories go, it is credited to Bernardo Buontalenti, a native of Florence, whodelighted the court of Catherina dei Medici with his creation. Source: Gelato Junction

Is there a BEST Ice cream or Gelato destination in Melbourne? You’ll have to try our 10 top recommendations for yourself and decide!

In no particular order as they are all so decadent and worthy of top billing…

Girls & Boys Vegan Ice cream, Desserts, and Smoothies

382a Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Everything we make at Girls & Boys is 100% plant based and vegan.

We want to give our bodies a treat, but at the same time we need to give our bodies a break, the environment a break, and especially those poor cows.

We serve super tasty icecreams and desserts, made without animal products nor refined sugar, using only quality ingredients that won’t make you feel yuck after. And of course we cater to nut allergies and gluten intolerances.

Gelato Messina

237 Smith Street, Fitzroy

Every flavour you see is made using a unique recipe created by us. We never, ever use pre-made bases or mass-produced flavour pastes. In each of our stores, you’ll find a 40 flavour cabinet, with 35 traditional flavours and 5 rotating weekly specials. We also make our own range of gelato cakes which can be picked up or ordered from any store. They’re weird and wonderful, but it’s all in the name of putting a smile on someone’s face.

7Apples

75 Acland Street, St Kilda

From the first gelato cart invented in Varese in Italy in the 1920s, gelato has been a way of life for all Italians. A ritual that we love sharing with the people of Melbourne.

Our founder, Mark Mariotti lived for a time in Tuscany in order to learn and perfect the craft of gelato making. It was under that Tuscan sunshine that he was lucky enough to be apprentice to one of the country’s most famous artisans Gelateria Eugenio in Marina Di Massa.

Mark returned to Melbourne with a love of his craft and a mind full of fond memories of living and breathing the Tuscan approach to life.

N2 Extreme Gelato

329 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

At N2, we are constantly reinventing the traditional gelato, bringing in flavours that are creatively decadent and yet leave a traditional feel on the tongue. We are indulgent and we make no apologies for it.

We source from local dairies, we use real fruits, fresh herbs, obscure ingredients we stumble across in our made to order gelato and sorbet. We give our customers an experience that transcends a simple scoop of gelato and gives them a magical visual journey as they watch their very own gelato cup made to order.

From thick fudge to gloriously glazed doughnuts, to setting our gelatos alight and dunking them into rich molten chocolate, we elevate our gelatos so they stand out from the crowd.

Piccolina Gelateria

802 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn

296 Smith Street, Collingwood

137C Acland Street, St Kilda

Piccolina Naturale Gelato is gelato with a promise.

A promise to be 100% natural.
Every day the team behind Piccolina puree fresh fruit, roasts nuts and tempers quality chocolate to craft gelato from secret family recipes.

A promise to embrace true flavours.
Piccolina Gelateria Naturale is the result of passion and determination to extract the finest flavours from every ingredient.

Billy Van Creamy

27-29 Best Street, Fitzroy North

Established in 2014 by two brothers, Alex and Mitch Wells, Billy van Creamy grew from humble beginnings; making all of their ice cream by hand in the kitchen of Thornbury Bowls Club and serving it out of their self-fitted food truck at Rucker’s Hill in Northcote.

The brothers grew up in Perth, Western Australia both loving surfing, adventure and long summers spent at the beach. Inspired by their childhood and being immersed in the Melbourne food culture they decided to take a leap and launch their own version of the tired Mr. Whippy van. For them, this meant the flavours of their ice cream had to come from authentic, real and whole ingredients and, a reimagined van!

Pidapipo

299 Lygon Street, Carlton

85 Chapel St, Windsor

An obsession is born when Lisa Valmorbida decides that gelato is her thing.  But if she is going to make and sell gelato, it has to be authentic, artisanal, Italian style. It has to be done right. So first up? She heads to Italy to attend gelato university, which is an actual thing. And the best gelato university in the world is the Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna. It’s there Lisa learns the Italian gelato commandments that Pidapipo lives by:

All gelato must be made from scratch on site.

Small batches only. There is no good gelato without great ingredients.

Fruit is fresh, never frozen with no artificial flavouring, ever.

All recipes must be precisely calibrated to create uniform creamy texture and intensity of flavour.

Aqua S

16 Red Cape Lane, Melbourne

It all started off when the founders who are always actively looking for desserts all over the world, have finally decided to bring soft serve to the next level.

Yet, Aqua S further developed our soft serves into a work of art. This is why, besides the adventurous tastiness of our soft serves, you will find it irresistible to the beauty of our presentation of products. Fun, innovative and exquisiteness are the key elements for Aqua S. Thus apart from our signature flavor, there are two other varieties that will be changed fortnightly.

The colour aqua blue in our establishment perfectly aligns with our signature soft serves. Together with our feature wall with clouds, it sets our magical and dream-like corporate image and identity.

Aqua S loves to see those smiles on our customers’ faces and we are passionate in what we are doing – to share happiness to more.

Miinot Gelato

71 Melville Road, Pascoe Vale South

‘Gelato is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal.’Voltaire

There’s nothing unlawful about Miinot Gelato though, just the delightful taste of fresh, natural ingredients and velvet-smooth textures, made on the premises by Emma Nicholas-Jennings.

Situated in Pascoe Vale South, Miinot offers a carefully considered range of flavours, which blend Italian artisanal traditions with fresh ingredients from the local area. Emma and her husband Gary use a combination of experience and imagination to invent new flavours almost daily; the basic fruits – lemon, or burnt fig, for example – have an intensely natural taste, thanks to an all-fruit base, while the more elaborate flavours such as Nonno blend marscapone with sultanas soaked in Pedro Ximenez sherry.