California's Best Ice Cream Shop Has Been A Family-Owned Favorite Since 1953

Nothing compares to a great old-school ice cream shop. The toasty scent of fresh waffle cones, notes of vanilla in the air, and the feeling of traveling back to a simpler time pair perfectly with a cold and creamy scoop. In our round up of the best ice cream shops in every state, we found quite the selection of scoop shops. One such shop — Mitchell's Ice Cream in San Francisco, California — has a 70-plus-year legacy and is totally worth the decades of hype.

Although it opened as an ice cream shop in 1953, the history of Mitchell's Ice Cream actually goes back to 1913, when Margaret Mitchell built the apartment building where the store is still located. The city of San Francisco lifted and turned the building in 1947 to accommodate the widening of San Jose Avenue, and six years later Margaret's grandsons, Jack and Larry, opened their scoop shop with 19 flavors on the menu. Larry and his wife still own the store, and two of their kids run the day-to-day operations.

Today, the shop is open every day and has 40 flavors on the menu. Just like in 1953, any dairy-based products still include an indulgent 16% butterfat — solidly qualifying it as premium ice cream. The ice cream has kept fans lining up around the block and has also earned Mitchell's a lot of recognition. In 2023, the shop became a San Francisco legacy business, and in July of 2026, Yelp named Mitchell's the Most Saved Ice Cream Shop in the nation. Add it to your own list, because Mitchell's is a can't-miss stop next time you're in the Bay Area.

History and quality aren't the only reasons to head to Mitchell's. The ice cream shop has developed a reputation for offering a range of unique, iconic ice cream flavors that are heavily influenced by Filipino and Central and South American flavors.

Mitchell's was the first scoop shop to introduce mango ice cream to the San Francisco area in the 1960s, and it is still the store's number one seller. But that's not the only unique fruit they use for their flavors. The menu includes buko (young coconut), macapuno (sweet coconut), durian, lychee, lucuma, kalamansi, and ube. There is also halo halo — a Filipino dessert beloved by Anthony Bourdain — in two ways: The dish itself, with ube ice cream and shaved ice topped with coconut jelly, langka (jackfruit), coconut, mongo beans, tapioca balls, and evaporated milk, as well as halo halo-flavored ice cream. "The ube is a must, super awesome flavor of ice cream," says a Yelp reviewer. "[T]he best ice cream in the Bay Area," says another fan on Yelp. "I would highly recommend ice cream lovers to try their tropical flavours."

It's not all fruit flavors, though. There are classics like chocolate (made with beans from the Ivory Coast, Brazil, and Indonesia) and Madagascar bourbon vanilla, as well as fun twists like Sticky Monkey (banana, peanut butter, and chocolate flakes) and Thin Mint (peppermint ice cream and chocolate chips). "The Mexican Chocolate for me really does take me back to my childhood in Mexico and getting chocolate ice cream in no way any other place outside of Mexico ever has," says a Yelp fan. With nearly 3500 five-star reviews, it's hard to argue with Mitchell's Ice Cream's status as a San Francisco ice cream institution.