It’s summer time and that means ice cream all day everyday! Here are some of our favourite ice cream spots in Montreal. We rounded up the Montreal classics (of course) some places you may never have heard of. We chose the funnest ones with all the craziest most creative flavours because lets be honest, who wants your typical vanilla and chocolate? Because our team has a few passionate ice-cream-aholics, we let them pick their favourites.
San Gennaro
The newest Italian café to hit Little Italy by storm is San Gennaro. While they don’t only serve gelato, it’s worth heading over there for their delicious frozen treats. They make their gelato in-house with great and original flavours. Have you ever tried basil gelato? It is the most refreshing cold bite you can have. They also have the classic Italian gelato flavours like pistachio, hazelnut, and chocolate. They also have seasonal flavours, like the recently popular sea buckthorn. If you want a different sort of treat, ask them for a gelato sandwich, and they’ll stuff homemade brioche bread with your gelato of choice.
69 Rue Saint Zotique E, Montréal, QC H2S 1K7
(514) 273-6868
Les Pops
When you get your fresh produce at Marché Jean-Talon, stop by Les Pops for artisanal popsicles that will make your grocery visit that much tastier. You can’t miss their candy-striped kiosk that boasts fresh and colourful treats. They use natural ingredients and create delicious flavour combinations using fruit purées rather than fruit juice. Some of our favourites are the basil and pineapple pop, or the strawberry and mint pop. They also have yummy all fruit combinations for you try try.
7070 Avenue Henri Julien, Montréal, QC H2S 3S3
(514) 277-1588
Cocktail Antabli
Cocktail Antabli is a Lebanese dessert spot that specializes in over-the-top fruit concoctions (served in huge beer mugs), and so much more. They also make their own ice cream that you can either enjoy topped on one of their famous fruit bowls, or on its own, in its creamy glory. And because this isn’t the usual Italian gelato, they serve some unique flavours, like rose water, achta (sort of like panna cotta, but thickened with bread instead of gelatin), and man-salwa (a mélange of cardammon and pistachio bits). Step into their tropical décor and get transported to the islands with original tastes.
9254 Boulevard de l’Acadie, Montréal, QC H4N 2R5
(514) 381-0823
La Dolce Vita
La Dolce Vita is located inside a 200 year old-house and has a beautiful adjacent courtyard where you can enjoy your frozen treats. They offer all the classic Italian flavours, but with a twist. There’s the porto & fig gelato for the wine and cheese aficionado, the Sicilian orange sorbet for your sweet tooth, or the chilli pepper chocolate gelato for a little extra kick. They even serve affogato, which is piping hot Italian espresso poured over classic vanilla gelato.
3201 Boulevard Graham, Mont-Royal, QC H3R 1K1
(514) 504-1370
Restaurant Roberto
Restaurant Roberto has been around since 1980. Not only have they stood the test of time, but they’ve expanded to more than just a fine dining restaurant. Attached to the restaurant is a cafe and gelateria with homemade authentic Italian gelato. They probably have the best vanilla gelato we’ve tasted in Montreal, with flecks of vanilla bean, bursting with flavour. They have all the classics like amaretto, gianduia (rich milk chocolate), pistachio, and so much more.
2221 Rue Bélanger, Montréal, QC H2G 1C5
(514) 374-9844
Pizzeria Gema
Pizzeria Gema is a delicious Italian pizza spot in Little Italy, but they’re also known for their frozen custard soft serve. They have vanilla, chocolate, or vanilla chocolate swirl. You can order it with delicious Italian toppings like Fabbri amarena cherries, Bacci crumble, butterscotch sauce, and so many more options. They also dip the soft serve in chocolate in the summer. You can enjoy the frozen custard in the restaurant or take it to go from their take-out window on the side of the restaurant.
6827 Rue Saint Dominique, Montréal, QC
(514) 419-4448
La Diperie
La Diperie lets you customize your ice cream experience, one dip at a time. They have 21 different varieties of Belgium chocolate dips to create a solid outer shell for their ice cream. They have flavours like praliné, Baileys, cheesecake, Oreo, cookie dough, and more. The next step is to choose which topping you’d like, and there are 15 to choose from, like pretzels, hazelnuts, caramelized pecans, and more. The next step is to choose your drizzle: caramel, chocolate, strawberry, and more. The final step: enjoying your delicious creation.
68 Ave des Pins E, Montréal, QC H2W 1N5
(514) 677-7130
Wild Willy’s
Wild Willy’s is every kid’s dream come true. With over 40 flavours of homemade ice cream, you may have trouble deciding what to eat. For the adventurous eaters, try the King Kong, a safari hat filled to the brim with 15 scoops of your choice of ice cream. Think you can handle it? Sample flavours like red velvet or even beer. For vegans or the lactose intolerant bunch, they also have frozen tofu!
539 Chemin Bord du Lac, Dorval, QC H9S 2B1
(514) 631-9669
Kem Coba
Two master pastry chefs come together to give you fun and original flavours every week: buttered corn, cheesecake, Madagascar vanilla, almond, and sourcherry, to name a few. These ice creams are full of flavour with no food coloring added. Kem Coba will serve you flavours you can’t even pronounce. Be prepared to wait in line every time, but don’t worry: their line ups move pretty quickly. If you want a hint as to how long you’ll wait, try out the Kem Coba Line Twitter account. Whoever made this account is a wonderful human being.
60 Avenue Fairmount O, Montréal, QC H2T 2M2
(514) 419-1699
Pops Art
Locally served in St-Henri, Pops Art serves all natural and healthy popsicles with no sugar added. They always come out with fun flavors such as watermelon mint, lime coco, honeymelon, piña colada, cantaloupe basil, and the list goes on. They also recycle all of their Popsicle sticks. Health conscious and environmentally conscious!
291 Rue Beaudoin, Montréal, QC H4C 2Y3
(514) 680-7429
Ripples
Having been in the business for over 17 years, Ripples knows how to make delicious homemade ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. They’re claimed to be the best in the Plateau area with cool flavors such as green tea, chai, banana chip, kulfi, guava grapefruit, coconut, halavaran, chunky cheesecake, and so much more. This tiny spot is easy to miss but their ice cream is hard to forget!
3880 Boul St-Laurent, Montréal, QC H2W
(514) 842-1697
Oh! 3 Singes
If you’re looking to go all out and get wild with your ice cream, Oh 3 Singes is the place to do it. They serve cream based ice cream that you can have dipped in over 10 flavours to choose from, such as praline, caramel, lime, cheesecake, spicy cayenne Mexican dark chocolate, dark chocolate with orange, and Oreo. They also serve a key lime pie and a s’mores ice cream on Sunday! Want an iced espresso? No problem, you can add whip cream with chocolate and caramel syrup to it as well. Getting creative at Oh! 3 Singes is what they’re all about. They’ve only been open for 2 months but they’re making a name for themselves, even if they’re located in Laval.
1006 Rue de Callières, Laval, QC H7E 3N2
450-910-8333
Au Festin de Babette
Au Festin de Babette specializes in hot chocolate and crèpes, but they’re mostly known for their ice cream. They serve Bilboquet flavours or their famous soft serve created using their own concoctions. They start with a base or either vanilla or chocolate and then add spices, fruits, and other notes to create their own in-house flavours. For example, their Nutella is created using a base of vanilla then adding actual Nutella to the mix. Their liquorish flavour is made of vanilla and liquorish. The caramba flavour combines vanilla, mango, banana, and strawberry. The cholita has vanilla, banana, and ginger. Finally, the Indian has vanilla and missile.
4085 rue Saint-Denis, Montréal, QC
(514) 849-0214
Crémerie Pineault
Pineault is a classic favourite for Lavalers with 4 locations. Everyone knows they serve one of the best soft serve ice cream and sorbet. And while you’re there, why pick just one flavour? You can choose up to three flavours to add into one soft serve. You can choose fruit flavours such as blueberry, lemon, and strawberries, or you can go the chocolatey route with peanut butter, Oreos, Skor, Coffee Crisp, Bounty, or KitKat. The possibilities are endless! It’s basically custom making your own soft serve, and to make it even better, you can also add toppings to your soft serve.
3307 Boul Saint-Martin Est, Laval, QC H7E 4T6
(450) 664-4417
Les Givrés
Open all year round, Les Givrés specializes in unique and crazy flavours in either ice cream or sorbets. Try their matcha green tea ice cream, strawberry rhubarb, caramel apple pie, pineapple coconut, and many more. Everything is free of artificial flavours and colouring. They even make their ice cream cones in house from scratch! If you can’t choose which flavour you want, they have a tasting option of your choice in small shot glasses. You can have a choice of 6 flavours to share with two people.
Bilboquet
Specializing in home made sorbet and ice cream, Bilboquet has the best variety of flavours for every person. They use pure and natural ingredients including real milk and cream and lots of fresh fruits. That’s why their ice cream always tastes so fresh and flavourful. They’re famous for their bric-a- brac: vanilla with chunks of chocolate; their King Kong: banana ice cream with milk chocolate; and their brou ha ha: vanilla ice cream with brownies, caramel swirl, pieces of chocolate covered toffee, and praline bits. They also now serve their famous red velvet flavour, but you didn’t hear it from us.
1311 Avenue Bernard, Montréal, QC H2V 1W1
(514) 276-0414
Featured image: Oh! 3 Singes
