Forkelo ranking · Updated October 2026
9 ice cream across San Francisco, ranked on what people say about the dish itself — never the restaurant's overall rating.
Garden Creamery · Mission
17 dish-specific mentions · 100% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Toasty, intensely nutty black sesame with a rich, smooth body and restrained sweetness. Several diners rate it deeper and less sugary than rival versions.
Mitchell's Ice Cream · Bernal Heights
26 dish-specific mentions · 92% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Creamy purple yam ice cream with an earthy, vanilla-like sweetness and soft bits folded in. Regulars call it the best ube around; a few old-timers miss a stronger ube hit.
San Francisco's Hometown Creamery · Inner Sunset
24 dish-specific mentions · 88% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Steeped with real mint leaves, it tastes bright and herbal rather than candy-like, with chocolate chips through a creamy base. A few find it too leafy.
Humphry Slocombe · Embarcadero
21 dish-specific mentions · 86% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Bourbon-laced sweet cream studded with crunchy cornflake cookies, salty-sweet with a gentle boozy warmth. Most call it a must; a few find it mild or overhyped.
Miyako Old Fashion Ice Cream · Fillmore
17 dish-specific mentions · 100% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Rich, earthy purple yam ice cream that tastes like real ube, not artificial, in big hand-packed scoops. A no-wait way to get a classic ube scoop.
Bi-Rite Creamery · Mission
24 dish-specific mentions · 88% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Deep, slightly bitter burnt-sugar caramel with real salt running through a dense, creamy base. Fans call it the benchmark salted caramel; a few find it too bitter.
Swensen's · Russian Hill
13 dish-specific mentions · 100% positive · 1 source type · menu verified October 2026
Dense, fudgy chocolate with a chewy, almost brownie-batter texture. A longtime house favorite at this old-school corner shop.
Salt & Straw · Pacific Heights
11 dish-specific mentions · 91% positive · 1 source type · menu verified October 2026
Lightly salty sweet cream laced with gooey ribbons of caramel in every bite. A steady regular order; some find it too sweet.
Polly Ann Ice Cream · Outer Sunset
15 dish-specific mentions · 53% positive · 2 source types · menu verified October 2026
Pungent, custardy durian ice cream that durian lovers seek out. Opinions split: some find it boldly true to the fruit, others too mild or too strong.
Every score is built from evidence about the specific dish: how often locals recommend it, how strongly, how recently, and whether independent sources agree. A restaurant's overall star rating is never converted into a dish score.
Quality and confidence are reported separately. A dish two people loved can score high, but it is marked limited data until more evidence backs it up. The whole calculation — every constant, and three dishes worked through line by line — is written out on the methodology page.
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