When everyone in your family screams for ice cream, don’t sweat it! Calgary has a huge variety of amazing ice cream shops all over the city. So whether you’re looking for a handcrafted flavour you’ve never tried before, some authentic Italian gelato, a new twist on ice cream, dipped soft serve, or a milkshake like nothing you’ve ever seen in your life, we’ve got the perfect list to start your ice cream journey this summer.
The hardest part will be choosing which one of these spots for ice cream in Calgary to visit first!
Top Spots for Ice Cream in Calgary
Made by Marcus
3 Locations: 17th Ave, Bridgeland and West Hillhurst
Great if you’re looking for: Delicious one-of-a-kind locally crafted ice cream, sundaes and ice cream cakes. They also have vegan options!
As soon as the weather in Calgary is warm, you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a line up out the door of Made By Marcus’ 17th Avenue store, and for good reason. With ice cream flavours like lemon curd, dipped ice cream bar picks like Earl Grey & Raspberry and sundae options like the “Happy Camper” which comes complete with graham cracker crumbs, hot fudge and a freshly torched marshmallow, your taste buds are sure to go wild.
Village Ice Cream
5 Locations: Victoria Park, Brittania Plaza, Garrison Corner, Bridgeland, and University District
Great if you’re looking for: Small-batch, locally made hard ice cream flavours that’ll knock your socks off. They also have vegan and gluten-free options.
As soon as you walk through the doors of Village Ice Cream, the smell of the freshly made waffle cones is guaranteed to make your mouth water. They have a menu of ice cream flavours that are available year-round but have specialty flavours that rotate as well. If you ever see the Rice Krispie flavour on the menu, walk – don’t run – because it’s incredible and sells out fast! I also love their hot fudge sundaes, and the waffle cones are a must.
Righteous Gelato
Locations: 221 19 Street SE or pick up a container to take home at many grocery stores in the city (including Co-Op, Safeway, Sunterra, Sobeys and Superstore)
Great if you’re looking for: Locally crafted, small-batch gelato and sorbetto. Sorbettos are gluten-free and dairy-free (vegan)!
Righteous Gelato has tons of tasty gelato and sorbetto options both in their storefront and by the batch at many of your favourite grocery stores. My personal favourite is the frozen hot chocolate, which comes with house-made marshmallows folded throughout. Yummmm.
Lukes Drug Mart
3 Locations: BridgelandK & Killarney
Great if you’re looking for: Soft serve charcoal ice cream.
Kill some time waiting to fill a prescription in the best way possible – by grabbing yourself some soft serve! Luke’s Drug Mart has lots of tasty ice cream options including Blood Orange Creamsicle, Blueberries and Cream, Birthday Cake Cookie, and Coconut Lime and Milk. If you’re a coffee lover, you’ve got to try the Affogato, which is made with espresso poured over Milk soft serve. The Bridgeland location (Luke’s original location) is a fun and quirky store complete with a coffee shop, vinyl records, home decor, a pharmacy, and more. This is definitely a place you’ll want to spend some time browsing through once you’ve got your ice cream!
XO Ice Cream & Waffles
Location: 808 100 Auburn Meadows Drive SE
Great if you’re looking for: Tasty, handcrafted ice cream flavours, waffles, sundaes, and my personal favourite – affogato. They also have vegan options.
Flavours like Elderflower Lemon Zest, Tiramisu and Hazelnut Crunch with Ferrero Rocher are just some of the hard ice cream flavours offered at XO Ice Cream. If you have a coffee lover in your family, you’ve got to try the affogato – a shot of espresso poured over the top of a scoop of ice cream. It’s the perfect hot-meets-cold, melty, creamy concoction that just might change your life (it did mine!)
Mackay’s
Location: 220 1st Street West, Cochrane
Great if you’re looking for: Locally-made, unique hard ice cream flavours as well as sorbets.
Even though it’s out in Cochrane, we couldn’t make a list of the best ice cream in Calgary without including Mackay’s. Mackay’s Ice Cream is on a mission to be recognized as the premier ice cream brand in Western Canada and is well on its way to reaching that goal. They have a wide range of hand-crafted flavours including totally unique ones like durian ice cream, kulfi, purple yam, haskap berry, and more classic flavours like cookies and cream. If you can’t make it out to Cochrane for a cone, great news! Mackay’s Ice Cream is now available at many Co-Op, Save-On, Safeway and Sunterra locations in Calgary.
REGRUB
2 Locations: Beltline and Deerfoot City
Great if you’re looking for: The craziest, tastiest, most over the top milkshake you’ve ever seen.
You pretty much have to see the milkshakes at REGRUB to believe them. We’re talking milkshakes, topped with a doughnut, topped with a scoop of ice cream, just for good measure. Or maybe a milkshake, topped with an ice cream sandwich, topped with whipped cream and an Oreo cookie is more your speed. Whatever you’ve got in mind, their themed milkshakes are out of this world, and their burgers are pretty delicious, too!
Leavitt’s Ice Cream Shop (LIC’S)
Location: 3410 3 Ave NW
Great if you’re looking for: Delicious hard ice cream and frozen yogurt. They also have lactose-free, sugar-free and dairy-free options.
Leavitt’s Ice Cream Shop, also known as Lic’s, has been a Calgary staple since 1982. They’ve got delicious hard scoop ice cream, frozen yogurt, and tasty waffle cones or bowls to eat them out of!
Amato Gelato
Location: 7-2104 Kensington Road, NW & 602 17 Ave. SW
Great if you’re looking for: Over 72 rotating flavours of authentic Italian gelato, sorbetto and specialty desserts.
Opened in 2004, Amato was Calgary’s first gelato shop. The recently renovated store, located in Kensington, has a huge variety of delicious flavours of gelato in addition to pizza, pastries, and affogato. They also have treats like gelato, sorbetto, gelato bars, cakes and sandwiches available to take home! There’s now a second location for extra deliciousness.
Marble Slab
16 Locations: Including Chinook Mall, Market Mall, Aspen Landing, CrossIron Mills, and Coventry Hills
Great if you’re looking for: An ice cream cone custom-made with your favourite toppings, or treats like milkshakes, sundaes, banana splits, ice cream sandwiches and more. Lactose-free ice cream and low-fat yogurt is on the menu as well.
Wherever you are in Calgary, there’s probably a Marble Slab not too far away! They have all kinds of yummy treats available, but there’s nothing like a good ol’ cone where you can pick your favourite ice cream flavour and then add “Mixins” like fruit, nuts and candy, which are chopped up and folded into the ice cream as you watch!
La Diperie
5 Locations: Including Country Hills Boulevard, 17 Avenue, and Gateway
Great if you’re looking for: Soft serve you can dip into different flavours and coat with your favourite toppings. They have lots of vegan treats available, too!
If you’re on the hunt for incredible ice cream sandwiches, vegan cookie dough, ice cream cakes or fun desserts, La Diperie has you covered. Their specialty, though, is over 30 Belgian chocolate flavours to dip your soft serve in. Flavours include classics like light and dark chocolate and totally unexpected ones like activated charcoal, ginger lemonade and lavender. Add one of the 20 tasty toppings to your dipped cone and you’ve got the perfect treat!
My Favourite Ice Cream Shoppe
2 Locations: Marda Loop and West 85 Street Mall
Great if you’re looking for: 72 different classic hard ice cream flavours
This is one of our family’s go-to ice cream shops when the warm weather hits! We love the old-fashioned vibe of the Marda Loop store, with the vintage decor and the piano in the middle of the room (according to their website, anyone who plays for at least ten minutes gets a free cone!) It can be hard to choose from their over 72 flavours, but I haven’t had a bad one yet!
Sweet Tooth
Location: 206 Center St. SE
Great if you’re looking for: Hand-crafted, rolled ice cream in a lot of flavours.
The best food trend to come out of Thailand since Pad Thai, we’re loving the rolled ice cream served up at this Centre Street sweet shop. The ice cream is made from scratch before being rolled on a freezing surface and presented oh-so prettily into a cup. Think of it as a fancy sundae – one that’s presented with panache. Go ahead and let kids get close to the counter to watch the magic.
Which of these ice cream shops are your favourite? We’d love to hear in the comments!
Tagged under: summer,Ice cream,restaurants,Calgary,best ice cream shops
Category: restaurants
