Niki Maccanico's Homemade Ice Cream — Restaurant in Belmar

My girlfriend and I stopped in here for the first time today.

We usually go to Hoffmans down the street a few times a month, which we thoroughly enjoy, but decided to try Niki Maccanico's Ice Cream to see if we liked it better.

I am a huge fan of soft serve vanilla, which is odd because with all the flavors Hoffmans and Maccanico's offer, I go with the standard. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in and saw that soft serve was indeed available. Hooray!

I went BIG and ordered the large cup of vanilla soft serve sundae with hot fudge, Oreo Cookies, whip cream and a cherry. I was told the large soft serve is = 4 scoops of ice cream. It's a lot of ice cream! My girlfriend ordered a smaller sundae cup of 2 coffee flavors with the same toppings. Total for both was $18.00. This is actually $3 - $4 more than Hoffmans. So, this place is expensive.

Another issue is that unlike Hoffmans, credit cards are not accepted here. This is a CASH ONLY business which is a bit inconvenient.

I will say that the clerk/owner(?) behind the counter was extremely friendly. He made awesome sundaes. He treats his customers very well. I saw him personally open the door for every customer that walked out with ice cream including the both of us. That's very personable.

The ice cream was fantastic. My girlfriend commented how much she enjoyed hers. My soft serve sundae was perfectly delightful. Comparing it to Hoffman's, I would say that we had a better built sundae from Maccanico's. The clerk/owner(?) puts more effort into building them than the teenage girls behind the counter at Hoffmans.

I was very impressed with our ice cream from Niki Maccanico's. If you are considering either Hoffmans or Maccanico's here is what I can tell you...

Both are first-rate. You are going to pay more for Niki Maccanico's. However, that being said, I think Niki Maccanico's has an edge on the quality of their ice cream and the build of their sundaes. The shop has indoor seating (which Hoffmans does not offer), so we were able to sit in air conditioning when it was horribly hot outside. Maccanico's also has that ice-cream shop feel and appeal to it. The clerk/owner(?) is highly personable and really seems to care about his customers. It's not a bunch of teenagers working behind the counter (though they are very friendly at Hoffmans).

The one deterrent for me in returning is the CASH ONLY policy. I just find carrying cash to be...

This place is amazing! Me and my family were looking for some ice cream at the end of a day of swimming, so we looked online, and found this. We were drawn to it due to it being homemade, so we went there. It is a little pricy I’ll admit, but it’s worth it. You can taste the freshness in it. I’m a soft serve gal, but this beats factory made soft serve anyday. They have SO many flavors, (my favorite is Oreo chocolate) and the employees are super nice. I definitely recommend this place!...

The ice cream here is just so amazing! The service is great as well. The ice cream is home made and tastes just....😍. You can sit inside on cute little tables and then you can also sit outside. Outside it's amazing! You can sit under umbrella tables that can hold up to 8 people. The scenery is amazing. There is also other benches as well. The decorations are very unique and amazing. Absolutely the most amazing ice cream place. If I could give it more then 5 stars, I would. Defiantly...