Van Leeuwen Ice Cream — Restaurant in New York

My favorite ice cream place in the whole city! Van Leeuwen uses pure, simple ingredients: generally just cream, cane sugar, eggs, & milk for their base. High quality cacao in the chocolate. Last I checked they even use pastured, grass-fed eggs (so higher nutrient and higher omega-3). Also there's none of the preservatives and other icky stuff that's in other ice cream brands (ie. gums, additives, etc). This is the real stuff. You can definitely taste the difference~ it's dense, more like gelato, and rich in taste. Great for folks with allergies to additives who want purer ingredients. They do have vegan options (though there is guar gum in those I believe)-- with creative flavors like peanut butter marshmallow brittle. In their classic line (dairy based) they have a range of yummy flavors: pistachio, chocolate (michel cuizel), earl grey tea, mint chip, peanut butter marshmallow, strawberry, etc. You'll never run out of options and it's the perfect thing for hot summer evenings. Folks working at this store are also...

The ice cream is good, no questions about it. The place is small and cute. I visited it on a day big rain and flood hit NY, and as a result I was the only client in there. I placed an order for one scoop, but then decided to have one more. The girl at the counter already scooped the first one, so she put the second one in a separate cup. When I was about to pay, I noticed that I was charged for $13 with change. I asked the girl why, as 2 scoops supposed to be $8 with change. She replied that I ordered 2 scoops. And I pointed to the menu, where the prices are displayed. She said " The 2 scoops have to be in one cup. " Can you place them in the same cup?" , I replied. And so she did! Ta-da! Should not be that hard, should it? It was clear that I was there alone and both scoops were for me, so she should combine them without further instructions, I think. That's the only negative moment. The ice...

Wow, been a minute since I’ve been to a Van Leeuwens and it’s really gone downhill. Service was dismissive and rude, no smiles, it’s basically an assembly line and feels like they’re doing you a favor by letting you order ice cream. The store was crowded for a Saturday night and they kept ushering my group to and fro, acting like we should have known which way the line forms even though there are no signs, and even though we were doing our best to stay out of people’s way, making us feel very unwelcome. $8 for a tiny, one flavor scoop that equates to a kids scoop in most places? Even in an inflationary NYC this is a ripoff. The honeycomb flavor feels like it has chunks of ricola in it, not the subtle streaks like before

There are so many better alternatives in the neighborhood. I was a fan but won’t...