Emack and Bolio’s

If you see the famous cones all over Instagram, do not give in and insist that you have to try them. Really please don’t. Sure the ice cream cones look pretty, but the toppings on them are extremely stale. So unless you want to travel here for just a pretty picture, there’s better ice cream shops out there. Not to mention, the cones don’t come cheap.

Bottom line. There’s no other ice cream parlor I won’t go to. And if I do, Emack & Bolio will always be in the back of my mind.
When there, you have to try the various comes they have, like the Fruit Loops cone. Strange, but it works!

OMG this place is amazing. Expensive if you want to get the fancy cones, but worth it I’d say. Very photo worthy. Unique flavors, generous scoops. Two thumbs up! Would definitely return.

Best white pistachio ice cream I have ever had, sweet firm and very tasty with a touch of pistachio spice.

Had the mudpie and it was amazing — great flavors and super rich and creamy.
They have a lot of fun flavors and the dipped cones look yummy too!
Definitely going back!

2 single scoop cones for just under $ 10 isn’t really a bargain by any means, but it’s on par with say your Ben and Jerry’s, etc. As someone else said, this little shop is kind of like a glorified Ben and Jerry’s, with some unique flavors and others not so unique. You won’t see any exotic flavors here… just mixtures of different flavors and ingredients.
For a regular sugar cone or a cake cone, it’s free. An upcharge for a waffle bowl or cone. I got the regular sugar cone with the Smoreo flavor ice cream, which was packed with fudge, marshmallows, and lots of Oreo’s. Delicious! The ice cream is creamy and perfect for a cone.
For the Upper West Side where ice cream choices are a bit lacking, E&B’s is a decent choice for a sweet, cool treat.

I am an ice cream expert. It’s a gift and a responsibility. Then, trust this, grasshoppas, and order yourselves some grasshopper scoopage. Sitting on the bench out front with my little cup of heaven was a real New York moment. I docked a star for cost (one scoop=$ 4.50), but no complaints on quality.

Simply the best ice cream in New York. Maybe the world.
I love the decadent flavor combinations; the ratio of mix-​ins to ice cream makes Ben & Jerry’s look like child’s play.
The sundaes have generous helpings of fudge and whipped cream, unlike some of my other favorite sundae places (cough — Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory — cough).
Very sweet staff.

Read the reviews and was giving this place the benefit of the doubt because of how delicious their ice cream/​cones looked. Went in and the place looked like it was run down. Ordered the Oreo ice cream in and m&m chocolate waffle cone. For how much it cost it was arguably one of the worst ice cream/​cones I have ever had. The cone was stale as anything and I had to throw the whole thing out only a few bites in. Got a terrible stomach ache as soon as I finished eating it. Will not be recommending to friends or coming back.

The price tag and the below-​average ice cream and stale cones make me pass on this spot given the range of other icy treats available in the UWS. I have visited Emack and Bolio’s downtown in the past and enjoyed their pumpkin ice cream (though again, very pricey) so maybe it’s just this location, but I was pretty disappointed after coming here.
After waiting outside to squeeze our way into this tiny spot, I noticed that while the flavor selection seems wide it’s actually just a lot of flavors with Oreos in them (S’more oreo, peanut butter oreo, regular oreo, chocolate oreo) and then a lot of flavors that seemed to be vanilla with «fun» toppings mixed in. Now I love Oreos, but I was just expecting more options.
I settled on the grasshopper pie which was essentially mint cookies and cream in a cone, and after seeing the prices settled on a small cone which was $ 6. The word small was accurate — it was one scoop, plunked on top of a very generic wafer cone that wasn’t even that crunchy. The ice cream itself was fine, though the Oreo chunks were pretty hard, but I really wanted more ice cream than my very small scoop. I ended up throwing the bottom half of the cone in the trash.
If you want a small serving of ice cream and don’t mind paying a lot, then this might be a better option, but I probably won’t return

If you want to eat sugary items and be a fatty, you should go to a spot like this. The kind of place you know that uses all natural fresh ingredients. I decided to try a couple flavors and per reviews I knew to try cookie dough and then I tried espresso because I love any coffee flavor of ice cream. The espresso was okay– creamy for sure but the taste of espresso was overpowering. The cookie dough was just absolutely perfect and heavenly. The base of their ice cream has this almost custards type of texture but firm like ice cream. The cookie dough taste was too good. Next time I’ll get two scoops of that alone!

Absolutely dead on a 90-​degree day… that about sums up Emack and Bolio’s…somehow they’re still around. Said low turnover leads to mushy, stale mix-​ins (and stale cones at other locations, so I should’ve known better). Even in this neighborhood* of rich suckers with limited eating radius, they can’t peddle their terrible ice cream at absurd prices. A $ 7.25 cup (they insisted I not get a cone because of the # of scoops) barely contained any ice cream (even if it were $ 5 I’d feel slighted — that’s their minimum price, for a single scoop), and the PB oreo, caramel moose tracks, cosmic crunch, and space cake were all borderline awful. When product is this bad, it flies in the face of that concept that high cost creates a perception of quality. They (need to?) post calories, too, which doesn’t help their cause.
*Stick with Sugar & Plumm or Shake Shack if you’re desperate.

The ice cream here is sooo delicious! I went here for the first time today and they had so many flavors it was so hard to choose from! It all seemed really great. I had the Smoreo scoop (highly recommend) and it had marshmallow, chocolate, Oreos, and everything else that makes ice cream super delicious and creamy. The only thing I will say is that the prices were kind of expensive, but they do accept credit card. Will definitely be back here again!

While not my favorite E&B location, E&B is my favorite ice cream shop. These folks gave birth to cookies and cream! And how about that white pistachio? There are several variations of waffle cones from which to choose. I typically get the one with half the calories of a normal waffle cone (I eat half of the cone and I give the second half to the GF). The people manning the floodgates are efficient with no time to interact with all the minions throwing orders at them. But don’t for a second turn your head from the counter otherwise a flip-​flop clad coed from Barnyard may just cut you in the long line that begins outside…

Honestly the ice cream is just average, nothing special. But those cones are pretty cool. Almost 10 dollars for 2 scoops in the big cone, so it’s kinda pricey. I’d say it’s still worth trying though!

Small shop, able to accommodate only 5 or so people. Ice cream is for the most part standard and forgettable. I tried the coconut with almonds and chocolate chips. The ice cream was «old» which I could tell by the slight coloration. The almonds were not crunchy, but chewy, which again speaks to freshness. Next time we’ll choose another place to try.

This is one of those places that is extremely overhyped and all over the internet. People really love how those fruit loop and Rice Krispie cones look. To give them some credit, they obviously know how to market themselves because people seem to be flocking to all their locations just to take an Instagram picture holding one of those cones.
Totally not tempted by the cones, I’m here for ICECREAM!
I love me some icecream.
It could be –3 degrees and if someone offers me a cone, I’ll take it! Especially if it’s mint chocolate chip!
We tried both the «grasshopper pie» flavor and the peanutbutter Oreo. The grasshopper pie was nothing special at all, pretty much mint icecream with some chocolate cookie pierces thrown in. Okay but if you told me it was edy’s icecream I would have believed it. The peanutbutter oreo was also pretty disappointing since it had very little peanutbutter flavor.
Sad to say this place MUST be so popular because of the media influence and not really for the Icecream itself. I also agree in saying that the cones seem to be sitting out for ages and for a place that says they make their cones in house… they seem to have nothing fresh.

I’ve been admiring photos from Emack on Instagram for awhile and I’ve had ENOUGH! I NEED TO EXPERIENCE THIS HEAVEN ON EARTH!
Naturally, once I arrived, I was completely overwhelmed. Far too many flavors! I got Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel (Caramel Ice Cream with a Salted Caramel Swirl and Chunks and Chocolate Covered Pretzels) and Mud Pie (Coffee Ice Cream with Oreos and Chocolate Flakes Mixed In) in a Fruit Loops Cone (some sort of marshmallow goo keeps the cereal on!)
The ice cream was top notch! The cone? Not so much. For $ 3, I thought it would be FAR better. To me, it tasted like it was stale or at least not very fresh. I’m not sure how frequently the cones are made but it didn’t taste like the same day.
Give this spot a visit… it is a chain and there are multiple locations (West Houston and UES too).

Ok, I think I get it now.
I’ve been racking my brain trying to understand why this place gets so much love when the ice cream is actually really mediocre. After following a number of food-​related accounts on Instagram for awhile now though, I see it: girls like taking pictures of the attractive, over the top specialty cones, which for some reason net them tons of likes.
That is the only possible explanation, as those cones are stale and practically inedible. On my last visit I tried the Marshmallow Oreo cone, which was a chore to try to chew through. I also tried the Rice Krispie cone once, which tasted like it was sitting in an open cereal box for a few weeks. I didn’t want to waste myself on the cone, so I just tossed the rest of it, not bothering to eat the just ok Salted Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Ice Cream stuck inside.
Aside from the cones, the ice cream itself is quite disappointing too. I was psyched to see a Peanut Butter Oreo flavor, but unfortunately the peanut butter taste was so weak it was barely noticeable.
Another reason for the harsh rating is that all of this stuff is way too pricey. We got a thin, smallish Chocolate Moose Shake once for $ 6.50 (!) and a small cup with a very small scoop goes for $ 4.75.
A recent Unilocal search led me here again, as it appears that while there are 2 frozen yogurt places for every block in this area, this is one of the only ice cream shops. I think I’ll try the ice cream a few doors down at Sugar & Plumm next time, or even any of those froyo shops for a more satisfying experience.

I had two scoops here, Trippin’ on Espresso and Peanut Butter Oreo, in a sugar cone. A little sign informed me the sugar cone was 55 calories while the scoops of ice cream, in general, were 190. I believe one of those figures but not the other. Emack & Bolio has big white boards with menus written in cartoony letters, and it has the feel of a beach or college town’s ice cream shop, but on the UWS.