Swensen’s Ice Cream

This is the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. And believe me, I’ve eaten a LOT of ice cream. This stuff is soft, flavorful, and they don’t skimp! Two favorites are sticky peanut butter and cookies and cream. The service is always prompt and kind. They scoop very heavy, and if you get a container to go, they fill it beyond the top. Don’t miss this stop if you’re in Russian Hill. Only downer is no seating room to eat at the place.

it was so good we came back again on our way back. it used to be a chain like a friendlys that all but closed down but for a few locations. this is the original birthplace of swensens homemade ice cream. great quality ingredients with a dense texture which all good ice creams should be.

Good, fine but certainly nothing special. Certainly not 4.5 stars. Not sure what all the rage is about. After sampling 4 flavors we settled on the chewy chocolate and enjoyed it.

My go-​to flavor is always mint chip and theirs (thin mint) did not disappoint! The employees were super nice and were more than willing to let me try whatever flavored I wanted to sample. Still ended up with mint chip. Creamy, perfectly minty and refreshing, good ratio of chocolate chips. Got a small but it wasn’t too much of a price difference if you get the single or double scoop. I should have gone for it. Oh well time to go back!
Make sure you bring cash because it is cash only. You can buy tubs and I wish I wasn’t walking around the city because I would have definitely brought some home!

You can’t go wrong with this ice cream place. At the top of Hyde street, you get to enjoy a cup of ice cream while you watch the cable car roll by, doesn’t get anymore San Francisco than that. Remember to bring cash though, they don’t take credit cards.

Came here because
1. Our son wanted ice cream
2. We were driving in the area
3. This place has 4.5 stars
The place is small, no where to sit and barely any room to stand in line. I was surprised by the menu because it had a lot of different flavors to choose from. A very nice selection (vanilla, cookies ‘n cream, strawberry, mint, lychee, etc.) we couldn’t make up our minds so I asked to try a sample of the strawberry for our son. The man who was serving us gave him a nice size sample including strawberry chunks.
Although the man was nice to us, he was a bit rude towards the staff. I couldn’t figure if he was the owner or manager of the store, but he was yelling at them like he was. One of the employees already helped everyone in front of me but I guess the man didn’t know, started yelling at him to help customers. The second time, he yelled at another employee for cleaning the surface wrong and how it’s smudging all over. I looked at the employee faces and I felt horrible. The whole thing made me uncomfortable and felt like no one should be talked down on like that esp in front of customers.
Other than that, this place had delicious ice cream. I had the cookies ‘n cream, he gave me a lot of cookies in my small cup! It was sooo good! My boyfriend had the hot fudge Sunday with vanilla, whip cream, nuts and cherry on top, he said it was really good. Our son finished his strawberry ice cream and loved it! I’m glad we stumbled here.

My go-​to pick: Turkish coffee and green tea.
Both flavors aren’t bitter nor are they overly sweet. There have been places that make green tea ice cream either way too bitter to capture the tea taste or too sweet that it doesn’t taste an ounce like green tea. Swenson’s isn’t one of them, theirs taste legit. For chocolate lovers, I recommend the sticky chewy chocolate.
Parking in this area can be a pain and i usually see cars stopped in front, they get their ice cream then they bounce.

I’ve been enjoying Swensen’s ice cream since I was a kid. Way back in the 80’s, there were Swensen’s everywhere — I read that at their peak, there were over 400 stores. However, the founder always kept control over the original store on Hyde street, and it was always a lot better than the franchises. Now, all the of the franchises are long gone, except for a bunch of locations in Asia, but the Hyde street location keeps chugging on, with virtually nothing changed (except for the prices) since I was a kid.
I love chocolate ice cream, and Swensen’s Sticky Chewy Chocolate is the best. It tastes exactly as the name, and it’s definitely worth the steep hike up Russian Hill for a scoop.

Black marble raspberry and vanilla custard are delicious! Unfortunately no real fruit in the black marble raspberry. Lots of flavors and the owner has a big sense of humor which is a plus! The small sizes are more than enough for me.
Cash only! This place is cheaper compared with other known ice cream establishments. Ice cream was definitely good however my favorite ice cream joint in SF lies with Bi-​rite creamery!

First off, I would like to credit The Bachelor show for introducing me to Swensen’s. Haha does anyone remember Ben F’s season where he took a girl to a date at the City Hall & Swensen’s?
Anyways, last night I got to try this place with my boyfriend. We found a parking spot nearby the store luckily. There was a small line, but it moved rather quickly. Yes! Bf got the banana & strawberry while I had the sticky chewy chocolate & cookies-​n-​cream. Soooo delish. I really loved his flavors more cause there really tasted like the actual fruits. Refreshing! I like mine too. What girls doesn’t chocolate riiight? ;)
Cash only. Cute yummy ice cream place indeed. Can’t wait to return again! ^_​_​^

This is the ice cream shop on this side of the 7×7.
Is it better than Bi-​Rite or Mitchell’s or Humphry Slocombe or Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous? No, it isn’t. But it is an institution in its own right, & comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges.
This is the very first Swensen’s, the original. It’s smaller than a studio apartment in SF. Yes, this is an exaggeration, but lord knows, it’s only a mild one. It’s tiny.
Nothing fancy, no frills. All the staple flavors, w a few twists, like cantaloupe or reversible chocolate (?!). Being a coffee fan, the Turkish coffee intrigued me. That got me wondering, why do I never see Vietnamese coffee ice cream anywhere? And I also noted the vanilla custard. I’m not a vanilla person, but I love custard. It’s on my list now. They also are hip w the times; there’s green tea too. I love all things green tea. Nice.
We ordered a thin mint milk shake to share. Of course it was good, & it took me back to my childhood when I indulged in annual Shamrock shakes. Memories.
I hadn’t been here in years. But I was greeted w a smile, a nod, & a greeting from one of the staff as soon as I walked in. I think he’s been here for years. Nice.
More than solid.
4 stars.

Ice cream was so good! Great service. Line goes fast, even for 9pm on a cold windy SF night, there was a line out the door to the curb. Had the cookies and cream and cookie dough ice cream on a plain cone. Waffle cones run out early. Cookies and cream was my favorite flavor. The texture of the ice cream was super creamy– just the way I like it. Keep it up swensens!

A MUST-​TRY near Fisherman’s Wharf!!! You will need climb a few giant hills… but totally worth it!!!
FOOD: I got a single (4oz) of sticky chewy chocolate, which came on a waffle cone for $ 3.75, and I enjoyed every lick of it. The ice cream was VERY CREAMY and the chocolate flavor was very thick, unlike other ice cream places where the flavors are more watered down. The serving size was HUGE too — it was as HUGE scoop and it was seriously GOOD.
SERVICE: The staff didn’t seem too enthusiastic to be there, even though they gave me sample flavors. However, the owner, who is this middle-​aged Asian male, was. He seemed pretty cool and joked around with me.
SETTING: If you are coming by muni, it’s most likely that you’ll be climbing a FEW GIANT HILLS before you get here. BUT WORRY NOT. It’s totally worth it. One downside is that there is no places to sit in the shop, which is fine since there are many things to see in the area, so why not just take a stroll?
PRICE: Giant serving for less than $ 4 with a waffle cone? Great pricing in SF!!! Other places I’ve been to usually charge more than $ 4 for this amount.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I like my chocolate ice cream to be very chocolatey and they did it! Coming back again to try their other flavors.

Seriously, who doesn’t like ice cream? What better and more strategically placed shop to get some ice cream other than Swensen’s? I didn’t see anywhere else and I wasn’t about to keep looking after walking close to 10 miles around town up and down hills so this was the place.
Swensen’s has a bunch of options to choose from so it took me a few minutes and some advice to make a choice but I ultimately landed on 8 ounce ($ 5.95) of the «Sticky Peanut Butter» and «Turkish Coffee». I feel that I chose wisely. Both were delicious but I definitely favored the Turkish Coffee.
Not much to say other than that. It’s ice cream and it’s good ice cream. You’re pretty hard-​pressed to be disappointed by anything they have here but hey, anything’s possible, just highly unlikely.

Some of the best ice cream ever, sundaes, floats, malts, splits, waffles, with unique flavors like green tea, or lychee etc. ice cream concoctions like no other. The nice staff makes it even better.
The chocolate dipped cookies & cream and caramel marbled ice cream on a cone was awesome!
Expected something like Swenson’s in Asia where they give you a menu an servers, it’s totally different but just as delicious.

Feels like an old fashioned ice cream parlor. There’s no seating in Swensen’s but the area is nice to walk around. Stopped by on a Friday night and there was no wait and the service was very quick.
Got the single scoop of cookies and cream in a sugar cone for about $ 4. I love that there were entire chunks of Oreo in it. My boyfriend got the double scoop of thin mint (mint chocolate chip) and sticky peanut butter. It was all so creamy and delicious! Some of the best ice cream we’ve ever had!
Apparently if a red star gets printed on your receipt randomly you get $ 5 back from your order! That happened to us and it was a nice surprise!

Even though I’ve lived in the city all my life, this is my first time ever going to swensens. It’s quite a trek from boboquivaris but it was worth it.
Tried the cookies and cream and thin mint ice cream. For a small double it was a pretty generous portion. The cookies and cream was definitely delicious, ample cookie chunks and the vanilla ice cream was delicious! Thin mint was ok for me. I was expecting a bit more mint flavor but it was good, but I did have a overload of mint chocolate. It got to be a bit much as I kept eating.
Overall, it’s a nice little ice cream shop, if I’m in the area again I would stop by for some more ice cream!

Delicious local ice cream!
This place is a great gem. The ice cream is handmade and the staff are friendly. They carry the usual flavors but my favorites are green tea and lychee. Lychee is a flavor that I can’t buy in stores and here, it’s a great balance of creaminess and fruitiness. The green tea has a strong tea flavor that a lot of store bought versions mask with sugar. Everything is rich and delightful!

I tried ice cream from Bi-​rite, Humphry Slocombe, and Swensen’s on my recent visit to SF, and Swensen’s was hands down my favorite. All these ice cream shops offer different types of flavors, so it may depend on what kind of flavor you’re looking for. Swenson’s has classic flavors as well as some unique flavors but overall seems like a place for simple old-​fashioned ice cream. Cash only!
I sampled the mint and black marble raspberry here and the black marble raspberry won me over. It had the perfect texture of just enough cream, but not too creamy that it would melt fast. I could taste the dark chocolate with raspberry. Neither was underwhelming, nor overwhelming. I like how they offer different size waffle cones so you get to enjoy it in a cone, whether you want a mini one or huge one. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

I don’t get it. It tastes like old fashioned ice cream but not as good.
The flavors have weird aftertastes and the texture is a bit grainy.
I got the banana and it has a similar artificial taste like the banana now-​and-​laters or the Korean banana milk drink. But the aftertaste was horrible. I also thought it was a bit grainy in texture.