Twirl and Dip

Mitchell’s might be the best pistachio ice cream I’ve had yet. Served out of a cute little ice cream truck in Golden Gate Park after a day at the de Young is totally the cherry on top.

I love Mitchell’s ice cream as much as the next person — especially the grasshopper pie — but unless you’re not from the area there is no reason you should be paying $ 3.50 for a scoop of Mitchell’s. In fact, you should never be ordering a scoop of Mitchell’s ever anyway — you need to drive to Mitchell’s and buy your ice cream by the bulk. That would be doing Mitchell’s right.
To do Twirl and Dip right, you need to get the organic soft serve, upgrade to the sugar cone (extra $ 1.50), choose a topping or two (ranges from an extra $ 0.50-$ 1.50, depending), and pay with cash. My husband and I are especially partial to vanilla bean + toffee pieces but when it’s a celebration, we’ll pay the extra $ 1.50 to dip in TCHO chocolate and get some of that sea salt goodness. It’s crazy to have ice cream from a truck that costs almost $ 10 but we all need to treat ourselves and loved ones now and then, right? I’ve never regretted an indulgence here and I promise neither will you!

I came across Twirl and Dip a while back and it’s been on my list to try ever since. We were in the general area but went out of our way on a nice Sunday walk through Golden Gate Park for a sweet pit stop.
Really enjoyed our vanilla/​chocolate twirl soft serve, dipped in TCHO chocolate with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt, on a plain cone. It didn’t take much, but the sea salt brought it home for me and elevated the flavor. Price breakdown was $ 4 for the soft serve on the plain cone (homemade sugar cone is more) and chocolate dip was an additional $ 1.50. Luckily we had cash on us (no cards accepted).
Like any ice cream on a cone it can get messy, even on a cold day in SF. Ask for more napkins!

I will dream of these sugar cones for the rest of my life. One of the best things I tried in SF. Go for the tcho. Well worth it. What an awesome stumble upon :)

We went out of our way to stop by this place on a hot Sunday. There was quite a line, but it was moving quickly and I wasn’t about to let a little delay stop me.
This place can get pricey, the basic soft serve is $ 3.50, add $ 1.50 to get it dipped in TCHO chocolate (which is pretty necessary), and if you are a glutton like me then you’ll want the sugar cone (basically a waffle cone) for $ 1.50. My treat was $ 7 but I loved every second of it.
Perfect treat on a hot day (or any day really, because who doesn’t love soft serve?).

We stumbled across this ice cream truck in Golden Gate park the other weekend. Since it was amazingly hot and ice cream sounded delicious, we got in line for soft serve. There’s so few places that have good soft serve ice cream in the city, I was so excited to get one here. To make it even more awesome, they have chocolate *and* chocolate vanilla swirl (the latter being my favourite). To add decadence to your yummy dessert, you can add chocolate dip (Tcho chocolate), sea salt flakes, waffle cone, and a whole mess of toppings from candy to chocolate to fruit. There’s also iced fruit popsicles if you want to avoid dairy but still crave a cool treat in the heat.
The line up at the time wasn’t too bad, the service was a bit eh, but the ice cream made it worth waiting for.

Cash only! This place is always the highlight of my lunchtime walk to the park. The guy that runs the truck is super friendly and the ice cream/​Popsicles never fail to satisfy me! I recommend getting the chocolate dipped scoop on a cone with sea salt and peanuts if it’s your first time. It is a little pricey, but sooo worth it!

The ice lollies are bomb! I wanted the ice cream but I have diabetes so the nice guy suggested the lollies instead.

There was a long line in Golden Gate Park but it is well worth it! I wanted one of the lollies but they ran out so I got the grasshopper in the house cone. That cone tastes exactly like a fortune cookie and it was the perfect crisp for the minty ice cream. I should have gotten the vanilla bean and some toppings but didnt. There werent that many ice cream carts around the park so Im glad I got to this one.

Usually I would never condone purchasing a cone for more than 5 bucks, but the soft serve at Twirl and Dip made me believe that ice cream fairies were cradling me in a silky chocolate hug every time I bit into the velvety dipped soft serve!
Twirl and Dip is a cute little ice cream food truck in golden gate park that serves soft serve, Mitchell’s ice cream, sundaes, floats, and fruit pops. They are known for their amazing dark chocolate dipped, organic soft serve cones. While the vanilla bean soft serve was creamy, smooth and all that jazz, the dark chocolate shell with sea salt was so, so amazingly exceptional and is a must try.
The onlyyyyy reason why this isn’t an all star 5 review is that again, it’s pretty darn pricey. If you want the whole shebang I think it’s like 7 bucks, which is practically a crime.
BUT I KILL FOR ICE CREAM.
Besides, anything that makes me hallucinate deserves a golden star on my list!

As if the sight of food trucks weren’t enough, you sell ice cream? Welp, thanks a lot for ruining my diet, Twirl and Dip!
The ‘thing’ to get is their chocolate-​dipped soft serve BUT they also have healthier options such as a fruit popsicle or a frozen banana, which, for an extra dollar, you can also dunk in chocolate. I got myself the Watermelon White Pepper popsicle and it was yummy! Not super guilt-​inducing and very juicy. My boyfriend had the vanilla bean dunked in chocolate with a little bit of sea salt and of course, it was tasty. Didn’t really like that when you bit into it, the soft serve inside just squirted and oozed out like it was already melted.
I wouldn’t say this was the best thing I’ve ever had and it’s a bit on the pricey side, but it surely hits a good spot for me so overall, not bad!

I think I enjoyed my ice cream more from Twirl and Dip because of the wonderful service with a smile the hubby and I received. The young gentleman who was by himself and had a line of people waiting to be served was nothing but friendly. San Francisco can be a very unfriendly city (comparatively speaking), and it’s so refreshing when people are nice to you!
We had the ice cream, not the soft serve. They had three flavors of Mitchell’s Ice Cream the day we went (strawberry, pistachio and grasshopper pie), and since I’m an ice cream fanatic, we got a sundae to share. Two scoops of pistachio ice cream, Toasted Coconut, Butterscotch, Whipped Cream and a Luxardo Cherry on top! Delicious! Not too sweet and we just loved the toasted coconut and butterscotch combination.
Next time, I’d like to try their Soft Serve which is from Straus Creamery. You can get it dipped and covered in dark chocolate and garnished with sea salt if you’d like. You can also order soft serve in their handmade cones and topped with handmade toppings like toffee, sauces and syrups. They also have these beautiful and colorful ice lollies. Yum!
So, if you’re in Golden Gate Park by the California Academy of Science or the de Young Museum, stop by this truck. Its location is the same everyday on Martin Luther King Dr. We passed by the truck on our way to our car from the de Young, and though the truck was closed already, the young man was still in there cleaning up. He saw us, waved to us and gave us another smile. Wouldn’t that make you want to come back?!

Twirl and Dip came to my work place for a corporate event, so I can’t comment much on the pricing or wait, but I can talk about the food. Here’s what I tried:
–Watermelon and white pepper
WOW! This tasted EXACTLY like a watermelon on a stick – so much that I really did say «wow» out loud when I first tried it. I didn’t taste much of the «white pepper» part of the lolly, however. The lolly also tasted like it had been sweeted, which it didn’t need. The natural sweetness of the watermelon would have been enough. I think it would have been interesting to see a watermelon and lime juice combinator. I wasn’t a huge fan of the circular shape: While it did make the lolly stand out from usual ice pops, I think the circular shape made it more conducive to melting or dripping with the increased surface area.
–Chocolate/​Vanilla soft serve swirl
The swirl was probably a poor decision on my part because I couldn’t really sample or appreciate the two flavors on their own– the chocolate just overpowered the vanilla. The soft serve ice cream in my work café is the straus organic vanilla and chocolate, and that is what I’ve been having a lot of this summer. The soft serve from Twirl and Dip didn’t seem to be that much different from the ones we have in our cafes. The vanilla soft serve had little black specs of vanilla beans in it, and although I appreciated that attention to quality, I couldn’t taste a huge difference. The chocolate was fine, but more of a milk chocolate than a deep, dark chocolate. Both flavors were very rich and creamy, but not super memorable or impressive.
The men serving the ice cream in the truck were super friendly as well!

A hip ice cream truck in Golden Gate Park?! Where there is nearly no other food besides the overpriced cafeteria at the Academy of Sciences?! And where you are likely to get hungry walking around the massive park??? Serving photogenic ice cream with a unique concept!!! SUGAR, YES PLEASSEEEE!
Okay that was a bit of a melodramatic start, but exorbitantly pricey though Twirl and Dip is, I must admit their creations are original and tasty, and their location just makes it ever more tempting.
Their most basic soft serve is $ 4, but it quickly adds up if you get their specialty dark chocolate dip for an additional $ 1.50 and their handmade sugar cone for another $ 1.50. Although $ 7 could have bought me an entire meal, Twirl and Dip (with the extravagant extras) is worth trying. The quick-​dry chocolate sauce coating essentially makes a fresh ice cream bar, and the handmade sugar cone reminds me of Ici’s magical cones in Berkeley. Overall, I would have liked it to be less sweet, but it’s nonetheless an indulgent treat and filling (we shared and I was still quite full by dinnertime).
Twirl and Dip… the ice cream truck for adults (who are well-​off enough to be able to spend $ 7 for an afternoon snack, and who are hip enough to want to do so).

I was a little bit skeptical that I would enjoy soft serve icecream since usually it’s just meh. But I was out in Golden Gate park for a picnic and had just broken a sweat from longboarding around the museums, and icecream seemed like an awesome idea at that moment when I saw the Twirl and Dip truck. And it was.
The menu has soft serve on a cone or bowl, sundaes, floats, and a myriad of toppings. I decided to try their regular staple item — soft serve on a cone.
I was going to say, «I’d like a chocolate and vanilla twirl on a plain cone, dipped in dark chocolate with moldan sea salt,» which is basically the complete description from the menu. But then I heard the person in front of me order like a pro so I decided to copy him.
«I’d like a twirl dipped in chocolate with sea salt. Plain cone» Yay for being concise and sounding like a regular.
Anyways, the chocolate-​dipped twirl really hit the spot. The outer layer of chocolate had hardened from the cold of the icecream, and the inside was delicious and creamy.
At $ 5.50 ($ 4 base price, + $ 1.50 for chocolate dip), it’s a bit pricey. But this is San Francisco so…
Also worth noting is the two guys in the truck were cheerful and friendly, despite there being a long line. It’s always nice to have service with a smile.

When I saw Twirl and Dip at Golden Gate Park… I just had to have it! I just love ice cream (and soft serve is pretty up there too) The chilly weather was not going to deter me from getting some frozen sweets either.
This ice cream truck serves soft serve (what they’re known for) and Mitchell’s ice cream. I opted for their most popular seller, the soft serve swirl dipped in dark chocolate sprinkled with sea salt. The dark chocolate and salt had a nice flavor. The dark chocolate complemented the vanilla soft serve nicely too. But overall, I was not impressed by this soft serve as a whole. I wouldn’t crave it and wouldn’t pay $ 5.50 again because I found it quite average. I wanted to love it, maybe i should have stuck to ice cream… either way, I’m glad i gave it a try. It was nice being able to get ice cream at the park and you should give it a try if you like soft serve and dark chocolate.

Unlike ice cream trucks of yore, Twirl & Dip is pretty stationary in a spot to the right of Cal Academy. When you’re facing the museum, swing to the right and follow it to the main road and you’ll see the truck on your left. Unless Karl the Fog is completely blanketing the park, there’s guaranteed to be a bit of a wait. After long walks through the park or multi-​mile bike rides, this is how I reward myself. Oh hell, let’s be real, I reward myself when I haven’t moved all day. I digress.
What should you get? Don’t argue with me. It’s organic vanilla bean soft serve (none of this «½ ¹⁄₂ swirl» business), dipped in silky Tcho chocolate topped with barely there granules of Maldon sea salt. If you’re looking for an Insta-​worthy photo op and I know you are, try rainbow sprinkles, honeycomb candy, toffee pieces, etc for some texture and color. If you’re erring on the side of caution and responsibly opting for a cup, there’s also a slew of other toppings to choose from including seasonal fruit sauces.
It only falls one star for how pricey a single cone gets with just one or two add-​ons. Unless you’re just going for a simple scoop of Mitchell’s, a soft-​serve cone runs $ 5 – 7 easy. But hey, it’s organic, fair trade and uses local as much as possible so feel good about your ice-​cream indulging self.

There’s always a line for Twirl and Dip whenever I come through Golden Gate Park so today I finally decided to try it out! I got the vanilla soft serve dipped in chocolate with sea salt in the organic sugar cone and bf got a frozen banana dipped in chocolate with sea salt.
Both things were good but neither of us thought it was anything particularly special or amazing. The chocolate was good and I liked the sugar cone but I was hoping for a stronger vanilla taste in the soft serve itself– it was a little flavorless. I honestly think it’s overpriced for what it is. The banana was $ 3.50 and my soft serve ended up being $ 7 because of the added chocolate dip and sugar cone. Yikes. For that price I really expected to be wowed but I wasn’t.): I’ll still come back to try the ice lollies though and see how those are but yeah. Pretty overpriced for what it is. :/

Brilliant idea having an icecream truck in the park. On a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, strolling in the park, here was this truck with a line and people walking around with a cone or cup in their hand.
A bit pricey for a soft serve, but not bad compared to other places in the city. Depending on the mood, I’d add the dark chocolate dip with salt on my soft serve. Might get a little messy with the dip, but it was a great mix (usually got vanilla soft serve if going for chocolate dip)!

Not bad. 3.5?
The organic sugar cone was too crumbly for my taste.
The half vanilla, half chocolate twirl was good with the olive oil and sea salt. I thought they could have went a little easy with the olive oil inside the cone because maybe that’s why my cone was so crumbly.
Also, my cone wasn’t filled to the bottom, when I got close to the bottom third or so, it was empty inside.
It was $ 13 for this cone and a sugar cone with chocolate dip.