The best ice cream and dessert in Austin.
The best ice cream in Austin is Amy’s, serving since 1984 and open to midnight Friday and Saturday at 1301 South Congress; Lick, for family-farm flavors like roasted beets and fresh mint; Dolce Neve, for gelato on South First and East Fifth; and Gati, for vegan scoops on Holly Street, 8am to 10pm daily.
Choice is not the problem in this city. Timing is. Two of the best bakeries below close at 2pm, the snowball stand shuts for the season on December 20, and two stops publish no hours at all. So every pick carries its address and hours as the shop itself publishes them, read on October 30, 2026, and says so plainly when a shop publishes none. The list runs in the order of an evening out: scoop shops, then gelato, snowballs and frozen bananas, bakery counters, and the dessert you sit down for.
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Scoop shops and soft serve
- Shops across Austin · since 1984 · South Congress open to midnight Fri-Sat01
Amy’s Ice Creams
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The institution. Amy’s has been serving toppings since 1984 and counts 41 years in the community on its own accounting, and it is still a Texas company, with shops in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. Its location list now posts hours shop by shop. South Congress, at 1301 South Congress Avenue, and Manor Road, at 2002 Manor Road, open at 11:30am and run to 11pm Sunday through Thursday and to midnight Friday and Saturday. The Guadalupe shop at 3500 Guadalupe and the West Sixth shop at 1012 West Sixth Street run 11:30am to 11pm every day. The same list also carries shops in Round Rock, Cedar Park, Hutto, and Bee Cave, so check the city on the pin before a late drive.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official sources: Amy’s locations and hoursAmy’s Ice Creams
- Burnet, South Lamar, Mueller · family-farm ingredients · Mueller opens 11am daily02
Lick Honest Ice Creams
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The counterweight to a nostalgia pick. Co-founders Anthony Sobotik and Chad Palmatier moved to Austin in 2011 to make ice cream from ingredients sourced from family farms and food artisans, which is why the everyday list reads like a garden: roasted beets and fresh mint, dark chocolate olive oil and sea salt, Hill Country honey and vanilla bean, and grasshopper pie. The fall seasonals are Hazel’s pumpkin pie and caramel apple cake, and a vegan chocolate chocolate sits on the dairy-free list. Three Austin shops: 6555 Burnet Road, #200; 1100 South Lamar, #1135; and 1905 Aldrich Street, Suite 150, at Mueller. Mueller opens earliest, 11am every day, and runs to 11pm Friday through Sunday. Burnet and South Lamar open at 12:30pm and close at 10pm Sunday through Thursday, then run to 11pm Friday and Saturday, from 11:30am on Burnet and noon on South Lamar.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official sources: Lick locations and hoursLick flavorsAbout Lick
- East Austin and Tarrytown · ice cream · hours not published03
Zeds
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Zeds publishes three shops, and two are in Austin, at 1814 Harvey Street on the east side and 2727 Exposition Boulevard, #128, in Tarrytown. The third, on Bee Caves Road, is in West Lake Hills, outside the city. The site lists addresses and phone numbers and stops there, with no hours and no menu anywhere on it, so this is one to call ahead on rather than gamble a drive on.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Zeds locations
- The full list
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- East Austin (Holly St) and Duval St · vegan and gluten-free · Holly daily 8am-10pm04
Gati
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The vegan pick that does not read as a substitution. Every scoop is vegan and gluten-free on a coconut milk base, and the list runs past forty rotating flavors, many of them built from the seasonal fruit Gati gets from its farmers, so what is in the case depends on the week. The shop at 1512 Holly Street doubles as a café and bakery, open 8am to 10pm every day, and its kitchen serves a gluten-free breakfast and lunch, 8am to 2pm on weekdays and to 3pm on weekends. The second shop, at 4500 Duval Street, scoops ice cream and sells gluten-free baked goods from noon to 10pm. Every scoop here is plant-based, and the restaurants where the whole menu is too are on our list of fully vegan restaurants.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official sources: Gati hours and shopsGati vegan ice cream
Gelato
- Bouldin Creek (S 1st) and Plaza Saltillo (E 5th) · trained gelato · S 1st to 11pm Fri-Sat05
Dolce Neve
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The gelato with the most training behind it. Francesca, Leo, and Marco run it, and Francesca trained at the Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna and placed sixth of forty gelato chefs at the Sherbeth Festival. Two Austin shops, with hours posted to the minute: 1713 South First Street runs noon to 10pm Sunday through Thursday and noon to 11pm Friday and Saturday, while 1109 East Fifth Street closes an hour earlier on both counts. A third shop is open in Houston Heights. The torrone ships if you want to send some rather than eat it standing up.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Dolce Neve shops and hours
- South Congress (1400 S Congress) · handcrafted daily · Fri-Sat to 11pm06
Gelato Paradiso
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate At 1400 South Congress, Suite B160, it is the easy finish to a long dinner on that strip and the easy pause in an afternoon of walking it. The gelato is handcrafted daily from Italian recipes, with a dairy-free sorbetto case beside it. Read the ownership before you go: this is a Southern California group, with shops in Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, and Coronado, and Austin is its only shop outside that state. The hours are the other reason it earns a place: 11am to 10pm Sunday, noon to 10pm Monday through Thursday, and 11am to 11pm Friday and Saturday.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official sources: Gelato Paradiso AustinGelato Paradiso locations
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Snowballs and frozen bananas
- North Loop (808 E 51st St) · shaved ice, housemade syrups · open until December 20, 202607
Casey’s New Orleans Snowballs
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Casey’s shaves what it calls the softest, fluffiest snow and tops it with syrups it makes in house with 100 percent cane sugar, across more than fifty flavors, served in compostable cups at 808 East 51st Street. The season is the thing to plan around, and they publish it: open until December 20, 2026, with hours set to contract before then. For now it opens at 2pm Monday through Friday and at noon on Saturday and Sunday, and closes at 9pm on weekdays. The weekend close reads 9pm in one place on its site and 10pm in another, so plan on the earlier one. It is an easy afternoon with children in tow, which is also true of a good deal of the hot-weather list for families.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Casey’s hours and season
- Bouldin Creek (1311 S 1st St) and UT (2420 Guadalupe St) · frozen bananas · hours not published08
Bananarchy
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Frozen bananas dipped in chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, or vegan chocolate, then covered in toppings, from two year-round trucks: 1311 South First Street, and a campus stand at 2420 Guadalupe Street, in the Space 24 Twenty lot behind Urban Outfitters. Its own site calls it the city’s only frozen banana stand. It is a cheap and specifically Austin shape of dessert, and the counterweight to a section that is otherwise seasonal. The site posts no hours and sends you to Google and Yelp for them, so treat a late stop as a check-first errand rather than a sure thing. A trailer is the normal form for this kind of thing here rather than the exception, as the city’s food truck list makes clear.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official sources: Bananarchy locationsBananarchy menu
Bakery and pastry counters
- Hyde Park (411 E 43rd St) · since 1983 · open daily 7am-9pm09
Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate The most useful hours in this whole guide. Quack’s opens at 7am and closes at 9pm every day of the week at 411 East 43rd Street, which makes it the earliest opening here and one of the few stops that covers both a pastry before work and a slice after dinner. The company has been serving Austin since 1983, and its croissants are made from scratch and baked every day, with a seasonal case on top of that: pumpkin pie runs until December. A sit-down room, a neighborhood crowd, and no occasion required to justify it. It is a coffee-and-pastry stop as much as a dessert one, which puts it squarely in the orbit of the city’s best coffee rooms.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Quack’s address and hours
- East Austin (2305 E 7th St) · pan dulce and a breakfast counter · Tue-Sun 6am-2pm10
Joe’s Bakery & Coffee Shop
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Four generations of the Avila family, more than 75 years in business, and the same corner at 2305 East Seventh Street since 1962. The pan dulce is the reason to come and also the reason to come early: the bakery runs all day until it runs out, and the shop’s own advice is to arrive early for the best selection. Doors open at 6am and close at 2pm Tuesday through Sunday, and it is closed Monday. Plan it as a breakfast rather than a dessert run, because there is no version of this that happens after dark.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Joe’s Bakery hours
- Chestnut (1204 Cedar Ave) · pan artesanal · Thu-Sun 8am-2pm, closed Mon-Tue11
Comadre Panadería
Photo: Kelly Phillips / @KPhilPhoto Comadre is the Mexican American bakery Mariela Camacho built after almost two decades as a professional baker, working in pan artesanal from whole, responsibly farmed ingredients. It sits at 1204 Cedar Avenue, in the big pink building behind Nixta Taqueria. The window is the entire planning problem. Thursday through Sunday it is open 8am to 2pm, and Monday and Tuesday it is shut. Its own site is inconsistent about Wednesday, listing it open in one place and closed in another, so call ahead rather than drive across town on one. Treat it as a weekend morning stop rather than a spontaneous one.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Comadre hours and address
- Rosedale (2307 Hancock Dr) · French-Louisiana café and pastry · closed Tuesday12
Épicerie
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate A café and pastry counter that has been in Rosedale since 2012, at 2307 Hancock Drive, where chef-owner Sarah McIntosh cooks the French-Louisiana food she is known for and built out a dedicated pastry program in 2020. Two scheduling details matter more than anything else here. It closes Tuesday rather than Monday, which catches people out, and Sunday service ends at 3pm while the rest of the week runs to 9pm. It opens at 10am on Monday and Wednesday through Friday, and at 9am on Saturday and Sunday.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official source: Épicerie hours and story
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The dessert worth ordering at dinner
- Near Mopac and 2222 · the dessert case is the draw · dinner ends 9pm Tue-Thu, 10pm Fri-Sat13
Chez Zee
Illustration: The Austin Newsletter, gouache plate Thirty-six years near the Mopac and 2222 junction, and the bistro’s own site names its weekend brunch and its desserts as what it is known for. This is the entry for the night when dessert is the plan and a walk-up counter is not the shape of it, meaning a table, a fork, and a room to sit in. Read the service times rather than one open-to-close line. Lunch runs 11am to 3pm Tuesday through Friday, with happy hour 3pm to 6pm, brunch 9am to 3pm Saturday and Sunday, and dinner 6pm to 9pm Tuesday through Thursday and 6pm to 10pm Friday and Saturday. It is closed Monday, so a weeknight dessert here means sitting down before nine. Finishing the evening where you started it is the other approach, and the date-night list is built around it.
Checked October 30, 2026 at the official sources: Chez Zee hours and locationChez Zee
What we considered and didn’t include
The things we passed on are part of the value. Documented for editorial discipline.
- Manolis Ice Cream Pops Sorbet & MoreOn this list until October 2026. Its shop at 8907 Circle Drive sits outside the Austin city limits on the City’s own jurisdiction map, and it now opens Friday through Sunday only, 2pm to 11pm, so it no longer fits a list of Austin shops or the late-night slot it used to fill.
- Luv Fats Ice CreamOn this list until October 2026. Its website no longer loads and its Instagram cannot be read without an account, so on October 30 there was no page of its own to confirm the Loyola Lane shop’s hours or that it is trading. It comes back when one can be read.
- Museum of Ice CreamThere is no Austin location. The company’s own site lists Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Singapore. Worth saying plainly, so nobody spends an afternoon looking for a building that is not in this city.
- The Cheesecake FactoryTwo Austin locations, both mall outposts of a national chain serving the dessert menu it serves everywhere else. The cheesecake is fine. Nothing about ordering it here differs from ordering it in any other city, which is the whole problem with putting it on a list about this one.
- Voodoo DoughnutFounded in Portland and run as a national chain. The draw at the East Sixth shop is the sidewalk it sits on at bar close rather than anything in the case, and held to the same bar as everything above, it does not clear it.
- Merry Monarch CreameryA small-batch shop people still ask about, at 5000 Burnet Road, with a genuinely interesting flavor list. The only hours it posts are a Friday and Saturday evening window labeled holiday hours, so there is no regular weekly schedule to point anyone at. Every other pick above publishes its hours or says plainly that it does not.
- Sweet RitualThe vegan scoop shop a lot of people go looking for. Its web address no longer belongs to the business, and nothing current confirms the shop is open. Listing it would send people to a door that may not be there, so it stays off until that changes.
Common questions
- What is the best ice cream in Austin?
- Amy’s is the institution, serving since 1984 and still a Texas company, with its South Congress shop at 1301 South Congress open to midnight on Friday and Saturday. Lick is the ingredient-led counterpoint, started in Austin in 2011 on family-farm sourcing, with shops on Burnet Road, South Lamar, and at Mueller. For gelato, Dolce Neve on South First is run by a founder who trained at the Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna, and for vegan scoops, Gati on Holly Street is open 8am to 10pm daily.
- Where can you get an ice cream cake in Austin?
- Amy’s makes hand-decorated ice cream cakes with homemade cake and any of its flavors: a 3-inch cake serves 2 to 3 for $15.15, a 6-inch serves 8 to 10 for $33.50, and an 8-inch serves 12 to 15 for $48.60. Sheet cakes, from a quarter sheet that serves 25, are pickup only at its Burnet Road shop. Every order needs at least two business days, and the cake team takes orders Monday through Thursday 8am to 2pm and Friday 9am to noon.
- What ice cream shops in Austin are open late?
- Amy’s on South Congress and on Manor Road is the latest, open to midnight on Friday and Saturday and to 11pm the rest of the week, and its Guadalupe and West Sixth shops run to 11pm every night. On a Friday or Saturday, Dolce Neve on South First, Gelato Paradiso on South Congress, and all three Lick shops also run to 11pm, and Lick at Mueller holds that on Sunday. Gati on Holly Street closes at 10pm every night.
- Where can you get vegan or dairy-free ice cream in Austin?
- Gati is the most complete answer: every scoop vegan and gluten-free on a coconut milk base, more than forty rotating flavors, and the Holly Street shop open 8am to 10pm daily. Lick keeps two dairy-free flavors on its standing list, a vegan chocolate chocolate and a vanilla chocolate swirl, Gelato Paradiso pours a dairy-free fruit sorbetto, and Bananarchy will dip a frozen banana in vegan chocolate. For full meals, see the fully vegan restaurants in Austin.
- Is there a Museum of Ice Cream in Austin?
- No. The Museum of Ice Cream has no Austin location. Its own site lists Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Singapore. If the plan was a sweet afternoon out, the scoop shops above are the closest thing this city has.
- When does snowball season end in Austin?
- Casey’s New Orleans Snowballs at 808 East 51st Street publishes its own season: open until December 20, 2026, with hours set to contract before then. For now it opens at 2pm on weekdays and noon on weekends, and closes at 9pm on weekdays. It is a seasonal business, so check its site before driving over in late fall.
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