The best ice cream in Prague

Summer is hot in Prague and there are a lot of ice-cream sellers. Just few of them make their ice cream from the real fruit, without flavor and coloring agents. And then it tastes how it should taste. Strawberry like strawberry, walnut like walnut. Simply great.

I’ve seen a lot of ice cream shops in many different parts of the world, including in some very southern countries where there’s an ice cream shop on every corner. But the overwhelming majority of them are artificial, full of flavorings and coloring. I really don’t like that; I expect ice cream to be made from real fruit, chocolate, and cream.

That it will taste exactly as I expect, strawberry like strawberries, nut like nuts. Simply that it will be great. In Prague, there are fortunately plenty of these great ice cream parlors, actually, I don’t know any other city in the world where there are so many. Southerners can only envy.

My hint: Whenever I discover a new ice cream shop that maybe looks beautiful, but I haven’t been there before, I always carefully examine the colors of each ice cream flavor. The best barometer for me is pistachio – when it’s clearly or pastel green, it’s not from pistachios, it’s full of chemistry and there’s no point in trying any ice cream here for me. When it’s light brown-green, which is the color of pistachio nuts, it may not look so good, but it’s very likely to taste of pistachios. Similarly, I have my eye on the chemical shade of strawberry or yellow vanilla (vanilla is not yellow at all, the ideal vanilla is white and has black dots of vanilla in it). When I see Smurf-like, I run away immediately. We all know that it’s not from Smurfs, so what is it from? A lot of artificial blue food coloring.

But back to Prague ice cream shops. It’s simple, you can’t go wrong if you choose from the top four: Angelato, Créme de la Créme, Puro gelato, and Zmrzlinář. That’s a sure thing. A wide selection of flavors, from traditional to modern and slightly hipster to somewhat extravagant. And big portions.

For example, I love ice cream, but I don’t eat that much of it. Even the smallest portion is big for me and I watch in amazement as gluttons order big portions. But I like to taste it, it’s not easy to come to an ice cream parlor where they have, for example, 20 flavors, one of which sounds more delicious than the other, and choose only one. My tip: Most ice cream shops have no problem dividing even a small portion into two flavors, and I always take advantage of that. Of cours, most of them let you taste just a tea spoon.

Zmrzlinář (2AD)

I remember when the first such great ice cream appeared near Prague a few years ago. At that time, there was no quality ice cream, and ice cream made from honest ingredients far exceeded any other offer.

Back then, we used to drive for 2AD ice cream all the way to Tuchlovice somewhere near Kladno, because it was simply worth it, better, but no comparable ones existed. Understand, a village where a dog died, a few houses and then a queue of at least 10 people on the corner, whenever you arrived. Today, 2AD ice cream has a shop in Kačice, but we no longer go there. 2AD ice cream is sold in Prague by the Ice Cream Maker and is also available in some cafes (My cup of coffee, Place, Alza café), but only two or three flavors. It was here that I discovered the magic of pistachio ice cream.

On the counter are always the 4 most popular flavors – vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and pistachio and 12 more that change and can surprise you.

An absolute classic – Ice Cream at Světozor

I used to go for this ice cream when I was a child, many years before any of the other mentioned ice cream shops even existed. And it still looks the same – a classic ice cream cone with red and yellow soft-serve ice cream. Strawberry-banana flavor. The composition is not 100% accurate, but I forgive that here. You can find it in the Světozor Passage, the window is facing the passage (you don’t have to go into the inside, unless you want a cake or a sandwich too). You can’t miss it, because there’s almost always a line. And the best place to take this ice cream is for a walk in the nearby Františkánská garden.

Angelato

Angelato Since 2007, Angelato has been operating in Prague with a wide range of different flavors, including seasonal variations. Sorbets from seasonal fruits, ice cream from full-fat milk.

Puro Gelato

Ludmila Abrhám learned Italian gelato at the Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna.

Créme de la créme

Ice cream recipes are created by ice cream maker Honza Hochsteiger. The menu includes classic cream ice creams, fruit sorbets, as well as vegan versions of non-fruit ice creams and healthy ice creams without added sugar, sweetened with stevia. You can find 5 Crème de la Crème ice cream shops in Prague.