Awan offers more than a dozen flavors of its fully vegan ice cream made with coconut cream and Balinese vanilla.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
10 of the best L.A. scoop shops for vegan ice cream
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Ask any vegan about the early days of plant-based ice cream, and they’ll shudder at the thought. Remember the chalky, grainy consistency? The barely-there sweetness? Before Los Angeles became a hub for vegan cuisine, sorbet was the best available option. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case — now, some of the best scoop shops in the city are dedicated to plant-based ice cream that delivers the same flavor and texture you’d expect from dairy versions.
Opened in 2010, KindKreme was L.A.’s first fully dairy-free ice cream chain, operating three locations before it closed, one at the former Sage Regenerative Kitchen and Brewery in Echo Park. It remained one of the city’s only destinations for vegan ice cream until 2014, when Van Leeuween launched artisanal pint flavors.
The trend picked up in 2015 with the opening of Yoga-urt, a plant-based frozen yogurt chain that now has four locations. Around the same time, established creameries began introducing vegan options, and oat, cashew and macadamia milks started landing in stores, indicating a growing desire for dairy milk alternatives.
From ice cream and soft serve, to paletas and shaved ice, cool off this summer with our guide to the best frozen treats around Los Angeles.
Magpies Softserve opened in Silver Lake the following year, with “flavors that reflect the city, like horchata, ube, Thai tea and black sesame,” said Warren Schwartz, who co-owns the chain with his wife Rose. The couple uses a coconut cream, oat milk and nut milk base for soft serve that also makes its way into pies. “We experimented with plant-based fats, emulsifiers and natural stabilizers to get that creamy, satisfying texture that people expect,” he added.
L.A. is now awash with vegan ice cream shops serving flavors inspired by childhood nostalgia, cultural heritage and our region’s abundant year-round produce. From raw-vegan ice cream made with young Thai coconut meat to dairy-free frozen yogurt infused with healthy probiotics, here are 10 vegan ice cream shops to help you cool down this summer.
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Awan
Larchmont Ice cream $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Find some of L.A.’s best ice cream at Awan’s minimalist vegan and gluten-free shops in West Hollywood, Larchmont and Venice, founded by Dayglow Coffee owner Tohm Ifergan and Indonesian-Australian chef Zen Ong. The base is made of Indonesian coconut cream, selected for its ideal fat content and neutral flavor, and blended with coconut water and vanilla beans imported from Bali. Culinary director Sophie Montoya has led flavor development since September 2023 and crafted the recently launched summer menu, including a new hojicha flavor made in collaboration with Nekohama Matcha, banana lemon curd, hibiscus, cantaloupe melon and peach and apricot swirl. Look to the core menu for more traditional options like chocolate Oreo and Ifergan’s Dayglow coffee flavor.
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Besties Vegan Paradise
East Hollywood Vegan Foods $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
From co-owners Matt Fontana and Asia Rain, Besties Vegan Paradise is the city’s only fully vegan grocer. The pair views Besties as a way to raise community awareness around veganism and animal rights — they even refuse to stock non-ethical products. The soft serve at this 7-Eleven-inspired convenience store includes just a few ingredients: purified water, oats and cane sugar, blended with locally sourced fruits. A spoonful will remind you of a Wendy’s frosty, soft enough to savor and thick enough to be scooped. Get it dipped in hot fudge or topped with house-made whipped cream and free rainbow sprinkles. Limited-edition flavors rotate monthly. The July special is the “NO Bomb Pop,” featuring organic strawberries and blueberries spiraled with vanilla in honor of the Fourth of July. Stop by on Mondays for $2 full-size cups of soft serve.
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Creamo
Silver Lake Vegan Ice cream Doughnuts $
(Creamo)
Mark Trombino, founder and CEO of Donut Friend, opened Creamo, a vegan ice cream offshoot, in Highland Park in 2020. At this compact creamery with outdoor seating, Trombino continues his aim of offering an ethical, 100% plant-based experience that doesn’t compromise on flavor. The chilly treats sold here have that classic Thrifty consistency, made from a neutral soy milk base that Trombino believes provides the best mouthfeel of any milk alternative. He pays homage to his former rock producer life with the names of Creamo’s 16 ice cream flavors — Paramoreo, soy-free Straw-Berry Lab sorbetto and Corn Against, to name a few. Grab-and-go pints and ice cream sandwiches made with a doughnut from Donut Friend round out the menu.
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Creamy Boys
Hermosa Beach Ice Cream Shop $
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Head to the South Bay for a taste of New Zealand-style ice cream. Opened by Duncan Parsons in 2023 after three years operating a remodeled ice cream truck, Creamy Boys now has locations in El Segundo and Hermosa Beach. New Zealand-style ice cream blends vanilla ice cream with real fruit, except here, vegan flavors are made in-house with a tapioca base. The menu includes banana, mixed berry and strawberry, along with New Zealand’s signature flavor, the Hokey Pokey, with house-made honeycomb toffee swirled into vanilla ice cream. The first bite will take you back to the classic corner store candy, Chick-O-Stick.
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Fatamorgana Gelato
Studio City Ice cream $
Fatamorgana Gelato founder and food chemist Maria Agnese Spagnuolo offers relief from the heat at her scoop shops in Studio City and Beverly Hills, with 22 vegan fruit flavors inspired by Italian sorbetto, a silkier version of sorbet. For its vegan options, Fatamorgana sources from local farms, then blends the fruit with an additive-free base of house-made oat milk, water, pure cane sugar and organic brown rice. As someone who lives with celiac disease, Spagnuolo felt it was important that the gelato be allergen-free. She opened the first Fatamorgana in Rome, Italy, in 2003, before touching down in Studio City in 2017. Flavors like the mixed berry have a velvety mouthfeel that lingers before melting away, and the mango features Manila mangoes imported from Nayarit, Mexico. Fatamorgana offers takeout pints, cute sushi-shaped gelato and even gelato for pups.
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Frozen Fruit Co
Santa Monica Vegan Ice cream $
(Frozen Fruit Co.)
Husband and wife Michael and Victoria knew little about making ice cream when they first started Frozen Fruit Co in 2015. They quit practicing law and dedicated years to developing the shop’s additive-free base, made of coconut cream sweetened with either date syrup, organic blue agave syrup or maple syrup, then blended with organic ingredients. The high-fat content of coconut cream, used here without stabilizers or fillers, produces satin-like ice cream. The focus on simple ingredients threads the menu, with most items featuring less than five, like the organic strawberry sorbet made with just organic strawberries and agave. The chain’s Santa Monica outpost offers six core flavors — the salted chocolate is a fan-favorite, but all deserve a topping of house-made chocolate truffles. Frozen Fruit Co has a special flavor each day — cure the Monday lull with pralines and cream, and ring in the weekend with vanilla peanut butter salted caramel.
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Magpies Softserve
Silver Lake Ice Cream Shop $
(Magpies Softserve)
Opened in Silver Lake in 2016, owners Warren and Rose Schwartz consider Magpies Softserve a “chef-y Dairy Queen.” The chain, with additional locations in Tarzana and Highland Park, offers eight vegan ice creams inspired by nostalgia, including the newly added apple pie flavor folded with cooked Granny Smith apples, brown sugar and cinnamon. The cereal milk corn almond ice cream is a canvas designed for gratuitous toppings — honeycomb candy, butterscotch Rice Krispies, chocolate cookie crumbs, saccharine sauces and classic sprinkles — all house-made and on display. Magpies designs flavors to be swirled together and offers a limited-edition flavor each week, along with pints. Make sure to try one of the signature soft serve pies.
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Urban Dessert Lab
West Hollywood Desserts Ice cream $
(Evi Abeler)
The frozen selection at Urban Dessert Lab, from owners Courtney Blagrove and Zan B. R., is a feast for the eyes and the sweet tooth with brûléed croissants, cookies and ice cream. The duo expanded to West Hollywood in 2024, four years after opening their New York City hub, where their innovative ice cream that oozes chocolate drizzle caused a viral stir. Blagrove, who has a PhD in nutrition and metabolism, developed the whipped, pillowy texture of the proprietary oat milk base. Her goal was to create lactose intolerance-friendly ice cream that delivered on taste. The chain uses a technique called “Line & Layer” that coats the circumference of scoops with sweet crumble and fills the center with delectable chocolate, caramel or fruity drizzle. Enjoy nostalgic flavors like strawberry shortcake, inspired by the iconic ice cream truck bars, along with chocolate peanut butter pretzel and s’mores.
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Wild Living Foods
Downtown L.A. Vegan $$
(Omari Allen)
The sounds of downtown L.A. fade as you walk into Wild Living Foods. Opened by Richard Torres and Lizbeth Sanchez in 2019, the pair are determined to educate people on the benefits of consuming clean food. The menu focus is raw vegan, meaning everything is made from scratch and uncooked or cooked below 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Wild Living Foods offers several ice cream flavors, formed from fresh, young Thai coconut meat extracted on-site, blended with coconut water and coconut oil, then sweetened with a low glycemic coconut blossom paste. The dairy-like consistency is truly an achievement. The Cookie Monster flavor is dyed blue with spirulina and delivers a wave of coconut flavor that’s slightly pulpy and loaded with mountainous coconut cookie chunks. A front display teases 13 classic raw vegan ice cream flavors, including strawberry blended with dehydrated house-made jam, along with a wide selection of toppings.
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Yoga-Urt
Glendale Vegan Ice cream $
(Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)
Yoga-urt is a portmanteau of yoga and yogurt, and a nod to owner Melissa Schulman’s passion for the ancient Indian practice and desire to create a healthier soft serve. The vegan frozen yogurt chain, with four locations throughout Los Angeles, opened in Glendale’s Kenneth Village in 2015. It took Schulman, a chef and food scientist, nearly a year to create the perfect balance of cashew and almond milk for the proprietary base. The result is a creamy, silk-bodied consistency, with gut-friendly probiotics similar to dairy yogurt. Yoga-urt rotates 35 all-natural flavors, with six available at a time (and nine at its Santa Monica outpost), along with optional toppings. Make a cookie sandwich or try the waffle cone made with almond pulp from house-made almond milk. Combine the peanut butter prana and strawberry serenity flavors for a frozen take on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or grab a pint to-go.
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