Best Ice Cream in Houston: Scoops, Gelato, Paletas and Snowballs

You can buy a scoop of small-batch Houston ice cream after you clear security at Hobby Airport. That tells you something about this city: frozen treats aren't a summer thing here, they're a year-round survival skill. Houston's ice cream scene runs from stretchy Levantine booza and Italian gelato to Hot Cheetos ice cream that turns up in Chinatown, mangonadas on the west side and New Orleans-style snowballs shaved from a block of ice.

This is the shortlist we'd hand a friend who asks where to get the best ice cream in Houston. It's organized by style, so you can pick a craving first and a neighborhood second, and every shop on it was checked as open on its own official website.

The quick list

• For a classic Houston scoop: Fat Cat Creamery in Garden Oaks, or at Hobby Airport on the way out of town.
• For gelato: SweetCup in Montrose or Dolce Neve in the Heights.
• For the wildest flavors: milk + sugar, where the menu has no vanilla on purpose.
• For ice cream you can stretch: Booza, near the Galleria.
• For a churro-and-ice-cream showpiece: Red Circle in Chinatown.
• For paletas and mangonadas: Tarascos in West Houston.
• For a real snowball: The Frozen Panda in Humble or Texas Sno in Katy.
• Worth the drive: La King's on the Strand in Galveston, and the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham.

How we chose

We looked for shops that make something you can't get anywhere else: their own ice cream, gelato, paletas or shaved ice, with a clear point of view. Local makers came first, and national chains were left out. Every pick had to list a current address and opening hours on its official website as of October 2026. We left out several beloved names because we couldn't confirm them that way, and we'll add them back once we can.

Hours change, especially in the cooler months, so treat every schedule below as "typically" and check the shop's own site before you drive across town.

Scoop shops

Fat Cat Creamery

Garden Oaks, 1225 W. 34th St · also inside Hobby Airport by gate C-27 · open daily

Fat Cat started in 2011 making tiny batches of ice cream on a stove in a shared commercial kitchen, because, as the founders put it, they couldn't find good craft ice cream in Houston. The first parlor opened in 2013. Everything is made from scratch, mix-ins included, with a base of Texas whole milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks, and the cups and spoons are compostable.

Insider tip: the Hobby Airport shop is by gate C-27, so a flight delay can end with a scoop instead of a sad sandwich. Fat Cat also delivers by bicycle anywhere in the Heights. Call the number on its site to order.

Best for: a proper Houston scoop, at home or on the way out of town. Pair it with our Houston airports guide.

milk + sugar

Montrose, 1848 Westheimer Rd · the Heights, 1324 N. Shepherd Dr · West U, 5172 Buffalo Speedway

milk + sugar is built around mix-ins it makes in-house and folds into the ice cream as it churns: brownie chunks, cake, streusel. Its house rule is printed right on the website: please don't ask for vanilla, because "life is too short for plain vanilla." Look for flavors like dulce de horchata, Kyoto fog (hojicha and vanilla), yum cha (pandan and chrysanthemum) and ube. It typically stays open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays in Montrose and the Heights.

Best for: a late-night dessert run after dinner on Westheimer. Our Montrose restaurant guide has the dinner part covered.

Flower & Cream

Near West U, 2617 W. Holcombe Blvd · also on W. Dallas St and at POST Houston downtown

Flower & Cream's motto is "Lick. Laugh. Love," and its rotating case leans playful: honey roasted strawberry, raspberry tres leches and unicorn tracks (a cotton candy base with Lucky Charms marshmallows). Many flavors are gluten-free, and the list typically includes vegan flavors made with coconut cream.

Best for: families and anyone who needs a dairy-free scoop that doesn't feel like a consolation prize.

Red Circle Ice Cream

Chinatown, 6838 Ranchester Dr · also in Pearland and Sugar Land

Red Circle opened in Houston's International District in August 2017, and its name is a wish: red for good fortune, a circle for continuity. It rotates through more than 100 flavors, including horchata, Thai tea, ube, durian, Hot Cheetos and, yes, crawfish. The signature is the Churro Daddy, a churro arch with a scoop of ice cream in the middle, alongside Hong Kong-style egg waffles and ice cream-filled macarons.

Best for: the most photogenic dessert in this guide. Make a night of it with our Chinatown and Asiatown guide.

Gelato and booza

SweetCup Gelato & Sorbet

Montrose, 3939 Montrose Blvd · closed Mondays

SweetCup has been making gelato and sorbet on Montrose Boulevard since 2012, with flavors drawn from its founder's travels and from growing up in Texas. The menu rotates, so the fun is in the tasting spoons. If you fall for a flavor, you may be able to take it home: SweetCup is also sold in local grocery stores and served at Houston restaurants.

Best for: a gelato walk after a Montrose dinner.

Dolce Neve Gelato

The Heights, 4721 North Main St · open daily

Dolce Neve began in Austin, founded by a gelato maker trained at Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna. The name means "sweet snow," a nod to the earliest gelato: snow mixed with honey and fruit juice. Staples include stracciatella, organic pistachio and crema Dolce Neve (custard with lemon zest), while rotating flavors run to goat cheese and pecan, whiskey and pecan, and ricotta, honey and pistachio. It also makes granita, Italian shaved ice, and affogato.

Best for: gelato purists. Add dinner from our Heights restaurant guide.

Booza

Galleria area, 5922 Richmond Ave

Booza is the Arabic word for ice cream, and this shop makes the stretchy Mediterranean kind. The secret is mastic, a natural resin from the mastic tree, which gives the ice cream a texture the shop describes as somewhere between ice cream and taffy, only much closer to ice cream. The family recipe dates to 1941. Order ashta with pistachios, or try orange blossom, rosewater or Turkish coffee. Most flavors are gluten-free, and there are dairy-free sherbets.

I didn't know that: Booza also sells its ice cream online and ships it frozen to your door, so a Houston souvenir can arrive on a friend's doorstep.

Best for: something you genuinely can't get at home.

Paletas, mangonadas and Mexican ice cream

Tarascos Ice Cream

West Houston, 13932 Westheimer Rd · open daily

Tarascos serves the Alief, Mission Bend and Energy Corridor side of town with more than 60 house-made ice cream flavors inspired by Mexico and beyond, plus handcrafted paletas. The order to get is the mangonada: dairy-free mango sorbet layered with fresh mango, Tajín and chamoy. Snack-lovers can add elote, fruit gazpachos and rusas, and it typically stays open until 10 p.m. on weekends.

Best for: a sweet-and-spicy fix on a hot afternoon.

Snowballs

A Houston snow cone and a New Orleans snowball are not the same thing. A snowball is shaved from a block of ice so fine it eats like fresh snow, then soaked in syrup. Both of our picks take the craft seriously.

The Frozen Panda Snowballs & Pops

Humble, 7934 FM 1960 E · open daily

The Frozen Panda's slogan is "It's snow much fun," and the menu goes beyond snowballs to ice cream shakes, lemonade and dirty sodas. It typically opens in the late afternoon on weekdays and from midday on weekends, so plan an after-school stop. More on the area in our guide to living in Humble.

Best for: families on the northeast side.

Texas Sno

Katy, at Turquoise Acres Ranch, 3550 Schlipf Rd · weekends

Texas Sno has been bringing New Orleans-style snowballs to Katy since 2011, and its current owners are New Orleans natives. It orders its syrup concentrates from New Orleans and shaves block ice on a SnoWizard machine. The stand typically serves on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, parked next to a barbecue spot, when it isn't out catering events.

Best for: a weekend treat in Katy. Our Katy restaurant guide has lunch.

Worth the drive

La King's Confectionery (Galveston)

2323 Strand St, Galveston · open daily

La King's is a throwback to a 1920s ice cream parlor and candy shop, with a soda fountain and more than 50 candies made from old-time recipes. The fountain serves Purity Ice Cream, which La King's calls the oldest ice cream in Texas. On weekends you can watch saltwater taffy being pulled, spun out and packaged. Pair it with our Galveston day trip guide.

Blue Bell Creameries (Brenham)

1101 S. Blue Bell Rd, Brenham · weekdays, plus Saturdays in summer

Blue Bell is made in its hometown of Brenham, and you can watch it happen. The creamery has an ice cream parlor that serves a few flavors Blue Bell sells only in parlors, a visitor center with a museum of the company's more than 100-year history, a country store, and an observation deck where you can watch half gallons and pints being filled. The tour is self-guided. It's typically open Monday to Friday, plus Saturdays in June, July and August, and the observation deck closes earlier in the day than the parlor. Our day trips from Houston guide has more ideas on the road.

Save this: a Houston scoop crawl

Three stops, one afternoon, three styles. Start late so you hit the last shop after dinner.

1. Dolce Neve, the Heights. Start with gelato or a granita on North Main.
2. Fat Cat Creamery, Garden Oaks. A short drive up to West 34th for a classic small-batch scoop.
3. milk + sugar, Montrose. End on Westheimer with the weirdest flavor on the board, open late on weekends.

The weekend upgrade: swap in Booza for a stretchy scoop near the Galleria, or Red Circle for a Churro Daddy in Chinatown.

Before you go: a quick checklist

• Check the hours on the shop's own site the day you go. SweetCup closes Mondays, Blue Bell's creamery is mostly a weekday trip, and Texas Sno serves only on weekends.
• Flavors rotate. Dolce Neve posts current flavors on Instagram and Red Circle suggests calling your nearest shop, so check before you promise anyone a specific flavor.
• Dairy-free? Flower & Cream, Booza and Tarascos all list dairy-free options.
• Flying out of Hobby? Fat Cat is by gate C-27.
• Ice cream melts fast in Houston traffic. Bring a cooler bag if you're buying pints to take home.

More sweet stops in Houston

Make it a whole sugar tour with our best bakeries in Houston, or plan a full day out with the kids using our family activities guide.

Last verified: October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Where can you get ice cream at Hobby Airport?

Fat Cat Creamery has a parlor inside Hobby Airport by gate C-27, serving the same small-batch ice cream as its Garden Oaks shop on West 34th Street.

What is stretchy ice cream and where can I get it in Houston?

Stretchy booza gets its chewy, taffy-like texture from mastic, a natural tree resin. In Houston, Booza at 5922 Richmond Ave near the Galleria makes it from a family recipe dating to 1941.

Where can I get gelato in Houston?

SweetCup Gelato & Sorbet on Montrose Boulevard has made gelato and sorbet since 2012, and Dolce Neve on North Main Street in the Heights makes Italian-style gelato and granita.

Where can I get a New Orleans-style snowball near Houston?

Texas Sno in Katy uses syrup concentrates from New Orleans and serves on weekend afternoons at Turquoise Acres Ranch. The Frozen Panda in Humble serves snowballs daily.

Can you tour the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham?

Yes. The Brenham creamery offers a self-guided visit with an ice cream parlor, visitor center, country store and an observation deck. It's typically open weekdays, plus Saturdays in June, July and August.

Which Houston ice cream shops have dairy-free options?

Flower & Cream makes vegan flavors with coconut cream, Booza offers dairy-free sherbets, and Tarascos' mangonada is made with dairy-free mango sorbet.