The 7 Best Ice Cream Shops in Israel (2026)

Updated August 2026 · 7 picks

The best ice cream in Israel is at the Italian-trained gelaterias in Tel Aviv and the boutique dairies in the Galilee, and the flavour to order is halva or tahini — sesame-based scoops that exist nowhere else at this quality. Vegan gelato is excellent and widespread. Expect ₪16–₪28 a scoop. Seven, below.

1. Anita — Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv

The Neve Tzedek institution — the queue outside is a permanent fixture.

₪₪ Mid-range

Anita is the best-known ice cream shop in Tel Aviv, sitting in Neve Tzedek with a queue down the street on most warm evenings and a reputation built over many years.

The range is broad and includes a serious sorbet and non-dairy selection alongside the dairy gelato, plus the elaborate sundae-style constructions that account for much of the queue.

Neve Tzedek's lanes are the best place in the city to walk with a cone, which is a substantial part of why it works.

Good to know: The queue is shortest before 8pm. After 9pm on a summer Saturday it is a twenty-minute wait.

Google Maps Website

2. The halva and tahini gelaterias — Tel Aviv and nationwide

The one flavour category Israel genuinely leads the world in.

₪₪ Mid-range

Halva ice cream — sesame paste and sugar folded through a gelato base with crumbled halva running through it — is the Israeli contribution to the form, and nearly every serious gelateria in the country makes a version.

Tahini gelato is the purer, less sweet relative and is often the better scoop: nutty, faintly savoury and unlike anything in the European canon.

Both work as vegan versions with no loss, since sesame carries the flavour and the fat without dairy.

Good to know: Order halva and tahini together in one cup — they are different enough to be worth both.

Google Maps Website

3. Buza — Galilee and Tel Aviv

An Arab-Jewish ice cream partnership out of the Galilee, and genuinely good.

₪₪ Mid-range

Buza — the Arabic word for ice cream — began in the Galilee as a partnership between Arab and Jewish founders and grew into a small chain, with the original in the north and branches elsewhere.

The flavours draw on the region directly: local fruit, nuts, rosewater, sesame and dates, made in small batches, and the Galilee origin is not marketing but where the milk and produce come from.

It is one of the few Israeli food businesses that is explicitly about the shared culture rather than either half of it.

Good to know: Worth a stop if you are driving through the Galilee — the original branch is the one to find.

Google Maps Website

4. The Italian-trained gelaterias — Tel Aviv

Proper technique, small batches, and the pistachio to prove it.

₪₪₪ Upmarket

A handful of Tel Aviv gelaterias are run by people who trained in Italy and make gelato to that standard: low overrun, natural colours, seasonal fruit, and a pistachio that is the right dull green rather than a bright one.

These are the places to judge by the classics rather than the local flavours — if the fior di latte and the pistachio are right, everything else will be.

They cluster in the centre and the north of the city and they are noticeably more expensive than the chains, for good reason.

Good to know: Bright green pistachio is a bad sign. Dull, muddy green means real nuts and no colouring.

Google Maps Website

5. The vegan gelaterias — Tel Aviv

Entirely plant-based shops that beat most dairy competition.

₪₪ Mid-range

Tel Aviv has fully vegan ice cream shops, and unusually they are not a compromise category — coconut, oat, cashew and tahini bases produce gelato that stands on its own rather than as a substitute.

The reason is partly cultural and partly structural: Israel's high vegan population created the demand, and the long-established parve dessert industry, built for kosher reasons, had already solved most of the technical problems.

Sorbets in particular are outstanding, using local citrus, pomegranate, date and mango.

Good to know: Try the vegan halva before the dairy one — several shops make it better.

Google Maps Website

6. The Galilee boutique dairies — Upper Galilee and Golan

Ice cream made where the milk comes from, at farm shops in the north.

₪₪ Mid-range

The Galilee and Golan are Israel's dairy country, and several of the boutique cheese farms and dairies there also make ice cream from their own milk, sold at farm shops alongside the cheese.

The appeal is directness — goat and sheep milk ice creams, seasonal fruit from the surrounding orchards, and a product that has travelled about two hundred metres.

They pair naturally with a Galilee driving day, and most sit alongside a cafe with a view.

Good to know: Combine with the region's cheesemakers — most farm shops sell both and let you taste.

Google Maps Website

7. The market granita and juice stands — Carmel and Machane Yehuda markets

The cheap answer to Israeli heat: crushed ice, lemon and mint.

₪ Budget

Every market in Israel has stands selling lemonade with mint — limonana — frozen or crushed over ice, alongside fresh pomegranate and orange juice pressed to order.

In genuine summer heat this beats ice cream on the merits: colder, sharper and more actually refreshing, for around ₪12–₪20.

The Carmel Market in Tel Aviv and Machane Yehuda in Jerusalem are the best places to find them, and they are on nearly every corner in August.

Good to know: Frozen limonana is the single best thing to drink in an Israeli August. Order it slushed, not poured.

Google Maps Website

Frequently asked questions

What flavour should I order in Israel?

Halva or tahini. Sesame paste makes an extraordinary ice cream — nutty, savoury-adjacent, not too sweet — and it is the flavour Israeli gelaterias do better than anywhere. Date, labneh, Turkish coffee and pistachio are the other locally distinctive ones worth trying.

What does ice cream cost?

Roughly ₪16–₪22 for a single scoop and ₪25–₪35 for a double at a good gelateria. Kiosk and chain ice cream is cheaper. It is not a cheap treat by international standards, but the quality at the top end is genuinely high.

Is there good vegan ice cream?

Excellent, and everywhere. Israel's high rate of veganism means most gelaterias carry a full parallel range of sorbets and plant-based gelato rather than one token flavour, and tahini and halva bases need no dairy in the first place.

What is the difference between dairy and parve ice cream?

Kosher law separates meat and dairy, so a kosher meat restaurant can only serve parve — dairy-free — dessert. This produced a large, long-established Israeli industry making genuinely good non-dairy ice cream decades before veganism was a trend, which is why the vegan options here are so good.

When is ice cream season?

May to October, and the peak is a Saturday evening in August when it seems the entire population is walking somewhere holding a cone. Shops open late in summer — 11pm or midnight is normal — because the heat only becomes bearable after dark.

What about granita and sorbet?

Both are widely available and arguably better suited to the climate than gelato. Lemon and mint granita, pomegranate sorbet and frozen fruit ices are sold from kiosks and gelaterias alike, and they are the more refreshing choice in genuine heat.

1. Anita — Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv

2. The halva and tahini gelaterias — Tel Aviv and nationwide

3. Buza — Galilee and Tel Aviv

4. The Italian-trained gelaterias — Tel Aviv

5. The vegan gelaterias — Tel Aviv

6. The Galilee boutique dairies — Upper Galilee and Golan

7. The market granita and juice stands — Carmel and Machane Yehuda markets

Frequently asked questions

Related lists

The 7 Best Yoga Retreats in Israel (2026)

The 7 Best Scenic Spots in Israel (2026)

The 5 Best Sushi Restaurants in Israel (2026)

The 7 Best Street Foods in Israel (2026)

The 6 Best Steakhouses in Israel (2026)