The best ice-cream in London: 2021 edition

This ice-cream parlour with locations in Tufnell Park and King's Cross serves handmade sorbets and gelati in high-brow flavours like pistachio, rosewater and masala chai. It’s all very yummy mummy, but heavenly all the same. There's a £15 minimum for orders, which must be placed by 5pm the day before the requested delivery date. Deliveries are made on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday afternoons.

International ice-cream parlour Four Winters has just one UK outpost, on London's Gloucester Road. The offering here is far from your usual scoop, though. Four Winters freezes its ice cream with liquid nitrogen, resulting in a deliciously smooth texture, free of tiny bits of air or ice. Capturing the season's best ingredients, Four Winters creates interesting twists on our favourite flavours, such as Spicy Mango, Pineapple and Blue Violet.

The most Instagrammable ice cream in London, and probably the world, comes by way of Milk Train, where the scoops come floating on a bed of candy floss (don't worry, there's a cone for support, too). As well as the usual flavours, you can tuck into matcha and tangy yuzu, while the sweet shop toppings are worth the trip alone. Be warned, this Covent Garden gem has a queue winding out its door virtually all year round.

This cutesy neighbourhood ice-cream parlour perched on the edge of Clapham Common often has a (socially distancing) crowd outside its doors. Keeping things traditional with genuine Italian ice cream, Nardulli has a friendly, family atmosphere and a wide variety of flavours sold in cones, cups or – for those looking for something a little more hearty – on crêpes or accompanying cakes.

Back in 2010, Chin Chin Labs were the original nitro freezers; nine years on, their tag line 'the future of ice cream' might have lost its freshness, but their ice-cream certainly hasn’t. With a catalogue of avant-garde flavours (strawberry and hay springs to mind) on continual rotation, a visit to one of their parlours guarantees a surprise. Expect a theatrical experience complete with nitrogen tanks, goggles and lab coats.

'Life’s too short to eat bad ice cream' say the folk at Oddono’s Italian ice-cream parlour. We couldn’t agree more and thankfully, the gelati served here are among the absolute best. Whether you try the South Kensington flagship, or drop by one of the other four branches, no flavour will disappoint, but we have a special soft spot for the pistachio.

Greedy Goat

Location: Borough Market

Hours: Thursday - Saturday 10 AM - 5PM

With its offering of ice cream made exclusively with British goat's milk, Greedy Goat is a little different from your average parlour and a Borough Market staple. The flavours are unusual too, with honeycomb, gin and tonic, and raspberry Eton mess among them.

If, for some reason, egg waffles don't appeal to you, try Dum Dum Donutterie's doughnut cones. Flavours include Crême Brûlée, Boston Creme and the Zebra: layers of croissant dough and chocolate croissant dough, filled with chocolate buttercream and topped with chocolate ganache. With branches across London and further afield, chances are you'll come across one on a hot day this summer.

Founded in Florence in 1932, the Badiani brand now boasts three glossy ice-cream parlours in London and a further (temporarily closed) outlet at Italian food market Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle. These high-quality gelatos are silky-smooth and laced with further enticing ingredients. There are over 100 flavours to choose from, plus fruity gelato glasses and chocolate-coated gelato cookies.

Childhood dreams you never even knew you had come to life with a trip to Nosteagia at Boxpark Shoreditch. Here, the specialities are bubble waffle cone ice creams and bubble teas. With your ice cream tucked snugly inside this edible bubble wrap, you'll never have to worry about losing a scoop again. There's a range of fun flavours too, including Marshmallow Chocolate and Bananarama.

The Udderlicious ice cream is, we’re pretty sure, made by wizards. Made fresh by smiley wife-and-husband duo, this Islington institution has a tempting pastel-coloured selection of gelatos. Bored of vanilla? Udderlicious’s flavour combinations are a foodie's delight. The strawberry and basil sorbet is like a mouthful of summer and, for all its cool creaminess, the apple crumble summons warm and cosy thoughts of home cooking. And, if you don't like what you see on the menu, play a hand in picking next month's flavours by voting for potential batches online.

For an experience as authentic as it gets, try Gelateria 3Bis, a permanent fixture at Borough market. Ingredients such as mascarpone, pistachios, figs, liquorice ­are flown in directly from Italy and shared by the only other two 3Bis gelaterias in coastal Rimini. That batches are made on-site every morning is just one sign of the parlour’s trademark dedication to craftsmanship. And look: no wrappers! Yep, Gelateria 3Bis even has sustainability sorted.

Kitty Travers’s hand-made flavours are nothing if not wholesome: made with organic milk and strictly seasonal fruits, these are ice creams coaxed from her ex-greengrocers shop in north Lambeth. To feel virtuous as you indulge, try peaches, crème fraîche and tarragon, or apricot and chamomile sorbet. Ordinarily, Travers sells at Spa Terminus on selected days but her ice creams can be bought by the tub all year round from Leila's Shop on Calvert Avenue or the General Store on Bellenden Road. And, if Kitty's top-notch ices leave you keen to learn the craft yourself, you can buy the La Grotta Ices book online.

We'd be hard pressed to name anything more desirable right now than frozen alcoholic juice on a stick. While ordinarily available from Ocado, Harvey Nichols and Harrods, you can currently order Ice Kitchen's delicious frozen dreamsicles on Deliveroo if you live near Battersea, Whitechapel, Crouch End or Swiss Cottage. And if you want to try making your own at home, take inspiration from Ice Kitchen's book: Poptails: 50 Sensationally Intoxicating Cocktail Lollies, which is available to order now.