On a hot day, there is no better way to cool down than by sinking your teeth into a refreshing ice cream in Raleigh. We could enjoy an ice cream in any weather or season, and have taste tested our way around the city to find the best ice cream in the Triangle, within a short drive from Raleigh, from sweet and sickly flavors to bold and beautiful fruity favs.
If you’re looking for premium ice cream or sundaes, then below are the best ice cream shops near Raleigh to find the freshest, most delicious, and delectable ice creams. With the help of our kids, two ice cream aficionados, we’ve created this short list of ice cream shops that we love to visit as a family. You can also check our comment section for other recommendations from the Raleigh community!
The Best Ice Cream Shops in Raleigh NC
1. Two Roosters Ice Cream
Two Roosters Ice Cream is a cool local story. Founded by an NC State University alum, it initially started by roaming the streets of Raleigh in a turquoise 1965 Ford truck. It was such a hit they opened brick-and-mortar locations in 2017 and was listed as the best ice cream in North Carolina by Food & Wine Magazine in 2021.
Their popular handcrafted ice cream features unusual creations with seasonal and permanent flavors – often inspired by local events and restaurants. Popular flavors: Earl Grey Lemon Cookie Dough, Blackberry Hibiscus. Coffee Bourbon.
Bonus: if you’re lactose intolerant (and actually avoid dairy) they always have two non-dairy options and a vegan option. And it’s located in our favorite neighborhood in Raleigh, North Person Street. They also have locations in Wake Forest, Durham, Cary, Greystone Village & Lake Boone trail.
- Address: 215 E Franklin St, Raleigh
- Website: Tworoosters.com
2. Andia’s Homemade Ice Cream
Another inspiring story that started all the way over on the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus and ends up in Raleigh is Andia’s Homemade Ice Cream. This family-owned business is led by Andia Xouris, and after traveling to numerous cities around the US to learn the art of premium frozen dessert creation, this has become one of the most popular places to get ice cream in Raleigh.
They serve up their award-winning ice cream made from the highest quality milk and cream, and support family-owned dairy farms. On the menu are traditional classics and homemade flavors like Chocolate and French Vanilla, plus unique flavors such as Baklava, Coffee Bean Crunch and Rose Pistachio. Our kids enjoyed their Garbage Can Sundae! Oh, and you can’t miss their MONSTER shakes and crazy cake shakes, or consider their Oreo Cookies & Cream Sammie, or taste test with one of their ice cream flights!
- Address: 1008 Ryan Rd, Cary
- Website: AndiasIceCream.com
3. Howling Cow Ice Cream
Here’s another NC State connection. Did you know they make ice cream on NC State’s campus? With a 329-acre dairy farm and a nationally recognized food science program, NC State’s Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery makes delicious ice cream in their Feldmeier Dairy Processing Lab, part of the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Science.
The milk and cream come directly from over 300 NC State cows on their farm in Raleigh. It doesn’t get more local than this! Our kids loved their mud pit sundae and banana split. Try their unique flavors like Cherry Brickyard or the Chancellor’s Choice to get the full Howling Cow experience!
If you’re looking for local ice cream in Raleigh, put them on your list – they have a cool porch area too overlooking the property. We recommend walking the short nature trails before this at nearby Yates Mill County Park. Make the kids earn their treat.
- Address: 100 Dairy Ln, Raleigh
- Website: HowlingCow.ncsu.edu
4. FRESH. Local Ice Cream
You may have seen their ice cream truck around town, or visited one of their three locations, but if you haven’t, grab your kids and get to a FRESH. Local Ice Cream shop in Cary, Apex or Raleigh. Locally owned and operated with a huge variety of 15+ signature flavors, if you’re looking for ice cream in Cary or Apex or on Glenwood Ave, put your flavor of choice in a cup, homemade waffle cone, or cake cone.
Plus, they have monthly specialty flavors to keep you coming back for more, and ice cream soda floats, milkshakes, and they even make party cakes FRESH each week! Our kids love their Cookie Dough, Birthday Cake and Frozen Hot Chocolate flavors. Other popular flavors include the Carolina Crunch and Midnight brownie.
All of the flavors are made FRESH in house using fresh ingredients from local dairy farms, using local milk that’s from free-range cows, and free of artificial hormones, pesticides and antibiotics – that’s as fresh as it can get. They also offer a vegan selection. Fresh is the most requested ice cream shop in Raleigh from our daughters.
- Address: 138 E Chatham St, Cary
- Website: FreshLocalIceCream.com
5. Goodberry’s Frozen Custard
If you’re looking for something a little bit different, consider a frozen custard from Goodberry’s Frozen Custard! Ok so they have nine stores in the Triangle area, including four within the Raleigh area, but our favorite branch is in downtown on Clark Avenue or the branch in the Village District – one of our girls’ favorite things to do there.
Goodberry’s has been operating in the Triangle region of NC since 1988, bringing fresh, daily made treats using locally-sourced ingredients. Their custards are made fresh every hour, in store, so you can guarantee it’s the freshest frozen custard you’ve ever had. What’s more is they also don’t use artificial flavors, chemical fillers or stabilizers. Every day they have a “flavor of the day” which showcases their many different flavors, from banana pudding to strawberry to pistachio. You can check their website to see what the flavor of today is before deciding if it’s ice cream or frozen custard for you today!
Goodberrys is my most requested frozen treat in Raleigh! What I love even more is they have locations in Australia!! To help spread the word about that we worked with Goodberry’s and created our own Aussie-American version with violet crumbles and cookie dough. We called it the Aussie Doughbreaker (no longer available)
- Address: 2042 Clark Ave, Raleigh
- Website: www.goodberrys.com
6. Geluna Gelato
Kinda like Goodberry’s, gelato is not ice cream – at least the Italians want to keep it in its own genre My truth is that it’s a much better version of it. Gelato is known for its dense and creamy texture and high-quality ingredients. Another reason I prefer it to ice cream. There is no better place to eat gelato then it’s birthplace, Florence, Italy. Or is it? Get happy Raleigh, as Geluna Gelato in Downtown Cary was just named the best gelato in the whole world outside of Italy by Southern foodie magazine, The Local Palate.
Husband and wife duo Warwick and Diana actually trained in making gelato in Bologna Italy so it’s no wonder they’ve reached such high heights. Their gelato flavors are rooted in tradition – don’t skip the Stracciatella and sea salt caramel – but inspired by the seasons with rotating flavors like labne sour cherry and honey lavender. And extra good news we love: Warwick is Australian. AND he makes great coffee at Geluna Gelato (of course) its a true hidden secret,
- Address: 111 E Chatham St, Cary
- Website: gelunagelato.com
7. Raleigh Rolls
Now, if you’re looking for unique ice cream in Raleigh spots, put Raleigh Rolls on your list – we love their background story too! Founded by Ramy who was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt till the age of 24 he has been living in the Triangle since 2006. Raleigh Rolls was an idea that started with the start of the food halls trend, and Kristen (his partner) went to the owner of Morgan Street Food Hall with the idea of rolled ice cream – a concept of making fresh ice cream on a frozen surface in front of customers which she encountered in Thailand.
From there, Raleigh Rolls was born inside the Morgan Street Food Hall in the Warehouse District. They make fresh made from scratch ice cream with endless amounts of flavors that can be created to suit all kinds of different palettes. Popular flavors include; Chocolate Overload: a cookies and cream ice cream loaded with different toppings. And Benelux Biscoffee: a cold brew coffee made by our local favorite Benelux coffee shop mixed with Biscoff cookies and topped with whipped cream and caramel.
- Address: 411 W Morgan St, Raleigh
- Website: RaleighRolls.com
8. Captain Cookie and the Milkman
The Morgan Street Food Hall has Raleigh Rolls, and the Transfer Co. Food Hall has Captain Cookie and the Milkman (also in North Hills). There are few things kids love more than an ice cream sandwich, serves up fresh, made-from-scratch cookies, dairy from local creameries, and made-to-order ice cream sandwiches.
Indulge in one of their ice cream sandwiches (vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate and choose which cookie goes on top and bottom – 8 to choose from), an edible cookie dough jar with five flavors to choose from, or a milkshake (vanilla, strawberry, chocolate). Oh, and their cookies are mighty fine also – Kirk, the founder, made his first cookie at the age of 4 and has been obsessed ever since and his recipe is the result of over three decades of testing and tinkering!
- Address: 500 E Davie St, Raleig
- Website: CaptainCookieNC.com
9. Lumpy’s Ice Cream
Located slightly north of Raleigh in the ever-growing town of Wake Forest, Lumpy’s Ice Cream was founded by Buck Buchanan who moved from Vermont to Raleigh and the ice cream is adored by locals. Buck has committed to sourcing ingredients locally and using full-flavored, all-natural ingredients. Their philosophy is: keep it simple and keep it local.
His first batches were only available via hand truck in downtown Raleigh, but you can now find Lumpy’s in Wake Forest and across the area including the Raleigh downtown Farmers Market and all events at Koka Booth Amphitheater.
Just some of the many flavors to choose from include the classics plus fun names like; Bernie’s Butter Pecan, Georgie’s Fuzzy Peach Dream, Bennie’s Bacon and Bourbon, Bubba’s Backyard Blackberry, Angel’s Apple Pie, and Wired Hippie (Coffee ice cream with trail mix).
- Address: 306 Wait Ave, Wake Forest
- Website: LumpysIceCream.com
10. Pints Ice Cream & Beer, Fuquay-Varina
For scratch-made ice cream, drive a short way to Pints in Fuquay-Varina who make hand-made ice cream using locally sourced and produced ingredients. What makes Pints unique is that you can pair your specialty ice cream with a pint of craft beer, or signature cocktail. Our favorite pairing would be an Espresso Martini with a scoop of cereal milk ice cream with Gluten-Free Oreos. If you visit during the weekend, it’s very family friendly. Our teens would love a Milkshake flight or waffle sundae (can be made boozy) which are only available on Saturdays.
- Address: 512 E Broad St, Fuquay-Varina
- Website: facebook.com/PintsIceCream
11. Kilwins, Cary, Apex & North Hills
We always visit Kilwins when we go to Wilmington, and we’re thankful we don’t have to drive 3 hours for it now as they have opened a location in North Hills. Kilwins have been serving their ice cream, chocolates and confectionery since 1947. It has seasonal flavors (our favorite is Fall season – pumpkin pie or marsh-mallow s’more anyone?) as well as caramel apples and fresh fudge! I think this is the best smelling ice cream store of all time!
- Address: 200 Park at N Hills St, Raleigh
- Website: kilwins.com
12. Milklab, Cary
Many members of our Raleigh community recommended Milklab to us, and after hearing your calls, we finally decided to give it a go. We’re glad we did – they only use real ingredients (fresh fruit and real juice, and organic milk) and you can really taste the difference between something organic and something using powdered flavorings. It’s well worth driving to Cary for. They do have a location at Smoky Hollow in downtown Raleigh, but the Cary store is the flagship. Milklab didn’t start out as an ice cream shop, they actually started as a Bubble Tea shop paired with rolled ice cream, a unique specialty dessert and tea cafe combination that is one of a kind in the Triangle area.
- Address: 6418 Tryon Rd, Cary
- Website: milklabcafe.com
13. Amorino Gelato, Raleigh
Not just ice cream, but gelato, Amorino also offers a refreshing taste of authentic Italy in the heart of downtown (though originally, they are from the UK). Amorino Gelato has a wide variety of gelato flavors to choose from, from fruity favorites to something rich and chocolatey, they got all flavor palettes covered. They also have sorbet for those who want something a little lighter but still want to indulge. The presentation of the ice cream is beautifully done, they look like ice cream roses! And it tastes as good as it looks!
- Address: 137 E Davie St, Raleigh
- Website: amorino.com
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, those are our favorite ice cream shops in the City of Oaks, and as you can see, there’s a lot of tasty options. Whether you want soft serve, gigantic sundaes, frozen yoghurt or frozen custard, something sweet or something fruity – there’s something for every craving on this list.
Now it’s your turn! Have you tried any of these ice cream shops? where do you think is the best Raleigh ice cream spot? Share in the comments below!
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