3 ice creams to try in Shanghai

Food & Drink

You need to hear it’s hot like you need a scarf and jacket. It’s hot. We get it.

In our opinion, though, you can never hear enough about ice cream – so, after guzzling iced coffees last month, we grabbed a scoop and dug in. Here are three of our favourite spots around town.

Pree Ice Cream Lounge

Certainly one of the most glamorous ice cream lounges we’ve ever seen, Pree feels right at home in Xintiandi, managing to turn many a child’s favourite food into something classy for adults. The small store with a handful of seats offers a limited selection of made-to-order gourmet flavours including goat milk with manuka honey (58RMB), Bourbon and roasted cherries (68RMB) and black truffle (88RMB). All prices are per scoop, so not the cheapest of indulgences, but certainly delicious. Favourites so far include the Uji matcha with genmai (42RMB), which has a strong, deep green tea flavour with a smattering of crispy genmai. For a lighter lick, try the royal rose lychee (68RMB) which is floral, fruity and oh-so-sweet.

Address

Pree 

is at No 15, 181 Taicang Lu, near Madang Lu, Huangpu district.

Gracie's

So many flavours. So hard to choose. Immediately want to go back. Gracie’s did well expanding what was a small counter next to House of Lasagna into another store on Xinle Lu. In the brightly lit and colourful ice creamery, you can order from a large menu with pancakes, lasagna, pasta, soups and salads, but it’s the ice cream that we really dig. The banana split is a wonderful mix of ice cream with chocolate hot fudge sauce, sea salt caramel, whipped cream, and graham cracker crumble. And of course, there are cherries on top. If you’re more of a purist, you can get a scoop or two from the freezer with flavours including Rocky Road, black sesame and honey, matcha tofu and London fog (Earl grey flavour) all on display to tempt you. A single scoop will set you back 30RMB, and a double 50RMB. Mmmmm, Gracie’s.

Address

Gracie's 

is at 204 Xinle Lu, near Donghu Lu, Xuhui district.

Grains

Grains has only been open a week or two, but these guys have already impressed us with their f-you attitude to variety (they currently only have three flavours on offer), and by making their own cones (who’s seen a waffle cone maker in action before? It’s actually not super exciting, but the cones are hot-off-the-press delicious). Current offerings include a delightful cream peach, a decadent dark chocolate and almond, and the apex of all flavours, the house special Yirgacheffe Coffee. This Ethiopian bean translates into a wonderfully rich, slightly chocolatey lick and manages to give you the best possible hit of caffeine, sugar and cream. Heaven! The price here is a very reasonable 20RMB/scoop.

Address

Grains

 is at 202 Wukang Lu, near Hunan Lu, Xuhui district