Miyako Ice Cream, Filmore, SF

On one of my final days of “funemployment” before I started my new job, I decided to bike around the Golden Gate Park (I finally found the Bison hidden in the park!), and then make my way over to the Filmore and Japantown to check out the neighborhoods. While I was there, I couldn’t help but stop at Miyako Ice Cream, which had been on my ice cream “must try” list for a while. I walked into a very unassuming ice cream and candy parlor to discover a down-to-earth old school vibe that was really refreshing given the over-the-top style of Bay Area ice cream that at times borders on pretentious.

Miyako Ice Cream: An old school ice cream shop with some great flavors

Miyako doesn’t try to do anything fancy. They provide delicious ice cream, courtesy of Mitchell’s and Dryer’s for a very reasonable price. Up until this point, I actually hadn’t had that many of Mitchell’s flavors, so I had to get a taste of their Ube ice cream, which I’d heard so much about. While the deep purple color of the Ube is noteworthy (and Instagram-worthy), the flavor didn’t really do it for me. It just tasted sweet, without much actual Ube flavor. After that disappointment, I decided to fall back on some old favorites, so I ordered the Mitchell’s Mexican Chocolate and Mitchell’s Cookies n’ Cream. The Mexican chocolate was very light, with a nice chocolate base and a Mexican spice flavoring (think horchata). Unlike other Mexican Chocolates, this ice cream was not hot-spicy at all, which I actually prefer over the hot Mexican chocolates that can sometimes be overwhelming with spiciness. The Cookies n’ Cream was also great, with big chunks of Oreos dispersed throughout a creamy vanilla base. While the ice creams were good, I did get a few bites of ice crystals in the scoops, most likely because Miyako gets their ice creams delivered, rather than make them from scratch at the shop.

The main thing to note about my ice cream scoops, is how they were prepared. I ordered a small scoop, split between Mexican Chocolate and Cookies n’ Cream. But the man working at Miyako decided to take that to the next level and split those two scoops in half and prepared essentially a four-scoop cone for me, with each flavor alternating A-B-A-B. I had never seen that done before, but I wish every ice cream shop would do that! As I licked the scoops, the Mexican Chocolate and the Cookies n’ Cream blended together to create a swirl of deliciousness that made the experience that much better. Although I was a little disappointed by the cake cone standard at Miyako, the price of the ice cream at a cheap $4 made up for it. One last thing to know before you go to Miyako: They’re a cash-only business. But since their ice cream is so reasonably priced, that’s hardly an issue. Overall, I’d say Miyako Ice Cream is a great place to stop for some tasty classic ice cream flavors if you don’t want to deal with the long lines or cost of the fancier ice cream shops nearby (Salt & Straw, Smitten, etc.).