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Balboa Ice Cream

4.6 (123 reviews)
Closed 12:00 pm - 9:00 PM

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Balboa Ice Cream Juice Bars & Smoothies Photos

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Darci K.

San Francisco is filled with a ton of amazing ice cream places, and Balboa is on the top of that must try list. Customer service is perfect. The staff is nice. The only draw back is that they only permit two tiny samples. It's tough when they offer some delicious sounding ice cream! We opted for the Marionberry and the rocky road. The Marionberry has no business being as delicious as it is! It's filled with these tasty pie filling pieces that make the fruit explode with flavor. Seriously damn delicious. The rocky road ... THIS my friends is how rocky road should be made. Tons of chocolate goodness, tons of marshmallows, and... no walnuts!! They use almonds. It is really so delicious. Balboa, thank you for making amazing ice cream! We will be back!!

Inside the place
Andrew T.

Super friendly crew and not many large crowds. We came if to SF and always stop at Mitchell's which is down the street. We met up with friends who said it was better than Mitchell's! We drove by Mitchell's and I was ready to pull in, but to foodie in me say no, try it. It's not Mitchell's and not even close. Great spot of your not an ice cream snob and just want a treat. In options alone, Mitchell's has 3X more. Healthy potions, good basic ice cream, but my place is Mitchell's ‍

Hawaiian sherbet
Dennis T.

Good neighborhood ice cream shop. Good amount of flavors, both ice cream and sherbet, and the service was friendly and quick. Prices were fair for portion size. They have outdoor seating area and parking is pretty easy in the neighborhood. Solid spot ice cream.

Van C.

Lovely neighborhood ice cream spot. Walkable distance to Balboa Park. Lots of selection of ice cream flavors, open late and friendly! They also have drinks like boba, coffee, tea.

Menu 5/2025
Carmina D.

Mom and pop type, late-night dessert place! Service was friendly. Menu offers a good variety of- boba, coffee, ice cream, and smoothies/juices! Prices are reasonable. There also some tables outside and a couple chairs inside to enjoy your treats. Parking was a little tricky since it's within a residential neighborhood. There's public transportation near by. Since this places give quite fast service, you can find a parking spot easy. Would def come back here with the fam again for late night treats!

Rainbow sherbet.
Jennifer N.

Cute little ice cream shop with local charm. After walking quite a bit on a warm day and exploring Glen Canyon Park, this was a perfect treat to end the day. There's ample street parking right on San Jose Ave. Very clean and bright interior but no indeoo seating. There are two tables and a bench outside. Tons of flavors, including half a case of just sherbet options! I had rainbow sherbet in a waffle cone, which was refreshing and not overly sweet. Nice staff and good quality-great local find!

Honey churro Single Scoop (1 flavor) in a cup
Ashley H.

This spot is amazing! The smoothies are delicious, boba is tasty (I recommend the horchata), and ice cream flavors are great! Theres both indoor and outdoor seating available and the nicest workers I've ever met work here! They will have you walking out with a smile and yummy treat in hand. 10/10!!

Double Scoop (2 Flavors Max) | IG: @nomwithelaine
Elaine N.

I like how this place is opened late at night. This place sells lots of tasty flavors AND the scoops are huge too and has the option to choose what you want your icecream to be in, such as a cup, cone, or waffle bowl! Anyways, I always like getting my icecream in either a cone or a waffle bowl! It's just a nice little treat to go with the icecream. I also loved how huge the scoops and how flavorful the ones I chose are too! I got the Double Scoop Waffle Bowl with Cookies & Cream + Chocolate Chip Mint icecream. Both flavors were good. I'd recommend this place if you ever get an icecream craving at night!

Taro Bubble Tea
Justine Ray M.

So good! Love this spot now in my childhood neighborhood! I got the affogato with mint ice cream and taro boba. One worker is here and was able to serve us well! So good! I love my affogato! Spacious and clean! Live the details and light in this gym!

Matcha mochi, mango
Alicia W.

Service was great, the guy working was nice and let us try samples beforehand. A couple different flavors I've never seen before such as : matcha mochi, coconut pineapple, etc. there was a good mix of ice creams and sorbets. Both with great flavor. I ordered the matcha mochi and mango ice cream. The matcha mochi had pieces of mochi inside. Because of that, the ice cream was a bit dryer and I'm assuming it's from the powder of the mochi mixed in so I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The mango had great flavor and was creamy, I'd definitely get this flavor again! I got the split single which was $5! Parking wasn't the easiest to find on the block, but I liked how we didn't have to wait in line like other ice cream spots.

Fall 2023 ice cream  flavors
Rick S.

Balboa Ice Cream is following the tradition of Mitchell's, Polly Ann's as a local fan favorite spot in The City. Located on San Jose Avenue near Balboa Park, residing in the former storefront of the legendary San Francisco Strike Zone sports card store (one of the historic longstanding Baseball Card Shops in the Bay Area for decades), Balboa Ice Cream opened up in the Y2KXX era rejuvenating the neighborhood with a clean upscale ice creamery that's both hipster and family friendly with prices starting around $4 that's affordable and high quality. Parking is fairly easy up front curbside as well as walking distance in the surrounding residential neighborhood. This area is quickly transforming from a hidden little quaint local hot spot, to a widely regarded area to hang out and find high end quality hole-in-the-wall businesses. The ownership and workers are friendly and professional. They offer unique flavors of ice cream that's great whether in the cold of winter or heat of summer, it's delicious year 'round. Catch this place as it's emerging as a popular player in the Ice Cream scene while there's minimal lines and wait and easy parking, which is always difficult to navigate trendy areas and highly recommended and praised by review referral businesses. I'd recommend either the 1/2 - 1/2 two flavors in 1 scoop OR, better yet... getting 2 full scoops. They also have BOBA here too in addition to other menu items. It's open I think roughly from 12pm noon to 9pm later night, so has great ice cream social hours to indulge.

Montage of images from Balboa Ice Cream
Ed U.

San Francisco certainly doesn't lack for good ice cream shops. There are some that are too indulgent for even my excessive tastes, and they apparently gain popularity from their Instagram presence. Others are way under the radar like this spot. I had never heard of it before I ran into it on Google Maps when I was walking through the Outer Mission. I hardly ever walk on San Jose Avenue, and it's not in a heavily commercial area. The vintage-looking signage made me think it's been around for decades, but I can't find any history on them online. I just see that the oldest Yelp review is just two years old, so I guess you can call it newish. It doesn't show up on "Best of SF" ice cream lists, but I don't see why it doesn't get a mention. It was quite good with a pretty large selection of flavors. I was particularly intrigued by Denali Moose Tracks, which was vanilla streaked with chocolate fudge and crunchy nibs. It tasted nothing like elk droppings...or so I assume. I combined that with a slam dunk flavor for me, Coconut Pineapple, into the $5 Split Single Cup (review: https://bit.ly/402kOZZ). Generous serving, quite yummy, and kinda remote...at least for me. ICE CREAM - 4 stars...loving the moose tracks, just a tad too frozen for me AMBIANCE - 4 stars...clean, bright shop and a magnet for local toddlers SERVICE - 4 stars...pretty friendly, good neighborhood vibe TOTAL - 4 stars...methinks this semi-hidden spot needs more local coverage on social media RELATED - Exploring the Outer Mission? Here's a collection of places I've visited and reviewed: http://bit.ly/37B1acE

Taro Bubble Tea
Generous Y.

I always expect non-boba shops that sell boba to disappoint me but Balboa Ice Cream actually impressed me. I also got some ice cream, but more on that later. I just wanted some dessert and began looking as I took the BART back home and decided to go with ice cream. Got it delivered right after I made it back. I saw they had boba and well, I won't resist when a place sells boba even if I know it's bad from my friends. Alongside a Taro Milk Tea with Boba, I snagged two quarts of ice cream for later. Each one supported up to two flavors so I went to experiment and got Black Cherry and Huckleberry with Strawberry Cheesecake and Ube Boba. Taro Milk Tea with Boba - for starters, the boba was actually chewy. Like something I'd get at a decent to good boba shop. Online they had three types of boba - brown sugar boba ($0.75), black tapioca pearl ($0.50), and honey boba ($0.75). I'm very curious if they actually carry three types of boba, but I got the brown sugar. It was actually sweet, like the boba had flavor and wasn't just a chewy jaw sore. I opted for taro just in case the boba was a failure and well, taro is always good. It was a classic powder taro drink but blended well so there was no powdery bits at all. Black Cherry - a classic cherry vanilla (or cherry garcia), the pink ice cream is a rich blend of cherry and vanilla and there are sweet black cherries mixed in. Smooth and creamy! A pretty safe choice. Huckleberry - a personal favorite from college, though I mixed it up with the strawberry cheesecake. Huckleberry was blended into the ice cream so there weren't many pieces of huckleberry to eat. It was a light berry flavor, more like a vanilla-berry. Strawberry Cheesecake - my favorite flavor of all time across all brands, still holds true. Super rich and creamy, solid cheesecake pieces. Ice cream had a cheesecake taste as well. Even melted it was crazy good (picture does not do it justice). Ube Boba - was expecting the same boba as those in the brown sugar boba popsicles which somehow preserve texture but the ones here are like day old boba that tear apart and don't have the chewy bounce. Ube ice cream itself is rich and nutty with bits of purple yam blended in. I like the ice cream but could do without the boba.

Ice Cream fun with Mi Amigas! Just missing mi bestie!

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Ice cream is delicious and so many flavors to choose from. Servings are large. Love this place.

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Ask the Community - Balboa Ice Cream

What are the prices and size offerings? Do they have sundaes?

$3.75 for a junior scoop $4.75 for a single scoop $6.00 for a double scoop… Read more

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