WOWWWW!! Can't believe I grew up in this area but have never been here. I don't think there are that many Italian Ice businesses in the Bay Area but don't quote me on that. We decided to stop by for dessert on a Saturday evening and were surprised that it wasn't busy. The inside reminded me of a mom and pop shop where it's been in business for years. There's nothing glamorous about it but that's where they serve the best stuff, right? I was planning to just order a couple of flavors of their Italian Ice, but we saw that they had something on their menu called 2nd Street. It's basically Italian Ice & custard (soft serve of Vanilla, chocolate, or mixed) not blended. I picked sour watermelon, strawberry, mango, and passionfruit for the Italian Ice and vanilla custard. I liked how they layer the custard in-between the Italian Ice. He also filled it past the brim!! We were given a stamp card and already got a few stamps for our treat. You bet I'm coming back again in the future! I love that everything is made in house. They even have ice cream! read more

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Summary: Solid Italian ice Details: So, I don't have a lot of reference points on this one, only having tried Italian ice and frozen custard a few times before. Baselines and comparisons aside, we found their custard to be too sweet (so likely fine for the majority of folks), but their Italian ice (at least the lemon flavor), with both having pretty nice textures to them. The venue itself has a kind of old school local ice cream shop vibe, and seemed more like a grab and go kind of spot, though there are a couple of benches outside if you want to sit and chill for a bit. Accessibility: Spacious enough shop with your typical ice cream display cases. Slight incline to get in, if I remember correctly. read more

Flavor Brigade - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

Their Strawberry Ice Cream is the best I have ever tasted‼ This shop is the delight of The Dimond District. read more

I've only hit this spot 2Xs in my life but so far it's worth the drive for the layered Oreo vanilla custard in a cup. The place is a standard ice cream spot on a busy street so it's an easy in and out. Second time I was served here and seemed like both people who helped me were legit happy to be at work. Definitely can recommend the place off those 2 things. read more

It was so great! I got frozen custard! I haven't had frozen custard since getting containers of it at my favorite Wawa in Deep South Jersey! Plus, they were playing Jimi Hendrix in the shop! Thank you. read more

Super nice and friendly service. The flavors for the Italian ice have a nice variety. The custard is really smooth and good. We got the orange cream and sour watermelon 2nd street kid size for $5.75, which is a great deal in today's inflated world of prices. Nice little shop with its own parking lot. read more

Flavor Brigade - 2nd street with orange cream and sour watermelon Italian ice - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

Favorite Ice Cream and in this order: 1. Pear 2. Rose 3. Rum Raisin 4. Lavender Some of the best ice cream out there and I'm an expert taster. One of the few places to get ice cream that I don't feel sick to my stomach after. They definitely use quality ingredients. I've also gotten their Italian ice mixed with custard and that is also really good too but nothing beats an cold ice cream on a hot day. Staff are also really friendly and helpful. I only wish they would list online their flavors of the day online somewhere but understand it doesn't last long. read more

Italian ice is great. Service was friendly. It's a small shop with very limited seating inside. Prepare to order and then eat outside. read more

Flavor Brigade - Sour blue raspberry - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

Great service, clean shop, friendly staff, and most of all delicious treats! Highly recommend.

3540 Fruitvale Ave Oakland, CA 94602 In Oakland's Dimond District, "Flavor Brigade" is a neighborhood favorite for icy cold refreshments. This place has been on my Yelp radar, and I decided to visit this place on a warm July day. There was a steady flow of customers, and everyone walked out with a smile on their face. This is a small place, with no tables inside. There's just benches for you to sit and enjoy your frozen delights. It has a unique tie-dye decor. The menu offers a variety of favorites such as: Italian Ice, Frozen Custards, Ice Cream, Sundaes, Milkshakes and Floats. They had something I never heard of before called The Mummer's Mix. I ordered a medium Mummer's Mix of Chocolate/ Vanilla Twist Frozen Custard and a scoop of Mango Italian Ice on top. The Mango Ice was cold and refreshing, with a delicious flavor. The Frozen Custard was like a thick and creamy frozen yogurt, but a little sweeter. I liked the Italian Ice so much, I went back for more. I ordered a medium Italian Ice. I was told I can get up to six scoops of flavors of my choice. So I asked for one scoop each of any fruity flavor. The server suggested I get Watermelon Sour to gauge the sour taste. The Italian Ice was cold and refreshing, and withstood the summer heat for awhile. If you have a craving for something cold, drop by and try Flavor Brigade! Down the street from Safeway, and across the street from Ly Luck Chinese Restaurant and Willows and Pine. read more

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Amazing experience! Gave me samples to choose from, can't complain on a day thats around 65° in November. Go check them out!! read more

Flavor Brigade - Mango, tiger's blood and sour green apple with custard ice cream - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

Best ice cream I've had ! The coconut cream and passion fruit Ice is so good ! The butterfinger blitz was amazing as will I'm from 4 hours away from here but I'll definitely stop by each time I'm in town and the owner was super kind and appreciative read more

Ordered a butterfinger milkshake and I got a cup of milk... not even thick and had one butterfinger in it. I threw it out before I event got top it.. and my partner had a broad-street mix-in and the guys behind the counter forgot 2/3 things in it.... The floors were sticky and dirty. And to top it off, they were taking whip cream and spraying it on people's hands.. and in dogs mouths..... i love a good dog bowl of whip cream. But not in their mouth .... I nearly died when they asked if I wanted whip cream on my milkshake later... read more

The service was AMAZING! Gabriel was extremely helpful and quick, we asked for a coffee malt milkshake and a butterfinger and reese's pieces candy Sunday. I believe it was in the middle of a rush. The items were picture perfect! Thanks Gabriel! We will definitely come back for more Ice cream and shakes. We loved the wide variety of unique choices for ice creams and gelatos. They had really cool flavors, I saw one Churro flavored and Arnold Palmer, I can't wait to come back and try them all! read more

Flavor Brigade - Coffee flavored milkshake with malt & M&M Sunday with butterfinger topping. - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

This place is not much to look at but often in the most unexpected places do you strike gold. They obviously focus on flavours here. I had the hankering for a milkshake and it led me here. They have a selection of ice creams as well as italian ices more akin to a sorbet style dessert. I really wanted a salted caramel shake which wasn't available as an ice cream but the gentleman at the back who had been dealing with some tasks piped up that he could make me a killer one and if I didn't like it he'd refund me or make me whatever I wanted. Cue the A-Team music, he set to work and combined what looked like house made caramel, soft serve and a little salt and produced a salted caramel milkshake that slayed. It wasn't horribly expensive either at $8 for a large. I'll be back for more for sure. read more

Stopped in for a respite from the heat and got a soft serve. The consistency was smooth and creamy. I spent more at another place selling Straus branded soft serve and I felt this was better. It got chocolate, coworker got the swirl and another a mango sundae. Flavors were bursting. I'm getting this place into my rotation so I can try more. read more

Delicious. Friendly staff. Huge kiddie size custard cone was a treat! Will def go back!!

Favored Italian ice when I'm in town. It's in a cute little neighborhood and the Italian ice is delicious. I went back twice when in a week when I was there. They have a variety of flavors to suit everyone's needs. I highly recommend trying this place. read more

My daughter loves it! Cute little spot with lots of flavors. We've only had the Italian ice but they also have ice cream and milk shakes. They usually have a flavor of the day which is only $2. read more

Flavor Brigade is the real deal for Italian water ice and gelati in Oakland. Located in an unassuming storefront on Diamond. Wide array of water ice flavors. Intense flavors and cream like consistency. The ice cream is organic from Strauss dairy. Try the gelati. Water ice and soft serve. A winning combination. You want good water ice? Fo to Flavor Brigade. read more

Flavor Brigade - The 2nd Street - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

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Small and busy store. Unique in that they offer a variety of ice creams like Italian ice, soft serve, and hard ice cream (although, not too many flavors). They also do mixes of soft serve and Italian ice which was delicious! It's a great place if you're craving or want more options than just hard ice cream. Definitely a treat and found a new liking to Italian ice with soft serve. read more

Review from 4/11/24: My cousin and I took my one year old son and he loved the orange cream and sour watermelon Italian ice. The guy working was nice and let my son try the banana Italian ice, but he did not like it. My cousin ordered mango and passion fruit Italian ice. The passion fruit wasn't very tasty, but the mango was delicious. read more

Flavor Brigade - Italian Ice (orange cream on top, sour watermelon on the bottom) - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

My favorite place for all things frozen and delicious. The frozen custard is always good start in vanilla or chocolate. You can always choose the swirl if you're feeling dangerous. If you want to take it up a notch then you need to order the "Second Street"! The combination of the frozen custard and Italian ice is a match made in heaven. The hard part is choosing from all the flavor combos. Sure, picking vanilla custard is a no brainer given it's easy to match with everything, but then what? You get to pick two flavors of Italian ice and you could add the chocolate custard which means.... 2.5 billion flavor combinations. Pro tip: Grab a card and get it punched with each purchase. If you save up 4 cards fully punched you can turn it in for a free tie dyed t-shirt. How great is that? I love Oakland and this place is one of the rea read more

Flavor Brigade - Second street with a happy kid - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

An unassuming place. But due to the high ratings, we still came on a rainy day. Every flavor of ice cream, custard, and icee was delicious. I decided to go for more of a citrus flavor profile while my husband went for the creamy, coconuty flavor. I like how it wasn't super sweet and didn't leave that aftertaste in my mouth. It's not fancy or modern, but it focuses on the right thing of making yummy flavors. read more

My family and I come here all the time and it's never consistent. We'll switch between getting a large 2nd Street (not blended) or a large Mummers Mix (blended) and the way it's made is different every time. For the 2nd Street some workers say we can only choose 5 flavors and others say 7. Sometimes the Mummers Mix will be well blended or barely blended other times. Today I had an issue with our large 2nd Streets. Usually it's filled to the top but today there are a lot of gaps! The person who ordered after us got a medium 2nd Street and it was filled up and honestly looked bigger than the large size. All in all I just want my orders to be consistent every time! read more

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The place itself is nice and cozy with amazing funny and nice staff that are always on top of things even when they run the place all by themselves! The food is amazing. I always get Italian ice because its something different than I always have. Overall, recommend this dessert place when your really aching for some delicious treats! read more

Good place. I ordered a small "2nd Street" which was served with abundance. The fro-yo twist was fine, but the cherry Italian ice was bland. The clerks kind of agreed and threw a few coupon cards my way. Slight off-putting aroma when we walked in. And some bad guys broke the front door's glass. Would go back and would order other flavors - ask for tastes. read more

Flavor Brigade still going strong. Awesome Italian ice flavors, delicious eggy custard, friendly staff, ample parking. This may be a Philly thing but I consider them an Oakland treasure! read more

Flavor Brigade - 2nd Street - mango and orange cream with vanilla custard - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

Tasty treats . Chill vibes . The custard is super creamy and the perfect consistency. The guy is super chill too that helped us out .

The best frozen dessert place in the East Bay! Try it, there will be something you love, 2nd streets are the best, though. read more

Writing because I have met the owners who are amazing and hoping they read this review. If they respond, I will happily adjust my rating. The store says it closes at 8, so having kids that work there laugh at you and other families and telling them its closed when its 10 min til 8 is very uncool. They seemed to get a kick out of seeing little kids look super disappointed. I get that good people are hard to find, but instead of leaving me feeling like "Alright, next time I'll try to get there sooner" it left me with a "Nope, there are other small businesses I can support that will be actually open when the open sign is up." Update: the owners responded and went above and beyond. Truly this place is a gem. read more

Had a craving for a milkshake and hit this spot up. I was stoked to see that malted was an option and got a malted strawberry. It was rich and sweet and hit the spot. read more

Flavor Brigade - Menu - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

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I came for the Italian ice but I was blown away by their custard. We ordered a large 2nd street to split between 2 people. We were given 8 scoops/flavors of Italian ice sandwiched by 3 layers of vanilla custard. Sour apple, margarita, and passion fruit were both of our top favorites. Personally, I really liked horchata, but my bf said that it didn't taste authentic. The orange cream, lemon, and strawberry tasted great as well, especially when paired with the custard. The cotton candy was good, but it's not as memorable as the other flavors. read more

Flavor Brigade - 2nd Street (Large) - 8 scoops of Italian ice + 3 layers of vanilla custard - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

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A true gem in Oakland's Fruitvale district! First time here and had no idea what to order. Went with the old school root beer float and it was the best I've ever had...they churn their own ice cream. Can't wait to go back to try the Italian Ice and other items on their menu! read more

Flavor Brigade - Root Beer Float - house made vanilla ice cream w A&W Root Beer - it was so good I forgot to take a picture when it was full - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

My new favorite ice cream shop in the Bay Area. How did I not find this place before today? They have italian ice, soft serve, hard ice cream, milk shakes, root beer floats, the options are never ending. It is a very extensive menu for being an ice cream shop. Definetly try their sundaes and milkshakes. Tons of flavors of ice cream to choose from, and I can't wait to go back again. A very friendly staff that is helpful in making decisions on what to eat. They have a Yelp check in offer for 20% off!! read more

Yummmm! Yes, this treat was needed on a beautiful spring (is it spring? Summer? Who really knows anymore) day. It was definitely busy around Fruitvale for a Monday but most people were wearing their masks, especially to get service inside the small Flavor Brigade. You can walk right up and ask for what flavor you want and then wait outside if it is crowded. To make sure not too many people are stuck inside and touching everything, they've even put a table in between the entrance and the ice cream display. Customer service is fast, friendly and genuine! And they honor Yelp check-ins. I got an orange cream Italian ice and cookie dough ice cream. The Italian ice is so so fresh. And they definitely use the creamiest ice cream available, it tastes sweet, homemade and have you wanting more! read more

Flavor Brigade - Orange cream Italian ice & cookies and cream ice cream - Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt Near Me - Oakland, California

There are a lot of flavors here but they seem to run out on hot days. This place also seems to be a favorite neighborhood spot. There were also only two workers and a line of like 12 people on a weekend - so it also seems understaffed on hot days. read more

Love the Mummers Mix, a blend of flavorful Italian ice and creamy frozen custard soft serve, which is also delicious on a cone. Ice cream is Strauss organic with good selection of flavors, some unusual ones like Rose and Lavender, which are my favorites. BEST ICE CREAM PLACE IN OAKLAND! read more

we love flavor brigade. we're grateful that they've been able to weather the storm of running a small business in oakland, especially over the past several years. they're a core part of the dimond community. we were in last night after dinner at dimond slice and the owner and staff are so kind and treat kids with a lot of care and warmth. our standard order is the second street - it's the perfect treat! read more

The custard is bomb!! Lots of ice cream combos and specialties you won't find anywhere else.