Lush Gelato

Lush Gelato is one of those crown jewels of SF, situated perfectly in Little Italy. This place has character, class, and a whole truck load of love and creativity. The gelato concoctions are marvelous and far from "common". Clearly the creator spent love and care experimenting to found something meaningful. This isn't about trying to serve the best gelato in SF. This store is about telling a story, a story of inspiration with each flavor. Cognac and pecan... rum and tres leches bits... fresh mint and chocolate chip... let your imagination run free. Go grab yourself a cup. Enjoy truly handcrafted gelato. Go early. Love your life.

We went for the 6-flavor sampler. Usually when ice cream places do a sampler it’s easy for the two of us to finish because they’re pretty small scoops. But oh my. This was 6 full size scoops of rich, delicious gelato. I guess there is such a thing as too much ice cream. For $13 it’s a great deal too, it comes in individual cups so if you’re coming with a group or family with small children I recommend getting this over a bunch of single scoops. We had pumpkin, brown butter, lemon cardamom, cookie dough, tres leches, and strawberry balsamic and they were all delicious!

It's as good as everyone else says it is! And for being in the heart of Little Italy/North Beach, the prices are fairly reasonable, too. The brown butter is honestly, to die for, but everything that touched my lips from this little gelato shoppe was, simply, pure decadence. Skip dessert wherever you are in North Beach and head over to this shining beacon of gelato goodness instead.

Amazing for non-vegans, mediocre for vegans. Samples allowed, and cards accepted. I got a small, $5.90, and chose their cardamom and lemon bar plus their brown butter and chocolate honeycomb flavors. It was unique to pair the cardamom with lemon bar chunks, and they hit just the right amount of cardamom. As for the brown butter and chocolate honeycomb, it tasted like toffee, and that was terrific. The intersection of the two flavors in my cup was confusing for my tastebuds, but the individual consumption of each flavor was fantastic. My lactose-intolerant friend said their vegan peanut butter cup tasted a bit off (watery, perhaps?), and their lemon sorbet was okay.