I have an unabashed and unmitigated sweet tooth. To me, the ideal finisher to most meals is a bit of ice cream, and the ever-changing landscape of New York has evolved to fit a palate such as mine (or vice versa).
In most restaurant-heavy neighborhoods, there is a de facto best ice cream spot, and in the K-town area of midtown Manhattan, it’s going to be Honey’s Ice Cream, which is nestled in Bear Donut. Honey’s is a new premium microbrand line from the beloved Bear Donut, which features 12 handcrafted flavors made entirely from scratch. This small-batch creamery takes no shortcuts, allowing high-quality ingredients—like fresh fruit, herbs, spices, and teas—to truly shine. I’ve never heard of a small-batch creamery before, but they truly are the real deal.
Menu highlights include ten signature flavors such as Strawberry Matcha, Vanilla Masala Chai, Raspberry Fudge, Donut Cake, and Maple Walnut, along with two vegan and gluten-free sorbets (Apricot Wine Sorbet and Blue Mangoberry Sorbet), and a rotating seasonal special, which is currently their Matcha Affogato (Matcha – Single Origin Ceremonial Matcha, Shizuoka, Japan). One thing to note about the flavors at Honey’s is that many of them are “Deep”, which really just indicates a stronger, deeper, fuller flavor profile compared to the normal thing. For example, in their Deep Cookies and Cream, they featured a higher proportion of cookies to ice cream than a traditional cookies and cream. Going back to their ethos of what they’re doing, they truly are creating a higher quality level of ice cream, and in my opinion, they’ve accomplished that.
While there, I tried a scoop of their Deep Chocolate, their Deep Cookies and Cream, and lastly, their Matcha Affogato. I had the Deep Chocolate first, and it was everything I wanted in a chocolate ice cream. It was rich and creamy with all the decadence of a full chocolate flavor without being too milky or diluted. As chocolate is my favorite flavor, this is something I’m extra particular about, and it checked all my boxes.
The Deep Cookies and Cream, however, fully blew my mind. Cookies and cream is my usual go-to after chocolate, but Honey’s version of this was probably the best I’ve had in New York. In addition to copious amounts of Oreos, there were also large chunks of chocolate chip cookies tossed into the mix for good measure, making out to be an incredibly interesting blend and a wonderful ice cream experience.
Last was the Matcha Affogato. For context, an affogato is an ice cream dish traditionally “drowned” in espresso, as affogato is Italian for drowned. However, here, the vanilla ice cream was drowned in matcha. Despite so far having met expectations exceeded, I was not looking forward to this as I simply do not like matcha. However, this came heavily suggested as it’s their signature item, and I had to try it. I must say, as someone who does not like Matcha, this was genuinely incredible. First off, the vanilla ice cream in the Affogato was perfect vanilla ice cream, but the matcha, which was ceremonial matcha, was so incredibly tasty that I could not get enough of it. As the helpful staff reminded me, their ceremonial matcha was next level, hence my newfound love for it.
The reason many adore Michelin star restaurants is that they open your eyes to new possibilities and offer new perspectives on food you may not have previously liked or your tried and true favorites. I did not expect this level of quality from an ice cream shop. Honestly, I don’t expect this from many of the places I’ve been to recently, but I’ve been blessed with a string of winners. Honey’s ice cream is worth a visit for a sweet treat in the middle of your work day, if you’re walking around the area on the weekend, or even if you’re going out of your way to taste my new favorite ice cream spot in the city. Even if ice cream isn’t something you feel like going out to get and prefer a pint, come this Fall, to-go pints and curated sample boxes will be available, so you can grab the sweetness of Honey’s Ice Cream to take home.
