Smitten Ice Cream

We tried Blood Orange with pistachio shortbread and Salted caramel. Orange one was very good and had a great fresh flavour. Salted caramel was not so great. But the liquid nitrogen technique was fun to watch and resulted in a very soft and creamy ice-​cream. My wife and I greatly enjoyed it.
We got two regular sizes (6 oz) and were not able to finish them, so I can say that the portions were pretty decent too.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ice cream here after dinner on a Friday night. It’s right inside the Whole Foods. Usually I’m not a huge fan of LN2 (liquid nitrogen) ice cream because the texture is icy and flavor is weak every time I’ve tried LN2 ice cream before. However, this time the ice cream was actually very creamy and fresh. I tried the Earl Grey with chocolate chips here (this is the seasonal flavor for February) — the earl grey was very strong and the chocolate did not overpower the tea flavor. The waffle cone was also delicious. Prices are a bit steep here *ahem people do nickname Whole Foods as «whole paycheck,» but if you are craving some fancy ice cream after dinner in the area, I think Smitten Ice Cream is worth a try. A small 4 oz is $ 5, regular 6 oz is $ 6, and pint is $ 11. The waffle cone is $ 1.25 and toppings are additional $ 0.75 each.

Smitten is awesome! With liquid nitrogen icecream, you can definitely taste the difference between normal icecream. It’s much colder, creamier, and tastes fresher in a way.
Yes, it does cost more. About $ 5-​$ 6 a cone. But I do recommend trying this place at least once! My favorite flavor is the cookie dough. I ABSOLUTELY love it because it’s not overwhelmingly chocolately. It’s also not too sweet which is how I like my icecream. It has little bits of pretzels and chocolate. I wish they opened up one closer to San Jose!
Most of the flavors you can’t go wrong with. Also the waffle cones are fresh and smell amazing!

I visited this place because I found this liquid Nitrogen concept cool. There were very limited flavors and they all seemed quite interesting but tasted just average. I had too high expectations but it was just an okayish experience.

After grabbing lunch with a couple of friends, we were in the mood for ice cream for dessert, so we hit up Unilocal,and Smitten was only like 2 miles away so we all agreed to try it out. This location is located inside a Whole Foods, and it doesn’t have any seating inside the store, but there is outside seating available and some seating inside whole foods, but there isn’t a lot, and it just so happened it had rained earlier that day, so outside seating wasn’t going to fly.
At Smitten, they use liquid nitrogen to quickly freeze their ice cream at super low temperatures to avoid adding any «bad stuff» like preservatives, and they use only a few fresh ingredients to give great flavor.
Aesthetically, their scoops are quite nice and rounded, and the bite of the ice cream itself had a nice texture to it, but you didn’t have to fight it to get a bite or to swallow. However, flavor-​wise, I think I went with the wrong choice. Currently, they’re offering a maple brown sugar pumpkin, and I usually enjoy pumpkin, and I loveeeeee brown sugar, but this was just a miss for me. It literally tastes just like pumpkin pie. Like I could have saved a few bucks and gotten a whole pumpkin pie to myself if I wanted this flavor. My friends decided to share the earl grey with chocolate chips, and I got to steal a bit for myself to see what it tasted like. Earl grey flavor was quite nice, and again the texture was good, but all of us agreed that there were a bit too many chocolate chips for our liking. It’s not that that chocolate chips were bad, but the excessive amount of the chips tended to overpower the earl grey flavor, which is the star.
Overall, I wasn’t particularly impressed, especially considering I had to pay a surcharge of 50 cents for my maple brown sugar pumpkin flavor. If I’m in the area, I might come back in warmer times and try the seasonal flavors then. I do admit that the texture of the ice cream itself and the concept are nice, but it’s sort of gimmicky.

I had it for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it. So I Drove 25 minutes to have my husband try it. When we got there there was no strawberry or vanilla.
I didn’t know they only had a small selection of ice cream that changes monthly. We left without getting ice cream. Pretty disappointed that they wouldn’t have at least vanilla for those that don’t like all the fancy flavors. They had a variety of ice cream that had chocolate which my husband can’t eat.
I definitely will not return. It’s not worth the drive and I will have to call before going each time. So Not worth it!

Delicious, fresh ice cream. Smitten is tucked in a corner of the Los Altos Whole Foods store. They use liquid nitrogen to create a creamier, smoother ice cream, made to order.
They have 4 – 5 flavors at a time, including some seasonal flavors. The day I went, the seasonal flavor was Maple Brown Sugar Pumpkin. I tried that and the Cookie Dough with Pretzels and Chocolate Chips. I paid $ 7.25 for a «regular» size (medium) Cookie Dough in a waffle cone and got the Pumpkin as a munchkin (kid’s) size for free with Unilocal check-​in.
I’m glad I did the bigger size as Cookie Dough. It was the perfect blend of smooth ice cream with nuggets of cookie dough, crunchy pretzels and delicious chocolate chips. The regular size was about 3 scoops, perfect to share (if you can!) The waffle cone wasn’t your run of the mill waffle cone! It’s baked in house and is sweeter. There’s bursts of butter/​sugar flavor, like you’re eating a sweet waffle! The Pumpkin flavor really tasted like pumpkin pie filling. It has the right spice blend. However, I think the spices would be overpowering in bigger quantities.
I highly recommend giving Smitten a try. I’ve tried other made-​to-​order ice cream places, and this one is tops in quality and flavor. It is pricey, but worth it!

got the TCHO 65% chocolate and it was delicious. the texture was so smooth and definitely among the best.
–1 star for being super pricey ($ 5 for small are you kidding me?) I might come back if the price tag is the same as tin pot but for this $ 5 small size with two scoops, i might just as well stay with my tin pot

being an ice cream lover I always love coming to Smitten. it’s like a dessert plus a show. their ice cream always comes out very creamy n smoother than regular made ones. I’m only omitting a star cuz I wish they would have more flavors. I understand they aren’t like Baskin Robbins where there’s flavors abundant but I would like at least another 2 or 3 extra flavors to choose from. I never pick the chocolate TCHO flavor cuz that’s way too rich for me. I ordered it last time n I couldn’t even finish a small size. the price is higher than most other ice creamerys but that’s what u get when u want artisan ice cream made on the spot. it’s pretty cool for kids to c if u got some kids who r hard to impress. I was one of those. haha.
this time I ordered a fresh mint chip. he ordered a classic vanilla (like always. he’s so into the classics.) with chocolate crispies. chocolate crispies r like bunches of rice crispies dipped in chocolate. c in pics.
they have the seasonal flavor of maple pumpkin something now. I don’t remember but since we aren’t into pumpkin flavored ice cream, we didn’t indulge.

I’m going to echo other reviews here: Smitten is a delicious and expensive gimmick.
The ice cream is fantastic (I had the crème fraîche with pear caramel, partner had the vanilla in a totally awesome waffle bowl), but even the smallest size is $ 5. It adds up super quickly. As others have said, buying by the pint is more cost effective (around eleven dollars at time of writing). It’s all very smooth and very delicious, but maybe not quite worth the high price tag.
However, Smitten would be a good place to bring tourists. Who doesn’t want to watch their ice cream dry ice frozen while they wait? At least once?

The concept of making ice cream to order with nitrogen makes me want to give a higher rating. However, I thought the ice cream itself to be way too creamy for my tastes as well as too sweet. Creamy to the point where I felt oil on my lips afterwards. It was unpleasant. As another reviewer had mentioned, it felt like a wax coating on your mouth.
Perhaps the other flavors would do better — I ordered the peaches and cream, and also tried a mint based flavor but both had the unpleasant, too-​rich creaminess.

NITROGEN ice cream located Inside the whole foods
its around $ 5 for the small size. some flavors are only available on weekends and they also offer seasonal flavors!
—Fresh mint was nice and creamy, i really liked the texture of their ice cream although it’s pretty milky rich so not as refreshing as I expected it to be
Thanks for the freebie paypal app!

I find it hard to pick an overall number when there are two opposing factors for this establishment. Seeing the high rating, I wanted to give it a try.
When it comes to flavor Smitten punches packed delicious flavor into your scoop. Aside from a few ice crystals, the ice cream was delicious and extremely rich. I ordered the crème fraîche with pair caramel (the seasonal flavor this month) and was only able to finish half of it – I normally have no problem finishing a full pint of Ben N Jerry’s…other than the guilt trip that sometimes follows.
I also give them points for the «unique» factor – cooling down your ice cream with liquid nitrogen right before they serve it to you adds something to the overall experience.
On the flip side, you pay extra for the experience. A dollar or more per oz is a bit on the steep side and hard to justify as a common expense. This experience also does NOT include any free samples of the flavors. so make sure you are really going to like what you order before you fork over the cash.
In the end I can really only give it three stars, yes it is delicious… but diminishing returns sets in quickly once you see how much you have to pay.
Perhaps after you find what you like, go in and order the pint for $ 11 and share it with your friends (or perhaps your couch on a Friday night). You get a full 16oz for $ 11 vs 6oz for $ 6 in the medium size –to me this is a better value for what they serve.

Got the vanilla with cookie dough, the uniqueness is cool and the liquid cooling method but there didnt seem to be alot of flavor, I know the chocolate and mint were alot stronger flavors but classic should still be delicious too.
My favorites nearby are Ricks Ice Cream, classic hard ice cream, so I consider that the best in Mountain View area.

Well I gotta say this place is a new interesting production for ice cream. The whole process is pretty cool with the lights and the smoke and the lightening (no. Not really) but I do like their production team. The ice cream flavor sound very interesting and I love the local products. The only thing that kinda got me bummed is how sweet the product is. I do plan to go back but I gotta ask them to tone down the amount of sugar. Other than that. It’s fierce. Plus it’s At whole foods so you can go shopping for vegetables shortly after my sugar rush.
I’ll be back ;-)

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream… from somewhere else.
For pure cool factor, a definite 4. Using liquid nitrogen right in front of you to make fresh ice cream is different. And definitely in a good way. It would’ve been better if it was more customized. Basically they have about 4 – 8 flavors daily. And that’s all they make. It would’ve been a better idea if someone made a custom flavor and added chocolate chips or cookie bits to a specific order.
In terms of the ice cream itself, it was good, but it didn’t blow my socks off. The salted caramel and classic vanilla were good, but again, didn’t stand out in any way. I’ve also tried it with cinnamon shortbread cookies (really good!) and TCHO chocolate crispies (meh). They also sometimes have a mint and chip that uses fresh mint. Fresh anything is normally good. However, I think in this case, I’d prefer the extract. The fresh mint reminded me of a Vietnamese spring roll… with chocolate chips. No thanks!
Service has always been mediocre the few times I’ve went there. No one really smiling Also, it can be tricky to find if you’re looking for a strip mall. It’s actually right next door to Whole Foods. If you see WF, park!

The ice cream here is out of this world! I ordered the vanilla with caramel sauce. The vanilla was very vanilla-​y, and the sauce was good. I also had some of the TCHO chocolate. Of course it’s also fun to watch the cloud of cold air appear as your ice cream is made to order.
And, the people working here are nice.
Plus, the outdoor seating is fab, especially on a hot day.
But, the order in which things come out seems a bit disordered; my order got confused, and it took quite a while for me to get what I actually ordered.
And sadly, they didn’t yet have the monthly flavor, as they were still sourcing nectarines. This seemed a little odd, too, because they’re connected to a Whole Foods. I’m sure there was a reason, but it was still a bummer.
It also seemed like they had fewer flavors than other Smitten locations.
I’d never hesitate to recommend Smitten, but this wasn’t as great as an experience as I’ve had elsewhere. You’ll still love your ice cream, though.

I love Smitten!
Pretty cool how everything is made with liquid nitrogen, downfall is that it’s on the pricier side, but I think the quality is definitely worth it. I fell in love with their Smitten waffle cone (which they totally ran out of last time I went). So make sure you get yourself a waffle cone.
I prefer the mint, it’s very different from many mint chocolate chip ice creams, this one tastes like legit mint. The flavors change which means you’ll just have to keep coming back to try more of them!
Located inside or right next to Whole Foods!

Dang it, Bay Area, you keep giving me reasons to actually consider relocating to NorCal.
Having bookmarked Smitten since seeing a television spot, I originally wanted to visit the SF store, but went to this location out of convenience.
On the day’s menu board was Blood Orange with pistachio shortbread. Just, yes. I got a small cup to share. The liquid nitrogen preparation is supposed to set this ice cream apart and way ahead of the rest, but honestly, even if it was churned the old fashioned way, this flavor fusion and contrasting texture of the smooth, creamy delight with bits of pistachio crumble made for a perfect match. Genius, I tell you. And delicious!
Though the staff could have used a few smiles, I’m still raving about the product and hope to visit one of the company’s shops again.
Suffice to say, I’m Smitten for Smitten. Yes indeed!

I’m not sure what it was about the communication, but it seemed a bit challenging. I don’t know if the girl thought that I was simply acting as if I didn’t have a clue, but it certainly felt that way.
I could see by looking at the rather confusing jumble of a menu sign that there were three flavors of ice-​cream. The bold –face print and appropriate spacing around the flavors helped direct the eye which made that bit easy.
When I checked in for clarification I was told there were actually four. I was given the short list of three (that I’d just read) and a fourth which sounded like the word ‘taquito’. I repeated, ‘taquito?’ There was no response from the young woman. I told her that I didn’t know what sort of flavor that was. More non-​response ensued. She then asked if I wanted to try it to which I replied that I actually just wanted to know what sort of flavor it was. Then I apologized (as so many women do for no real reason) and told her that this was my first time in the shop. The fourth flavor explanation was long and involving cookie dough, so I passed.
After I placed my order she asked me for my name. It was at that point that I said, ‘Oh, the ice-​cream is made to order!’ –my mini ‘A-​ha moment’. She confirmed and said something about ‘showing me’. A few minutes later the ice-​cream was ready & I was called back to the counter. Two scoops constituted a ‘small’ serving and set me back five bucks. The ice-​cream was OK, not stellar. I’m fairly lucky that I was the only customer in the shop as I can imagine that the wait for a ‘bespoke’ scoop could take quite a long time when the joint is busy.
Sadly, I’m not ‘smitten’ by Smitten. –great gimmick, but I think I’ll pass on the whole operation.