Louie’s Ice Cream

Just got here at 9pm and it’s closed. Unilocal says it’s open but they’re actually closed. Waste of my time, annoying. Fix your business hours

I feel like I’m being a traitor to Toscanini’s — but I have to say that Louie’s «Almond Joy» may be the best ice cream that I’ve had in years. And I’m including gelati and all other types of ice cream.

Great ice cream at a great price.
How is this the first time I have tried this place? I got Apple Crisp which was wonderful (apparently it’s seasonal and they just got it in). My daughter loved the chocolate and my husband had the coffee and said it was good and strong.
It’s true — no soft serve.

This is a great neighborhood ice cream joint. There is no parking, not really any seating, and is cash only! I had the peanut butter Oreo which was good, but not as peanut buttery as I was hoping. My sister in law got
The frozen pudding which she loved, but I thought was gross. And my niece had the cake batter which she loved.
This is not the best ice cream I’ve ever had, but is pretty darn good and is going to ease any sweet tooth cravings you have!

Very good! I tried some of my husband’s rum raisin and black razz frappé/​milkshake after stuffing my face across the street at the pastelaria. That frappé was delicious! What an amazing flavor combo, and who would’ve thought to do it? It was on their list of suggested combos. The milkshake was creamy and flavorful without being overly sweet or heavy. The consistency was perfect! My mouth is watering! You guys are lucky to have this yumminess around the way.

Yes it’s great that there is a ice cream place in the neighborhood… BUT … there’s always a BUT… it is super annoying that this place has the the words soft serve all over there giant Louie sign in about 4 different spots however they do NOT offer soft serve at all. WHY ?? Then Atleast remove it from your advertisement because it is very misleading and fustrating after I drove there with my heart set on a twist with Jimmies and was told sorry we don’t sell soft serve … I left Pissed and feeling ice cream defeated …

I LOVE Louie’s. I live in the neighborhood and this is a great place to grab some ice cream on a super hot night. A great variety of flavors including my very hard to find favorite: orange pineapple.
On the topic of soft serve: Yes, it is a total drag that they do not have soft serve. HOWEVER, there was one afternoon where I witnessed the poor sales girl be BERATED by a Somerville Townie as to why they don’t have soft serve. She calmly explained to the man that, even though they do have a soft serve machine, it is outdated and to acquire a new machine it would cost the shop 30,000 DOLLARS. Outrageous when you think about it, and considering this is a VERY mom-​and-​pop operation it probably isn’t feasible for them.
Alas! Louie’s is still a great spot and an asset to Winter Hill/​East Somerville.

I tried the mango ice and my wife tried the pistachios ice cream. Lets say we were not fans of it. The ice didnt taste good at all and was not slushy. My wife had a bite or two of her ice cream and threw it away.

Louie’s Ice Cream is one of those seasonal ice cream stands which are only open in the Spring/​Summer/​Fall time. When precisely, might you ask? Check their Facebook page, I’d say, at
since that’s how I found out that they had reopened for the season just this past May 5^th, after having posted a season’s fare thee well this past September 29^th 2014.
We stopped by after dinner the first week Louie’s was back in business. No slushies yet — perhaps next week. Didn’t see anything about soft serve, though they have the hard stuff. Sadly they had not received delivery of any of the Oreo renditions with the exception of the basic original. Theirs is Richardson’s, though the slushies I was told are made in-​house.
Small $ 3.75 is one scoop, while medium $ 4.25 is two. Both were hunking servings, and they were able to give me two flavors in my small cup, which in no way resembled a traditional single scoop.
Coconut chip with Almond Joy had whole almonds. Yum!
Strawberry cheesecake had large chunks of frozen strawberry. Yum!
Two patriotic picnic tables are set out front, along with a pair of metal bus benches for those waiting for the 89 or the 101.
I want to come back to try their coconut slush as touted by Aimy T. and Amy B. in their reviews.
*** ⁶⁄₂₀₁₅ ***
Yes, they had slush on this visit. No, they didn’t have coconut.
Sadness.
Even of the six flavors they had listed, in actuality, they only had three. And no, they were out of the coconut ice cream.
I sampled two (and I recommend tasting the lemon before the mango) and opted for the more flavorful mango. $ 1.75 for a small cup. A large would have been $ 3.
A nice refreshing treat. But I want to try the coconut!

Huge portions, friendly and quick staff, and delicious flavors. Still, the location is kind of a pain and the prices are a bit high (cash only, btw).

Old fashioned ice creamery in the middle of Somerville! Grape nut and pistachio were my choices. Both delish and worth the calories!

Live locally and love the idea of Louie’s, but its been years and years since they have had soft serve ice cream, year after year, excuse after excuse, Your an ice shop, serve soft serve already… how much does it cost really? and you are a business are you not? buy soft serve machine, sell loads of soft serve like Jay’s and other place in Malden and make returns to pay off. If you cared about customers and business do it already. You wont regret it, the lines at Jays and Dairy Delight just for soft serve should be enough reason.

Good hard ice cream I just dont like that type. Wish they had a vanilla soft serve. The hard ice cream was also hard to eat with plastic spoon I was given.

Stopped by for a soft serve after dinner. Found parking quickly but discovered they were out of soft serve. They have over a dozen choices for hard ice cream though so it was fine. A small is quite large.

The thing with going to Louie’s, especially late in the day, late in the summer, is that you can never be entirely sure of what you’re going to get. If you have a flavor of ice cream you want, there’s a decent chance it’ll be out when you get there. And you might stand in line waiting to order, only to find out they haven’t gotten around to erasing it from the menu yet.
I’m not saying this to deter you from going, though. Absolutely not. Go. Get tasty ice cream. I’m just saying, you probably won’t get the flavor you’d planned. You’re going to end up trying something unexpected. And you’re going to love it.
A great example of this phenomenon: One day I was waiting in line and heard the person in front of me order what I wanted. They were out. Then they ordered my second choice, and they were also out. I hadn’t even made it to the front of the line and I was already scrambling for a third choice. When I got up there, I ended up ordering Frozen Pudding. What is Frozen Pudding? I had no idea when I ordered it, but I was thinking it was some kind of chocolate thing maybe. Turns out, it’s an eggnog-​inspired ice cream that kind of tastes of rum and has dried fruit in it. Who knew? Thing is, it was still great.
I’d tell you I’ll order it again, but just telling you that means they’ll run out every time I go. So it goes.

Jesse and I got a little tipsy one night at Casey’s and ended up in the mood for some frozen yogurt. We first had to grab some cash because they don’t take cards. I don’t mind if it’s for some awesome ice cream, but please, Louie’s, I don’t think that’s at all safe this day in age-​cash only seems dangerous.
Louie’s offers somewhere between 70 – 90 varieties of ice cream/​frozen yogurt flavors. That’s unbelievable. I opted to go for the small health bar crunch frozen yogurt waffle cone and it was a little scoop of heaven. It was smooth and tasted more like ice cream because it was so creamy. The cone was crisp and tasty.
The staff of teens were really helpful and directed us with good options of what to order. One funny thing: no soft serve! It’s a little odd, but it’s more like an old school ice cream parlor. There are plenty of other good things to choose from.

Louie’s has incredibly creamy, satisfying ice cream. I’ve had it a couple times, but my cravings are really for the slush. Namely the homemade coconut slush with REAL CHUNKS OF COCONUT. I’ve never had such good slush in my life. They usually run out of it over the weekend (lines get long in the summer), which is kind of a bummer but at least I can get mango or watermelon which are both also good. Maybe add real chunks of fruit to those too, winkwink?
I give it 5 stars for being a neighborhood icon, with the cute picnic tables and the sidewalk chalk art. And 5 stars because I would go out of my way for that slush. Damn.

Louie’s is meh.
Big disappointment just as I walked up to place an order… no soft-​serve for the entire summer! Ugh! They do have slush, yogurt, and more than a few flavors of hard ice cream though.
I tried the Vanilla and their Almond Joy. Both were ok. Vanilla certainly was creamy but lacked flavor and even tasted artificial… Almond Joy was good but nothing out of the ordinary.
Don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon

I don’t even know if all of these other reviews of Louie’s ice cream are right or not because there’s only one thing I order here: SLUSH. Louie’s has a rainbow of delicious slush flavors that are the perfect thing on a hot summer day. There are many places to get ice cream in Somerville, but only Louie’s has old-​fashioned icy slush.
Louie’s was the source of one of my first food obsessions (what 4 year old doesn’t love a food that comes in green and yellow and blue and purple and…?). In the decades since, I’ve never found any place that does slush as well as Louie’s. The ice is perfectly blended (no chunks, but not watery either) and the flavoring doesn’t seep out of the mixture while you eat it. So good.

Louie’s ice cream is probably the creamiest I’ve ever had, and that includes the farm-​fresh varieties!
I had the almond joy flavor, and it was just a cup of heaven. Prices are reasonable, portions are substantial, and window service is very pleasant. The picnic tables are by a busy street, but it really isn’t so bad.
Toppings are fantastic as well. I love Louie’s!