ICE CREAM REVIEW: Taiyaki NYC

My search for the best ice cream in New York continues ….

Fish ice cream sounds pretty weird and potentially disgusting to most. I would be one of the crazy people who would actually try it. In fact, I’ve already consumed lobster ice cream up in Maine. It was indeed weird. But that’s another sotyr.

Actual fish ice cream is not what millenials are waiting hours in line to taste and snap a photo of at Taiyaki NYC. Instead they are obsessing over a riff on a Japanese street food snack that are shaped like fish. But they do not contain any seafood.

In fact, the fish part is actually just the shape of the waffle-iron cooked cone. In Japan (and in parts of New York), you can find this browned doughy treat stuffed with red beans. Here what they do is they use it to hold ice cream.

You can customize your taiyaki in all sorts of ways with soft serve ice creams ranging from strawberry to vanilla to chocolate to some more Japanese inspired options. Then you can pick toppings, fillings, and drizzles.

I was going to customize my own when I realized one of their curated favorites basically had everything I would have chosen. Straight Outta Japan ($7) features a fish waffle stuffed with red bean, filled high up with a matcha and black sesame soft serve, and then garnished with colorful mochi and a wafer.

There may have been prettier options (and lots of other people were snapping away before biting into their treat), but I quite enjoyed my concoction. The textures continued from cold creamy ice cream to the crisp doughy base that had a sweet gooey starchy center.

The focus of this post should be on the ice cream and it was a very good soft serve option. But it’s hard for me to separate it from the rest of the experience. I imagine just a cup of this soft serve would be just as creamy and flavorful without the rest of the components. No hint of generic flavorings, but rather bold green tea and earthy black sesame.

Now if they ever make tuna ice cream to go with the fish cone, I’ll be the first to try it. For better or worse.

Is Taiyaki NYC the best ice cream in NY? The soft serve on its own is really good and creamy, but with the unique toppings and fish-shaped cone vessel, it’s a real winner.8 out of 10.