In the years since Milk Bar introduced their cereal milk soft serve, the once-iconic offering has become so ubiquitous that it’s easy to overlook. But take one taste, and it’s clear why this dessert was considered so distinctive and daring when it debuted. Creamy, corn flake-y, and salty-sweet, this remarkable soft serve remains instantly recognizable and continues to be a benchmark by which others are compared.

The third East Coast outpost of the long-running, family-owned soft serve shop, Astoria’s Marvel Frozen Dairy is the Long Island-founded answer to Carvel. Known for their wide range of cream, yogurt, and vegan soft serves, Marvel’s rendition is pitch-perfect American boardwalk soft serve. It is light and marshmallowey, designed to be eaten quickly with their signature “bonnet” shell, heaped with sprinkles, chocolate chips, or — my favorite — a classic hot fudge sundae.

Soft serve and bubble tea are a match made in heaven. Creamy and chewy, this combination can be found in a number of boba shops across the city, but one of the best interpretations can be found at Xing Fu Tang. The warm, caramelized, brown sugar boba — made fresh daily — is Xing Fu Tang’s secret weapon. The shop creates an inverted hot fudge sundae in each cup, with the cool and very lightly sweetened cream soft serve giving way to the molasses-rich boba on the bottom.

Hallie Meyer’s well-received ice cream and panna (cream in Italian) shop in Irving Place added another crowd-pleasing offering to their menu with a weekly soft serve special, in limited quantities daily. Paired with sprinkles and a delicate Amano chocolate shell, Caffe Panna’s subtly sweet, nearly savory soft serve menu differentiates itself from others with flavors that strike a balance between playful and sophisticated, including salted vanilla, strawberry olive oil, and cookies and panna.

An Alphabet City landmark since 1974, Ray’s Candy Store is a must-visit not only for its place in New York history and celebrity sightings (Kim! Kendall!) but for its wide array of desserts from egg creams to deep fried oreos. Chief among the sweets is Ray’s ice cream truck-style soft serve, with classic flavors ranging from chocolate vanilla twist to strawberry and pistachio. Each is great with a side of Belgian fries or beignets, and it’s worth the price of admission just to have a moment with owner Ray Alvarez.

Subtle is not an option at this shop, where the joy is in choosing from the staggering menu of cereals, toppings, and mix-in’s to blend in with vanilla or cookie dough soft serve flavors. The Chinatown-based Milk & Cream is also worth visiting for their off-the-wall collaborations and experiments, like a green Reptar ice cream bar in conjunction with Rugrats or an ice cream nugget with First We Feast. For the uninitiated, try the Apple Jacks Avalanche, a perfect homage to childhood memories.

Known for their soft serve menu studded with classic Asian ingredients like ube and matcha, as well as their eye-catching red waffle cones, Soft Swerve consistently delivers on their East and Southeast Asian flavors — not easy given the subtle ingredients, like purple yam, that are featured. Highlights from their rotation include a range of tea flavors, from Hong Kong milk tea to Thai iced tea, and their almond cookie. Order it with a shell and sprinkles to get the full soft serve experience

For die-hard Disneyland fans and West Coast natives, the airy, tangy pineapple soft serve known as Dole Whip conjures up childhood summertime memories like nothing else. Almost impossible to find on the East Coast, the original Dole Whip and seasonal flavors like watermelon are much closer than a transcontinental flight thanks to the owners of the well-regarded poke spot Chikarashi. Try the Dole float with fresh pineapple if available for a tart-sweet pairing. 

The line out the door of L’Industrie may be for their New York-style slices, but their seasonal menu of soft serves, including pistachio, mango, clementine, and basil, are equally note-worthy. Strong in flavor yet light in consistency, L’Industrie’s soft serves can lean closer to sorbets in their transparency and purity.

 A South Asian-rooted ice cream shop in Cobble Hill, Malai offers two rotating soft serve options —one dairy and one vegan — that draw on regional flavors like pistachio, masala chai, and saffron. Subtly flavored and available with dairy-free “almond dip” shells, Malai’s soft serve offerings provide a wholly original spin on the classic American treat and are a great companion to their excellent ice cream menu.