Junior Ambassador’s

PanWiches! Yes! You can’t help but love a pair of savory pancakes warming a vegi-​reuben or a delicious tuna melt! Also available vegan, you can’t miss at Jr Ambassadors! And the ice cream will blow you away! Bacon ice cream! Vegan ice creams, and they’re amazing! If you haven’t been here, go now! so good!

This place is my Favorite! and it is served up with a nice friendly smile.

Tasty vegan ice cream made from coconut milk. Sweet!
Side note: If I ever move to Portland I need to learn to carry cash.

this place was recommended by a friend, and we were glad we stopped by. it was a nice treat after a hike up the multnomah falls, and it was a scorching hot day, so the ice cream definitely cooled us down, even if just a little bit.
i ordered the vanilla lavender ice cream in a cone, and it was very lavender-​y. yummy! the guy that runs this place was really cool, very chill. i visited the garden, and he had a big squash (pumpkin?) and lots of tomatoes growing.
it’s located in a random neighborhood, but if you have a car, stop by and support this local dessert chef! oh yeah, the music he was playing (along with that heat) made me feel like i was somewhere in africa.

I seriously have a new appreciation for this cold genre of dessert. Wow!
I first checked out Junior Ambassadors about 2 weeks ago. After sampling many of the flavors (including the amazing asparagus with gourmet salt… who knew?) I decided on the ginger snap and basil ice cream. Move over cookie dough, there’s a new cookie flavor in town. This may be hands down one of the best ice cream flavors ever.
Since my first visit I have been twice (which is a lot considering they are only open Fri– Sun). The last time I was blown away by the salmon and cream cheese flavor ice cream. I had no idea that that could even be remotely tasty. Not too heavy on the fish flavor and just the right balance of cream cheese.
Also, check this place out on Sundays for Sunday ice cream specials. Last week it was caprese. I can’t wait for next weeks special. I will definitely be there to see what they come up with! Btw, I plan on gaining 10 lbs via ice cream by the summers end! Viva la ice cream!

On the way to visiting the Mississippi Street Fair, Ollie and I decided to stop by Junior Ambassador to get a little sumthin’ sumthin’. There’s a nice list of eclectic flavors on the board out front to choose from; Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese, Maple Bacon Strip Tease, and Pepper-​Mint Chocolate Chip, among others.
We decided to try the Pepper-​Mint. This flavor is not as boring as it sounds; instead of the kind peppermint that tastes like nasty toothpaste or gum, they use what tastes like real mint, and the pepper that’s involved here is the infamous Habenero chili pepper.
It was truly amazing; upon tasting, you have a nice mint flavor that is so refreshing, then a few moments later the habenero kicks in and delivers a spicy kick to your tongue. The guy who runs this place is some kind of evil alchemist of taste — and I can’t wait to go there again to see what he’s got up his sleeve next!

After trying their salmon cream cheese ice cream at Eat Mobile 2009, I had to visit their site to try more of their flavors. The salmon flavor was good, but I can’t imagine eating a whole serving of it. I really, really appreciate the creativity of flavors, but some don’t seem practical. After sampling the Strawberry Chipotle and agreeing it tasted how I expected, I ended up ordering the Strawberry Rhubarb. Yum!
My friend got the maple and bacon offering and loved it. I admit it was pretty damn good.
Good location for ice cream with fresh ingredients, but it’s not really near a whole lot of things. So you either view it as going out of your way or as a sanctuary complete with garden space away from busy Mississippi Ave.

Consider this equation:
Occasional music + wacky ice cream flavors + excellent ice cream texture+ a grassy knoll = X
X = Junior Ambassadors
Junior Ambassadors = Utopia? (Except for the part where I am required to wear pants. That’s not Utopian at all.)
I’ve been meaning to write this review for a while, how could I resist? An Ice Cream Stand that is kid and adult friendly where just the names of the flavors make you smile? I’m so in.
As you can tell from the other reviews, the flavors range and plenty sound a little wacky. I was with a large enough group that we got to sample pretty much everything being served up that day. I definitely had my misgivings, I mean, I’m pretty hard to win over to the savory side of ice cream. I’ve had some wild ice creams before and no one has ever succeeded. Now, JA’s has come along and modernized my nostalgia with things like Strawberry-​Chipotle ice cream – I’m mildly hooked.

The Junior Ambassadors food cart has by far the best ice cream in Portland, OR. Great flavors, good prices and nice service.

The ice cream itself is delicious. The cream cheese + salmon and asparagus flavors are great, even though they sound nasty. I don’t like gingersnaps, but the gingersnap cookie was amazing, with all the soft bits of cookie in the fluffy ice cream. Yum. The cones this guy uses are unique – they’re sort of a hybrid of a cake cone and a sugar cone, but seem to be of a higher quality than your average cone.
The proprietor will let you sample all the flavors, and there’s a cool garden up top with sunny tables that are perfect on a hot day. The serving sizes and prices are pretty ridiculous though. $ 9.50 for what was essentially 3 scoops of ice cream is awful, so minus one star for small servings and big prices.
You’re better off getting a scoop of the salmon ice cream than actually buying a «sundae.» The only difference is that one comes in a cone and one comes with a couple of crackers that aren’t that great and apparently are worth about $ 2 extra…
Plenty of local ice cream shops have better prices, and I’ve definitely seen cheaper asparagus ice cream before (yes it was in Massachusetts, but still, crazy fun flavors don’t have to cost a ton of cashola).

Talk about taking a risk and trying something different than everyone else. We stopped here after eating at Trebol and wanted to see what it was all about. He has the most interesting combination’s of flavors for ice cream ever. My group sampled almost everything. The combination’s sounded weird and almost gross but some actually worked! Try the gingersnap. You just have to be daring and try. He uses an Italian gelato machine to make his ice cream so it has a very smooth consistency.
Give it a try and support this unique business. Looks like there is a small garden area up the hill for hanging out and enjoying the ice cream.

Man, this guy who runs the Junior Ambassadors (the owner?) he’s into ice cream. The ice cream here isn’t necessarily sweet — I had the salmon sundae with capers & onion on top. What a treat, what a surprise! Partner had the coconut curry which was a little out there for my taste BUT I just love the experimental nature of this place. Right down my alley for sure. I recommend, I recommend, I recommend.
P. S.: You better plan your trip well — the J A is only open weekends noon to four. Yep, four hours only. Well worth it!

Okay, I feel like I am running out of vegetarian restaurants in Portland. Now I’m writing about food cart joints, which most of them are just as awesome as the restaurants. I personally love Junior Ambassadors. Its open long hours… I don’t know specifically the hours but I do know everytime I’m hungry at awkward hours I show up to Junior A. Especially in this hot summer (please, stay hot Portland!) I can’t help myself to try a black pepper ice cream and asparagus ice cream. Yeah. Asparagus wasn’t that great but I’m addicted to the black sesame. Trust me, sesame flavored ice cream is really good. Other than blossoming lotus softserve, I crave Junior A. ice cream. Also, get the soup. YUM! Best vegetable minestrone soup I’ve had in a long time.

We read about this place in a Willamette Week article on food carts and had to check it out. We came for the ice cream. We saw the ice cream. We conquered the ice cream. Specifically we had two flavors: chocolate orange, and maple & bacon (!). Both were delicious: I was surprised I liked the maple & bacon as much as I did. The chocolate orange had a great dark chocolate flavor and the orange flavor wasn’t overpowering (which is a good thing — alas, too many chocolate orange flavored desserts overdo the orange). The only other flavor they had that day was Salmon & Cream Cheese, but I don’t eat salmon so that was ruled out.
Our visit was totally worth the trek from downtown. They also make panwiches (panini) and soup but we’d already had lunch when we came here. We enjoyed sitting at the picnic table and reading through a booklet of surveys that the owner has been collecting about the eating habits of people in the neighborhood and their wacky awesome suggestions for ice cream flavors.