Van Dyk’s Ice Cream

Simply awesome homemade ice cream with some great flavors. Black Raspberry is one of my all-​time favorites and this is one of the best I’ve tasted. The Pumpkin Pie ice cream in the Fall is amazing! Great old fashioned homemade ice cream shop! Worth the wait if there’s a line and there often is!

Favorite local place for ice cream, the lines are long but it’s worth the wait for the amount of ice cream you’ll get

Was very excited to try this place out since I was looking for a ice cream shop that wasn’t a Cold Stone or Baskin Robbins. The ice cream is very good! Delicious and very generous scoops! But, I was hoping for some variety in flavor, they seem to just the basics with maybe one or two different ones. But all in all, very good ice cream.

Delicious homemade ice cream but the décor could use some improvements. I’ll definitely come back again.

I’m pretty easy when it comes to ice cream. No really, just give me a scoop of chocolate or coffee and I’m happy as a clam! But nowadays simple ice creams made of good stock are hard to come by! Most flavors are packed with extra things, fudge ripples and toffee chips, to the point where it feels like I’m just eating candy! And the sugar! Gosh, I know ice cream isn’t the best thing for you but sometimes I feel like I’m licking a giant blob of frozen sugar crystals! For a nice selection of simple flavors Van Dyk’s is the place to go. A few reviews have touched on the lack of interesting flavors, but seem to forever this is a simple shop. If you want a refreshing cucumber sorbet or roast pumpkin gelato go into the Boroughs, where there are TONS of niche dessert shops.
Thats not to say Van Dky’s doesn’t have any interesting flavors, they had a nice Peach Cobbler out for the summer season, and serve some dynamite Blue Berry Pie! From what I can tell (as I don’t go every day even though I want to) the specials change daily so there’s always something new. And if you missed a flavor don’t worry! They seem to cycle them.
For what you’re paying, 4 to 6 dollars rounded depending on size, you’re getting a run for your money. Some flavors, as reviewers before me have pointed out, are a little bland but a simple taste test will quickly point out what you should avoid. Also the staff? They’re there for hours on minimum wage working with all sorts of people and barely get tipped. As someone who works in retail I know what its like to get nasty customers and have it ruin your day. Want the teens to seem lively? Ask them what flavors they like, or make a joke about how busy/​slow it is. Or ask «shift end soon?». I do that and INSTANTLY people’s faces change and they’re more than pleasant. They’re teens who scoop ice cream for hours, not robots.
Ultimately Van Dyk’s isn’t the master of flavors. They might not have all the flavors, but for the price you are paying for pretty good homemade ice cream it’s a steal! Not to mention you don’t get nearly as much at chain stores! It’s crumbling parking lot and bland exterior make me think it belongs well… anywhere else but Ridgewood (with its overly polished looks) but at the end of the day you’re not going for ambiance or views, you’re going for some ice cream!

Ok – so I get how nostalgia can temper someone’s expectations of comfort food — like ice cream for instance — but for me there is something missing in the Van Dyk’s ice cream formula of yore. I mean it is a cool out of the way joint with lots of tradition and all — nice homey place with loads of folks lined up for their dose — and huge portions — yada yada — but the quality is just not there anymore.
Premium ice cream is supposed to be DECADENTLY CREAMY AND FLAVORFUL but the presence of ice crystals in the products we tasted suggests it was either thawed and refrozen or improperly made to begin with. On two recent visits we tried several different flavors and all of them had the same fault. So far as flavor goes, many of the combo choices tasted like different ice cream flavors mixed together after production to make a third (e.g. salted vanilla caramel) instead of being made that way from scratch. This may explain why there was refreezing and formation of ice crystals. Basic fruit flavors like strawberry were grainy and lacked the real fruit flavor, texture and color of the best versions of this. The color looked artificial — as in neon (nothing in nature looks like this) red.
Van Dyk’s is still a nice place to bring our kids for some after dinner ice cream, but I can’t say the product deserves raves. It is just OK.

Doesn’t get better than Van Dykes! Great flavor selections — my favorites are coffee and Nutella! Also free sprinkles on huge portions!
They have the greatest assortment of flavors on the weekend. From cotton candy to peach to banana. You’ll love it!

This is a very popular place, but I think it’s just OK. The ice cream is good but not spectacular. The flavors are all pretty normal and nothing’s too exciting. The portions are really big. I ordered a small cone and my mom had a small cup. The total was around $ 6. It’s a nice small neighborhood shop but nothing outstanding.

I remember the first few times I’ve had Van Dyk’s, their ice cream was something I’d go out of my way for, with cherry vanilla being my favorite flavor. I recently went on a Sunday night, and they had only a few flavors left, maybe 6 or so options compared to their usual longer list. I understand their ice cream is home made, I just thought they made enough to the gallons of ice cream whenever they ran out. Luckily, one of the flavors left was my favorite cherry vanilla. I don’t know what happened to this batch, but it was terrible. I was expecting a good handful of cherries in my scoop, but it was mostly the basic vanilla, which lacked flavor too. The waffle cone I got wasn’t sweet enough. Van dyk’s is great because they give generously sized scoops, but I ate one scoop of this cone and the ridge of the cone before I had enough of the blandness.

Great little ice cream place, so much selection. Cantaloupe is the top flavor, fruit wise. Cash only

I was somewhat disappointed by my experience here, in comparison to all the hype.
Pros: fresh homemade ice cream with good ingredients (the pecans in my butter pecan tasted like they were just blended in); good portion size; fair prices.
Cons: flavor selection was somewhat mundane (they have a few more interesting flavors every day but most of the menu is pretty standard) and the ice cream was not particularly flavorful (my butter pecan tasted like plain vanilla with pecans mixed in) or creamy.
Unquestionably good ice cream, but if you’re in the mood for true decadence or something that really pops on your palate, go elsewhere.

Why would I write a review of an ice cream place at 5AM in the middle of winter? Because I can’t sleep is why. I love their ice cream. I have always loved their ice cream. I have been going to Van Dyk’s since before I can remember. My parents used to take me when I was really young and I carried on the tradition with my kids, niece and nephews as well.
Not too much in the way of ambience. There are no tables and the lines can be long but move quickly. Selection is varied and delicious. The parking lot can be a bit crazy. Spaces are not clearly marked and it gets really jammed during the summer. Most people sit on the wall outside and eat. It’s fun but not all that comfortable, especially for your ass. For some odd reason ass and cinder blocks just don’t seem to get along well. I do think, however, that’s part of the allure and certainly part of the experience.
Ice cream is a fun food. Some would argue it’s the most fun food. Eating it should also be fun and at Van Dyk’s the experience is just that, sore ass and all.

THE best ice cream place ever. enough said. :)
It’s a homemade ice cream place that is definitely worth every single penny.
They serve light and fluffy ice cream and they’re not so diabetes-​sweet. I love the different varieties and no, I haven’t tried them all yet, but all that I’ve tried were absolutely phenomenal! I recommend, pistachio, blueberry, banana and black raspberry.

It took too long for me to write this review, because I was still savoring the taste of their mint cookies and cream ice cream!
I’m from Texas, and every time I head over to New Jersey, I have to stop by Van Dykes! Their ice cream is so creamy, and you can tell that it is homemade. I’ve always loved their cantaloupe and pistachio ice cream. You can never go wrong!

If you love sweets, you can’t go wrong with ice cream. I went here with my hubby who loves ice cream. We ordered Nutella, cappuccino, black raspberry. It was big even though I ordered a small cup. It was cash only so don’t forget to bring cash when you head down here.
Black raspberry was really good. Loved it. We really enjoyed our ice cream. No seating area, staffs were okay. It was staffed with high school students that were earning little pocket money. I enjoyed my sweet monuments, wish they have little seating area outside.

I love my ice cream.
Van Dyk’s is HANDS DOWN the best ice cream place I’ve ever been to. It really breaks my heart knowing that I have to travel all across the U.S. to come get a scoop of their orgasmically good ice cream. Next time I’m in New Jersey, if there’s ONE pit stop I have to make, it’ll be at Van Dyk’s.
As soon as we drove up here, I was so confused because it just looked like a small, run-​down store. Sorry to sound snobbish. I wish I could move Van Dyk’s over to LA, where they would expand like no other! They would ruin all of the other ice cream places!
They have extremely generous sample servings with more than awesome homemade flavors. I’m pretty sure I tried more than 6 – 8 of their flavors, and the worker was so pleasant even by the 8^th flavor. I seriously had a hard time choosing which flavor I wanted. I only wish they had the option of doing half & half flavors, since a single scoop is equivalent to a normal double scoop. I would’ve gotten a double scoop if I hadn’t eaten so much before.
You will NOT be disappointed. If I lived in NJ, I’d be here everyday.

awesome ice cream! Be weary of the sizes– my other half ordered a large chocolate cone– it was INSANE! Got lots of stares from kids and adults alike when we walked outside with that thing!
Even I got a «small» cup with hot fudge, it was a big serving! total was 9.00 and change and worth every penny. We stopped there on Sunday around 3pm so there was no line and we were in and out right away. The girls behind the counter were nice and attentive too. I will be going back– I want to try a milkshake!
Parking could get a little hairy but no one is in a rush and everyone seems to get in and out just fine.

Everyone loves homemade ice-​cream, right?! RIGHT!
Although it’s a bit of a drive into the heart of Ridgewood from where I am, it’s always worth the little adventure.
There aren’t any cool storefronts and you’ll most likely have to wait about 10 – 15 minutes before you get your paws on an ice cream cone, but it’s definitely worth the wait. And the line goes by incredibly quickly.
Warning though, you might drive right by it, since it doesn’t look like an ice cream parlor in the slightest bit. You’ll see lots of trees, a huge parking area, and a long line of people going in and coming out of what looks like a light blue one-​story house.
They have about 15 – 20 different flavors and they’re so generous with the scoops. Each serving of ice cream comes with two ginormous scoops, so I’d recommend sharing it with someone, since I always find it difficult to finish it all by myself, regardless of how hard I try.
It’s homemade, so it’s consoling to know that MAYBE they did not put as many emulsifiers and chemical agents into the ice cream.

The ice cream is amazing. It really is soooo good. I got the coffee chip and chocolate peanut butter… I did feel like the girls working weren’t very friendly though. Cash only and theres no seating, so we sat outside.
Also I wish they would allow us to have two flavors in a one scoop cup b/​c two scoops was a lot of ice cream.
Small parking lot in front

Super awesome ice cream spot hidden from the rest of commercial Ridgewood. The ice cream is homemade and delicious. A single scoop is more like a double elsewhere. Unfortunately, they cannot balance 3 scoops on a cone. Triple scoops must be served in a cup. Prices are about the same as the chains.
Line is long on weekends, but non-​existent on weeknights.
CASH ONLY