Toronto's most exuberant ice cream experience — Dutch Dreams on Vaughan Road has been piling ice cream into cartoon animal cones and creating elaborate sundaes since 1983. The Dutch Chocolate remains a Toronto ice cream standard, and the cone sizes are genuinely absurd. A uniquely cheerful Toronto dessert institution.
Neighbourhood: Wychwood / Cedarvale · Address: 78 Vaughan Rd, Toronto, ON · Hours: Daily 11am–10pm (summer hours) | Seasonal · Price Range: $ · Phone: (416) 651-3700 · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Dutch Dreams is famous for their explosively decorated cones, absurd sundae creations, and unapologetically massive ice cream portions. It's a decades-old local ritual for sugar seekers of any age.
While most Toronto ice cream shops go for minimalist design, Dutch Dreams is an over-the-top riot of kitsch, from ceiling murals to the golden cow statue outside. Nowhere else can you get your scoop perched in a waffle cone shaped like a cartoon animal head. They're also one of the few places still serving classic Dutch flavours like Speculaas and Stroopwafel.
Kawartha Dairy is Ontario's most beloved ice cream brand — a family dairy operation from the Kawartha Lakes region north of Toronto that produces ice cream with a higher butterfat content than commercial soft-serve operations, real cream from Ontario dairy farms, and a Dutch Chocolate flavour that has developed its own fan base across the province. The ice cream is distributed to scooping shops, grocery stores, and Kawartha's own outlets in Toronto; finding a location that scoops it fresh and serves it in a proper waffle cone is worth seeking.
Dutch Chocolate ice cream uses natural cocoa processed with an alkalizing agent (the Dutch process removes the natural acidity of cocoa, producing a darker, milder, more chocolatey flavour without cocoa's characteristic bitterness). The combination of high butterfat base and Dutch cocoa creates a chocolate ice cream with more depth and less sugar-forward sweetness than most commercial alternatives. The Dutch Chocolate has been Kawartha's signature flavour for decades and maintains the quality standard that built the brand's reputation.
The signature animal cone (a waffle cone with a chocolate coating inside the cone and a chocolate nose/ear/eye design on the top scoop, created by each scooper differently) is the presentation format that makes Kawartha ice cream an experience rather than a transaction. The chocolate coating inside the cone prevents the ice cream from softening the waffle before you finish; the decorative top is the fun that's worth sharing on any social media.
Seasonal summer flavours at Kawartha rotate with genuine creativity — peach (Ontario summer peach, available August only), strawberry cheesecake (June strawberry season), and limited specialty flavours that appear and disappear based on ingredient availability and the dairy's production calendar. The seasonal flavours are the reason regular visitors return throughout summer.
Kawartha Dairy uses higher butterfat content than standard commercial ice cream (made with Ontario dairy cream from the Kawartha Lakes region), produces a smaller batch of rotating flavours with real ingredients, and has maintained the same quality standards since its founding. The Dutch Chocolate is the most recognizable product.
Dutch Chocolate uses cocoa processed with an alkalizing agent that removes natural acidity, producing a darker, milder, rounder chocolate flavour without cocoa's characteristic bitterness. Kawartha's Dutch Chocolate combines this processed cocoa with high-butterfat cream for one of Ontario's most beloved ice cream flavours.
Kawartha Dairy has scooping locations in Toronto (check their website for current addresses) and is stocked at many Toronto grocery stores. Several independent ice cream shops also scoop Kawartha product. The freshest experience is at a Kawartha-affiliated scooping location.
Ontario peach (August only, made with real peach), strawberry cheesecake (June strawberry season), and the annual Christmas flavour (typically a holiday spice) are worth seeking. Check the Kawartha website or social media for current seasonal flavour availability.
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