Chin Chin Ice Cream

Chin Chin Ice Cream makes ice cream to order with liquid nitrogen from its counter in Cucumber Alley, the upper run of Seven Dials Market on Earlham Street. Trading originally as Chin Chin Labs, it is one of the longest established names in London's dessert scene and also holds sites in Camden and Soho.

The method is the point: bases are frozen in front of the customer using nitrogen tanks rather than churned in advance, which is why the counter runs with a permanent cloud of vapour over it. The Covent Garden pitch serves a line-up of the kitchen's best known flavours, among them Burnt Butter Caramel and Banana Bread Toast and Honey Butter, plus a Seven Dials exclusive called Block of Butter Ice Cream, built from crisp honey toast, strawberry jam and a gold-wrapped slab of honey butter ice cream.

Liquid nitrogen ice cream in Covent Garden

The wider Chin Chin range extends well past cones. The kitchen is known for a hot chocolate topped with a torched marshmallow swirl, and it takes orders for celebration cakes and caters events. Flavours rotate weekly and are published per site, so the Chin Chin Seven Dials Market menu is not the same as Camden or Soho on any given week. The same team is behind Mello Deluxe, the marshmallow dessert bar in the same building.

What to expect on a visit

The counter opens slightly ahead of the rest of the market on Saturdays and runs later into the evening than most of the food kitchens, with an earlier Sunday close. It is walk-up only and the queue is usually the longest in Cucumber Alley on warm afternoons. See the full line-up at Seven Dials Market or browse other dessert shops in Covent Garden.