Cornell Dairy Bar

Cornell ice cream is to die for. Huge scoops, all the flavors, cool building. What more could you want?!

I’ve heard of the famed Cornell ice cream from my boyfriend, a Cornell alum, for years. I even got to hear a Cornell student give a tour to his friends about the ice cream and other products the home grown animals produce. There’s a lot of pride here definitely. The line can be pretty long so get ready for a 15min+ wait as large families try to figure out what they want, but the folks there try to move the line along fairly fast.
I had strawberry and french vanilla — decadent is the word to describe this. Obviously it’s like having frozen whole milk straight from the farm that day, blows my Thrifty ice cream out of the water. I feel like one kiddie size scoop is enough though because it’s as if Paula Deen went a little overboard on frying butter in butter. Really delicious, worth the visit!

I don’t normally go out for ice cream, but every single one of my Cornell tour guides emphasized the dairy bar. The (supposed) high fat levels made it sweeter and creamier. The cookie dough ice cream was definitely on point.

You cannot go wrong with the freshest ice cream around (I would argue, in America)! The flavors are phenomenal and the quality of the ice cream is outstanding. I am happy that The Dairy Bar hasn’t changed since I was a student at Cornell. The service could use a bit of an upgrade though (at least in the summer) and perhaps more oversight on portion sizes. Last time I went, I got two tiny little scoops from one person while my friend got a huge portion from her server.

Yum!
Okay so I was upset about the Dairy Bar being closed for so long but now I understand as Stocking Hall has gotten a major makeover.
The ice cream is still spot on. Thank you, Cornell cows. I love you! Big Red Bear Tracks is forever my favorite flavor. The brownie chunks are slightly salty, which is awesome paired with the sweet ice cream. And of course, the homemade waffle cones are amazing.
I also love the observation deck where you can watch the milk being processed. So fun.

They must’ve raised their cows so well because their ice cream is soooo heavenly creamy and milky and smooth and every bite makes you go MMMMMMM. The Bavarian Raspberry is a good mix between chocolate-​y and fruity flavors while the Sweet CORNell is simply a genius way to incorporate corn into ice cream. Came here the second time to try their milkshake and UMMPHH it was so on point especially on that hot summer day. Their Strawberry Chocolate Fudge shake was the new definition of milkshake because the flavor is just so rich; it had real strawberries and chocolate hot fudge all over. The texture is somewhat inconsistent but I actually really like it cause you’ll get both the creaminess and iciness in one slurp!

AMAZING ice cream. Very rich but so smooth. I walked from college town to the vet school for this! So worth it.

Forget Purity, this is the place for ice cream. They have mastered the science of ice cream here with creamy and delicious flavors. The Cornell Dairy is a must try while in Ithaca.

Great ice cream, but terrible service. Why don’t students work here? Isn’t the point that it’s an agricultural school operation? Not that students would necessarily do a better job, but they likely couldn’t do worse.

The quality of the ice cream us definitely top notch.
The ice cream is fresh and Definetely we know that it is from a high quality milk.
I have not tasted ice cream that can have an aftertaste so fresh that I forget it is ice cream and not milk directly from the cow!

Small, cafeteria-​style ice cream shop and dairy case in the Food Science building. Between the uniforms and stainless steel, this place feels like it just jumped out of the 1950s.
The ice cream is excellent; the maple was nicely textured and flavorful, without being too sweet. This is good rich east-​coast stuff; on par with the better options in Boston, and much creamier than most stuff you can find in San Francisco, for example.
The cones are definitely weak — the sugar cone (triangular, pointy) we got was under-​done and tasted almost as much like styrofoam as a cake cone (squarish, honeycombed) usually does. Try the waffle cone, I guess? Those also looked pretty pale.
Most of the other visitors were bewildered by the options — one of the servers was caught up in a multi-​minute discussion about how you can’t get a sundae served in a cone. Luckily, the staff was able to keep things moving around the confused groups.
On the non-​ice-​cream side of the space, there’s a long cooler wall; the cheese curds were fresh and slightly squeaky, and packed in reasonable sizes. Cheese comes in wedges or whole wheels, and there’s a variety of milk and cream options. There’s also a few carafes of coffee, but nothing fancy.
Get the ice cream; get the cheese curds; and then go wander over to the observation platform above the bottling room.

Excellent. The ice cream is fresh and delicious. The portions are a good size; I had three scoops of ice cream with three flavors in a cup and my wife and I could hardly finish it!
The new shop and seating area are very nice with a modern feel. It can get busy as we got lucky and missed a horde of people after us. The workers are very nice and helpful. We even bought a souvenir pen with a cow head that lights up. How cool! A must go when in Ithaca but just check their hours.

This is how Cornell freshmen gain 25 lbs… «too fatty to legally sell elsewhere» ice cream after lunch and dinner.

Delicious ice cream and super creamy. It is great that they use their own dairy and you can even get fresh cheese and dairy there as well. LIne get a bit long on hot summer days, but it moves quickly enough and there is plenty of AC and seating as u wait and eat.

Obviously, a must visit if you’re visiting the campus. After being closed for a few years to renovate the building, it’s finally back! Thickest milkshake I’ve ever had.
They usually have about a dozen flavors available, the standards (vanilla/​chocolate/​cookies & cream/​cookie dough/​mint chip) as well as one or two special Cornell themed flavors.

If I lived closer to here I think I would be in every day. The ice cream is delicious, and tastes so creamy. The prices here are super reasonable (2.99 for 3 scoops) and the scoops were huge!
My biggest issue with coming here was the parking. Navigating Cornell’s campus is a bit hard, and if my phone did not tell me that I had arrived I would never have known the building was driving by had the dairy store in it.

Taste good and milky, think they use whole milk for the Ice cream here. I only finished half of the scoop because I am lactose intolerant, yet surprisingly I didn’t react to that at all. But I’ve decided to stay away from it., who wants to smell your fart during class.
My friends who aren’t lactose intolerant definitely love it!

The ice cream from here was absolutely delicious! Creamy, smooth, rich and really fresh tasting. I got the Big Red Bear Tracks, which is vanilla ice cream with caramel and cookie/​chocolate cake chunks with Cookies and Cream. I definitely liked the Big Red Bear Tracks better. If I could come back I would definitely try the Bavarian Raspberry Cheesecake (that I think had dark chocolate). I got there at 4:57pm and just squeezed in, they almost closed the door on the guy behind me.
If you’re visiting Cornell you definitely have to come here at one point in your trip! They prices are fair as well, it was only 2.19 (plus tax) for a double scoop.
The reason I gave them 4 stars was that service was pretty bad. It took 5 tries to try and tell the cashier what I wanted, and at the end, he was pretty pissy. Maybe it was because it was the end of the day, but make sure you’re ready to wait. The line-​up was also super long, but then again it was pretty hot that day. They didn’t seem to have any vegan options other than the sorbet, and you can’t try the flavors, which makes it harder to choose.
All in all, definitely recommend this place!

Great ice cream! My friend and I walked over here to take a break from studying for finals and we intended to eat our ice cream on the way back. I got cookie dough and he got Bavarian raspberry. We ate them insanely fast because they were that good and we were pretty much done before getting a quarter of the way down Tower Road.
There’s a nice area to sit in front of the building, as well as several tables indoors. You may have to wait a while since they have a lot of orders to fill.
Walking here from the engineering quad in 80+ degree weather is like crossing Mordor though. =/

Milky, creamy, rich, and fresh. I’ve only had the Dairy Bar’s Cookie Dough flavor, but this was truly some of the best ice cream I’ve ever had. I don’t remember the ice cream being this good before the Dairy Plant renovations, but this was back when I was applying to Cornell, so perhaps I was just stressed. If you’re in Ithaca, make sure you stop here!
To find the Dairy Bar: Look for Stocking Hall, directly across the street from one of the visitor’s parking lots. When you walk through the main entrance you’ll see a staircase on the left and a seating area on the right. Walk to the right past the seating area and then at the end of the hallway, make a left and you should see the Dairy Bar.