Freddo

Dulce de leche is the flavour to order first, and it tells you what kind of place this is. Freddo in Studio City is the second Los Angeles shop from Helados Freddo, the Argentine gelato chain, and it opened in 2024 between the Koreatown and Downtown branches.

Argentine gelato first, café service around it

The draw is the gelato, not a specialty coffee bar or a matcha programme. Frozen dessert is the centre of the business, and the traditional flavours carry the Argentine identity across the case, with dulce de leche the one that defines the house. Cups and cones are the practical starting point.

The café side exists to support that order. Coffee is a counter-service companion rather than the reason to come, and the food is anchored by alfajores and medialuna sandwiches. That combination makes the shop useful beyond a quick scoop: friends meeting over gelato, a sweet stop on the way home, or a longer sit on the patio with a coffee.

How to frame a visit

Think of it as an Argentine gelato shop with café amenities rather than a coffee destination with dessert attached. The role is simple: coffee alongside gelato, alfajores and medialunas, all ordered at the same counter.

The best use of the room is casual and social. It is a pleasant place to meet someone, and the spacious back patio, with wifi, extends the visit well beyond the time it takes to finish a cone. Seating runs to indoor tables and that patio, so the flow is straightforward: come in, order at the counter, then sit. It is not a high-design coffee room or a full restaurant, and it does not pretend to be. The identity shifts through the day, daytime café into evening gelato shop, with dessert leading throughout.

What to order

Start with the gelato, and with dulce de leche if it is in the case, since that flavour is central to the brand’s heritage and recurs through the rest of the menu. A cup or a cone keeps the order focused on what the shop is built around.

Add an alfajor for the most direct Argentine pairing: a soft cookie sandwich, traditionally filled with dulce de leche or fruit and often coated. The other named item is the medialuna sandwich. Medialunas are sweet, crescent-shaped pastries, usually glazed, and here they are split and filled rather than served plain, which makes them the closest thing to a proper snack on the menu. Beyond that trio the list stays short, so stay close to it, and treat coffee as a simple espresso-based addition rather than the reason for the trip.