Just to be clear, they’ve never sold ice cream. Their famous soft serve has always been below the minimum milk fat threshold to qualify as ice cream. You won’t find the term “ice cream” anywhere on a Dairy Queen menu or product description.
Strictly speaking of soft serve at fast food restaurants? The only one I can think of that is, or was, considered to be real ice cream is Sonic. But I think that might have changed when they overhauled their menu sometime around 2023. Lots of complaints that the consistency of the ice cream changed. I found a nutrition guide from 2018 that had the term “real ice cream” plastered all over it, but the nutrition guide from 2025 doesn’t say “ice cream” anywhere.
McDonald’s, Burger King, A&W all have low-fat soft serve.
Culver’s and Freddy’s have frozen custard.
Braum’s serves real ice cream, but it’s not soft serve. (Their soft serve is classified as frozen yogurt.)
I had to check this bc I would have sworn that they had ice cream cakes. Idk what black magic they use but if you search for it on the web they show up. Like, it says, “Celebrate your next ice cream cake occasion with a DQ premade cake (available today) or custom cake(order 2 days ahead). Personalize with messages, frosting color, and more.” In the results blurb. But that is definitely not on the link when you click it.
That’s a very carefully worded statement. Notice how “ice cream cake” is used to describe the occasion and not their products. So on any occasion where you might want an ice cream cake, consider one of our cakes because they fulfill the same purpose. No they are not ice cream cakes. We never said they were ice cream cakes.
Just to be clear, they started off with ice cream and then pivoted to non-ice cream foods they called “fan food”.
Just to be clear, they’ve never sold ice cream. Their famous soft serve has always been below the minimum milk fat threshold to qualify as ice cream. You won’t find the term “ice cream” anywhere on a Dairy Queen menu or product description.
Are there places that do? Like Culver’s has custard, I think McDonald’s is like actually melted and cooled plastic
Strictly speaking of soft serve at fast food restaurants? The only one I can think of that is, or was, considered to be real ice cream is Sonic. But I think that might have changed when they overhauled their menu sometime around 2023. Lots of complaints that the consistency of the ice cream changed. I found a nutrition guide from 2018 that had the term “real ice cream” plastered all over it, but the nutrition guide from 2025 doesn’t say “ice cream” anywhere.
McDonald’s, Burger King, A&W all have low-fat soft serve.
Culver’s and Freddy’s have frozen custard.
Braum’s serves real ice cream, but it’s not soft serve. (Their soft serve is classified as frozen yogurt.)
Huh. Didn’t know this. But I’ve never been to a DQ.
I had to check this bc I would have sworn that they had ice cream cakes. Idk what black magic they use but if you search for it on the web they show up. Like, it says, “Celebrate your next ice cream cake occasion with a DQ premade cake (available today) or custom cake(order 2 days ahead). Personalize with messages, frosting color, and more.” In the results blurb. But that is definitely not on the link when you click it.
That’s a very carefully worded statement. Notice how “ice cream cake” is used to describe the occasion and not their products. So on any occasion where you might want an ice cream cake, consider one of our cakes because they fulfill the same purpose. No they are not ice cream cakes. We never said they were ice cream cakes.