Bocha Ice Cream Brings Argentine Gelato to a Van Nuys Strip Mall

New Restaurant Alert: A slice of Buenos Aires-adjacent gelato tradition arrives on Sepulveda Boulevard.

Bocha Ice Cream, an Argentine-style helado shop, is open at 7550 North Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys. The strip mall storefront has drawn early attention for its swirly pink murals and cartoon ice cream characters worked into the interior design, giving the space a look that reads more Buenos Aires kids' cafe than San Fernando Valley strip mall counter.

Argentine Helado, Applied to the Valley

Argentine ice cream, or helado artesanal, sits somewhere between American ice cream and Italian gelato: denser than the American version, softer than gelato, and traditionally organized around a split lineup of cream-forward flavors and clean fruit flavors on the same counter. Bocha's menu honors that tradition, per The Infatuation's reporting on the opening.

An Argentine Wave in Los Angeles

Bocha adds to a slowly growing Argentine food footprint in Los Angeles that has picked up momentum in 2025 and 2026, with recent openings including Ambue and Santinos on the savory side. It joins Van Nuys's increasingly stacked dessert lane, which is one of the busier neighborhoods on our new restaurants in Los Angeles roundup this month.

What We Have Our Eyes On

Per The Infatuation's coverage, the counter is split the traditional way. On the cream-forward side:

• Dulce de leche — the caramelized-milk anchor of every Argentine helado shop and the flavor most likely to tell you how the shop treats its craft.

• Sambayon — the Italian-influenced flavor made from egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala.

• Crema del cielo — a delicate cream base with meringue and dulce de leche threaded through.

On the fruit side:

• Passionfruit — the ordering move if you want to see the shop's fruit sourcing at its best.

• Strawberry — the classic, executed against the same standard.

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Our ordering strategy on a first visit: pair the dulce de leche with the passionfruit to see both sides of the counter at their strongest. For updates on flavor rotations and hours, follow @bochavn on Instagram.

Bocha Ice Cream is at 7550 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 91405. For more of what's landing in the Valley and beyond, head to our LA restaurant news hub. Food Journal Magazine will roll by for the taste test soon.