It's good ice cream, but 5 star good? Hmm let's see...
I was in the Torrance area to get dinner nearby, but the restaurant I was planning to go to doesn't open until 6 PM. It was 5 PM, so I had about an hour to kill, or should I say, chill? lol
I chose to stop at The Enclave, a food court that recently opened in the Harbor Gateway part of Torrance. I certainly wasn't looking for a meal since I was planning to eat one in an hour, so this was one of the few options for me.
Ben Scoops is located inside the food hall of The Enclave where you can order from one of several eateries, and they all share a common dining area. Ben Scoops is one such eatery at this food hall; they are located by the restrooms, conveniently enough.
As I was walking around the food hall, their cashier (Ben himself?) was friendly enough to give me a simple hello while I was looking around, trying to decide what to get. I made my way back around to Ben Scoops, where a couple of customers stood in line. Ice cream seemed like the answer for me, but there was one problem.
"Where's the menu?!" I kept looking around for one, but couldn't find one. I bit the bullet anyways, not knowing when my next visit to The Enclave would be, and stood behind the two customers deciding on what flavors to get.
They took their time ordering, but it didn't bother me a whole lot since it gave me ample time to look over the ~10 flavors in their ice cream chest. Some of the flavors looked pretty exotic, but I didn't want to get too fancy if you know what I mean. The Sticky Monkey looked like something I'd try on another day, but I decided against it.
When it was my turn to order, I immediately asked how much the ice cream was. They showed me the sizes, which didn't answer my question! I suppose they misconstrued my question as "how much ice cream do you get?" as opposed to "how much did the ice cream cost?" I really didn't want to order a cup of ice cream and then get charged $15 for it. I sincerely hope they add a menu in the near future because other customers shouldn't have to play "Guess the prices!" and get colored surprised at how much they'd have to pay.
Another thing that got annoying was that the descriptions and flavors were on the sliding doors of the ice cream chest; when one of the doors opens, it interferes with your ability to read the descriptions, so that can hamper your decision making ability, especially if you're one to experience analysis paralysis like me from time to time.
Anyways, after clarifying my question, I was told two flavors would cost half of $15. But what if we wanted three flavors? Or more? Was that the only option for us customers? If they had a menu, I wouldn't have had these kinds of questions.
I was okay paying $7.50 for a small treat even though I don't think the size of the scoops was commensurate with the high price tag. I kept things simple and settled for the nutty flavors of Pistachio and Toasted Almond. I know some people don't like nuts in their ice cream, but I don't mind. There was another employee next to the cashier who was scooping the ice cream from the chest, and then the cashier rung me up for my order.
At the time I went, the air ducts on the ceiling had accumulated so much condensation that water was dripping from the ceiling! A couple of drops struck me, which took me by surprise. The cashier responded with something about Manila, the capital of Philippines. Copypasta? Not sure, but it seemed uncalled for.
After paying for my ice cream, I took the cup to a nearby couch to enjoy my sweet treat.
The size of the cup is quite small. Like palm of my hand small, so you can only imagine how much ice cream I actually got. Luckily, the ice cream tasted really good. Much better than Baskin Robbins for sure! It really hit the spot after a long day of running around, being out and about. But is it really worth $7.50? Maybe to some, but for me, I thought the cup should be more like what you'd get at Baskin Robbins.
Service, while friendly enough to earn a visit from yours truly, wasn't nearly friendly enough to justify the high cost of their ice cream.
They do have a second ice cream chest by the rear wall, but it's just 1.5 quart tubs of Mitchell's Ice Cream; it's the same size as Dreyer's Ice Cream that you'd see in a traditional supermarket. I shudder to think how much one tub would cost if two (relatively small) scoops cost $7.50!
Also, I'm not sure why, but I felt there were more almonds in the Toasted Almond flavor than there were pistachios in the Pistachio flavor. Felt kind of odd to me, but I'm not factoring that into my rating.
Overall, it's a nice spot to get a sweet treat, but the high price point, relatively indifferent service, and the lack of a menu makes this rating nowhere near the average rating of 4.9. I'd still be willing to try their other flavors, especially that Sticky Monkey, but it may be a loooooooong time before that can happen. read more