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Carvel

3.2 (180 reviews)
Closed • 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

Carvel Photos

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Recommended Reviews - Carvel

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Linnea E.

I haven't been to a Carvel in years! Twist soft-serve was my go-to order as a kid and it still delivers especially on a hot summer day. It was a little unclear if I was supposed to go inside or order at the window but I figured it out (order outside) and was rewarded with ice creamy goodness!

Nancy M.

What's better than to have dinner and walk over to Mario's to get some Carvel ice cream! I'm pretty simple, I love a good vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles in a cake cone. This definitely hit the spot, but do wish I got a cup because summer time heat had this melting pretty quickly!

Single Chipster
Stephanie C.

There is a free parking lot for customers in the back. We got the Reese's peanut butter cup carvelanche. Their vanilla ice cream isn't that creamy but the mix-ins were good. Also got the Chipster which is like a quintessential grocery store ice cream sandwich. Fluffy vanilla ice cream inside and soft dissolvable cookies on the outside. A bit pricey at over $5 for a small cookie ice cream sandwich and $13 for the carvelanche, which is like a shake.

Chocolate hard ice cream

Went here for a treat on a sunny Sunday afternoon! So glad we did! There's a lot of flavors, and they also have food!!! I'll be back to try the food and a different flavor of ice cream. I got chocolate and it was good.

Ordering window
Caroline K.

DELICIOUS ice cream!!! I cannot recommend the Peanut Butter Treasure enough! Chocolate ice cream with Reese's bits in it. So good. The flavors they make are high quality. You're paying for it though with a bit pricey of a menu. They do give you a substantial amount for a small cup so that's awesome. Ice cream orders made within a minute and handed to you at the cute little counter they have. Plenty of outdoor seating. The whole outdoor section had such cute decorations to make it a really great vibe to hang out with family or on a date. Several parking spots as well was a nice plus!

Medium Soft Serve Ice Cream
Cole D.

Too expensive but lots of ice cream and very tasty. $9 for soft serve is too much but the quality of Carvel is worthy of note. A huge amount of chocolate and vanilla swirl for my ice cream. Cool seating area. Very fast from order to delivery.

Dee D.

We went here for soft serve ice cream after lunch at a high end steakhouse. It was more for nostalgic reasons because I ate Carvel growing up in NYC. It's sort of pricey like everything else and the cost of a small cone $7.49 but the worst is a topping cost $1.79! That is ludicrous. They also overcharged us for a topping and the manager corrected it.

Exterior
Meredith B.

At $7.50 for a small ice cream and $10 for a small milkshake the prices are a little steep! We were served quickly and settled on a twisted small soft serve. There were very limited shady seats and none left, so we took it to go. I enjoyed the ice cream!

Mike R.

A childhood memory. First off am happy to find this. Carvel was well, Cookie Puss, Fudgie the Whale, and other characters if I remember them correctly. Nostalgia lives here. It's in a nice part of Arlington, but $36 for three ice cream cones and bottles of water is insane. Sorry that won't be happening anytime soon. Is the rent and inflation for real? Yeah but I can't justify this cost. Is the ice cream good? Absolutely. Yet there is a lot of competition. I'll say it is tasty, and I liked having it today as hot weather. Very efficient and friendly staff. It's connected to Mario's. Parking is challenging. I liked it but it is not in the love category.

Strawberry Shortcake
Hammed A.

Been a customer here for as long as I have been one of Mario's Pizza House. It's so inviting to grab ice cream after eating at Mario's. Overall this Carvel is a good experience for traditional ice cream options and American staples. This place has an incredibly extensive cold dessert menu. So much that it makes me wonder if it is all served fresh. I normally get soft serve ice cream or hand dipped ice cream. Despite how good their ice cream is my biggest concern is the inconsistent customer service and inconsistent quality of the ice cream. On too many occasions the hand dipped ice cream I purchased was freezer burned. More concerning is in those instances they knew the ice cream was freezer burned yet they still packaged and sold it. If ever I get hand dipped ice cream I walk into the store to inspect the ice cream case to determine if the ice cream is fresh and not freezer burned. I don't like that I have to do this, however it is necessary considering the prices here are above average, so imagine paying above average for ice cream and it is freezer burned. I've purchased milkshakes, floats, Chipsters, chocolate dipped soft serve and others however recently I've stuck with the soft serve ice cream because it is the safest bet and most consistent ice cream they offer. There were occasions where I purchased Chipsters and they were simply rock hard. Literally impossible to bite with human teeth. They were so hard it took minutes to thaw even in the summer air. I simply stopped purchasing Chipsters. Regarding the customer service, the girls that work here are really nice once you get to know them. I think the lacking customer service stems from the occasional language barrier. As a result their shortness or shyness can be taken the wrong way but they really are sweet girls once you get to know them over time. Again, the customer service can be better but it's not bad nor is it negligent. The lacking customer service comes into play when issues arise such as poorly packaged ice cream. They've become more consistent in how they package the ice cream however that wasn't always the case as there would be times I had to ask them to wipe the side of the ice cream cup because they let ice cream drip down the side of the cup or to replace the cone because they put ice cream in a cracked cone which eventually breaks in your hand. Essentially these are quality control issues that should be remedied with standard protocols. Overall an OK experience and it gets better as you get to know the staff. I want to give this place a 4 star however in fairness it wouldn't be right to do so considering there are better ice cream shops that offer higher quality ice cream and consistently better with customer service. Perhaps the iconic status of this Carvel location and the long lines it serves on Fridays and weekends keeps this location in the middle of the pack of local ice cream shops comparable to Hershey's ice cream shops. Give them a try.

Vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles in a cone
Katie W.

Favorite spot for late night ice cream in the summer! They've got all your basics (I always get vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles) as well as an extensive milkshake menu. Nice outdoor seating, somewhat covered seating area with tables with long benches. If you're looking for a classic ice cream night to keep cool in the heat, this hits just right

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9 years ago

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4 years ago

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6 years ago

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4 years ago

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5 years ago

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5 years ago

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3 years ago

Went about 2 weeks ago. I got a medium soft serve with rainbow sprinkles and the cost was... $12. Just outrageously overpriced.

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2 years ago

The ice cream was disgusting and extremely overpriced. I wouldn't return and I don't recommend this place.

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7 years ago

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4 years ago

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2 years ago

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2 years ago

It's tasty ice cream but way too overpriced. The small sundae is $10. Good soft serve, but nobody should pay that much for soft serve.

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6 years ago

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5 years ago

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3 years ago

Kid-sized soft serve cone with sprinkles is $9.16. That is not a typo. It's Carvel. Not caviar.

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10 years ago

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10 years ago

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5 years ago

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3 years ago

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8 years ago

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4 years ago

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6 years ago

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8 years ago

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4 years ago

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4 years ago

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3 years ago

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6 years ago

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7 years ago

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4 years ago

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3 years ago

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10 years ago

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3 years ago

It's just outrageously expensive for a very small amount of soft serve. There is no ambience the staff could care less.

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10 years ago

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3 years ago

$10 for a ice cream cone that was disgusting, service is awful and don't speak English

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5 years ago

Loved my chocolate chip cookie dough milk shake ! Can't wait to taste the ice cream cupcake! Thank you and love the old school vibes

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11 years ago

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3 years ago

Way too expensive and not that good. Milkshake for $10? That's absurd. I'd recommend to go elsewhere.

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Page 2 of 5

Ask the Community - Carvel

Van Leeuwen

Van Leeuwen

4.1(11 reviews)
0.5 mi•Clarendon

Great ice cream flavors, Peanut Butter Brownie Honeycomb is my fav must try. Line can get long but…read moreits always worth the wait

Van Leeuwen has really taken over the DMV area, with this location replacing Nicecream. It started…read morewith two locations in DC a couple years ago, and now there are at least 10. While the ice cream is much pricier than other local chains in the area, I do appreciate their seasonal flavors along with their classic Earl Grey Tea. Also, they're on inKind, which helps! We stopped by after lunch this past Sunday, and there was a long line. Unfortunately, there was only one employee, who did her best to give samples, scoop out ice cream, and manage the cash register all at once. I definitely think Van Leeuwen could use a couple more employees, especially on a hot summer Sunday afternoon. I got a single scoop (7.95) of banana pudding, a seasonal flavor, which was actually served as two mini scoops. I did enjoy how banana-y it was and the chunks of vanilla wafers throughout, but it was incredibly sweet. Unfortunately, I couldn't even finish my ice cream. A couple of others in our group tried the other seasonal flavor, strawberry rhubarb cheesecake. However, it mostly tasted like cheesecake with bits of crust, with no noticeable strawberry or rhubarb flavor. Overall, I still like that Van Leeuwen offers unique flavors, and their ice cream is rich and creamy, but this visit was pretty underwhelming. The ice cream is already expensive, and the excessive sweetness made it difficult to finish even a single scoop.

Photos
Van Leeuwen
Van Leeuwen
Van Leeuwen

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Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams - Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline - SO GOOD!

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

4.4(78 reviews)
3.0 mi•Shirlington

Gluten free - dairy free? This one is for you. The Peppermint Patty is so good, you will feel that…read morenostalgia of being a kid getting ice cream with the family and friends. But this one you can eat with no stomach ache pending later on. The service is good, the samples plenty and while the price may seem higher (it is) you can enjoy sitting nonchalantly with the people and their pets in this lovely little spot. Worth it!

Tiffany, one of the ice cream servers, provided excellent customer service. She was friendly,…read moreattentive, and ready to assist, offering different options and taking the time to ask what I was looking for. This was my first time. Unfortunately, the ice cream itself did not meet my expectations. I tried one scoop of the Butter Pecan-style flavor and one scoop of the Green Mint Chip. The consistency seemed somewhat watered down, and the ice cream melted very quickly, as I was standing in line waiting to pay which affected the overall experience. While the customer service was excellent, I wasn't particularly impressed with the ice cream and don't feel compelled to return to try additional flavors. Based on my experience, I would not recommend this establishment. Also, one more thing I don't recall her name because I didn't care too much for her bad attitude and the way she was trying to rush me through the process, but somebody else gave me bad service before Tiffany stepped in to regain a customer.

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Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams - Half scoops of Coffee With Cream & Sugar, Darkest Chocolate, and Vanilla

Half scoops of Coffee With Cream & Sugar, Darkest Chocolate, and Vanilla

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

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Carvel - icecream - Updated October 2026

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