I probably would have given a 3 star, but my 2 visits left a bitter aftertaste.
On my first visit it was really packed. So I couldn't ask about pricing or how ordering worked. My sister and I thought the ice cream was good, but really heavy and sweet.
The service was fast, but not really friendly since it felt like they were in training mode and I felt really rushed. The cashier making my order also forgot I ordered a second ice cream. So I had to remind her. On top of that, I kept getting weird looks that I couldn't decipher... maybe annoyed. Plus, she also forgot my extra topping, which is 50 cents extra. I had to remind her yet again. It was a really meager amount too. She also got chocolate drizzle all over the sides of the cup, but she kind of quickly wiped it down when she was instructed to. But I still got chocolate all over my hands.
The ice cream was also really expensive for how small the portion size was. I paid about $16 for the two ice creams and the extra topping on both. So it ended up being around $6ish for each. I had no idea what the pricing would be until after I ordered because the price wasn't listed for the signature items on their wall menu. The cashier also didn't give me a receipt until I asked, so I had no idea what I paid since I missed what the total was due to the choatic environment.
On a side note, when paying, you swipe for debit and insert chip for credit. The cashier didn't explain this. So my card wouldn't go through when I chose debit and inserted my card.. She didn't bother explaining why my card wouldn't go through. So I just ended up guessing and tried swiping. My card finally went through. They really need to take the time to communicate no matter how busy it is. It left a bad impression.
I decided to give it another try the next day since I was in the area. I didn't know what time they opened, so I ended up coming too early and waited close to 30 minutes. When I entered, I heard the cashier kind of groan or make some sound similiar to a groan. I felt unwelcomed, but I ignored it since I waited 30 minutes since my sister really wanted a drink. I ended up getting two drinks: the Matcha Coffee and the Strawberry Matcha Latte.
The cashier for this second visit also did not tell me about the payment process. She chose credit for me, and I inserted my card since I remembered the other day that I chose debit and needed to swipe. This was annoying because if I had a card without a chip, and I tried swiping after she chose credit for me my card wouldn't have gone through.
Anyway, the coffee drink for the price definitely wasn't worth it. They add plain cane sugar for the coffee. For the price, I was hoping for honey or a higher quality sweetener. But the strawberry latte was good. It just needed more strawberry syrup. Although how they make the drinks seem inconsistent. I was watching the drink making process, and the cashier was using two different brands of almond milk because it must have ran out.
Anyway, my sister noticed that her almond milk was low quality and tasted bad before she mixed her latte. I didn't even tell her that it was low quality milk, until after she told me her observation. They used Great Value almond milk in her drink, while they used Simple Truth in mine. For the price, they should use a good brand of milk substitute. The cheap stuff tends to taste bad. She liked the matcha though. She thought it might have been a high quality matcha. I have to agree on that.
I ended up googling them since I was curious about the reviews because my overall experience was pretty bad. When browsing the pictures, I noticed that our ice cream was definitely much smaller and it was more of a heavy concrete texture compared to the light swirls in the pictures. I took the ice creams togo. So I guess they cut the size down to get the lid on. They should have told me I would get more than 50% less ice cream if I got a lid. They need to get bigger lids or something.
Although what angered me was that in the pictures, the Cookies and Cream ice cream had Cocoa Puffs and Cookie Crisps. However, my ice cream definitely did not have any of those toppings. When I ate it the day before, I just assumed they blended it into my ice cream. Lastly, the Minion's Treat was either missing the almonds or it was such a skimpy amount that I couldn't see it or taste it. The ice creams in the pictures had a decent amount of toppings for the exact ice creams we got. I don't know why we barely had any toppings and some of our toppings were missing.
We are lactose intolerant. This was supposed to be a rare treat worth the stomach pains and other problems. The only nice thing about the experience was that the owner/manager/trainer or whatever her position is seemed nice. She told the girl making my order to wipe the chocolate drizzle off the sides of my cup because she was about to hand it to me without wiping it. She also got me a togo menu when I asked for one. read more