Shibley’s Soft & Hard Ice Cream

My husband is an ice cream fanatic. So when friends said that Shibley’s had really good ice cream we had to stop. On a whim, I requested rum raisin ice cream — a flavor I have not had in way too many years. Imagine my surprise, when my husband returned with an overflowing cone of rum raisin. It was heavenly. He, of course, had a hot fudge sundae — also delicious. So glad we stopped, it was a real treat.

All I can say is that they have the best ice cream I have ever eaten! It is so creamy that it is almost custard like. My husband gets the Seafood plate EVERYTIME we go. That says it right there! The owners are elderly, yet work there EVERY day! All of the people are very friendly!
I had a large vanilla soft serve that slid off the cone and onto my arm as I was getting in my car — they replaced it FREE of charge! You don’t find that often!
To make a long story short — we live about 20 minutes from here and I’m loving it!

The owners are so friendly here, so def had a great first impression. It’s such a cute little snack bar. I got the tutti fruity soft serve & of course had to get the cinnamon sugar fried dough, needless to say both delish!

For the most part — this place is great. The ice cream is delicious, and they have a full menu — more than 24 flavors. They also have great burgers, and seafood (I’ve never tried the seafood though). A good alternative for a drive-​in restaurant in the Alton Bay NH area.

Very yummy ice cream! Sometimes there’s a bit of a line in the summer, and you have to wait a while for your food, but that’s understandable. Also enjoy the fries and fried foods here as well. Affordable and yummy!

I haven’t tried the soft serve here recently, but the hard serve was nothing memorable. It was… ok. While the ice cream selection is much smaller at Pop’s (less than a quarter mile away), I found the ice cream to be better at Pop’s. Also, a 5 minute drive from Shibley’s is Johnson’s, which serves Richardson’s ice cream (which is made locally in MA and tastes great). Johnson’s is less expensive with greater portions and better flavor in my opinion.
One thing that Shibley’s has going for it is that you can order burgers/​sandwiches at a reasonable price. But they’re a little slow. At my last visit, we ordered 2 cheeseburgers, a hot dog, and a grilled cheese, and it took about 20 minutes for the food (not terrible, but not great either, especially considering there were hardly any other customers there). The burgers were thick and juicy, I just wish they had come out a little faster.
The tables where you can sit are located directly in front of where cars park. This seems a little dangerous because there’s no parking/​curb stones, so if someone accidentally hits the gas when they’re pulling in, they could run right into the people eating. If they put down parking/​curb stones, that might prevent a future tragedy.
Overall, if you’re looking for hard ice cream, there are better options nearby (unless you’re looking for soft serve). If you’re looking for a light meal, Shibley’s is «OK», just be prepared to wait.

I have the same sentiments as the other Unilocaler. Not impressed, and I wonder if their sentiment is because they are an ice cream stand by the water and they know people will buy it then the ice cream does not have to be good?
The ice cream I got was an obnoxious blue colored vanilla flavored one with cookie pieces. That was really the only moderately appealing flavor to me. The ice cream was bland. It tasted virtually like nothing. It wasn’t even that sweet. The ice cream did not taste fresh. The texture was not creamy, but more so tough and almosy icey and old tasting.
I cannot even say the redeeming factor is that the ice cream scoops are large because the ice cream wasn’t that good. My friend enjoyed his soft serve. Maybe their softserve is better?
I drive by this place everytime I head over to my parents summer place and I always mutter to myself what disappointing ice cream! Drive an extra 10 minutes and get your ice cream at Sawyer’s Diary bar. You will not be disappointed

By the line of people at the window… I thought it would have to be good. Wrong! Apparently other people were drawn in by the brightly colored signs and the allure of on the water ice cream. Who wouldn’t be?!
However, they were out of quite a few ice cream flavors (I can understand that this happens but it’s still sort of annoying). So I had to go with the third choice… the cheesecake icecream. Which, overall, was not terrible, but the only memorable parts were the chunks of cheesecake. The icecream part was nothing short of bland.
Perhaps for lack of ice cream establishments in the small town of Alton bay I would go back… but probally not.

I’m really not terribly impressed with Shibley’s. The mindset seems to be «we have this space with access to the water and decent traffic, why bother serving decent food?»
Shibley’s falls short on a couple things:
1) The ice cream is very bland. I have ordered chocolate, mint chip and mocha chunk, they all taste like… cold. There is not much flavor at all. Furthermore, biting into chunk after chunk of frosted ice when eating an ice cream cone is unacceptable. Switch out your ice creams more frequently or monitor your freezer settings, Shibley’s. I love shaved ice. I love ice cream. I do not love the two mixed together.
2) The fried dough. I am sorry but crunchy fried dough is not my thing. In fact, I wonder if it is anyone’s thing. I asked for butter, cinnamon and powdered sugar. I got a small drizzle of butter, a hearty dumping of cinnamon and maybe one lazy shake from the powdered sugar shaker. What the? I like my fried dough to be covered in confectioner’s sugar. I prefer it so thick that when I breathe in, I choke on it. Apparently, at Shibley’s I need to order my fried dough rare and heavy on the powdered sugar. Stupid.
These two things combined with the 50 cent credit card surcharge (welcome to 2009 bozos!) and the inevitable shrieking fat children make me unlikely to return often.

The three other area restaurants were packed with no seats available for another 30 min, so we got into line along with a dozen or so other starving people for some food here. They have a great concept going on and a steady pace of traffic.
Array of side shop finds and ice creams– we had the deep fried scallops ($ 14) nice and juicy. Deep fried shrimps ($ 14) also big and juicy, deep fried clams ($ 12) and fried chicken pieces ($ 7), topped with fries and a side of cole slaw.
After about 20 min of waiting, we go the food then went across the street and ate it at a bench near the water. Went back and got a frapp– basically any of their 24 flavors, as well as soft serve in apricot and peach (not particularly flavorful) for about $ 3 each.
There is a 50 cent charge if you use a credit card.