Emack & Bolio’s

Went on a Saturday evening and the line was out the door. They only had 2 people working and 1 it was her first day. The ice cream tasted like it had freezer burn. The smoothie was very tart. Maybe because they ran out of bananas. Overall, don’t feel the need to rush right back.

Excellent ice cream. The caramel with no sugar added and fudge and cookie dough infused vanilla was great! Bonus for serving us well after the store was closed.

Good but expensive.
Went in looking for a smoothie. Did a custom one with soy milk, bananas, and non-​fat vanilla yogurt. The smoothie tasted fine but for $ 6.37 I expected more. The size was about the same as a grande from Starbucks, maybe a little bigger.
There’s three seats and no tables in the store so it’s a grab-​n-​go place. There was one guy behind the counter. He was nice enough.
While I didn’t dislike my purchase or the store T self, I definitely felt like I overpaid for what I got. I think next time I’m craving a smoothie I’ll go to Smoothie King or just hit up the closest Starbucks.

Hands down best Ice cream shop in Boston. I know a lot of people like to ride JP Licks wiener, but real talk here, there is something about this place that my $ 5 seems way better spent. I think it’s the portions that really separate it from JP licks, and the flavor options being so much more interesting. It also feels a bit me homely at Emack’s.
If you haven’t given them a throw yet, I would highly recommned you do. You’ll see what I am talking about.

Hands down the BEST ice cream I have ever had. The first time I went I got the cake batter in an oreo cone which was very good. The second time I went I got the Space Cake which was even better… oh my gosh it is cake batter ice cream with shortbread cookies and red velvet cake mixed in. SO AMAZING. Highly recommend. Best ice cream I have had in my life.

I’ve been going here for over a year!
The quality of the ice cream is super high.
I get something different every time I go and I still have a lot more to try.
The staff are very nice and the store is really clean.

Very small shop, nice staff. I celebrated National Ice Cream day with a «small/​kiddie» (totally nonsensical that it’s the same size and price – just call it one or the other!) strawberry.
The ice cream itself was delicious – rich, creamy, and sweet.
However, the portion size was so disappointing! It was MUCH smaller than those at the Washington street E&B. It seemed like ½ to ¾ a scoop at best, comparable to the kiddie at B&J. 2.5 rounded up because for $ 4.65 it’s a definite ripoff, although a very tasty one…

Packed! Be prepared to wait, even if it’s only two people ahead of you, they really do put a lot of love and energy into making each order, which results in a long wait…
Very. Pricey. Ice cream alone is expensive enough, forget about getting a cone. However, I can’t say no to a cone, so opted for a traditional sugar cone instead of their fancier cones, even though that’s what they’re known for. I had the maple walnut and he had a bananas foster shake. The ice cream was good, but not amazing and definitely not worth the price. He loved his shake and for a regular shake, said it was extremely thick, so I can’t imagine how much thicker the thick shake would be.
While it was nice to get some ice cream, I really expected a lot more from this place. From the prices, to the service, to the decent ice cream, I won’t be going out of my way to come here again, in Boston or NYC.

Decided to come into town for some ice cream and since I’ve never been here before, I decided to give it a whirl. They offer different variety of shakes, soft serve ice cream (out of order) and other hard ice creams. The store front is very tiny and can be very packed like on my visit.
We tried the space cake and maple walnut. I really enjoyed the space cake which had cake batter and red velvet pieces mixed into he ice cream. I was expecting it to be a little too much but was the perfect sweetness. Maple walnut was good but on the sweeter side and had a big flavor of maple. Plenty of walnuts mixed into the ice cream so no need to worry about skimping. I hope for future visits I can try ice cream on one of the dipped waffle cones that they had on display. All of them looked really good especially the fruit pebbles and rice crispy dipped.
I would recommend having an extra worker on Sunday. The only worker there was getting swarmed with a tons of customers with a line out the door around 7pm.

I’ve only been the Emack & Bolio’s twice, and the first time I thought it was very good. So, when my museum companions raised me E&B over JP Licks I caved and we took the walk down Newbury, expecting some sort of refuge from the icky humid evening.
Well, right off the bat they had less flavors than I remembered, or maybe just less interesting ones. I ended up with the salty caramel chocolate pretzel, and I’m not sure if they left the freezer door open but it had a melting, almost soupy consistency. The pretzels inside were stale tasting, and it had icy bits too. I tried some of the black raspberry chocolate chip, which was a little better but still not great.
I don’t know if it’s just the Newbury Street location that’s like this, since I remember a slightly better experience at Porter. Regardless, I think I’m going to stick to JP Licks, and even Toscanini’s rather than keep this place on my ice cream rotation.

Desserts themselves were fantastic, service, however was terrible. Guy at the register was rude, impatient and dismissive when my dad was trying to explain that he wanted a chocolate-​dipped waffle cone, and somehow we ended up with a plain waffle cone that he said the «guy in charge» wouldn’t let us switch for the right one. Horrible, guys. 1 star.
As far as the cones themselves, they get 5 stars. The cocoa pebble marshmallow cone with vanilla bean ice cream is heaven. Like a chocolate rice crispy, yum. It gets extra sticky and chewy next to the cold ice cream but the waffle cone stays crispy. Even without chocolate, the waffle cone with coconut almond ice cream was still delicious.

There are many wonderful places to get your sweet tooth fixed on Newburry, but if I had to choose one, it would be at Emack & Bolio’s. Their ice cream is made in house, and they have a wide selection of flavors and types of cones. I’m simple when it comes to ice cream, but they still did an outstanding job. they have cereal incrusted cones which was a pleasant surprise for me. I got vanilla in a rice crispy cone, and it cured my sweet tooth. My only complaint is that there is no place to sit down after ordering and the room that they are in could probably hold about 15 people, so it is a little uncomfortable while ordering. Other than that, it is a great place to treat yourself or others

I enjoyed my cone with triple chocolate (dark chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate chunks and white chocolate chips) — it was really tasty and the service was fast, but almost $ 5 for a kiddie size scoop in a sugar cone is ridiculous.

The flavors are all really great, and they give you generous portions!
The scoops for my cone were too big, they were falling off thirty seconds after I got mine :/!

If you had asked me 4 years ago, I would have told you that Emack & Bolios is the best ice cream, hands down, anywhere in the world, all day.
But recently I have found myself to be ‘meh’ about their ice cream.
Maybe my younger self was so impressed by their rice crispy cones that I didn’t notice the bland ice cream? Maybe my younger self didn’t have to pay for her own ice cream, so I didn’t mind how expensive it was?
Either way, it feels really expensive and not that delicious. I am always disappointed by how few «chunks» of stuff there are in each scoop. I also find the base flavors to be oddly bland.
Kinda meh!

Service with a rotten attitude on Memorial Day Weekend. I came here Friday night with my 3-​year old nephew and of course he wanted the expensive fancy cone with sprinkles. And, since I’m the cool aunt, I said sure. When asked if he wanted hard or soft ice cream, he said soft, and I’m sure we both assumed the ice cream would be the type that comes out of a spout in a swirley-​pattern.
Instead, the clerk got a scoop of ice cream, and put it in a machine and then pressed the ice cream into something that no longer resembled hard ice cream, but was a liquidy mess that immediately started dripping over the edge of the cone and onto his hands.
I said to him, «Um, that looks really messy, I didn’t know it would be so liquidy».
The clerk (didn’t catch his name, but he had 2 full-​sleeved tattoo) with a tremendous sense of «I am too cool to work here and I hate customers» attitude, snidely remarked «Well, it’s hot outside, that’s what happens.»
Me: [Homer Simpson Blank Stare after someone speaks nonsense].
It wasn’t hot outside. It was air-​continued inside, so it’s not immediately a liquid milkshake in a cone because «it’s hot outside» buddy.
So, I said, «well, I don’t really want that, I will change it to hard ice cream»
The clerk blankly stared at me, as if to challenge me, and retorted, «It’s hot out, um, you know that’s what happens to ice cream, it MELTS.»
And of course, I’m not paying 7 dollars for a milkshake in an overpriced cone so that I can give it to a 3 year old, I said, «I don’t want that, that does not look appealing, please give me a fresh cone with hard ice cream.»
So, that’s when he started to pout like a little b****, and he turned around on his heel, opened up the freezer behind him and put the cone in a cup, and threw it in there. Then, he SLAMMED the freezer door closed. Then, he huffed over to cone counter and opened the door, then SLAMMED the door to the cone counter. Then he huffed over behind him to get a fresh scoop of ice cream and put it in the cone, and SLAMMED down the top of the ice cream freezer. Then he snidely told me what I owed (somewhere around 7 to 8 bucks) and I paid with my credit card.
Rotten service and rotten attitude.
Next time I’ll bring my nephew to… anywhere else.

Emack and Bolio’s simply put has the best smoothies in Boston. They are by far superior to smoothie I’ve had in the area. If you live or work anywhere within walking distance of this place, you must stop in. Energizer is definitely the way to go after a long day of work.

A small storefront on Newbury with delicious ice cream, smoothies, and milkshakes. The staff is always friendly. You can try the ice cream before you pick, and I always want to order a fancy ice cream cone when I stare at them in the case. However, I always end up ordering the liquid yoga smoothie (soy milk, chai, banana, and non-​fat vanilla yogurt; about $ 6.40). It is delicious!
Downsides: no seating, I’ve never seen more than one person behind the counter and it’s busy enough to warrant more employees; not cheap; and the space is small and the «line» is always chaotic.
Still worth it!

What a cute shop. I tried the Rick crispy waffle cone with the espresso bean ice cream. It was huge and costs $ 7-​$ 8. I shared it with my husband, it was so perfect eating this and walking along Newbury on a sunny Sunday. They had lots of other types of waffle cones with different dips and about ten different types of ice cream flavors. Delicious!

Many people think this ice cream is the best in Boston and its good, but definitely not that good. I prefer Toscanini’s Ice Cream (which I think also claims to be the best in Boston). This ice cream is packed with «toppings’ (cookie dough, Oreos, other chunky flavor things). I thought because because there was so much stuff in this ice cream it would be super flavorful and delicious, but I would just rank it as average.
That being said this is a great location and a perfect place to stop after shopping or wandering around Back Bay/​the Emerald Necklace (although much better in the summer than in the freezing cold winter).

Pumpkin ice cream was bomb! Girls working were very sweet and patient. The rice crispy ice cream cone… whaaaat! So good. Glad we found this place.

An ice cream cone should be a delightful thing. The one I had here yesterday was simply not.
I’m completely obsessed with ice cream and it takes a lot for me to judge any ice cream experience «Meh» — but the cone I had yesterday was just plain sad. I was in Boston for the day and was very excited to spot Emack & Bolio’s on Newbury Street, since I had fond memories of having totally delicious ice cream at their Soho location in New York. After stepping inside the tiny space and looking at the menu posted above, I decided on a single scoop, chocolate-​dipped waffle cone of Bananas Foster. Banana ice cream with brown sugar, buttery swirls? Can’t go wrong there, I thought.
The young woman who scooped my ice cream was friendly and efficient. When she handed my cone to me and announced my total was $ 7 I fought down a gulp. For a single scoop of ice cream? Really?
The worst, though, was when I got outside, sat on the stoop (because there is no seating except for a small bench that was already taken by two people), and tasted it. The ice cream itself was just icy and bland. Not creamy whatsoever– the texture was actually so dry that instead of melting and dripping in a creamy way, dry chunks of it just started falling off my cone.
Additionally, while she was nice, the scoop-​er did not push the ice cream down into the cone enough to prevent it from falling out. This is my ultimate ice cream pet peeve. I have encountered this bizarre trend a lot in New England– sorry to play the regional card, but in my home region of the Midwest (which is full of both good eaters and more reasonable prices) people generally stuff ice cream all the way down into the cone, and THEN put the desired number of scoops on top. You not only actually get your money’s worth that way, there is no danger of the ice cream toppling onto the sidewalk! Everyone wins. So as soon as I realized that there was only a bunch of air underneath the small scoop of ice cream on my cone from Emack & Bolio’s, I went from underwhelmed to kind of mad.
The chocolate-​dipped cone was also not worth it. Somehow this chocolate had no flavor. I guess I should have gone with the rice krispy-​dipped one, which did look pretty good (but messy), or plain. But I also feel like, when in an ice cream shop, one should not have to worry about ordering the wrong ice cream flavor or cone– it should all be delicious! I’m all for paying more for really good quality ice cream, but this was right up there with the worst I’ve ever had.