Carvel Ice Cream

The soft serve ice cream is good. but the toppings can be left alone.
The ice cream in the glass case looked unappetizing. and just cold. Like, ouch. burned from sitting there so long.
Service was ok. but that’s probably because she was bored.
This place has since closed.

Long story short: Wait… is this Baskin Robbins? No? Are you sure? It sure in the hell looks like it…
Long story long:
After lunch a couple doors down at Nine & Nine Thai, my chiropractor and I decided to come here to get some dessert, considering it was pretty warm that day, and she had suggested it because it was right next door, so I figure why not.
My very very first impression: wannabe Baskin Robbins. Even down to the color scheme. The whole layout looked like one too. And I used to work at a BR, so I know what I’m talking about. Prices were pretty similar and the menu board looked like BR. I’m telling you, rip off of BR.
Pretty standard flavors. I forgot exactly what I got, but it was just ok. Just like a couple of the other reviews, some of the ice cream looked kinda old. I’d rather go to BR

All of the ice cream in the case is extremely old and freezer burned. The mint ice cream looked like it had been there for months. The soft serve is okay, but not the best I’ve ever had, and the choice of toppings is limited. It was also expensive.

Ice Cream As Good As Always.
The classic taste of Carvel is alive and well in Pasadena. The shop may look a little dated, but that shouldn’t mean a thing when it’s all about the flavors.
This place carries plenty of ice cream cakes and ice cream sandwiches that are packaged to go. If you want to eat in, they can make banana sundaes, shakes, and they even have soft serve with the hard chocolate shell.

Here’s the problem, their famous soft serve is just WAY too light in a bad way. Tastes like there’s not enough sugar and not enough heavy cream. I have no idea what’s really in there but it was like a step down from McDonald’s. 10 dollars for two cones. I enjoyed their dipped cones more than the ice cream.

Boo! Ridiculously expensive softee-​serve. I should have gone to the Target across the street and had cheap Target softee-​serve. Boo. I was pissed. They totally overcharge for everything here. Went after a hike to Millard Falls in Altadena. I will never go back.

I heard of their ice cream cakes, but I didn’t know Carvel had its own ice cream shop. In walking around Pasadena, my friend said he always wanted to try this place and who am I to say no to ice cream frosty goodness? We headed out to Carvel which is located across the street from Pasadena’s two story Target story.
Upon entering the bright fun colors gives it that fun carnival feel. You can even add your own sprinkles at the little sprinkle cart. Its menu is as diverse as any other DQ or Baskin Robbins, but the names of their ice creams are playful and cute. Uhm, hello Chocolate Volcano… that’s what I ordered. And I ordered a regular which was two large scoops of chocolate goodness. I didn’t finish it either, but OH how I tried. Its cone was served in a plastic container to prevent spillage, and I still had drippings.
My friend ordered a blended drink. He asked for an ice cream cake topping and somehow the woman didn’t hear him and added Oreo cookies. Instead of asking for a whole new blend, he just had her stop the Oreo and add the cake mix.
The ice cream itself is quite creamy. I can imagine that in the heat of the city it would melt easily, but what do you expect of ice cream. On this particular day, that ice cream held its own and I enjoyed its creamy goodness. Its creamy texture must also explain why it’s also popular in cakes. It’s easy to shape, carve, and cut through, and maintains a smooth bite.
There was one ice cream that had the brightest pink I have ever seen in an ice cream, and its flavor, of course, was that of cotton candy.
The ice cream are made and served from the same small containers you would find in a gelato store. This tell me it was made fresh, and little to be made of left overs.
Wallet damage: about $ 9 for a blended drink and a two-​scoop, chocolate dipped cone.
I was informed that this was an East Coast franchise. G’job east coast, that’s some creamy ice cream!

Carvel? Think Baskin Robbins, but slightly worse. The ice cream was very close to melting when I got the scoop. I got the strawberry one because all the others weren’t that great. I tasted the strawberry cheesecake (good), peanut butter treasure (mostly chocolate and not PB), and cake batter, which was named something else (flavor was a bit intoxicating). I picked the strawberry on a cone. Eh… it’s ok. The best part about it is that they give you the cone in this little plastic cone holder. How sad is that?

The guy working alone was very nice to me, but I was disappointed with the soft serve. It was thin, and grossly overpriced – almost $ 3 for a small cone!

East coasters rejoice! Carvel Pasadena is just like the Carvel you grew up with. Is it the best ice cream in the world? Eh… Who cares! The soft serve rocks, the sprinkles are the best I’ve had and they have Fudgie the Whale cakes which I guarantee are even better than you remember.

Poor Carvel. It will never be Dairy Queen, but it really, really tries.
This is a moderately inoffensive substitute for DQ if you have a soft serve ice cream emergency (as in, if I don’t get some soft serve RIGHT NOW, I will weep and wail and gnash my teeth to dust) but it’s nothing fantastic.
And go easy on the guy behind the counter; I think he’s just stressed out because he has to work alone and he’s not getting a lot of foot traffic. He was nice to me.

Why was nobody in this place? Oh yeah, because the guy (owner maybe) at the cash register has a bad attitude! I would have been better off buying an ice cream sandwich at the chevron.

As a transplant from the East Coast, Carvel was a huge part of my childhood. The ice-​cream chocolate crunchy cake and ice-​cream sandwiches bring back memories. My high expectations were immediately soured as I looked through the refrigerator case of individually wrapped ice-​cream sandwiches. The thin layer of vanilla ice-​cream did not satisfy me and neither did the high prices. Alas, I ate it, but I wish I bought a package of Skinny Cow ice-​cream sandwiches at the supermarket for a few more dimes instead.

I was walking west along Colorado Blvd the other night, headed to Bungalow News, when all of a sudden I came upon a brightly lit shop.
From the bright pink and blue color scheme, and the near-​blinding white lights, floors and counters, I figured it was some kind of confectionery — candy, ice cream, maybe even a shop hawking both.
Alas, I looked up at the sign and was immediately transported to back to my neighborhood Carvel Ice Cream store in Jamaica, Queens, NY!
I was kind of in a hurry that night, but vowed to pop in over the weekend to see if they were still serving the same cold stuff I remembered as a child.
Well…maybe not so much.
My favorite thing to order as a kid at Carvel was a «choccolateconewithchocolatesprinkles, please.» And even though chocolate doesn’t always like me these days, I figured I’d go for the old school throwback.
It was just… cold. Not very chocolaty, though the soft serve was quite creamy. Even the cone seemed bland, though I did like the little drip catcher, which might have explained why I paid like $ 2.69 for a SMALL cone.
Wait, what?
My friend and her mom each had a small cone which they seemed to enjoy, but the total bill came to over $ 10 for three of us!
As Unilocaler Ryan H noted above, this stuff is pretty pricey. I’m not sure that I’ll return again, but thanks for the memories, Carvel!

Tried the pistachio nut.
1. Quality of ice cream was not the best.
2. The ice cream was hard as ice to scoop. Most of the buckets had the frozen ice on it so you know there hasn’t been much turnover.
3. The counter worker was sleeping on the job and did not even realize I had entered into the store.
4. Pretty pricey for not so good tasting ice-​cream. Must be the high rent on Colorado. I felt like I was at the airport paying high prices for sub-​par food.