Cold Stone Creamery

Forbes and Murray corner location. How can you beat that? Great ice cream and gellatos. Can also buy half gallons. A nice stop in Squirrel Hill even in the winter. This also is a favorite of students. Efficient, friendly service. I’m old school and would settle for Dairy Queen but this certainly has its market. Gellato selection gives a European flair.

I was totally pissed by the servant at Cold Stone tonight. I kindly asked him a question but he gave a cold response:“I do not understand.” I was a little bit angry about it because he does not show his intention to understand it. Then I let him help other customers. When I was ready to ask him again, he still gave me the response: «I do not understand.» I know he is busy but he should still try to serve the customer. He could answer me by saying «do you mean…» If he really does not understand. The atmosphere of a successful store should be happy because the products are the medium to pass happiness to customers. I was about to rate this experience with 2 stars honestly but he realized my anger. He offered me with a little extra amount of the ice cream and coupons. I did not accept the extra ice cream. As a honest customer, my main care is the attitude of the service, which is more important than material make-​over. However, I still would like to increase my rating since he realized my feeling.
Lastly, squirrel hill is a very diverse neighborhood. There are lots of people who do not grow up in the U.S. Compared with traditional ice cream shops, Cold stone has its unique selling point — you make your own. This is wonderful. However, the unique selling point for lots of non-​native English speakers is a challenge. It is important for the servants at the shop to be patient and to teach the customers how to make choices. Honestly, if customers are conservative, they might have really bad experiences at the beginning and they will never come to Cold Stone.
I know I might be a picky customer. However, if you think of any chain with long history, it value its service as important as its products. For customer, both are equally important. Please, be aware of that.

My friends and I have a tradition where we gather as a group to celebrate each other’s birthdays. The birthday girl gets to pick where we have dinner and then dessert. The birthday girl chose Cold Stone. When we went in there was a line but it was so nice out people were taking their ice cream outside to eat. A bridal party came in right after is so the line was really long. I was super impressed with how quickly the line was going. The employees were all very kind and were helpful if you couldn’t make up your mind. They have a lot of choices.
Like everyone else our group took our ice cream outside to eat. We all dove into our ice cream. It was all we could do not to lick the cups once the ice cream was gone. Every person liked what they had. It was a great dessert choice.

YES!!! I love ice cream!
This is no different from any other Cold Stone. You can pick your ice cream flavor and you can pick your toppings and they mash them together for you fresh, right on the spot. I love the flavor combos that offer. My fav is the coffee lovers. The ice cream is perfect with caramel, heath bar and almonds. YUM! The Strawberry Blondie is a close second!

I remember when this was the new thing with ice cream-​plain flavors and adding in toppings. Still fun to go to every now and then. The ice cream is rich and creamy and so many options from candy to fruit for add ins. The prices are expensive but a small is more then enough. On my past visit I got the Reese’s peanut butter cup signature creation which includes chocolate ice cream with chopped up peanut butter cups, peanut butter and chocolate sauce. I like picking one that is already a flavor developed by Cold Stone but of course you can create your own. There is also the option to add a waffle cone or cup but I find that is too much. The workers know what they are doing as they should. A nice treat on a warm day but you will pay!

It’s 90 degrees outside and feels like 100 inside the store. My ice cream was melted before I sat down. TURN ON THE AC!

Not only is the ice cream mediocre, the staff at this location are super rude. Every employee I interacted was rude and condescending.
I don’t come here a lot but I do have a frequency card. When we went to pay we handing the guy the card and our payment, he checked us out and handed back our payment. We had to ask him to punch our card and ask for it back. He only punched it once and I said we got two things, I think each should get a punch, He replied ‘no I can only punch it once’. No further explanation, just a stared at us like we were idiots. I didn’t argue because I thought maybe I was wrong
We ate. I looked at the card and it said ‘one punch per each menu item’ So when I went back up to get a lid (which took forever), I pointed that out to the manager and he rudely replied with ‘We can’t do that anymore more. We had people scamming the system.‘
Do I seriously look like I’m coming in here to scam the system? I go there like twice a year.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the ice cream; in fact it’s good although a tad too sweet. My two star rating reflects the ice cream’s pretty descent, and tastes «good enough», but why does every visit take 30 minutes? Every time I go there there’s maybe two or three people in front of me but it takes 30 minutes to take care of 3 – 4 customers. It’s not a big deal if people working efficiently, and quite honestly they are often understaffed, but every time I go there the line isn’t that long but it takes insanely long to get your ice cream. Fast forward to my last visit which prompted this review. I hadn’t been there since last summer, but still thought of it first when I wanted ice cream on a hot day. There was one couple in front of me, that hadn’t been served yet. The single employee that I saw was on the phone ordering supplies. Although instantly I thought that some kind of thing that should be taken care of later or, this person should’ve been trained to know to take care of the people that see you first, but anyway I chose to except what I saw. After 15 minutes and the people in front of me haven’t been taken care of already I gave up and left. Pretty pathetic, probably they deserve one star but an extra star because the ice cream doesn’t suck

I got a $ 5 for $ 10 worth of ice cream Groupon back in December, and I rolled in the day before it expired. Cold Stone has good ice cream and delicious rich toppings. My dad and I each got a waffle bowl signature creation. Mine was mint chocolate themed and his was extreme chocolate. The ice cream and mix ins were great.
Here are the issues: These two ice creams in the smallest size totaled $ 12.50!!! Thank goodness for Groupon. Additionally, the service at this Cold Stone is bad. I mean, some of the worst service I have ever had. My «waffle bowl» was mostly missing. They put waffle around the outside of the cup, and that was it. My dad’s waffle bowl was burned in places. At 10:00 on a Tuesday night, there were a plethora of other waffle bowls. Not impressed.
So if you want yummy ice cream and don’t mind babysitting the employees, it’s ok.

The Cold Stone in Squirrel Hill is in a fantastic location at the corner of Forbes and Murray, making it within easy walking distance after a movie at the Manor or dinner at any of the plethora of restaurants and bars in the area. The store is well kept-​up and the service has always been friendly. My sole complaint would be that for the premium prices they charge it would be nice to get premium peanut butter as a mix-​in instead of mediocre generic store-​brand stuff. Choosy bachelors choose Jif!

I’m surprised this place has such a low rating. I’ve been here three times this summer and I love the ice cream and the service. I’ve brought my family here and they love it too, even though they say the portions are too much. I’ve come here with groupons plus Coldstone gives out coupons for your next visit (ex: $ 1 off sundaes, free waffle cones).

I ended up here with my friend for dessert after visiting Pizza Cono across the street on Mon. for dinner. Generally, I try to patronize the indy ice cream shops around PGH, but we came here out of convenience, since my friend doesn’t care for froyo and we were leaning more towards ice cream than water ice. I hadn’t been to a Cold Stone for at least 5 years, so I’d almost forgotten what their ice cream is like.
I ordered the small («like it») size of the mint mint chocolate chip, since I love mint chocolate chip ice cream and brownies (note: I looked up this item later and it packs 580 calories – ouch!), and it seemed like a better deal to pay a bit more to get multiple mix-​ins than to just get the standard one mix-​in. Although this ice cream was quite a bit more expensive than I’m accustomed to for a bowl of ice cream ($ 5.25 w/​tax), the employee serving me was generous with the ice cream and mix-​ins (my bowl was almost overflowing), and he even gave me a couple of coupons (thanks!). I found the ice cream concoction itself quite delicious, esp. with the bits of brownies, chocolate chips, and chocolate syrup.
Was the ice cream as good as Dave and Andy’s? No. Could I make this concoction myself at home? Sure. Having said that, I was quite satisfied with the service and product that I received, and the location was convenient for hanging out with my friend for an after-​dinner treat. My biggest criticism concerns the price, which is on the steep side (almost $ 5 for their signature creations in the small size). However, I’ve seen (and used) vouchers from Groupon and LivingSocial, and I believe they also provide a student discount if you attend Pitt, CMU, or Allderdice HS. 3.5 stars.
EDIT: On my most recent visit (9:30 on a Wed.), it was super busy, and the employees seemed majorly overworked.

People always say that cold stone is expensive. But, for anything you truly want you’ll pay a little extra. There are always groupons and deals constantly. The atmosphere is always pleasant. There are a variety of flavors and mix-​ins. So many choices can make an indecisive person bananas. My favorite is cheesecake fantasy minus the blueberries.

Why anyone would pay $ 6 for a tiny cup of mediocre ice cream is beyond me. We ordered a small «sweet cream» (vanilla) with Oreos and strawberries. It was $ 5.25 plus tax. The 4 oz. cup had exactly one Oreo half, cracked in half, inside the middle of the ice cream, and three soggy berries on top. Supremely overpriced, and no good. Take your business elsewhere.

My father-​in-​law LOVES this place and so we go when he visits. My 4 year old wanted to go and deserved a treat and so we went even though the FIL wasn’t in town. He ordered mint ice cream with chocolate chips a.k.a. mint chocolate chip on a cone. Instead of the fancy dance they usually do, the server scooped the ice cream into the cone and them used a spoon to cover it in chocolate chips. My son was thrilled and even said «it was better than I thought.» Whatever that means. But I thought it was gross and annoying since the chips kept dripping all over me.
This was all after waiting for a long time while the servers were in the back doing who knows what. When we got there, we were behind one family and no one was behind us. By the time we were helped, there were 6 parties behind us.
Not going back until the FIL is back in town.

If you want to go through h*ll to park, and spend $ 6 on a stale microwaved funnel cake the size of a cupcake and a spoon-​sized scoop of ice cream over frozen strawberries, then come to this cold stone! :)

Great place to get your ice-​cream craving satisfied. Ive been to many coldstones in the past and this one is equally good. The employees who work there are very friendly and helpful when I cant make up my mind. As far as people complaining about prices and such. The price is the same as every other cold stone creameries. I usually always get the founders favorite and it is always delicious. I love how they offer a discount for college students if you show an id. Keep up the great service guys! :)

Wasn’t good didn’t like it. I ordered the Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate chip and the description of this flavor was to have brownies in it. What I got had no brownies in it of course I didn’t realize that until I had half way consumed my waffle cone of ice cream. I had my heart set on going to Baskin Robbins but I can see they are no longer in business and had to settle on Cold Stone I would have done better just going to Giant Eagle and getting some store brand ice cream.

Crikey, I must be the odd one out, because I had a rather scrumptious experience here the other night, as did my girlfriend Kay.
I recall that there used to be one in Brentwood, but it has long since closed.
I dunno gang, I liked what I had, that being Chocolate Devotion, one of the «Signature Creations» they offer. There are so many choices, I couldn’t decide, the very same thing happening when I visited the one in Brentwood years ago.
Chocolate Devotion has brownie pieces, fudge, and chocolate chips mixed into a silky smooth chocolate ice cream on a frosted slab of granite via a pair of wet paddles. Mine came adorned with excellent whipped cream from a pastry bag in their biggest waffle bowl (they call it ‘Gotta Have It’ instead of ‘large’) encrusted with Oreo cookie crumbles that softened like cereal as got to the bottom.
Yes, I went a little crazy, and yes I ate it all, waffle bowl included. Hey, I almost added marshmallows.
It felt dirty, and I loved it.
Catholic guilt overcame me as we walked around, and I discovered that there are a bunch of ice cream places in Squirrel Hill doing battle, some of them chains, some of them independent.
I saw a woman walking by our window with a cup of ice cream in her hand and squinted at the logo. Here I had totally forgotten about Razzy Fresh! We coulda, shoulda went there. Oy vey.
Cold Stone Creamery was the first ice cream place in sight as we left Silk Elephant, but I honestly don’t regret going there. Their power trio of a staff was beyond chipper and even sang me a song when I left a healthy tip.
Our bill before the tip was $ 13.67. Considering our huge portions, I didn’t feel cheated, and the ice cream was honestly rather good.

Cold Stone is definitely a chain with all of the good and bad aspects which go along with being a chain, but they do have decent quality ice cream with decent quality mix-​ins. True, the ice cream is a bit expensive, but this isn’t a bad place to go. There are some tables inside where you can sit and enjoy your highly sugared treat.
For something with a bit more local flair, try «Oh Yeah!» in Shadyside.