Cabana Water Ice

Im not a fan of «water ice» but I love ice cream. The soft serve is a perfect temperature, flavor, and creamy– factor!

The ice cream here is super good. I was just bummed because I ordered ice cream in a dish and after my first bite I saw that it was completely hallow on the inside. Lame!!! Never had this happen to me at an ice cream shop before and I was sad there wasn’t more of the delicious ice cream that I paid for

Good water ice. Cash only. Get the chocolate or cherry flavors. I think they make their own water ice. The ice cream is not homemade.
It gets pretty crowded on summer nights so be prepared to wait.

Great local spot for Water Ice and Gelati. Gelati is layering of your favorite Italian Ice and creamy Frozen Custard. My favorites here are the Blueberry ice with Vanilla custard or the Watermelon ice with Vanilla custard. Good stuff on a hot and humid day in SJ.

Being from central Jersey, I still think it’s weird to call Italian ice, Water ice, but I’ll cut this place some slack :) The combo of soft serve & ice (apparently called a gelatti) was awesome. The soft serve was creamy, deliciousness and the black cherry ice was perfect. The best combination, in my opinion! My husband got the lemon ice and that was a little off — there were big chunks of ice in it sort of like someone turned the blender off a little early. Despite that, we’re coming back to get some water ice at Cabana!

Basic water ice, ice cream, and soft serve for prices that almost don’t make it worth it. It’s a small ice cream place and it serves the community well for it’s location, but the price and selection doesn’t draw me in.

Love this place, especially on a hot summer day! Fun kids working, great water ice flavors, and of course the soft serve. Just FYI, it’s cash only!

Michelle you have to give them another chance.
I think they listened to you!
Their soft serve is now made with god knows what that can’t be whole milk? maybe half and half? It is the richest tasting custard in all of soft jersey (this coming from an evergreens gal). I had a kids size gelato with root beer and it was insane. So good.
I had to take several licks and bites from the cone of my two year old date, and it is unadulterated pure lovely luscious soft serve. Creamy, vanilla-​y, and yummy.
Give them another try… third times a charm!

This place is AMAZING. I live in NYC and crave it all the time. It blows Rita’s out of the water. The lemon water ice… OMG! So refreshing on a summer day…
I will say that they should step their social media game up… They should have an official Facebook check in page and a Twitter!

Great water ice. Always try the real flavors first. Lemon had the peel and cherry was perfect.

Of the many water ice places on Haddon Ave, this is the best. Plenty of parking in their lot and the surrounding PATCO area. The best Mango water ice in South Jersey. Use their numerous coupons in the mail!

I went here during the first heat spell this year. I had to wait in a huge line that snaked out the door, as the store is pretty tiny. When I finally got inside, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they had and their prices. This was made difficult by virtue of them placing the flavors/​prices sign underneath the counter where various people blocked it.
I got some chocolate «custard» and it was pretty weak fare, even for soft-​serve. Not very chocolatey, not very sweet. And it had a funny aftertaste to it.
Service was pretty slow. The two kids behind the counter didn’t seem real organized/didn’t work well together. And the signage hurt them since every last grandma in front of me spent 5 minutes asking about what toppings they could put on their X and what flavors of water ice did they have.
Not going back. Too annoying.

The words «ice cream» and «water ice» usually fill me with happy thoughts, but when combined with the word «Cabana,» my mood sours. One night last summer I had a craving for vanilla custard (that’s «soft serve» for those of you who don’t speak South Jersey) so off to Cabana I went. Now, I get that «soft serve» is supposed to be softer than hard ice cream. But is it supposed to be so soft that it starts melting all over your hand as you pay? No. Is it then supposed to implode into a hidden ice cream cavern before falling off the cone and onto the asphalt before you even reach the car? No.
Vowing to boycott Cabana, a full year passed before I found myself giving them another chance when out with a group of friends the other night. Had we not been pressed for time, I would have happily driven us all to Maple Shade Custard Stand, one of my favorite places on Earth. However, Cabana was on the way and it had been a while since the mishap so I figured, why not?
This is why not. My friend stepped up and ordered her hot fudge sundae. They were out of hot fudge. At 7 p.m. on a Friday night. Two minutes later, a guy came in requesting blue raspberry water ice. They were out (natch), and when the guy left, one of the Bratz dolls behind the counter remarked that water ice is artificially flavored anyway so it all tastes the same. Awesome.
Luckily I had not already placed an order, so I hit up the McDonald’s drive through for a $ 1 hot fudge sundae that kicked the ass out of anything they hadn’t already run out of at Cabana’s.

A wide array of water ice, soft serve (or as the locals call it, «custard»), ice cream and toppings galore… all without the crowds of teenagers surrounding the entrance! That’s reason alone why I would choose Cabana over Primo or anything else that’s around. I have no idea why water ice attracts annoying teenagers, but life sometimes does throw those hard-​to-​understand curveballs.
Oh, and: *cookies and crème water ice!* new on the menu this year and it’s goooooood.