Carvel

beautiful ice cream HORRIBLE service.
I went here after work with my friend.
One girl looked really nice (too bad she wasn’t the one that helped us) and the other girl looked incredibly tired, snobby, and angry.
Usually you would think getting ice cream would be a fun experience, but it actually really disappointed me and I left there leaving kind of sad that the girl was so angry.
All I asked for was a vanilla ice cream cone and a strawberry shortcake with nuts for my friend. I guess they were really tired, but that’s really not an excuse to look incredibly miserable, behave impatiently when I asked for nuts, and rude when asking us to pay.
I even tried to make a joke at the counter but the girl just really wanted me to get out.
Never go in the evenings I guess, maybe they’re more refreshed in the mornings.

Again, I have to send an update about a more recent experience. My family and I dread coming here for fear we will get one of the crabby employees who works for the nice guy Mike who owns the Milford establishment. To preface, we recently had two lovely girls wait on us over the summer and commented how nice it was to come in and see some friendly and polite help as that is so often not the case here. They laughed about it and seemed to understand my statements.
Well, I swung by Carvel on Saturday, December 5, and allowed my two sons – age 13 and 7 – to go in on their own as no one was in the store and I could watch from the car. My sons came back efficiently, and my older son was upset because the ‘girl with brown hair” was so snotty to him. He said he ordered hot fudge sundae with CRUNCHIES. She made him a hot fudge sundae with cookie dough. He said he told her, «I asked for crunchies.» to which she replied snottily, «NO YOU DIDN’T.» Then he asked his brother, «Did I ask for cookie dough?» and my younger son, «Said no, you asked for crunchies.» Again, she responded, «NO YOU DIDN’T!» She refused to make him a new sundae. Now I would on occasion doubt my son, but he never ever EVER orders cookie dough, so this doesn’t make any sense to me. And how can you have such poor customer service that you won’t fix it to give the customer what they want, even if it truly was their mistake. I wanted to immediately go in myself to rectify the situation and deal with it, but my son said, «It’s ok. I’ll eat it.» This is not fair. Just because someone is 13 without a parent doesn’t mean that they deserve poor customer service.
Mike, please.. . work with your staff on being friendly and having good customer service. I realize you are one of only a few Carvels left around, but please.

Allow me to state up front that I am an ice-​cream snob so it would be hard for any chain to win me over. Service is fine here and the concoctions are as expected. If you like such things I’m sure they’re downright tasty as some Unilocalers have opined. I am rating two stars because I was mortified to discover that their ice cream cakes DON’T MELT!!! That’s right — they don’t melt at a normal rate of meltation (which I’m sure is not a word but I still like it). Now this may sound great to the frazzled mom who’s hosting a gaggle of giggling elementary school kids for a birthday bash, or the folks at church who want to put out the potluck before service ends — convenience at its finest! But to anyone else who knows that thawing frozen milk should equal quickly-​growing pile of liquid… this is scary stuff! What’s in there that makes stay more firm and frozen than a Botoxed beauty’s browline? And whatever it is — should I really be ingesting it??? I’ve had other ice cream cakes before and this has never happened — they melt like normal ice cream. What gives, Carvel? I’m sure a chemistry major could set me straight on what molecular voodoo makes this A-​OK, but this foodie would still remain skeptical. This will haunt me until I uncover the answer.

This Carvel Ice Cream Shop has been here for many, many years. My boyfriends favorite ice cream is soft-​serve vanilla, and Carvel is his favorite. I remember going here with my grandparents for a cone or to pick out my birthday cakes, «Fudgie the Whale» on Father’s Day and «Cookie Puss“for summer get-​togethers. I like the original décor and even SMELL of this retro establishment when I walk in the door. I am immediately transported back to my childhood in that moment! LOL
The owner is a very nice man and he is very appreciative of his long-​time loyal Milford customers. However, the young staff is not always the best employee choice when it comes to delivering great customer service. Some of the girls can be very unenthusiastic, but I have had some that were very nice and smiling too. Unfortunately, I cannot believe how the prices have sky-​rocketed through the years! My bf and I got two cones tonight and it was like $ 9.00? We went here to get a cake for his daughter last year, but we weren’t going to buy their smallest cake for $ 40.00! Yes the ice cream is good, I love the pistachio is my favorite, but it is expensive. So as a treat every so often, it is definitely worth the trip from Branford & West Haven.

Typical carvel. Staff is friendly and attentive. Lines are long but move quickly.
There is a large variety of cakes and take away ice creams to purchase. The hard ice cream is always fresh and there are a lot of variety.

All their ice cream is home made they’re on premises great value 3 scoops for under 3 bucks did all my birthday cakes there too. Mike the owner is friendly and always willing to please.

Using Unilocal,we went out of our way to find this Carvel traveling down I95. About 2 miles from highway using GPS.
Pluses:
+ Homemade (on the premises) hard ice cream… not something you usually find at a Carvel
+ Good value
+ Was advised open year-​round. Open to at least 10 pm summer hours
+ Staff was friendly… opposite of some other comments.
Minuses:
— This place is tired… and hasn’t seen a dollar of reinvestment since 1969.
Tip: the Milk Shakes are authentic and for 60 cents additional are made with real hard ice cream. Delightful.

Just stopped in for dessert after dinner and felt extremely uncomfortable. The two girls working were extremely miserable and both sitting on the counters on their phones ! This place needs employees that care about their jobs!

First of all, this place was not out of business. It’s alive and semi-​well. One of their freezers was broken though a sign says it’s on it’s way to bring repaired. They have lots and lots of ice cream cakes on display and you can get soft serve ice cream. Their small cup can easily be shared by two people, both in quantity and price ($ 2.99), and was tasty. The guy who was working, Monday around lunchtime, was friendly and happy to help.

I completely agree with Brenda. The girls here seem so completely miserable and unhappy to be there. This is a place where kids frequent, and it seems the girls there should at least like kids a LITTLE bit. They are very inattentive to my daughter, slam the ice cream in front of her, and NEVER EVER SMILE.
Its a shame, because I love the ice cream and its one of the only local places open year round. I really wish they’d hire some girls with character and not just local high school girls that always seem to wish they were somewhere else.

Childhood memories = Carvel cakes. Every birthday, communion or graduation meant we got an awesome, chocolate, vanilla with crunchies in the middle — ice cream cake. Even the gel they write with is extra sugary goodness. There was only 1 year I did not eat this cake — it was the year my neighbor Charlie convinced me that the crunchies were made up of dead crushed ants. I still remind him of this…
The soft serve ice cream is also amazing — be sure to get the rainbow sprinkles. The flying saucers are yummy as well as their other frozen treats. I only wish they still made the lalapooluza — soft serve ice cream rolled in rainbow sprinkles and then frozen.
I hope this one stays in business because I can’t imagine not having a treat each time I am home. Even though you can buy them in your freezer section there is nothing like going to Carvel to see your old friends
Fudgie the Whale or Cookie Puss.

Wednesday is «Buy one Ice Crream Sundae, get one free» day.
NOM!
The Carvel here is in a 1950s-​looking ice cream building. Back in the day, you could probably get a malt and then help a nerd, a preppie, an ascot-​wearing preppie, a perpetual stoner and his perpetually stoned dog catch bad guys. But now, you can get ice cream. Good ice cream.
On a side note, I do agree with Bill and Brenda that the staff seems to be variant, and kind of miserable. I didn’t feel all that welcomed, but the ice cream was at least really good, so I’ll give them that.

They definitely have outstanding ice cream, but portion size depends on the mood of the person working that day, friendliness of the staff is varied from superb to downright miserable. After moving back from Los Angeles it is nice to have Carvel close by, however it would be even nicer if the people working there could have some consistency in how to treat their customers.

I’m from the West Coast so, I’ve only heard stories about this amazing ice cream and how all the transplants from the East Coast love and miss it and have to have it evertime they visit home.
…that is, until I actually got to try it! Is it as good as they hyped it up to be? YES! The softserve vanilla is so good! You can have it plain or with your choice of topping. Another must is the Flying Saucer. Delicious! It’s now one of my many different «musts» whenever I go to the East Coast.