Golden Gurnsey Ice Cream

Great ice cream. No complaints. Nice wait staff. Went there twice and tried there soft serve ice cream. Awesome… And be careful leaving the parking lot as to not run over the fattest cat I’ve ever seen, LoL.

This summer was my first ever visit to Oneonta, and it being summer, I needed ice cream! The Golden Gurnsey caught my eye as soon as we pulled off the highway. This dairy stand was open on the later side (we got there just before 10PM) with many tempting flavors. I went with the mint chocolate chip and chocolate pretzel — a scoop of each — on a waffle cone. Not only was it a cool treat to beat the heat, but there was a super mellow cow cat not the least bit afraid of humans rolling in the grass out front. That’s a good omen, man.

This place has been around for decades, and is a great place to get a cone or a burger after a day in the park. It’s always crowded at lunch, and with good reason.
The ice cream is good as is the food.
I would describe the décor as «grandma’s country kitchen chic.» Pottery and jugs on the wall, huge display of cow knickknacks… The paint is a little chipped here and there, but the place looked clean.
The server was… not rude, per se, but easily frustrated and did not seem to enjoy her job.
It was noisy, but not overly. They have an outdoor ice cream window and a little seating area with a coin-​op carousel. All in all, a pleasant lunch at a good place to take kids and grandparents. There’s a little carousel outside and so many interesting ice cream flavors.

Old school hot dog /​ice cream joint. Shakes could have been thicker. Dogs were all beef. Buns weren’t as fresh as they should have been. Needs a bun steamer. Waffle fries were great but cheese was canned crap. Mushrooms were good.

Was at Morris NY, the drive to this spot was about 20 minutes and everyone was cramped in 1 car but the ice cream was kinda worth the drive. 3 scoops in a bowl for 3.50? where in the world do you get that in NYC? Tell me! gosh LOL This place serves some crazy flavors too! devil’s fudge chocolate or something like that. they also have fried ice cream but the
premade” ones are not good at all. =\ All in all I’d come back to this place if I was going upstate again! 3 great large scoops of ice cream for NYC’s 1 scoop’s pricing! I’m a FAN!

I don’t know what the posters with the lower reviews are talking about. The Perry’s ice cream the Guernsey serves is real, old-​fashioned ice cream, not frou-​frou California artisanal batches, which is perhaps where some of this dissatisfaction stems from. It’s rich, creamy, fresh-​tasting, with no freezer burn in my experience of going there regularly for eight years. I can’t really speak for their soft serve, though there was for a while a rest stop further east on I-​88 that served Perry’s soft serve chocolate, and that was hands down the best soft serve I’ve ever had in my life. (Says the girl who grew up a ½ mile away from a good Carvel.)
I’ve done a semi-​scientific taste comparison of west coast ice cream to New England/​New York State ice cream, and there’s no comparison. In my opinion, there is no good ice cream anywhere in Southern California, at least not that I’ve discovered yet. (And yes, I’ve had Fosselman’s and McConnell’s on several occasions, and even CoolHaus.) However, you can’t throw a stone in summertime without hitting a great cone in the Northeast, usually from some no-​name little seasonal hut at the side a country road. It’s the legacy of the dairy farming tradition. Good cows = good cream, and Central New York State, particularly Oneonta, is right in the heart of the country’s best dairies.
(Northern California may be a different story from Southern. I had some Bi-​Rite ice cream in San Francisco and that was pretty darn good stuff. You can also get good ice cream in Seattle. But I digress.)
So, if you want generous, traditional, CHEAP ice cream (Who is that person stating that the Guernsey charges premium prices? Since when is a $ 2.50 cone premium??), this is a great place to go. Open late. Best flavors in my opinion are Bittersweet Sinphony (a decadent bestseller, better to get it earlier in the day before it goes) and Caramel Cup Craze. Go to the Fourth of July celebration across the street, watch some fireworks, then exit the park and get yourself a gigantic cone. Yum.

Of all the ice cream joints in the Oneonta area, this is by far my favorite. For nearly a decade, I was thrilled to be able to visit this place 2−3x/week, all summer long. The ice cream they serve is infinitely better than anything I have been able to find in my adopted hometown of Hollywood, CA.
Their service has always been excellent, friendly, attentive, and most importantly, patient. It’s difficult to choose a flavor at the best of times, and I have so many favorites I always stammer my order. Bittersweet Sinphony; Panda Paws; Birthday Cake; Grasshopper Pie; I haven’t seen a better selection of GOOD flavors anywhere else.
The prices are unbelievably low (I live in LA and grew up in NYC): $ 2 for a «small» cone, which equals about a full 8-​oz. cup of Perry’s Ice Cream. That’s less than half the price of a comparable scoop in most cities, for ice cream that is made in-​state near Buffalo, by a 100-​yr-​old company. (Support local business and local suppliers!)
Their custom-​made ice cream cakes are insanely huge, and are priced 40% cheaper than comparable cakes from, say, Coldstone Creamery and Carvel.
My only minus is the cleanliness. There is only one medium size trash can inside, and the dining area floor does get a little sticky at the end of a long, hot summer night.
Dar, the owner, has been gruffly friendly and incredibly generous through the years. I have brought hundreds of people through there for after-​concert treats — and she was happy to give our groups a discount every time. I miss Dar and her huge orange cat, Butters, who stalks the grounds and will be happy to get a lick of your cone.

This seems to be the «go-​to place» for ice cream in Oneonta. I’ve been here more than a few times and on each visit, I thought it would be better due to its local, word-​of-​mouth rep. It wasn’t. Not to say it’s bad, mind you, it’s just that it’s «Baskin Robin’s ordinary», not unique, quirky, incredible.
Most of the time you’d better have a second choice in flavors lined up before you order because just about every time I’ve been here they’ve been out of the flavor I’d initially chosen off their board. If you’re out, why not just take the flavor off the display list, already???
Also, every time I’ve been here, the ice cream has tasted of the freezer and has had hard, crunchy ice crystals in it. Big no-​nos when you’re charging premium prices and ice cream is the main food your joint specializes in.
And speaking of prices, charging extra for a waffle cone when you buy them commercially and don’t even make them in-​house as a lot of other premium ice cream parlors do is an added slap in the face.
I’ll probably be back but begrudgingly, most likely at the urging of friends. The employees are all pleasant and efficient, hence the additional star.

This is your basic old-​school roadside ice cream joint. It’s got great malts and shakes. The ice cream is «Perry’s» which is pretty good stuff. They have a short menu of burgers and fries, which are also quite good. I’ve been a patron here for years, and have always been happy with their food and service.

Last time I came they blended it into hard ice cream — today it was soft ice cream. Whats happening? Choices of ice cream were basic but the service was nice.

I really like to encourage small places, but I have been there twice now, and they haven’t impressed me much. First, they advertise frozen custard, but they never have it. And honestly, they aren’t really friendly with their customers. I don’t know if its because we show up 15 minutes before they close, but both times I went it felt like they were ready to be done.

Lots of attentive young people working here, and they are very courteous.
All my friends like it here, but it’s just that I don’t like the goods.
For the price, the Columbo frozen yogurt is unbelievably bland — you can just as well go to McDonald’s for ½ the price.
Their frozen custard? That might be an acquired taste. Very very rich and eggy? So rich it turned my tummy.
Tasted way too much of strange animal fats (almost mayonnaisy yech) for this almost-vegan-except-for-soft-serve’s taste. But the locals love it, and there’s an awesome three-​horse mini-​carousel out front for the youngsters.