Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour Restaurant

Loved the décor, the music, the employees seemed happy to work there. I arrived with my friend at 12.20 for lunch. There were customers at 5 tables… very small crowd for such a big place. We ordered drinks and lunch right away. Drinks came fast but lunch did not arrive until 1:15! I had to send my entire order back as it was room temperature to actually slightly cold. My hot ftea had to be replaced. We were finally able to leave by 2:15. That’s just way too slow. Sorry farrelles… I won’t be back.

Like many others here, I grew up going to the Farrell’s on Howe Avenue and have very fond memories of birthday celebrations and the candy shop (rock candy!!) on the way to the register when leaving. When this new location opened a couple of years ago, some friends went and said it was nothing like the old-​school Farrell’s we grew up with. No problem, had no intentions of going anyway.
Fast forward to today, when after a fab lunch in Mid Town we were wanting ice cream. We decided on Farrell’s because let’s face it, Fenton’s was just too far out of the way and Leatherby’s was a fail. Having read the many pages of one-​star reviews here, I wasn’t expecting anything great and I did not leave disappointed.
We were cheerfully greeted and told the wait for a table would be 10 – 15 min. We were seated in 5. The waiter promptly came to the table and chatted it up with us, brought drinks and took our order. One person had stopped at the restroom after we were seated and said it was dirty and one of the toilets was clogged. The ice cream was served quickly.
They have a «build your own» sundae option, but I got what they call the Farrell’s Classic Sundae, one scoop of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. Props that the one scoop was pretty generous and they serve real whipped cream. The ice cream was almost yellow, I suppose to make you think it’s going to taste rich and creamy. It was neither, just meh. The scant helping of hot fudge was nothing to write home about. But considering what the others ordered, I got the best deal.
Back to the build your own. A couple of my dining partners ordered the build your own — one scoop of vanilla ice cream, butterscotch sauce, no nuts or whipped cream, the other one scoop vanilla, hot fudge, no whip, nuts or cherry. One would expect them to have been served something similar to what I had. Instead, they were served a half melted blob of yellow ice cream swimming in a dish way oversized for the serving (photo in gallery). The other BYO was similar, but you could see that they had added whipped cream, but instead of remaking it, they then tried to scrape it off because it wasn’t supposed to be there. I’d be mortified and embarrassed to ever serve something like that to my customers, let alone charge them for it. The other sundaes didn’t look anything like some photos posted here, the ice cream barely came to the top of the glass.
TL;DR — prompt, friendly service, don’t have high expectations, and it’s not what we remember it to be.

Reservation was for 7. Watched them give our table away three times. Sat down at 720. Ordered, waited an hour. Got our food, most of it was wrong and very disorganized. Unfortunate because old school Farrels used to be such a great time.

It’s so fun to recall and relive the childhood wünderyears.
Farrell’s now down the street from the folks’, so brought nephew here for some ears.
Did you know that they use Thrifty ice cream for their creations? Yessum! Menu vast, special flavors on the board, and hot French dip was yummy… Hot AU jus. Burger across the way was massive.
Atmosphere GREEAT

This was our second visit to Farrell’s.
We decide to try again after the first experience was horrible. We thought because they had just opened.
Well, no– the food was incorrectly made, the service to be seated and served extremely slow– even though I only counted 9 tables with people and 5 employees standing around making straw wands.
We spent $ 100.00 and it was the worst ever.
We will not ever stray from Leatherby’s again.
Both serve food and ice cream. The only difference is the singing and banging of drums and horrible food and service.
I will take good service and good food anyway.
I

We have tried to come here (in the past) so many times but the wait for dining was always ridiculous. We were finally able to come here and not have to wait to sit down for dinner, granted it was a Thursday night and there weren’t that many patrons.
Parking and location
Anyway, parking is plentiful as it’s located near a strip mall. Depending on which way you come from will determine the ease of trying to get here. If you are coming from Watt Ave. it’s a breeze to find. If you are coming from Arden, it’s a left on Watt and then you will see Farrell’s so don’t think you are lost.
Food
The food was delicious. We ordered an array of items from the tater tots (that you have the option to the burgers, shakes, ice cream, etc. The burgers were huge and it was just a single patty. It was flavorful. I had the mushroom burger with bacon. It was messy but delicious. I was definitely full to the point that I could barely touch my garlic fries. The fries were something I could’ve done without. There was barely any fresh garlic and more of the powdery stuff. If they used fresh garlic, I would have been a happier camper. The Caesar salad wasn’t all that either. It lacked the flavor that most Caesar salads I have had. The tater tots are offered in two sizes. Make sure you order the correct size because lord oh lord you will be surprised at how large the size is. The options are plentiful and they are amazing. You get to choose whatever you want or you can choose the set options. It’s really up to you. The kids meal options are great too. One thing to remember though is that the kids meal option has the fish entrée but the adults menu doesn’t have it. Weird. The kids options comes with the normal drinks and options for salad/​fries/​fruit. It comes with a lot so you can opt for the smaller kids meal if you have a smaller kid like I do.
Entertainment/​Birthday
Ok so you know you come here mainly for the birthday entertainment and ice cream. Well, our servers and the other ladies that were singing were fabulous and fun. It makes the entertainment more enjoyable when there’s variety. They cane up with catchy verses to each song, from pop, to old school to Disney and changed them to gear towards your birthday. For ours, my goddaughter wanted a dance off between her brothers and her dad and godfather. It was hilarious and fun. We had a great time.
It may have taken us a long time to get to eat at this place but it was well worth the wait. We are definitely coming back here. Even my 10 year old son wanted to come here for his birthday and it’s not until July of next year.