Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream Lab

We came across this place as we were trying to find a cold stone creamery. We seen the 4 stars and pictures of the place looked cool so we drove into town to get some. We are not from here but after having some creamy delicious ice cream we will definitely make it one of our stops whenever we are in the area. Great service and best ice cream I’ve ever had! Josh was amazing as he got all our orders together & gave us great service!

Such a cute place to take the kids! Ice cream was amazing and the atmosphere was so fun and creative. They have ice cream buckets decorating the walls and even a little train that goes around the ceiling. On top of a fun adventure, this memorable place also had delicious ice cream. We had a scoop of the chocolate peanut butter, java chip, and bubble gum. All the flavored were great and staff was very friendly. Would definitely go again!

One of my fav ice cream places! Came across the place while walking around slo downtown on a sunny day, cookies n cream was perfect!

A solid 4-​star ice creamery in a town that probably sells a lot of it during the summer!
Granted the place is a bit touristy in its décor — I am sure they lure in all the kids and tourists walking down the street. On the other hand, the ice cream choices are sensible, combining traditional with more adventurous flavors. If you can think of any kind of dessert and combine it with ice cream, they probably have that flavor (i.e. cookies and cream, brownies and cream, birthday cake, tiramisu, etc). But you probably won’t find weird boutique-​type flavors like «Pick;ed kale with caviar and cream» (I just made that up… I think…). Flavors are predictably pleasing, and taste just how you expected. Pretty rich and creamy, not airy, and tending towards the sweet side of the scale. Decent serving size — you won’t feel ripped off unless your idea of going out for ice cream is getting 2 for 1 Dreyers at Safeway.
Limited seating indoors and out — you might be getting it to go on a busy day. Good luck getting street parking on a weekend!
Overall, a good place to go when you need a sugar fix.

I was expecting more of a tour type place but I was mistaken. It’s just a basic ice cream shop with a ton of favors some of which are unique. Kids loved their «straight to the dentist» ice cream. I got the chocolate dipped waffle cone with «motor oil» ice cream. The cone was not good, too thick and chocolate on cone didn’t have much flavor.

Ice cream is in a food group all it’s own and I tend to indulge often! I’m a fan of sweets and this is one of the best ways for me to enjoy some sugar!
Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream Lab (it’s a lab guys. For the mad scientist. Get it? So cool! Anyway…) is such a fun location with a ton of fun ice cream flavors to choose from! The room is lit up in colored lights that change while the train goes round and round the room. The line was quick and the service was fantastic, even for my 3 year old son who just HAD to sample a few flavors. The young gal that helped us was great with him!
As I looked at the freezers looking for something for myself I came across a label that read «Cookies, Cookies, Cookies and Cream» and I froze. Could this be the best ice cream of all time?! You see, I love Oreos more than the average person and, while I’ve had Cookies and Cream Ice Cream before, this one caught my attention with the repetition… I bought a mini scoop and got my son what he wanted and we sat on the front patio to enjoy our ice cream.
You guys, this ice cream was AMAZING!!! It was almost gray looking from all of the cookie crumbs that were mixed in there and huge chunks of cookies too! Plus, the vanilla ice cream was so creamy, it almost tasted like the inside of the Oreos. NO JOKE! It was so good I came back the next day for a double scoop of it! (Looking back, I should have asked if they ship containers of the stuff, it’s so good!)
This Doc has it going on and I can’t wait to come back and enjoy a pint or two of this ice cream! What a gem this is! Really. I’ll be bacl Doc! Promise! :D

Ice cream is good, but I felt this place is just hyped up. $ 3.99 for a mini scoop of ice cream is very pricey. I had high expectations and this place failed to deliver. It’s better than cold stones and baskin robins for sure, but there are many other places with more ice cream choices.
The best part of this place was the service and the fact that the windows were low enough for kids to look. (That means you have to bend over a bit to looking you’re over 5’7″ tall.)

Very cool looking store, fun to visit with kids.
Tons of unique flavors such as Jack Daniels, we sampled a few of the craziest sounding ones, some work, some don’t.
Service was nice and patient which can mean the line takes a bit to get through since everyone wants to sample.
Prices are a bit high, but given the selection and area it’s fine.
Some taste pretty artificial and I think the quality is not quite there, s while not the best ice cream I have ever had, the fun flavors make this a must stop while in the area!

COOLEST ICE CREAM PLACE EVER. As you know, I love places that have their own unique themes… and I love ice cream! Walked in and everything was just wow. Everything was so colorful! The walls were decorated with huge ice cream scoops that were dripping down. There were flasks on the back wall to make it look like a real lab. The back wall had these circles on the wall that looked like the different ice cream selections they served in the glass freezers where they hold the ice cream (idk if that makes sense.) The whole concept was just so cool and fun!
They had such unique flavors. There’s one that had actual shots of Jack Daniel’s in it. but I went on the safer side and got birthday cake on a waffle cone. You can definitely sample as much as you’d like. There’s a list of flavors on the front wall and you have the opportunity to ‘claim’ one of those flavors as yours after 25 visits. They put your name right next to it. How awesome!
One thing, which goes for all the stores in downtown SLO… why are there so many flies right at the entrance?!
Other than that, come visit the ice cream lab to build up your own ice cream concoction w Doc Burnstein! You might be lucky enough to see them actually making their ice cream in their ice cream lab!

Never got to try this place while I was a student, but finally got the chance to on a random visit to SLO. Right when you walk in, it’s like walking into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, but for Ice Cream. Everything looks so animated and cartoony. This place is known for their unique flavors and fun names. I was craving chocolate so I ordered the Motor Oil (dark chocolate with fudge and kahlua) which was perfect for me! My friends ordered the Sea Salt Caramel which was also really tasty. If you have a sweet tooth and are adventurous, swing by downtown SLO and have an experiment in Doc Burnestiens lab. You won’t regret it!

Super Super fun ice cream place. On our trip to Santa Barbara… would not have been complete with the wonderful pistachio ice cream that they created, followed with some dark chocolate. I ordered the brownie sundae… it was delicious.
****If you have children, I would take them here it would be a great memory for them!

This spot can get super busy.
The ice cream selection is good, the prices are fair and all of the employees seem to work hard to be friendly and provide good service. Not much more you can ask for.
I think the ice cream is good, but not amazing. I prefer Batch for handmade ice cream quality over this, but the décor is fun and if you have picky ice creamers with you, this is a better option.

Ever since Doc’s opened in downtown SLO, I’ve been going there instead of the one in Arroyo Grande. Friendly customer service, always patient and they let you taste samples from a mini spoon. I love all of the flavors I’ve ordered so far. Their ice cream is creamy and some flavors are for a limited time. If you love ice cream like I do, Doc’s is a place to go!!!

Stopped in SLO with some friends and spotted this shop from across the street. We were instantly intrigued by the idea of an «Ice Cream Lab» and speculated some sort of liquid nitrogen deal.
While it was not a ~lab~ in the sense that much science was involved, Doc Burnstein’s was still definitely an awesome place to go. The exterior and interior decorations were fully immersed in the theme. There were also some unique flavors such as «Motor Oil» (lots of chocolate),“Elvis”, and Raspberry Cheesecake (not THAT amazing but I’ve only seen Strawberry Cheesecake before, so I thought it was cool: P).
I got 2 scoops
— 1 of the Butter Monkey Swirl (9.5÷10 — I don’t give perfect scores, but this one came pretty close. I really like peanut butter so I loved this flavor)
— 1 of the Raspberry Cheesecake (⁹⁄₁₀ most of this flavor melted before I could eat it, but the portion that I did get to eat in solid/​non-​soup form was pretty darn good. ~ die hard cheesecake fan)
PROS: Very generous scoop for sample size! and lots of ~original~ flavors that I’m definitely hoping to try in the future
CONS: The ice-​cream melted pretty fast. We went on a day that wasn’t very hot and by the time we’d walked back to our bus, a couple blocks, a majority of bowl was creamy soup :(
Also, the ice cream was very rich and the serving sizes, like the sample size, were quite large — 1 scoop is definitely enough to satisfy, but there no such thing as too much ice cream ;)

I am quite the connoisseur of the ice cream arts, so dr. Burnstein’s was a must. It’s a lab, so it’s healthy right? Because SCIENCE! Anyway, we stopped here for an after dinner treat and we were blown away! Great flavor choices! It was hard to narrow it down, so I had to get a double. Mostly because I’m gluttonous, but also because I seriously couldn’t choose one flavor. I got chocolate peanut butter cup and the Elvis special, which is banana ice cream with peanut butter ribbons… Yes banana & peanut butter! So tasty it made you want to die while eating it on the toilet! Too soon? Sorry…
Anyway, the ice cream was so good I forgot to take a pic of my cone. I love this place, and again, we need one in Vegas! When we come back to SLO we’ll be stopping in again!

A bit ironic as I knew about the Doc Burnstein in Arroyo Grande for quite some time but since we had been staying at the Apple Farm in SLO the past few trips down the Central Coast, after the afternoon wine reception with yummy cheese breads and a light fish sandwich dinner from Splash that we enjoy back in our room, my stomach did not have much room to make it worth the drive to AG. This time we stayed in Pismo Beach and had an early dinner at Giovanni’s so thought perfect, we will trek over to AG since it’s really close. As I am pulling up the info on Unilocal,I find out they have a Doc Burnstein in SLO! I had to check it out even though it was further as I could use any excuse to stop by my favorite Apple Farm first, even if only for ½ an hour.
We slowly made it over to Doc Burnstein and just beat the line that eventually snaked outside. We split a double scoop of watermelon sorbet and Sad Panda’s Elvis Special (PB & banana, two of hubby’s favorite). YUM! Fun place that you wouldn’t even mind the line so much and excited that they have one in SLO and closer to Apple Farm!

Great addition to SLO
I’ve been a big fan of the Doc’s in Arroyo Grande and was pretty excited when I heard one was coming to SLO. Whenever we visit the area, we always spend a decent amount of time exploring different shops. A good ice cream shop makes that experience even better.
The look and feel of this Doc’s is really neat. The décor and lighting really make the shop stand out and differentiates it from the other locations.
The one thing that is the same is the ice cream, which is excellent. I haven’t had a bad scoop yet. Sure some flavors are better than others, but nothing has been bad. It could just be coincidence, but I feel this location carries the best flavors. The service is standard here — not quite as friendly as the AG location, but certainly not poor by any means.
SLO has quickly become one of my favorite food towns and this just adds to it.

Great experience. I ordered a single scoop mint chip in a chocolate dipped waffle cone. Price was hefty, but definitely worth! Customer service was great too. I was wearing my Anaheim Ducks hat and the server engaged me and asked if I was ready for game 7. What a lad.
If you visit and check in 25 times you get to name an ice cream after you! Sweet!
Thanks Doc B,
Bretzlaf

This place reminds me of my future husband: a doctor who loves ice cream.
Haha, jk, but my dream love MUST LOVE ICE CREAM. That’s a must.
Price: Decent. Look to pay about $ 4 for a scoop.
Parking: Mostly street, but there’s lot parking too. It was actually pretty tough to find parking with this parlor being downtown.
Service: Quick and easy. The cream-​ristas were friendly.
Food: I love coffee ice cream so I got coffee ice cream. They have a lot of chunks in their ice cream. It wasn’t memorable. Well, the only thing memorable about this place was the company!
Notes: Outdoor seating. Single stall unisex bathroom in the back… kinda dirty.
Overall: If I’m in the area and I want ice cream, this is probably the best place for that. There aren’t too many other parlors around. Doc B’s won’t ever be something I crave though.

Ice cream parlors are guaranteed to make anyone happy. Doc Burnstein’s is no exception.
The parlor is awesome. OMG, it’s like walking into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. From head to toe, the walls are decorated in what looks like melted ice cream topped with sprinkles. The walls change color and outside there is a backdrop of that mad scientist ice cream maker Doc Burnstein. It’s very Disney.
If I were a kid, I’d be begging to have my birthday party here. With that said, this is a great place for children and families. To the discerning adult, it’s just so-​so. I walked in after a filling lunch. You know, the saying, «There’s always room for dessert» or «I have an extra stomach for ice cream.» There is and I do. However, after chomping down on my cone, I decided that the extra calories weren’t really worth it.
Bah hum bug. I was really hoping to be wowed by Doc Burnstein. Like others stated in their reviews, their ice cream is lacking something. There is no richness, oomph in flavor, or packed goodness. The flavor titles sound promising but the end result is like a diet line? Take for instance the Mint Fudge Oreo. I should be licking my lips as if there was toothpaste residue on it. The Mint Fudge Oreo is just a hint of mint with some cookies mashed into it. The Mexican Chocolate has me wondering where was the spice. The Mandarin Chocolate did not have me screaming it tastes like a chocolate orange candy. I settled on the Root Beer Marble. It was the most original flavor I was in the mood for and it did it’s job subtly. It wasn’t too sweet but the ribbon of sticky root beer flavor made it like a root beer float.
Go on an empty stomach. Maybe try some of the sorbets. Bring a kid? I’m trying to justify reasons to come back.