Zeds Real Fruit Ice Cream — Attraction in Austin

This place popped up on my Instagram feed and I shared it with my son as a place we need to try. We went on a Sunday afternoon around 3. There were only a few people ahead of us which I didn't mind since the reviews said it is often crowded. The way the ordering works is you have to pick your size, base vanilla or non dairy vanilla, a topping and a crumble. I ordered a small strawberry vanilla with chocolate drizzle and crumbles Oreos. My son ordered a small cup with peach vanilla with vanilla wafer crumbles. The ice cream was very smooth and creamy. We tried each other's and both were good. The waffle cone was crispy and flaky it was actually the best tasting waffle cone I ever had. We were not disappointed.

Service was A+ the cashier was very friendly and courteous I like that they had a porch area with benches and sun umbrellas. We sat and enjoyed our ice cream until the Texas heat overwhelmed us. They offer self-serve water with cups. You also can order beer and wine from a side window.

Small parking lot with about 7 or 8 spots. If it is full you may need to park in the street and walk down

Nice little ice cream place. I will definitely bring family...

Not friendly or attentive service (was standing in front of the order window and the blond male employee didn’t open the window to take my order and continue talking to his peers). They were out of waffle cones (though have the machine and the dough ready). None of the prep team members had hair nets and had long hairstyles while making desserts. Equipment was not cleaned after making different flavors. The syrups actually made the ice cream taste unpleasant. Coconut was obviously toasted, but soft and not crunchy. Not enough sitting area, two tables with the benches by the ice cream part were all covered with the birds’ surprises. The parking is awfully tight and mostly taken by the customers who were enjoying alcoholic beverages (which means they take a very long time to sit and relax by the bar area), so most of the ice cream cravers must circle around and park along the street far away and walk in darkness (there are no street lights at all). The dumpsters by the business were very dirty and smelled awfully (the odor was all over the tiny parking and the bar area, I couldn’t pass it without sickness). The ice cream wasn’t to my taste and not Kiwi...

My wife and I used to love coming to Zeds last summer. We would always get the plain vanilla dairy free soft serve and were amazed with how good it was, especially since it’s hard to find dairy free soft serve in the city. We went for the first time again in 2024 and unfortunately were very disappointed.

Instead of soft serve we were served scooped dairy free ice cream. Unfortunately the scooped ice cream wasn’t very good, it was watery, not much flavor, and had frozen ice chunks in it.

Definitely a bummer to get scooped ice cream, we both felt we could have just went to whole foods if we wanted scooped ice cream out of a pint. Also a bummer we paid a $2 upcharge compared to the dairy soft serve, we were happy to pay that before when we loved the dairy free soft serve, but now it feels like a bummer to pay an up-charge and get a worse experience. Unsure if we’ll visit again unfortunately, I really hope y’all go back to previous dairy free soft serve y’all...