Toy Joy — Local services in Austin

I had been looking forward to visiting this location for months, ever since a friend moved nearby and the bright, colorful building caught my attention. I finally went with two friends, and just a few minutes into browsing and chatting, I noticed we were being closely followed by a man dressed entirely in black with a punk/rock-inspired style.

It became clear by his behavior over time that he was security, but his appearance was so inconspicuous as to his role that, had I not realized what was happening, the situation could easily have escalated into a misunderstanding or confrontation. His approach—shadowing a group of women in their mid-20s to late 30s—came across as profiling, and it left me feeling uncomfortable and unwelcome.

Although we decided to make our planned purchases of vegan ice cream and chocolates, this experience will prevent me from returning in the future. Toy Joy, I encourage you to treat your customers with greater respect and ensure your security presence is both professional and non-intrusive. If you are that worried about shoplifting, install...

While it was certainly fun/nostalgic to browse the toy shop a bit, my purchases were all from the candy shop, so this review is really more for that. And given that I picked up some of the best truffles ever, it's any easy 5 stars! I've actually found it surprisingly uncommon to find a sizeable, varied collection of white chocolate truffles at a lot of candy shops, but toy joy had quite a few amazing looking/sounding options to choose from, and I ended up getting a handful of different ones and thoroughly enjoyed them all. My 3 favorites were key lime, strawberry shortcake, and one that I thought was called "celebration," but looking back at some pictures might have been "wedding cake." At any rate, the white chocolate outside was consistently terrific on all of them, and the truffle centers were as good as it gets! They are a bit pricey, but they are also quite large, and more importantly quite tasty, so well worth it...

A little disappointed, mostly by the coffee shop, but I will definitely be back. Toy joy is iconic to me and I will be taking all my out of towners to the store regardless. I asked for an iced cortado, which I understand is not a traditional drink, but I politely explained I wanted a standard double shot of espresso (2oz) with equal parts milk (2oz) over ice. I was told it was not a real drink by the barista, which again I understand it’s not standard, but what I received was a small latte. It looked to be a 10-12 oz drink instead of 4oz over ice.

Genuinely, I love toy joy and will be back but the customer service was a bummer. As a fellow barista, I felt looked down upon for asking for a small customization. The retail associates were super sweet though! Incredibly helpful and friendly folks on the sales floor. Please bring back more keroppi and spirited away...