Swoon Gelato — Restaurant in Bristol

It's definitely the best gelato outside Italy - HOWEVER (I will explain)

As an ice cream fanatic who has gone chasing Italy's best gelaterias before I can attest Swoon gelato is without a doubt the finest gelato outside Italy and can easily dance with some of the best Italian counterparts; a grand feat considering how tricky it can be working with British milk and other ingredients. Other reviews calling it "best ice-cream in Bristol" are under-selling the depth and quality of flavors at play here. I have been a near-weekly visitor for the past 3 years even though I live no-where near Bristol and never miss a chance to visit or shamelessly promote the brand to every ice cream lover I meet. So far 6/5 stars.

The ice cream & desserts: Flavours like chocolate sorbet (deeper and creamier than almost any non-sorbet gelato), pistacchio, cheesecake, bacio as well as the inventive assortment of monthly guest flavours are the finest ice cream I have ever tasted. The creators behind these flavours clearly know what they're doing and consistently knock it out of the park with both cream-based and fruit-based flavours. There is no milky after-taste, every nut and fruit used has breadth and depth in flavor, and the flavors between them vary significantly in sweetness and saltiness. Whether it's tradiitonal italian flavours, or inventions like biscoff or panettone, their ice cream selection is like a piano with all its keys. Their banana split, gelato confections and original cioccolata calda are also the best I've ever had. 6/5

The space: Beautifully colored, tightly packed, elegant small space. Feels like Europe. It's always full of Italians, which is a good sign. 4/5

Service: While the back-room is on its A-game, the shop service is where things start to become inconsistent. Specific staff are consistently nice, courteous and helpful. The quality and level of service is vastly different when the shop entrance goes into "queue" mode. There is often an atmosphere of "get your order ASAP and go away" on busy days. Staff looking extremely overworked or fatigued, other border-line rude or abrupt staff, inconsistency in shop cleanliness and quality of table service and inconsistency in portions have been steady patterns in my 3 years visiting. On quite a few occasions there seemed to be not enough staff to handle customer traffic, and you could just feel how tense staff where which brushes on you too. 3/5

Value: Swoon would for the most part serve consistently generous portions; this was to be expected considering an entry-price of 2.95 for one scoop up to 5.25 for 3 scoops. Expensive, even for artisan gelato. Recently I made a polite complaint to the owner about certain staff serving much smaller portions; unfortunately this has resulted to all portions being cut by about 30-40% across the board. A 1-scoop portion now barely peaks above a tiny, tiny cone. A 3 scoop portion amounts to just over half a drinking glass. All regular customers who I know have all noticed the same thing; prices have remained the same, portions have shrunk. As a result, for the first time, we have started coming less often. 2/5

Advice to management:

1. A server in front of you scraping the serving scoop 3-4 times to provide the smallest possible scoop is patronizing and annoying. You're riding on a great reputation in Bristol but you won't be able to expand with this value proposition. The £1.95 ice cream sandwich now has more filling than a £2.95 scoop. You could increase the 2/3 scoop prices by 20-25p, but portion sizes need to go back up. In our last 2 visits we were served with the bottom third of an (already small) cup being empty. You are being over-zealous with tiny portions and sooner or later it will affect cusotmers' perception.
2. Queues outside is free marketing. It consistently happens so staff accordingly; staff look extremely tired and overworked. Other staff are rushing you or seem to not care. This needs to be fixed once and for all.

I've been in love with Swoon since the first scoop - but it some things...

Ice creams were great, as always. We have always loved going to Swoons in Bath and when we moved to Bristol, we were overjoyed to have it near our place. But due to this particular visit in Bristol, I think it is fair to give one star.

We visited with a few friends, having recommending them great places to dine in Bristol. One of them is a food blogger and I wanted to be able to impress them as Swoon has been my favourite since it started. The night quickly escalated to embarrassment. The guy who served us was extremely rude. To say “extremely rude” was an understatement. Upon ordering, he took no interest in serving us, and he barely said anything. We took it as him being tired and he has had a long day. However things didn’t end there, when he was serving us, he was rude and impatient. Mind you it didn’t even take us longer than 3 minutes because we knew what we wanted, we just wanted to try one more flavour (which we only managed to try one within seconds and not being able to try again because HE. WAS. SO. IMPATIENT).

When choosing the ice cream, I pointed out at the ice cream I wanted, having not want to mispronounce the word and mainly because it’s easier to point out than having to bend down and see the labels again and speak it out. You know what he said? “What do you want? There is a name at the bottom that you could tell me.” in the rudest possible tone you could imagine. By this time, my other friends have left the counter because they were put off by this server. He was not only marking horrible remarks about how we should order, but he had a frowning face the whole time, as if we are getting the ice cream for free!

I am more than happy for the management to contact me and I will leave all the details with them, but for now, I am never coming back again.

Good ice cream is just ice cream if your service is a trash. There are similar ice creams everywhere else with much better service. That is THE difference. Don’t treat your customers like they’re getting it out of your pocket money. We were just as tired as you were. And if your customers were able to smile and be polite to you, why can’t you...

My recent visit to an ice cream parlor left me feeling quite disappointed and frustrated. Not only was the service incredibly rude, but the lack of transparency regarding their menu items, specifically the Bambino, added to my unpleasant experience.

First and foremost, the service I encountered was far from satisfactory. The staff members were dismissive and displayed a lack of basic courtesy. They seemed disinterested in assisting customers and were unwilling to answer questions or provide any helpful information yet they talked about me amongst themselves right in front of me. This level of rudeness was completely uncalled for and left a sour taste in my mouth before I even had a chance to try their ice cream.

To exacerbate the situation, the menu failed to explicitly state how the Bambino ice cream worked, leading to confusion and frustration. Upon ordering the Bambino, I was completely unaware of what to expect. The menu description was vague and lacked crucial details about the composition of the ice cream. It would have been beneficial for the establishment to provide clear instructions or a brief explanation for Bambino or explained to me how it worked such as you can only choose one flavour for Bambino instead of talking about me to your co-worker whilst I am standing there waiting to pay for my ice cream.

Had the menu been more transparent about the Bambino, I would have been able to make a more informed decision. Customers deserve to know what they are ordering and what to expect in terms of taste, composition and overall experience. A simple explanation would have made a world of difference and could have set appropriate expectations.

In conclusion, my experience at this ice cream parlor was marred by rude service and a lack of transparency regarding their menu offerings, particularly the Bambino. The staff's dismissive attitude and the absence of clear information on the menu left me feeling disappointed and unsatisfied. As a customer, I value transparency and respectful service, both of which were sorely lacking during my visit. Regrettably, I cannot recommend this establishment based on...