Sprinkles Gelato Portswood — Restaurant in Southampton

I brought my partner to Sprinkles as a birthday treat. The shop's bright fuschia signage is quite the visual addition to the bustling Portswood Road. My partner ordered Belgian Chocolate Waffles, which came as a surprise for the both of us as the size of it was just short of a dinner plate. It had a soft interior that was enveloped in a crispy crust topped with fresh strawberries that he and I equally enjoyed.

As for me, I ordered the chocolate cookie dough. Again, the serving was big enough that we struggled to finish both our orders. A spoonful of the cookie along with some of the the vanilla ice cream (served in a locked jar that came as a side) gave a completely amazing experience as the contrasting textures of the warm, chewy dough, the soft, cool, silky ice cream and the chocolatety fudge sauce it was laced with mixed well in my mouth.

However, I have to admit that the sweetness was far too overwhelming. The saying goes "just because you could, doesn't mean you should," as too much sugar was added to each individual component that made up a single dessert (whether it was the fudge sauce, ice cream, or dough). In hindsight, it may seem silly to complain about overtly sweetness seeing as how we were in a dessert shop but everything I tasted here contained such a high level of sugar than what could be considered pleasurable to the palette.

Nonetheless, I found myself craving for Sprinkles for a few days after having come here. Staff were friendly and it's a great place to hang out. Although next time we visit, I'll be sharing a dessert with my...

I’ve been going to this place occasionally for I think 10 years. Every time it gets a bit worse, consistently. My main gripes are: shrinkflation: I used not to be able to stand up after a sundae, now I’m left like I could eat more. Portions definitely got A LOT smaller than they were menus: there were beautiful full-size laminated menus that made it easy to choose, these then became cheap card ones (no biggie), and now there is only a folded menu per table, to share between several people! service: the staff are clearly not the committed, nice individuals you used to find years ago. The last straw was that when they messed up an order, the reaction was pretty much “tough luck”, with no effort to make it right whatsoever (only made a small gesture after arguing for it) waiting times: very long. I suspect priority is given to online/delivery orders (can’t tell for sure, though) atmosphere: this is definitely a result of the above. This was ALWAYS packed, now it looks as dead and sad as it probably deserves to be if it doesn’t get turned around.

On my part, this was my last visit, after a decade. And this applies to the other sites, too. This decline is consistent across...

We arrived at Sprinkles too early (9.30am) to find they weren't open until 10am. Fair enough. We went for a wander and came back at 9.55am. Inside someone was cleaning. At 10am, we went in, as the door was open and three people were still cleaning. 🤨 The ice-cream containers were empty and it was clear that this place was not going to serve our treat any time soon. My sister asked the lady cleaning the glass, in front of us, how long we would have to wait for ice-cream. She said half an hour!!! I asked a man at the counter why they weren't ready to open- "oh, we always clean on Mondays, after Sundays (!). We need to defrost everything". Fair enough, but why not do this long before opening? I am still shocked that they think this is ok! We drove from Winchester, with children for a treat. It's the holidays and they couldn't be organised. It's like a supermarket opening and saying sorry no food, we're cleaning. Bloody ridiculous.🤬 Any other trading establishment open to the public, would do this before opening hours. Really not rocket science. Absolutely livid. Luckily, Scoops across the road were open for...