Squigley's Ice Cream & Treats — Restaurant in Carolina Beach

Alright, so this was our experience at Squigleys - in the interests of full disclosure, this was on a Thursday (fireworks at the boardwalk) night, roughly 8:30-ish at night. It's hot. Parking was virtually nonexistent, we ended up swinging in to the parking lot of a hotel across the street and crossing our fingers we wouldn't get towed. To echo other reviews, they do not take cards - while they do have an ATM inside, bringing cash is the best option in my opinion.

We walked up the handicap ramp on the side and immediately found ourselves "trapped" on the side of the porch by the line that ran out of the door and down the front steps. Okay, back it up, walk down the ramp and join the line.

We wait in the heat. And wait. And wait. Twenty five minutes later, the gent at the front of the 10-odd person line (including our group), staring at the closed door two inches in front of his face (gotta keep the air conditioning in) still hasn't gotten inside. This is starting to get a little ridiculous. Maybe 15-20 minutes later, we finally get inside of the surprisingly small shop and get to enjoy a little air conditioning. The counter is set up oddly, with a little "tunnel" to your right as you walk in, leaving a scant two bodies' worth of space wide between the front of the counter and the front wall. The line, at the behest of several signs imploring people not to snake the line into the dining room (about 5 or 6 small tables) or out the door, as well as the polite orders of the counter girl, moves in a tight U-shape that doesn't give the folks in the back much of a chance to look in the cases or at the wall mounted menus. I had no earthly idea what a Squigley even was until I heard the counter girl explain it to the person in front of me - all the signs gave were vague references to "over 4,000 flavors!" with no list of what those flavors may be.

Roughly 45-50 minutes after we first joined the Squigley's line, we were finally able to give our orders. At this point, we were all tired, our feet hurt from standing, our 2 year old nephew's patience had completely run out and my Sister-in-law's birthday ice cream treat was practically ruined.

We all sat, glad to finally be off our feet, and we had our orders within maybe 5 minutes, which left me annoyed and puzzled as to why the 5 or 6 people ahead of us had taken over an hour to serve. There were 3 counter girls and the owner, by my count, so why the heck were paying customers expected to wait outside in the heat for more than a half hour for ice cream?

Was the ice cream good? Yes, very. I enjoyed my Squigley (a cross between soft serve and a blizzard, a unique texture I loved) and my family liked their orders very much. I would even recommend the place, based on the quality of their wares. However, I felt that the ordeal of actually getting the ice cream was one that should be shared so that families - especially those with young children - should know what they...

After hearing about squigleys a bunch I finally made my way there to try it. The line wasn’t too long and it moved quickly. This is a cash only business but there is an atm. I happened to have cash on me tho. The service was fast and friendly. There is so much to choose from. I decided on a sundae instead of building a squigley. I chose the blooming sundae, which is 2 scoops of ice cream, Oreo crumble, hot fudge and marshmallow sauce. The flavors I picked were called moo moo and trash can. One was much better than the other but I’m not sure which was which so I can’t be sure which one I liked. They served the sundae in a paper coffee cup which means the bottom scoop of ice cream gets no sundae love. My suggestion would be to put a scoop of ice cream and then either the hot fudge or the marshmallow sauce (or a little of each) and some Oreo crumbs and then the second scoop and top it with more sauces and crumbs. I also wish there was whipped cream and nuts. I probably could have asked but it wasn’t a big deal, just what I think should be included in a sundae. It was a really great spot though and I want to go back and try a few more things.

Update. I went back today to try a squigley. I hated it. I picked 3 add in: strawberry, pretzel and cheesecake. I’d been craving that strawberry pretzel salad dessert and since I didn’t plan on making one I thought this would be close. It wasn’t. It tasted like nothing. I had assumed that the base ice cream would be vanilla but based on the non existent flavor I think they start with flavorless ice cream. If I closed my eyes and focused really hard I could kind of taste a whisper of strawberry. The cheesecake was not detectable at all and the pretzels were so pulverized that it made the ice cream a weird grainy texture. Maybe I should have picked different ingredients. I don’t know. Also the total for a 3 ingredient squigley is supposed to be $6.10. Mine was $7.80 so idk where the extra came from. I didn’t ask. If I go back I’m sticking with the hand dipped ice cream sundaes in a coffee cup. The squigley is not my thing and is severely overrated. Maybe add more of each ingredient so they can be tasted or don’t blend them until they can’t be detected. Definitely didn’t live up...

Let's start off with the positives.

The shop itself looks great. The location is great. The cashiers were friendly.

Unfortunately that's where the positives end.

I know we went there off season but the selection of Ice cream was small. I may not have understood how the 4,000 flavor thing works which is my bad, but there were only about 8 tubs of ice cream to choose from.

I also noticed after I payed for the ice cream that there was a small sign that this is really Edy's Ice cream, which you can buy at Walmart's.

I love to support small businesses, but really? If I wanted Edy's Ice cream, I could pick up a half-gallon of it at Walmart's cheaper than the 3 little cups we got.

So the ice cream itself was just OK but there was something wrong with the cherries. I order the Edy's black cherry ice cream and I had to spit out all of the cherries. They had a bitter sour bad taste and were inedible. Thank-fully it didn't bleed into the taste of the ice cream itself and I was able to eat the ice cream itself.

Overall the ice cream tasted "stale" and slightly freezer burned.

I'm not sure why Edy's was chosen because it's not great ice cream.

If you are going to use another company's ice cream to sell consider something different such as Haagen-Dazs. Here is the ingredient list for Haagen-Dazs:

Cream, Skim Milk, Sugar, Black Cherries, Egg Yolks, Cherries, Cherry Juice Concentrate, Vanilla Extract, Chokeberry Juice (for Color), Elderberry Juice (for Color), Apple Juice, Natural Flavor, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Pectin.

This would definitely be closer to homemade ice cream.

Also not accepting debit cards seems silly. Handling wet and dirty money seems a little weird with modern technology where even individuals can accept credit cards. Even farmers and vendors at the Farmer's market accept debit and credit cards.

It's also seems strange since the gift shop on the second floor accepts...