Charlestown Coffee & Cream — Restaurant in Charlestown

I'd like to give three and a half stars but that's not possible. We've been here a few times and the first two experiences were just fine, 4 stars at least. The ice cream tastes great and there is a large selection, so those are positives obviously. It does feel a bit pricey for the size of servings, but doesn't everything lately? My kids always want m&m toppings on top of their ice cream and last time I considered just buying the M&M's and taking them to put on there because that would be so much more economical. 🤷 The last couple of times we were there just weren't as great though. I follow this business on their Facebook page, and I understand that they have explained their scoops may feel smaller because there's no air in the ice cream or whatever the explanation was. We were fine with that on the first two trips. I went in expecting smaller amounts of ice cream than we might get at other places. Scoops were noticably smaller than other places to me, but my kids didn't seem to pay any attention to that. Each time we've been they have gotten one scoop with a topping. The last two times though my 7-year-old held up her ice cream and showed me how small it was and was super sad. My 13-year-old always gets her scoop in a waffle cone, and the scoop was so far down inside the cone It was comical. It was smaller than our first couple of trips even. I hadn't ordered mine yet so I ordered two scoops so I could share with my kids. We watched as the employee weighed the ice cream scoops and then started taking small amounts out of the two scoops I was given and weighing again. So I guess they're cracking down on over serving, and we should have been getting less in the past. I'm pretty sure my daughter ate her ice cream in less than four bites. I mean honestly, I think I'd rather have the air in my ice cream just so my kids think they're getting more. Not a terrible experience, but just not great. Maybe the employee was new because it also seemed to take a very long time to get three cups/cone of ice cream with a total of four scoops. We will be back though to try again (until my kids revolt) because it's convenient and the employees are...

I recently visited Charlestown Coffee & Cream and overall had a pleasant experience. The shop itself has a nice ambiance, and the flavor selection is impressive. It's clear that a lot of thought and effort has gone into crafting their offerings.

However, I must address a significant issue: the portion sizes of the ice cream are disappointingly small. After ordering what I assumed would be a generously sized cone, I was quite surprised at how little ice cream I received. I’ve read other reviews where the owners push back on this issue, stating that their ice cream is served by weight and not volume, and that the difference is due to the air content in the ice cream.

They mention options like "super premium" and "premium" grades, with super premium being denser. While this explanation might be valid from a technical standpoint, it doesn't change the fact that customers expect a decent-sized serving when they purchase ice cream, especially for the prices charged.

The response from the owners comes across as dismissive rather than understanding or customer-focused. Telling customers to opt for a different type of ice cream or explaining away their concerns does not address the core issue: the perceived value for money. Ice cream is as much about the experience as it is about the quality, and feeling like you’re getting less than expected diminishes that experience significantly.

I hope the owners take this feedback seriously and consider adjusting their portion sizes or at least their approach to addressing customer concerns. It's a great shop with a lot of potential, but this issue is a...

I wish I could give 0 stars. I ordered online, waited 20 mins (the suggested time) and went in to get it. The clerk at the counter said she never saw an order print. She looked it up and found it. She comes back 5 mins later to tell me they were out of something I ordered. I said that was fine, I would just take a refund because I was already late to the event I was going to anyway. I was then informed they were not allowed to give refunds.

I then asked the clerk to call the manager because I wasn't walking out the door without my $30 worth of drinks or a refund. The manager also told they were not allowed to refund people.

Are you kidding me?! You are the ones who didn't have half of my order, as well as not having your ordering system set up correctly.

In the end the manager called someone, the owner I assume, and told me they refunded me online. I have yet to see the refund. If it doesn’t happen I will just report them to Venmo because I never received my product that I ordered.

If you can’t trust your staff to do their job, don’t hire them. If you want to limit what they can do, you need to be there to help in these instances. Putting teenagers in a position to have people get mad at them is poor management and ownership. The poor clerk said that so many people yell at her because of this, so that means it isn’t the first time this has happened. Do better...