Pincho Loco Ice Cream — Restaurant in Durham

best value, experience, and arguably product of all the ice cream shops in Durham.

ice cream preferences are clearly a personal thing, but I would put Pincho Loco on par with any super-premium manufacturer in terms of quality.

I really like the flavors that they tend to make, as well as the pretty broad variety of other desert offerings available (banana pudding, churros, Popsicles, shakes, etc)

I also like supporting local small businesses, and this one is a no-brainer. they make their own ice cream and deserts (except for the Popsicles, which are from locopops, another local small business), they are extremely friendly and conscientious, and I always leave feeling like I got a great bang-for-the buck.

sure, Jenny's Ice-cream is delicious and might have more avant-garde flavors, but this is a local family business.

Parlor is another great spot, but is notably more expensive.

Pincho Loco is, in my opinion, always worth a stop if you are in the mood...

I believe in giving an honest review (good or bad). Unfortunately, this is not going to be a good review. We went here about a week ago and had the churo sundae. Two big problems.

First, the churos are supposed to be light and crunchy. The churos in this sundae were neither. They were VERY chewy instead (almost to the point of being inedible).

Second, the ice cream didn't seem like ice cream. It didn't have the consistency of normal ice cream in that it was very "sticky". The small plastic spoon the provided made it very difficult scooping out the ice cream (they should provide the small, flat wooden "spoons" instead). We ate maybe two bites and threw the rest away. All-in-all a very disappointing experience.

• Dropping to one star. I don't appreciate businesses that don't reply to negative reviews. At least admit you have a problem and say you're working to correct it. Ignoring the problem doesn't...

The ice cream was delicious! (Especially the cookies & cream, which I tried). I can confirm that there are dairy-free options as well, which is awesome. This ice cream store had a lot of really cool flavors in general, like a spicy mango popsicle.

Also, the staff member behind the cash register was genuinely kind. I say "genuinely" because, while the torrential rain fell hard outside, I noticed that the only other customer had their dog tied just outside the window, and that poor, shaky dog was getting absolutely drenched! The staff member then said to that customer: "It's okay. You can bring the dog inside." The dog then looked much happier as it wagged its tail next to its owner inside. As the only other customer, I didn't mind. After all, babies and dogs are the best judges of character, methinks.

Definitely coming back again in the...