Creamistry — Restaurant in Gilbert

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME. Worst experience I’ve ever had at an ice cream shop. I rarely leave bad reviews but this was awful.

We tried to come here last Saturday, but they were closed. There was a sign on the door that apologized for being closed, and said if you returned the following week and mentioned said sign, you would get 20% off your next order. Awesome. So we drove back today, one week later. We live about 25 minutes away but we made the trip because we were excited to try this place out, and hey, who’s going to pass up 20% off?

So we showed up today, about 3 people ahead of us but they weren’t too busy. We asked the girl working the register if the NitroFloat was coffee or root beer, because it was next to the affagato (espresso & ice cream). She said the float was also coffee based. She even suggested caramel or chocolate topping to go with it. We ended up just ordering vanilla ice cream to go in it. Then, when we inquired about the 20% discount, she said she had no idea what that was about. She brought over another coworker and he also said he didn’t know. So we ended up with no discount. Disappointing, but oh well.

Then, we had to wait 30 MINUTES. Are you kidding me? 30 minutes for a stupid float and only 3 customers in front of us?? Pathetic. We watched them make tons of orders, none of which were ours. I finally saw one that looked like plain vanilla ice cream, so I told my husband that was probably his. We proceeded to watch the employee make a vanilla shake. Yes, a milkshake. He poured it into the cup and stared at the order form for about 30 seconds before calling over another employee and they were clearly discussing that the order was incorrect. Instead of remaking our order, the guy dumped out half of the milkshake and poured root beer on top. ROOT BEER. What????

He handed my husband the soupy mess. My husband asked him if this was how it was supposed to come out and the guy said yes. Not only was it not coffee based, but it wasn’t solid ice cream with root beer. It was messy, sloppy vanilla slush with a little root beer on top. Thank God we didn’t take the cashiers advice to do chocolate or caramel ice cream, because that would have been absolutely disgusting.

We were so irritate we didn’t bother sticking around for them to fix it. My husband took two bites and threw it in the trash. What a waste of $8. We will never come back...

The ice cream and treats here are excellent. Maybe a bit pricey, but I'm ok with that. My philosophy is that if you have a problem with the price, don't buy it.

However, there are a couple things which detract from the overall experience. First, the appears to be primarily high school age kids. This itself is not a problem, but some of them need a bit more training/coaching on customer service. There wasn't any bad customer service, but it wasn't great, particularly with order-taking. They're clearly taught to follow the script on the computer in front of them, with no room to think for themselves or think outside the box. (You don't need to interrupt me to ask at the beginning if I want whipped cream. I'll tell you. Just listen to me first, and then ask questions to fill in anything I miss. If the ordering system requires them to establish a desire for whipped cream at the beginning, then the system needs to be changed. Whipped cream goes on last, and is the last item listed on the menu. I should be able to tell you at the end whether or not I want whipped cream.)

The next issue is the customer flow. Get more than one or two people in line, and the place is a chaotic mess. People waiting for their orders blocking the doors, people in line blocking the walkway because for some reason they're afraid to stand near the ice cream stations (more than adequately protected by a wall of plexiglass), you get the idea. It's made worse by the many rude, drunk customers coming in from the ridiculously loud bar down the street. This isn't the fault of Creamistry, but the staff probably needs more training or a better system for customer flow and crowd control. We shouldn't have to leave early with our half-eaten ice cream because the people in line can't stop bumping into our baby.

Bottom line, check this place out, but not on a...

Great ice cream, but- wow, the store itself is pretty bad.

First off- noisy. Very small, and with stark walls, all the noise is amplified. Cleaning the stainless steel beaters of ice cream by whacking them on the steel bowls is almost painfully loud, even when seated 15 feet away. The tile floors, coupled with tubular metal steel chairs with steel feet, is like fingernails on the chalkboard every time a chair is moved.

The location is small; I get that- they are there to serve ice cream. Seating is an expense, not a money-maker. Every ice cream and gelato parlor seems to dedicate disproportionate floor space to freezers and servers, versus customer seating. But this site is tightly packed.

Service is slow. It's custom-made, so I understand. But when the line is out the door and only one or two of the four mixers are in use, I absentmindedly wonder why the others are there.

The ice cream, while expensive, is quite good- texture is very fine, flavors are excellent. Serving sizes are decidedly un-American, i.e.: smaller than anticipated, which is fine in terms of moderating my caloric intake. The prices should reflect this.

Petersen's across the street is more reasonable and very good, and McMahon's on Warner is excellent and deserves more attention. TasteBuds Yogurt is further south and has some wonderful selections of...