Ice Angel — Restaurant in Groton

I'll be frank, I was a little surprised to find an ice cream shop open so early- Much less one that sold boba! I love boba tea.

Seeing that the door was open, I visited around 10:00 this morning. Unfortunately, when I came in, I didn't see anyone.

What I did see were apparently soup bowls, with soup in them, chopsticks included behind the register counter. I saw a home-y kitchen in the back, crowded with many items strewn about. Going back to the soup though- I also saw that much of the supplies for the tea were located, intermixed with the bowls of soup... And saw an unrefrigerated bag of open boba stored in a container that most definitely held a different branded product for something not boba.

I left.

Then came back, because I was super duper curious still. Looking around the shop, the first half is lovely. Stepping in, you look to your right, and find a nice glass display case- Coffee and prepackaged tiramisu cups. Look to your left and you find a lovely reading nook to eat in, with books for children and so on.

Then you hit the latter half of the store. To your right, you spy three large machines, ??? To your left, there is a gelato themed sector- Looking in the cases, you see frozen containers of I hope it's gelato in varying condition. All of them have been ravaged, some spilled into others or stacked haphazardly on top of other gelato. It's messy, and I'm certain very tasty by how nearly all of them were dug into.

Behind the gelato section there, you see gelato toppings/ supplies/ open bags of sprinkles. I noted food on the floor while there, which ay, no biggee- But just something I notice when I first come to a joint, is if it's this early into your opening and the floors/ tables are grimy, I'm gonna wonder what the cleaning protocol looks like backstage.

But, moving on from there, let's look forward now, at the register and menu station located at the back of the shop. Here's the register, and next to it is another ice cream display. This display is kind of messy as well, containers half in and out on each other in some places, and obvious signs of spillage into other flavors.

Like I mentioned earlier on, there's obvious trash/ empty and full soup bowls and chopsticks. Perhaps I intruded on the owner's breakfast, my apologies.

I was... Less than thrilled to see open bottles of syrups at the counter. Then I saw the hershey's syrup, and other toppings, also sitting open. Maybe the owner pre-opens them... They were so warm though, I wonder about the storage. Some syrups must be refrigerated when not in use to prevent spoilage. The brands I saw, are those kinds.

Ignoring those though, I called out a bit louder "good morning, and found an employee was in the very back of the shop, in the part of the kitchen I couldn't see into.

She's extremely sweet, very friendly.

Coming out, she turned off the light to the kitchen and asked my order. I wanted a bubble tea, so I ask for a brown sugar bubble tea.

Going into the now dark kitchen, she pulls out a jug of milk, and moves aside some of the stuff cluttering the counter. She then pours the cup nearly to the brim with whole milk, adds some brown sugar jelly, then brings it over to the table with the SOUP on it.

She then adds the boba from the mystery bag in a different food's container, goes back to the cup that had the milk and sugar, scrapes at it to pour what's left on top of my finished beverage.

It's at this point that I realize no hand washing has occurred, at any point.

I take my drink, pay 7 and a tip, go out, and realize the cup isn't made for it's lid, as milk is seeping out of the cup.

Of course, I drink some. It's a cup of (99%)milk and an air of (1%)brown sugar. Plus a quick blurb of slime from the jelly cubes. The bobas are not a chewy texture, so much as a brief gluey. Had to bin the rest.

Honestly, I bet the ice cream is great. But I'm not going back to risk it. I feel bad leaving a review, but that was the most surprising shop I've been...

I never write bad reviews, but this place deserves one. I walked in and they had two flavors listed on the board for froyo. I asked if those were the only two she had and she said yes. I told her “oh I’m all set” and went to walk out to go to froyo world instead. On the paper menu it said they had vanilla but on the board it didn’t. I told her I just wanted vanilla froyo and she then said they had it. I told her I’d take it then. She proceeded to scoop vanilla ice cream in a blender. I was extremely confused and asked “is that frozen yogurt?” And she said “yes”… she made me a milkshake instead. This whole interaction was very confusing. Don’t...

The hallmark of any icecream is the hot fudge sundae. This place has no hot fudge. They only have Walmart chocolate syrup. Besides that the icecream is Sysco brand...not what you might expect in an specialty icecream shoppe. A small sundae with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and a cherry was $5.00. A bit overpriced for generic icecream and Walmart chocolate syrup.

For the reviewer (and to the shoppe owner too), that complained about a 4% surcharge for credit cards. It is illegal in the state of CT to charge any surcharge for card use. Google that and you will see...