The Yard Milkshake Bar — Restaurant in Gulf Shores

It’s a novelty ice cream and shake store. It’s for the experience, the selection, and the beautiful, amazing appearance of the products. It’s fun—but that’s the main appeal of this place. Be prepared to wait in line, which made sense to me—no problem there.

The real issue is that for the price, the service and quality of the product (other than appearance) are not up to par. Those who work there don’t seem to have the best attitudes toward customer service. Some seem unwilling to respond verbally when they’re talked to. There also seem to be too many errors in taking orders or preparing the product. I ordered a sundae and got a milk shake, for example. I also had large pieces of solid ice throughout my milkshake that I didn’t order that I kept biting into. They also didn’t claim to have 2 of the toppings that were on their menu that I planned to get—not that they were out but that it was actually something else. The hot fudge is actually just cold chocolate syrup and the dark chocolate shaving might be dark or milk; they don’t know. Others in our group also received things they didn’t order such as M&Ms and large chunks of ice. Additionally, the quality of the ingredients is just average. The brownie was fine but a bit old and hard.

It’s a fun concept with cool-looking products. Great for posting a picture and creating a fun conversation. The mason jars are a nice touch as a souvenir. However, their excellence and quality in service and product need to be improved for the $14 price per mason jar that...

My main complaints with this place were sanitation and speed of service.

We came in around 6:00pm and there were two people in line that were ordering in front of us as well as one other customer who had already ordered and was waiting for their dessert. There were at least eight employees behind the counter and it took 16 minutes for us to get a pint-sized shake.

The other complaint that I have is the fact that one of these employees working was apparently too cool to wear a mask while preparing uncooked foods for customers in the midst of a pandemic. Yet, he was allowed to coat the outsides of the serving jars with chocolate while wearing his Gator around his neck, with mouth and nose uncovered. No supervisor told him to mask up as far as I could see, yet every other employee had their mask worn appropriately.

Admittedly, I don't know what the laws in AL are for restaurants, but I would think that it would be top priority for a manager/owner of an ice cream shop that likely often caters to out-of-state customers to make sure their employees mask up. Especially if they are handling product that will go directly to the customers without at least first being cooked during this covid-19 pandemic.

As far as the shake, it was pretty good. I decided to take my chances since I paid a fairly-high-yet-anticipated price for a dessert in a vacation town. I just hope I don't come down with the bug.

Recommendation: Avoid this place if you value your time or have any concern...

Would give zero stars if possible. Disappointed to say the least. We didn’t mind the 2 hour wait but what was upsetting was the fact that they had a sign at the register before ordering to notify the cashier of any allergies. Thinking that this would make sure the employees were cautious with your order to not contaminate I did as the sign instructed. Instead they shoved a waiver at me and told me to sign without disclosing the details. Just by a quick overview I saw that it was a liability form that they were not responsible for any allergic reaction caused from cross contamination. While this was understandable coming from someone with a severe allergy I wish they had posted a disclaimer on their website before waiting in line all that time to order. As the other members of my party waited for their orders to be filled we began to notice the employees behind the counter talking and arguing. There also wasn’t an employee seemingly over the age of about 25 and the whole establishment is poorly managed. While gloves were worn while scooping ice cream we never saw the employees change them or wash their hands even after touching their clothing, counter, or other surfaces. We also witnessed a couple employees hold scoops of ice cream in their gloved hands while transferring...