Our Founding Farmers Ice Cream Shop — Restaurant in Hawaii

What a horrible, bizarre visit to this ice cream shop! The man behind the counter (owner) welcomed us and quickly gave us samples to try. He immediately asked if we had any allergies, which was great. It turned sour quickly when I told him 2 of us were gluten free (celiac). He jokingly said that was the only allergy they don't take seriously. Weird, but we moved on. I asked if the sample was gluten free, and he said all flavors were GF except 4, but he didn't mention which 4. We tried a few samples, confirming GF each time, and he got irritated. Then I asked to try fig nut. While he handed it to me, I asked if it was GF, and he said no. Yet he was going to hand it to me and didn't want me to keep asking about GF. Then he rudely told me that if I'm really GF I should be able to tell which flavors are GF. Apparently I should have known it's made of Grape Nuts cereal, not actual nuts. There's no way I could have guessed that. Then he got loud and said no more samples. Told me I don't understand GF, yelled and swore at me. I was shocked. No idea what set him off. So I walked out. My family didn't hear him swear and continued their samples cautiously due to his elevated state. When my husband realized what happened, he told the man he had no right to be so rude to me for protecting my health and our daughter's. But then the man got more elevated at my husband, and I went back inside. He resumed yelling at me, said my family was used to my gluten charade (huh?), told me I had gluten privilege (what?), and would have kept going had I not cut him off. He clearly doesn't understand celiac and how careful we have to be to even try a sample, yet he told me I didn't understand how gluten free works. His absurd behavior was shocking, unprofessional, mean, harassing, and completely uncalled for. No spirit of aloha there. Based on this horrible experience and other reviews we read after leaving the shop, I don't even know how he is still in business. Do yourself a favor and pass this place. It's truly not worth the hassle. Still want ice cream anyway? We all agreed that it wasn't...

Just came in today 6/5/2025 to get some ice cream. Heard it was delicious. Waited for over 15-20 minutes for someone to show up. No one was there. Even asked the yoga instructor next door and they said someone should be there. I had to go to the bathroom and saw that it was open. After I came out a man appeared and was grunting and groaning. Was not sure what was going on. I asked about the ice cream and he was very short and said very snippy that these are the flavors. I told what I would like and he said it would be $7 and $14 cuz I used the bathroom and wasn’t a customer. He kept ranting about us not being customers and I told him we came in to buy ice cream. He went on in his rant about how rude we are. I have never been waited on by anyone soooooo disrespectful and unkind. I was treating him respectfully even though he was being completely rude to us from the minute he came in from the back. It was unfortunate because I was really looking forward to the ice cream that I heard was amazing. We come to Kona over eight times a year and am very thankful that we have not experienced this disrespect. I hope the employee will be asked to change his attitude towards buying customers. If he was the owner I hope that he was having a bad day cuz that is not a way to live your life being so mean to customers that come in to...

This is quite possibly the best ice cream I have ever had anywhere. The flavors are delicious and authentic, without being overly sweet. We spoke to the owner and it is clear that he is passionate about his craft, and takes pride in perfecting each flavor.

We tried several including Cinnamon Toast Crunch, M&Ms, Pistachio, Papaya, Lemon, and Lilikoi..... CTC actually tasted like a bowl of the cereal from when I was a kid.

M&Ms was not just the candy thrown into vanilla ice cream, but rather sort of blended in and he uses peanut M&Ms, which made it even better.

Pistachio was just phenomenal. If I could only have one, this would be it.

Papaya tasted just like a ripe island papaya.

Lemon... Ok I would never pick lemon on my own, but he said I needed to have a sample and everything else was so good that I decided to take his advice. It was way better than I ever would have thought. There is actually lemon zest in there, but it's still creamy like ice cream should be. I definitely want to go back for that one.

Lilikoi... Yeah, it's good.

We definitely want to come back one more time before we leave the island to head home. I highly recommend this place. And the little town it's in...