Saffron & Rose Persian Ice Cream — Restaurant in Irvine

I am not from California and heard about this ice cream shop through my family that I came to visit in Orange County from Out of state. I had one of the worst experiences in customer service. I myself am a small business owner with multi site locations. If anyone wants to learn how not to treat your potential customers then you should visit the Saffron and Rose in Irvine CA. I visited that location with my 83 year old mother and sister who live in OC who recommended the place, with my wife and infant child in tow. We drove from Laguna Beach and passed up multiple ice cream shops to visit this place. When we walked into the store my sister asked the employee (older Persian fella with a pony tail) that we needed to use the restroom but we will be purchasing Persian ice cream. He asked us who wanted to use the restroom and we told him it was our elderly mother with the cane standing in front of him. He proceeded to look confused and hesitant and confusingly replied that she could but, they don’t have a restroom and that it was out of order. I was confused by his reply. Then he said it was for employees only. We wanted a more concise and coherent answer as my mother couldn’t just stand there while he was like a deer looking at headlights. He told us to go use Hen House restaurant across from them. Then a very skinny female employee came out rudely telling us restrooms were for employees only and they didn’t have to provide one for us. She continued to tell us “no point in arguing because it’s company policy and the owner doesn’t want anyone to use it”. She also told us to use Hen House as well because people leave their restrooms dirty with tampons and dirty diapers. We simply asked if it was city code that they had to provide a restroom to their customers and they simply replied it’s their policy. Apparently they just post a hand written sign “out of order” without a sign stating “Employees Only”. After talking to friends and relatives this is common practice for them. I didn’t even get to taste their ice cream but I’m sure no amount of ice cream could get that nasty taste out of my mouth. I would never recommend this place. Props to Hen House for allowing us to use their restrooms. Please send your employees to Hen House for customer...

I want to reply to owner of this place ! Do you pay your staff ? If not you should reconsider paying them instead of making them asking for tips from customers . I’ve been in many places for ice cream in LA ,and Laguna beach but none of them ask for tip for scooping ice cream. In this place the staff want tip from customers for selling their product to them .We tipped the Persian girl who asked us to answer questions which was regarding percentage of tip but it was so cheap and unprofessional to ask for tips just for selling and scooping ice cream . Indeed we were not satisfied with her service but since she asked us we tipped her . It was almost the end of saffron ice cream and we asked her to give us from the new container from inside the fridge but she told us inside is frozen and she can not scoop . She could hardly scoop from the empty container when she was giving one to my brother and gave him a very small portion then she brought the new one from the fridge to give us 2 more and it was not frozen at all .She scooped very easily from the container and the portion she gave us was double the portion she gave to my brother.Interestingly she asked for tips from my brother although she gave him a very small portion from empty container.They should learn to respect customer requests and be honest with them . It’s from customers that they’re...

We had a very disappointing experience at the ice cream shop in Irvine. The ice cream tasted weird and off. We tried four different flavors: taro, green tea, Persian faloudeh, and Nutella banana. Unfortunately, all of them seemed like they had been kept in the freezer for a very long time. The texture was icy, and the taste was stale and unpleasant. It was clear that the ice cream was not fresh.

We had high hopes for this shop, especially with such interesting flavors, but the quality was severely lacking. The taro and green tea flavors were especially disappointing, lacking the richness and creaminess you'd expect. The Persian faloudeh and Nutella banana were equally bad, with an odd aftertaste that made it hard to enjoy.

The only positive aspect was the customer service, which was good. The staff was friendly and helpful, but unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to make up for the poor quality of the ice cream. We won’t be returning and cannot recommend this...