Cold Stone Creamery — Restaurant in Las Vegas

I've had the privilege of experiencing Cold Stone Creamery (CSC) all over the country, dating as far back as 1999 when it opened its first Anchorage, Alaska store. From then, I've had it with my family in Rapid City, South Dakota for several years before the all-popular craze of frozen yogurt came to fruition. But even then, that didn't stop me from enjoying my CSC ice cream because the quality/flavor is unprecedented in my humble opinion. The main reason why my family and I stopped coming to CSC is due to my daughter's peanut allergies - I wasn't comfortable having her ice cream prepared on the same marble slab that just came in contact with peanut butter several seconds/minutes ago. It also became tiresome to constantly ask employees to utilize a different utensil to mix and a totally different marble slab to mix it on, only to get some annoying looks thrown at you.

Fast forward in time, having lived in Las Vegas for 10+ years now, I've ventured to many different dessert shops in the city/valley. It's often difficult to stay committed to just one dessert place when there are so many options available to you. However, I am thankful for places like CSC to remain open so I can get a dose of nostalgia from time to time. Recently, my wife and I decided to visit this CSC store on 18 Feb 2024, and the experience was pretty similar to our previous experiences of this franchise. However, there was one thing that we noticed about this store (or maybe it's the entire franchise), and that's the change in operations with their "tip jar." Before, the employees would sing a short jingle whenever you tip them, but it appears they stopped that entirely...unless the workers in the store I visited don't care? I'd like to think it's the first reason.

We've had so many different flavors at CSC in the past, but during our recent visit we ordered the Coffee Lovers Only and Cookie Mintster Signature Creations. In short, the flavors were so amazing and it was mixed/prepared very well. The employees on shift weren't the typical "happy and bubbly" personalities I'm used to seeing with this franchise, but then, I kind of have sympathy because we arrived close to the end of business hours. I will say that I think I'm either getting too old or parents just aren't raising their children the same anymore because it's rare that kids/teenagers use manners in our everyday lives (I'll even go on saying that adults are guilty of this as well). The female employee cleaning the tables and stacking chairs while we were in there just couldn't say things like, "Excuse me," when trying to work around us. Or saying, "Thank you," when we moved away from the area she was cleaning. I know for a fact that my daughter does not operate this way, so I don't get it. Maybe it's just a Vegas thing because I've noticed that with a lot of people in this city, ever since I moved here - but I digress.

Overall, this place is still great. I don't anticipate visiting this store again anytime soon because I'm trying to maintain a healthier lifestyle. But, I will recommend this place to everyone because regardless of my life's choices, this place still serves outstanding ice cream. The prices were a shock to me at first but I got used to it after a while based on the understanding of their quality ingredients and quantity of ingredients especially in the Signature Creations. Finally, I respect how this franchise supports the active men and women of the Armed Forces to include its Veterans - thank...

I was torn between giving it two or three stars. The issue? Lack of education for their employees. I have Celiac Disease and cannot tolerate gluten. Most ice cream places I've been to do not have a problem with this. They have plenty of information posted or can easily access it, if they are not fully educated on it.

My visit to Cold Stone was embarrassing, frustrating, and left me feeling awful. First, they had no nutritional information available on their products even though there is a sign that says "Please alert us to any allergies. Nutritional information will be provided upon request." I requested it and was told that they didn't have any. Then, when I asked if they knew if there was gluten present in any of the ice cream, they looked at me like I had a second head. After accessing the information online to try and figure things out, I was told that I would have to go to the back of the line (10 people deep) because they had already moved on. When I finally did make it to the front of the line, I asked that the ice cream be prepared in a place that was clean and free from recent contamination. The guy rolled his eyes and said he'd put paper down for me. I felt this was a decent solution, but when I said thank you and offered up a high five for innovation, the guy rolled his eyes again and told me he wasn't going to celebrate with me because "you just asked me to prepare this crazy and you want a high five?!?" I stood there and allowed all of this to happen without saying anything.

I don't think I'll ever go back to this specific store. The employees are not aware of serious allergens or how to treat those who need certain cross contamination methods adhered to. I was treated like a nuisance rather than a customer. I was made to feel like I was the problem.

Please, educate your staff.

Though having Celiac Disease is not common, I should be treated the same as if I had a peanut, soy, or any other kind of serious allergy. I may not go into anaphylactic shock from the contamination, but I still get sick and it is a real thing.

Treat your customers with more...

Four of us went in on Friday, April 22nd, sometime between 9-10pm. As soon as we entered, there was a faint cloud of smoke inside the store. We went to order, the only ones in the store, there were about 6/7 workers who were milling about grabbing ice cream here and there, but not doing anything. It took them 10 minutes to even ask us our orders, even with us being the only ones in the store. There could not have been that many online orders for them to ignore us that long. We did have one worker apologize for the wait. After we all ordered, my friend tasted his pineapple shake. He said it didn't taste like pineapple, so he went to the cash register to see what had happened. The guy who made his drink said "oh my bad, I used rotten pineapples to make it" WHAT THE HECK??? So you weren't going to say anything and let my friend be sick from this?? My boyfriend ordered a peeps shake - when he was almost done with it, he told me that it tasted ok but he wished that they had put a little peeps marshmallow on top of it...... isn't that supposed to already come with it? Another mistake by the team. It seems that out of all of our orders, I had the only one I enjoyed, and it was made by the guy who apologized to us that night, the one who REMADE my friend's pineapple shake, and the one who at the end of night apologized again and said goodnight to us. He was the only competent worker that night, the only one not high, so shoutout to him. Otherwise, the rest of the workers were BAKED out of their minds, so high we could see the cloud of their smoke, and they didn't seem to have a clue as to what...