Handel's Homemade Ice Cream — Restaurant in McCandless

I absolutely love Handel’s and wish we still had one in the South Hills. Fortunately, this McCandless Crossing location is not too far and is so worth the trip. Do I regularly bring a little ice cream cooler packed with ice to make sure I get a couple pints home safely? You bet I do.

Handel’s ice cream is so decadent and well-made. It has just the right texture, creaminess and add-ins. They also have such an incredible variety of flavors that it is nearly impossible to choose. Fortunately, on my last visit I discovered the four-scoop sampler for just about $6.50, which is an incredible deal. I had already eaten a two-scoop cone so asked if it could be packaged to go, but this is going to be my go-to order here in the future. With a constantly rotating selection of seasonal flavors, I want to try as many things as possible each time I visit, and this also makes it easier to figure out what you might want more of for later, so you can choose any take-home pints wisely! Their prices overall are so affordable here. We got a two-scoop waffle cone, a banana split, the four-scoop sampler, two small vanilla scoops and two pints all for under $40.

This is a popular spot that often has a line, but the friendly staff works efficiently and keeps it moving. It has a nice amount of seating outdoors, with one table with an umbrella and eight or so good-sized benches. Lots of folks bring their pups and I did on this visit, too. Mine are sometimes too nervous to eat their ice cream until they get home but could not resist the vanilla here.

I don’t know that I’ve ever had a miss on a flavor here. My recs from this visit: Spouse Like a House (think Chubby Hubby but better), dark and decadent Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, and the summery, seasonal Peach...

Really good ice cream! This brand offers a solid variety of flavors. Not many were too unique, but they were still very good. I decided to try a few of their flavors, and the 4 scoop sampler is perfect for that. I got the salty caramel truffle, buckeye, coffee chocolate chip, and chocolate peanut butter brownie.

I’ll start with the one I found least interesting: the salty caramel truffle. I didn’t find any chocolate truffles or anything like that. Just regular caramel ice cream. Not bad, but kind of disappointing. Decently sweet. Also, the slabs of caramel weren’t that thick.

Next, the coffee. This was pretty good. It had a nice balance of sweetness and slight bitterness from the coffee. Decent amount of little chocolate chip pieces sprinkled throughout. Good.

The buckeye was unique and tasty! The ice cream itself was reasonably sweet without being too overpowering. There were large chunks of buckeye, which were the real highlights.

Finally, the peanut butter chocolate brownie. I didn’t find the peanut butter flavor that strong, but it was still really good. Real pieces of brownie, it seems. Mostly chocolate flavor.

All in all, definitely a nice ice cream spot. I was fond of most of the flavors, with the buckeye and peanut butter chocolate brownie being...

I tried to get a monster milkshake before the rain hit and the person took 15 minutes making it (I was the only one there with one other guy behind me) and didn’t even make it right so he filled half of the cup with milk then handed it to me with a lid that wasn’t even on and it went flying due to the rain and high winds. So I go into my car and the whole milkshake (if you even want to call it that because it’s all milk) falls right on the car floor. Even tipped the kid too and instead of putting it in the communal tip jar I saw him pocket it himself. Would have asked for a refund but due to the rain it wasn’t even worth it. I feel bad for the guy standing out waiting in the rain for the 15 minutes it took to make my milkshake while the other girl working just stood there ignoring everyone which made him...