Fentons Creamery — Restaurant in Oakland

Fentons, the famous ice cream parlor and restaurant, is featured in the Pixar movie “Up”. It is a real place near Pixar Studios in the Piedmont area of Oakland that first opened in the 1880s! If you haven’t seen the movie “Up” I highly recommend it. It’s one of the few movies that makes you cry within the first 10 minutes - but also comical enough to entertain children and thought provoking enough for adults. Up is about releasing a dream and realizing the real dream is the one happening right in front of you. The little boy in the movie missed the “boring moments” with his absentee father. Eating ice cream on the curb from Fentons, counting passing cars with his dad inspired our visit. The real Fentons glorifies the past. They must have survived due to the huge portions. Their ice creams are honestly meals within themselves. Amazed to see Customers ordering full diner style meals and then the huge dessert…The place was full and the service was friendly. It felt like a serious celebration birthday meal place for comfort food. I think the petite size sundae is like a regular ice cream size. The Swiss chocolate was good but just a few teaspoons was enough for me. It is super creamy, very fresh and you can see people making tubs of ice cream in their “factory” through class windows. They smiled and waved hi to us. It’s hard to be unfriendly with tubs of fudge all around you. People were overall happy with their towers of ice cream…staff was a bit stressed but overall it was a good atmosphere…I got a Roobois tea and felt full just looking at the food. Seems like they also support and help the Oakland firefighters...

Disappointed and Deeply Concerned About Allergen Safety at Fentons Oakland

My 16 year old son recently had a frightening allergic reaction at Fentons after ordering the “Cookie Connection.” We specifically checked the menu for allergen information and found nothing listed. Trusting that, we ordered it. After only a few bites, Micah started reacting—his face swelled to almost twice the size, his eyes were bloodshot, and he ended up vomiting it out in the bathroom.

The waiter admitted the dessert contained macadamia nuts and said it was in the recipe, which was not disclosed on the menu. I ran to my car to get Benadryl and returned to find my son vomiting it out in the bathroom.

When I called for a manager to explain what occurred, a man appeared—who looked less like a manager and more like back kitchen staff. He offered a weak, non-empathetic apology that was quick and cold, simply saying, "sorry about that" and walking away. That’s it! Meanwhile, my son almost died!

They did remove the original item (“Cookie Connection”) from the bill—but still charged us $20 for the replacement, which was just two plain scoops of ice cream that my son was not able to fully eat. He had only wanted to enjoy something sweet, a treat from a generous adult who was blessing him for completing an achievement.

So in the end, we paid for overpriced ice cream and walked away with a traumatic experience and a halfway apology. If you or your family have food allergies, beware—this place does not take them seriously.

We are in 2025, c'mon, how do you not have allergy info printed on your menus!?!...

vedea the server was extremely rude We had a party of 15. My sister in law asked for more spoons, Vedea's response, "you have enough spoons" My brother asked what she recommends as a popular ice cream for his small child. Please see picture below. Clearly wanted to bring her automatic tip up. Was her suggestion a joke for a 5 year old? So sad. My other brother asked for extra napkins for the table, she bought one napkin over We had to signal her down to pay the tab plenty of times. When she she kept ignoring us despite looking right over, we went to the register. The register said we had to wait for her. So we sat another 10 minutes until finally another kind sever came over after I told her we needed help. Vedea came over all of a sudden whispered in the servers ear and rolled her eyes towards us. The other sever was clearly uncomfortable but just smiled at vedea.

When I finally got fed up and complained to the manager, Vedea came very close to me passing by and staring at as if to try to intimidate me. The Managers response was inadequate, and no corrective action was conveyed.

The managers response to all of this was oh I'm sorry.

We went here to celebrate a religious holiday today and all of us siblings live quite a distance away from Oakland, over an hour and a half in traffic, to be treated this way by this server was so disappointing. She represent their company and their reputation and gosh is she a poor...