Curl de la Crème - Ice Cream — Restaurant in Pigeon Forge

Okay hear me out, as I try not to complain much…but okay. The ice cream being rolled in front of you is awesome. I’ve seen this at other places, too, and it’s always entertaining. However—we went in there and gave an incredibly simple order for the three people in our party. Vanilla, vanilla with Oreos, and black cherry. That was it—no mix-ins or anything complex. My boys have very simple names so I didn’t spell them out, but were apparently spelled so badly on the cups that it caused a huge confusion. The cup moves through a whole assembly line of people, so the people at the end didn’t have the right cup for my son. Mix-ups do happen, I understand. But they tried to force us to take this melting fruity pebble one that none of us wanted. The flavor my son did want was plain vanilla but the vanilla one they made said “Cam” on the cup instead of my son’s name. There were no Cams in the store so..they clearly just spelt his name wrong (at least that’s my thought). We were made to feel like this mix-up was somehow our fault when we have no idea what happened. We thought they were mixing our ice cream right in front of us but it turned out to then be someone else’s with a similar name. Anyway, I felt this problem could’ve been handled a lot better. We had to sit and wait all over again while they made my son a new one. They didn’t allow us to keep the one they mixed up, like most businesses would do, or offer us a refund for having us wait for another line of orders to go through before they remade it. Am I glad they did remake it? Yes. But I left with an actual headache..and when you pay $40 for three cups of ice cream, you expect a lot...

This review was a tough one for me. First of all, I love this concept. It's very fun to construct your own ice cream concoction with your favorite toppings and watch it be rolled in front of you. Secondly, it's clear upon entering the business is locally owned and family run... which is amazing in the giant tourist trap that Pigeon Forge can be.

Now let's to the reason behind my 3/5 review: Two words: The Price. Your base cup of rolled ice cream, with one mix in and 3 toppings will run you $11.00. Additional mix ins, waffle bowls, waffle taco shells, donuts are all extra ... and reasonably so. I had ordered vanilla ice cream, with peanut butter mix in, marshmallow crème topping and whipped cream. My husband got a waffle bowl with vanilla, pecan pie mix in, and Twix, sprinkles and whipped cream. We spent $32. I'm sorry at the end of the day, it's ice cream. Was it good? Yeah. Was it $32 good? No. Pricing really feels like tourist baiting. The prices are high because they can set them high and tourists will pay. I can fully understand needing enough profit to make rent and cover expenses, but one can literally get ice cream in over a dozen different areas in a couple mile radius and it will not cost that much. I simply do not feel this place sets itself apart enough to justify...

Update: Came back a year later. I was disappointed that when I asked for salted caramel in my ice cream, they added the liquid coffee flavoring instead of actual salted caramel. Also, the staff, you could tell they were only there for the paycheck. Not a smile from one person the entire time (there was 6 of us, and several other customers). The guy taking the order was just very matter of fact, all serious business, you ask a question, and he responds with, if it's not on the board, we don't have it, or our options are on the board....not friendly at ALL. the ladies making the ice cream....though not as unfriendly, they just focused on their job at hand then walked down to the extra topping section and waited for you to reply...they didn't even ask which toppings you'd like (I'd you want any)....this visit was not like our first with the friendly staff...and last time they used the actual caramel, not the liquid flavoring (ick).

Our First visit: This ice cream is AMAZING.... If you didn't like it, it's your own fault... Pick a better mix-in...