The Bent Spoon — Restaurant in Princeton

I have been going to The Bent Spoon since the day they opened. But sadly, they no longer behave like a local ice cream shop that treats you like a neighbor. I'm cool with the crowds, but today was a step too far. We stopped in with our 10, 8 & 3 year old. The five of us all like different flavors of ice cream, which isn't uncommon I imagine.

But check this out...when I ordered 1 scoop of vanilla for our 3 year old, I was told they only serve 2 scoops per order. OK, we can figure this out, no prob. So I rationally asked if they could put one vanilla scoop for our 3-year old into one cup and put the chocolate scoop for our 10-year old in a different cup. Voila, they get the ice creams they want, and we pay for the full 2 scoops.

(you may wonder, wait, why can't they just share from the same cup? Because they stack the scoops on top of each other, they aren't served side by side)

The answer was "that's not our policy." So I asked for the manager. Surely, this can't be the case. We want 6 different scoops of ice cream, so surely they can't expect us to order 12 scoops (2 scoops of each flavor)? But the manager confirmed "sorry, it's our policy to not split scoops into different cups."

So it was our son's 8th birthday today. They knew that. He chose to go there. Not even that mattered to them, no exceptions are to be made. Either order double the ice cream that you want, or we can't help you.

So we exited, I explained the situation to my son. He said "so they want Luna (his 3-year old sister) to eat two scoops of vanilla even though she only eats one?" Yes. "That's ridiculous!" he said. Even an 8 year old can see that.

So off to one of the other local ice cream shops we went (there are many), where the shop employees were genuinely happy to celebrate our son's birthday, and to hand each of our children one scoop of their favorite flavor ice creams.

UPDATE, PER THE OWNER'S RESPONSE: As a fellow business owner, I always appreciate when an owner takes the time to respond. So in response to him/her:

You need to talk to your employees and manager, as they are not implementing your policy. I can 100% assure you that our request to have our order split into 2 cups, was DENIED. And given the situation, it was ridiculous. Thank you for clarifying your policy. Once your staff are implementing your stated policy, please update your response so we can inform our friends (we run a homeschooling group) and they can make sure it has been put into action. If that's indeed the case, we will return ourselves, and I will update my review...

Growing up in the Princeton area, The Bent Spoon was always the ultimate hangout spot and lavender mascarpone was synonymous with what the "cool" people were having. As someone who loves trying unique, unusual, and innovative flavor combinations, I never got the hype around Bent Spoon ice cream.

To be fair, I think I've tried really hard to like it. I have had several of their celebrated flavors like blood orange and earl grey. I have also stood in long lines without complaint at this place, even on a bone-chilling February day, so that out-of-town friends could try this local favorite. Each time, I was hopeful that maybe this time I'd finally be wowed.

My latest visit was during covid times, when you can order a pint online and pick it up by their back door. It had been a few years since I was last here, so I thought this was a good way to give it one more go without the lines. I picked a half-pint of Chocolate Cardamom Orange and another of Pink Rose. After trying them, I officially give up.

First of all, I firmly believe that ice cream should be creamy. And creamy does not have to mean sickeningly heavy and/or loaded with artificial junk to give it texture. Light and refreshing scoops made with good quality ingredients can be creamy too! At Bent Spoon, the ice cream is quite icy, which is just so frustratingly unsatisfying.

Let me address the flavors I most recently tried. The Chocolate Cardamom Orange was quite okay. The chocolate flavor was robust and the citrus flavor from the orange was fresh and worked well with the chocolate. However, I could not taste cardamom in there anywhere; neither could any of my family. Which was too bad, since chocolate + orange, while a solid combo, isn't new or exciting. Pink Rose was a major disappointment. The rose flavor was overly sweet and tasted completely artificial. Also, there was no interesting flavor pairing with the rose; I kept hoping to taste a hint of salt or spice or nuts, but there was nothing. Very one-dimensional, and not what you would expect from a place known for creativity.

Overall, their ice cream sounds very appealing but their execution leaves a lot to be desired. But it's not all bad news. At least they're inspiring people to be more adventurous in their ice...

The Bent Spoon, based on the name alone one would believe they would be known for soup but in all honesty, their best selling products seem to be their raw cookie doughs which are delicious without being overly sweet.

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On my first visit I tried the Guinness Braised Beef Dip with a Side of Macaroni & Cheese Soup. The sandwich was delicious, you could actually taste the beef and cheese and the bread really tied it together because it was still soft on the inside but nice and crusty on the outside. Personally I did not enjoy the Mac & Cheese soup as much as I could have with a few tweaks, the soup itself is okay, I could make better and have made better the problem is that the way they serve it without a garnish of a sharper cheese or even mixing in more sharper cheese makes it taste a little bland but it was great for dipping my sandwich in. :) The price for the sandwich and soup was great $11ish for the both which compared to many places in Burlington is very reasonable, I will definitely come back to have lunch here again.

I ended up trying their Peanut Cluster Raw Cookie Dough in a Waffle Cone, this tasted really good, I kept eating it and my brain was thinking it should be cold but it wasn't so I think next time I would prefer it as a sundae however it left me wanting to try the other flavors which is a good thing for business. I'm not a huge fan of sweets due to working in a bakery and testing products a lot.

One of the owners is a previous teacher of mine, he is partially responsible for why I got into cooking and changed my life in the...