Cold Stone Creamery — Restaurant in Rochester

Albert Lea no longer has a Cold Stone, so while in Rochester, we really looked forward to getting some ice cream. However, we had the worst experience we've ever had, all for some mediocre ice cream. We waited almost an hour, and in that time watched 6 people walk out. It would've been 8 if we had followed suit, like we should have done. There was only one guy working during half of our wait, the place was filthy; there were waffle cone remains strewed about the floor, nearly every tabletop was dirty, and unkempt. The garbage was heaped, and overflowing to the point it was in the window sill behind it, and on the floor. The worker's friends were in line ahead of us; at one point one of the kids offered to "help", so he went behind the counter and started fiddling around with the ice cream. Then, employees started clocking in, so the kid rejoined his friends in line. The extra staff did not move the line much faster, unfortunately. When it was finally our turn, the strawberries were gone, so the worker wandered around aimlessly and returned with rock hard frozen strawberries, which he attempted to fold into my ice cream. Spoiler alert, it was unsuccessful, to top it off. In conclusion, we will NOT be returning. If this is how this place is ran, I don't foresee it staying open...

The owner of this place should be ashamed of themselves. We came in Friday evening about 5:30 pm with two customers in line in front of us, and it took more than 30 minutes to get our ice cream. They had one poor guy running the store all by himself, and he desperately needed some help. The cash register was having technical issues, and he was spending more time on the phone with tech support than he was serving customers. Totally not his fault, though, what could he do? The owner and/or manager, however, needs to either hire more people or get in the store and lend a hand. The poor kid didn't have time to wash his hands after touching dozens of potentially contaminated surfaces...during the worst pandemic in nearly a century!

But for the worst part of this visit, see my attached photo. At the base of the counter where they mix your ice cream, there were these little mounds of dirt that looked very much like ant hills! Even if there are no ants, what is this filth on the floor? The Health Department needs to check this place out. ...

Last Friday my husband and I were in Rochester and I really wanted cold stone before we left. We stopped there and immediately walking in it smelt like complete weed. Nobody was at the area where you order and you could see everyone on their phones smoking in the back room. Some guy came out to help us and could not take our order he was so confused and laughing. How hard is a caramel ice cream shake with chocolate fudge... Another girl came out while he went back into the room and she was just as bad. She asked my husband if he wanted whip cream and then goes we don’t have it. And apparently they didn’t have lids for shakes either. We didn’t even eat there because of how awkward it was, and there was no way I was going to keep a baby in there. Needless to say I now know why they didn’t have the lights on outside even when...