Salem Valley Farms Ice Cream — Restaurant in Salem

Well this is a difficult review to write. My son and I have been going here for many years. We liked to go in the evening and would use the 25 minute drive to talk. We would wait in line, order, then hula hoop while waiting for ice cream. (They quit using the local hula hoop makers hoops and have cheaper ones now). The ice cream is very good...one of the best in CT but there are many great homemade ice cream shops here and we have made it our mission to visit them all! We have also brought many guests here who have come to visit. I will say the service here is much better when the older gentleman is at the register. Last night it was all young kids. The last few years Salem Valley Farms has been discontinuing providing to other local ice cream shops. First it was Gumdrops & Lollipops in Niantic (they have a local ice cream maker and it's very good) and now South Lyme Scoop Shop (they are using Ashley's ice cream from Madison...also very good). I understand both these plus a few others is because they couldn't keep up with demand. This is certainly reasonable and the letter posted at their own Salem store states just that. But I must mention that I have noticed a change in the quality and creaminess in the last year or so...hoping cutting back would address this issue. And also one would think and hope that this would make for better service at Salem Valley Farm. This was not the case last night. It was super hot and after the long drive my son and I decided to go for Large extra thick shakes. We chose shakes so they would last most of the trek home. Long wait for order but shakes here always take longer...we knew that. So, many customers were served before us as we waited patiently. Finally a shake appears at the window. It's a small extra thick vanilla. No one claims it so I say, "we ordered a large". The girl sighs and says loudly, "Well you will have to go back to the register and reorder to fix it". Everyone around us turns shockingly to see my response! I calmly walk to the window and say, "You don't give receipts so how do I prove this?" She then says, "Oh I can find it". So my son's shake sits inside the counter for at least five minutes...she comes with receipt and I add in my head (gave $15 got back $2.26...gave $1 tip). So young guy at register got order wrong. Now over 20 mins have gone by since we ordered and we had a 7 min. wait in line. I said, "Fine, we will take the smalls but that is not what we ordered". She hands my son his shake and huffs off. Now I have to wait for mine which hasn't been made yet. My son has big tears in his eyes and at this point I just want to leave. Really? Not even an "I'm sorry for the mistake?" Wow...I finally get mine and we head to the car. My son said on the way home, "What a waste of time that was". This morning...guess what...I had diarrhea from my shake. Thanks Salem Valley Farm Ice Cream for giving us this wonderful memory. I don't plan on going back anytime soon. There are plenty other great ice cream shops around that are cheaper and most importantly give great...

Our visit to this Ice Cream stand tonight was not a good experience. I am not usually one to complain about something so trivial as ice cream, but I think this is a buyer-beware situation. We live not too far from this location and have other ice cream options close by, but we decided to mix it up and pay a visit to this stand so many people seem to love. And there was indeed a very long line to get ice cream when we pulled in.

It wasn't a good sign that three different customers in front of us had incorrect orders. Sure enough when our order was called (this system is chaotic as they do not take names for orders and just call out the ice cream - leading people to question whether it is indeed their order) only part of it was correct. My husband's order was in a cup instead of the waffle cone he ordered. While my order of a small cone with sprinkles was correct, it hardly even seemed to be a full scoop with scant sprinkles over it. I expected a lot more for the five-plus dollars I paid for this cone. Our order of two ice creams was over fourteen dollars. I get more for less elsewhere and the ice cream is just as good anyplace else.

Finally, there was also a horrible chemical cleaning smell that I couldn't get out of my nose or mouth that ruined the taste of what was supposed to be a rare treat.

My advice is to go somewhere else. We won't be returning.

*Edit - I hope other potential customers visit these google reviews and read the sniveling, snide, and petty responses from the owner. I have run several businesses in the past and can't imagine responding to customer complaints like this. These people clearly don't care about the quality of their...

I love their ice cream, my number one favorite is RUM+RAISIN, and the second, BLACK CHERRY, my family and I been going there for 22 years, I do have something bad to say, almost every time that we go there they never have RUM+RAISIN, we been there 6 times this season and I haven’t been lucky, perhaps they should have more stock in the freezer? Of course not because me, lots of people in the waiting/ordering line are disappointed, also on prior years they used to put more ice cream in a cup or cone, and now they put less and the price is higher, I know everything is expensive now but this is been going on for at least 4 years, way back they used to put a very generous amount of ice cream on a cone or cup that the Ice cream used to fall off the waffle cone because it was a lot, Not anymore, also they don’t have bathrooms nor a sink to wash hands specially for the kiddos, when the kids are done with the ice cream their hands are a mess, perhaps some umbrellas? Some people are very sensitive to the sun, I hope valley farms be more sensitive towards the customers, I don’t mind paying expensive but please give me quality and quantity, also please start taking CREDIT CARDS!!!! Now is 2022, don’t...