Stella Jean’s Ice Cream — Restaurant in San Diego

I’m not rating the food. I am rating the service. There is probably a very good reason why customers must order their ice cream from a window outside. There’s probably a reason why the establishment discourages customers from coming to the counter where the ice cream is displayed inside. There’s probably a reason the counter that seems like a logical place to decide of your ice cream choice is visible from the front door. The reasons were not explained when I, one of two service professionals, walked inside to look at the new location. I was excited to have the vegan mango sticky rice. That ended when a server behind the counter barked that ice cream service is outside. The server did not ask if zi was there for ice cream or just perusing. The server did not say anything besides ordering us to essentially leave. You have to line up outside even though it was nearly 9 pm on a Thursday. There was no line. There was also no greeting. When we walked over to look at the key lime pie that we could presumably order inside from Pop Pie, again no greeting or recognition. We left and it will be a long while before I am ever interested...

This spot has a good selection of flavors. I tried the black sesame & toasted coconut and the pandan pistachio, which, unfortunately, didn’t bring much pistachio flavor to the party. The gluten-friendly cone was a nice touch though.

Let’s talk about the ordering setup. For a brand-new place that just finished being constructed, having customers order from an exterior window sounds fine—until you realize the window is at hip level. This means both the customer and the employee have to awkwardly bend over just to communicate. If they start offering workers’ comp for back pain by next week, I won’t be shocked.

Overall, it’s above average, and I see potential. I’ll be back (eventually) to see how things shake out. Hopefully, they’ll have a chiropractor on...

The vegan ice cream options were great, but I took off a couple of stars because an item was missing from my online order and I haven’t been able to get in touch with anyone for a resolution. Phone calls did not go through and accessing this location is difficult due to traffic and limited parking. FYI, The online order pick up for ice cream is located inside at the Pops diner counter. Just make sure to double check that your items are correct...