Hans' Homemade Ice Cream — Restaurant in Santa Ana

Like pretty much every business, I want this business to thrive. With that said, it looks like things are currently on track for this place to go downhill unless some significant things are addressed. Here is why I (for now) am giving this place a 1 star review.

[This is a review based off of my 6/11/22 visit]

*The ice cream tastes practically the same as much cheaper "grocery store" ice cream. It doesn't taste bad or anything, but not premium. I ordered a cup of 2 scoops of Cookies & Cream ice cream which came out to $6.75 after tax. Also worth noting is they were not big scoops. For ice cream that I would not consider "premium" like other shops I have been to, this seems way overpriced since I can easily buy a gallon of the same quality Cookie & Cream ice cream again at the grocery store for the cost of 2 scoops at Han's.

*No structure. When you walk in (at least when I and the person I was with did), there is nothing that delineated where the line began or ended. It was literally just a cluster of customers, with some looking at each other bewildered and asking where the back of the line was.

As the full name of the sign of this shop is "Han's Ice Cream & Deli," they also advertise inside that they serve hot soup too. Because of this, the person, I was with ordered their advertised split pea soup. They were flat out rejected and were told by the girl working that they stopped serving soup. Having worked in the food industry, I completely understand a "hot" kitchen closing prior to a restaurant/shop/bar closing. With that said, there was no signage visible stating the hours of when their advertised soup is served. Even the girl didn't say when they stopped serving soup.

When I ordered that 2 scoops of ice cream and the girl scooped them, I among that chaotic mob asked her where should I check out. She looked almost shell-shocked and said something to the effect of, "when a register is open." I eventually was able to check out, but of course by the time I was able to eat the ice cream it was beginning to melt already.

I really hope management of this place:

1. Uses rope, tape, or something to guide customers in a line in an orderly fashion to the counter
2. Makes and displays explicit and apparent signage when they serve their alleged soup
3. (Most importantly) Maintains or addresses the quality control of their product (i.e. ice cream)

Best of luck Han's, and I hope you get...

I’ve been going to this location for 30+ years. Have taken most friends and relatives too. My 2 daughters have great memories going there since they were little. We recently moved to Riverside, however, we continue going 1-2 a month. Every time we go we see new employees (most of the time young girls - in their early twenties- who either do not receive good training or management is not taking the time to supervise who are they hiring. Most of the time, tables remain dirty for over 10 minutes even when new customers are already seated and there’s not that many people. Employees are most of the time working very slow and don’t have an urgency for making sure customers receive their ice cream in a timely manner. I have asked three employees in three different occasions to please wear a glove when touching my peeled banana after they handle money, sometimes they have a bad attitude, and tables are most of the time dirty! Last night we went, @ around 8pm, Friday 2/23/24, party of 5, got a table (completely dirty), waited for someone for almost 10 min to take our order (there’s was only 2 customers in front of us and there were 3 employees). I asked the girl to please clean our table, she said yes, took our order, we waited for other 10 min to get our ice cream and for her to clean our table. All of us got something wrong on our ice cream order even when she wrote everything down. We waited other 3-5 min to get fixed. It is not that hard to read what you write when you take an order! Management : please provide a good training to all of your new employees! Increase the salary maybe? Do whatever you need to do so you don’t start loosing loyal customers. This place is nothing compared to what it was 20 years ago. Ice cream is the best, but customer service is the worst! Will try...

You know, I always tip at least $1 an ice cream. Here, as soon as I learned that there weren't any samples, I didn't even get a smile after I expressed my disappointment in their "covid" excuse. I wasn't in a hurry to tip, either.

I paid $10 for two small ice creams that were just the right amount for two little kids, but certainly not adults and we did not order kids' sizes.

The floors and tables were dirty and clearly had not been cleaned since the night before. We were the first people in the place on a weekday morning.

The ice cream was actually good, but as others have indicated, the place just has an overall sad feeling to it, as if it must have had better days--and I am sure that it did.

Unless this place has a loyal following and without being permitted to sample a single thing, I doubt we will return and I am not sure if the place will last.

Don't use covid as an excuse; it's 2023. And if you are worried about losing money to samples, maybe only permit 1-2 a person. I think they threw the baby out with the bath water as we sure won't return...