Kilwins Ice Cream - Chocolate - Fudge — Restaurant in Sarasota

Have been going to this Kilwin’s while vacationing in Sarasota for nearly 12 years with my peanut, tree nut, sesame seed allergic son. In the past when we’ve advised of his allergies, they have accommodated by changing gloves, opening a new container, and using a clean scoop. This year we initially encountered a seemingly newer/younger employee that did not seem trained on if/how to handle allergies and proceeded to scoop him ice cream with the same scoop she had likely been using all night to scoop every other ice cream ordered. My husband asked to speak to the manager who advised us that they would not be willing to accommodate as it was “against company policy” because the fresh ice cream containers are too hard and “could break their wrist”. She was incredibly rude and argued with my husband when he explained about our past very different experiences in the same location. After several minutes she finally conceded when he said he’d be contacting their corporate office about our experience that night. By that point, unfortunately my son had lost all confidence that she would truly take the proper precautions, and left the store in tears. We walked several stores down in the same plaza to Ben & Jerry’s and the employees there were clearly trained differently and he was treated with the empathy and kindness he deserved. We have been to numerous small business and chain ice cream shops over the years, and while we know there is usually always a small chance of cross contamination if not handled appropriately, we have not only never had a place tell us it was against their policy to try to accommodate, but also never had such a poor experience with the lack of empathy that we did recently at Kilwins. Please do not patronize if you have similar...

Terrible customer service. Tried to get ice cream and John (surprisingly the General Manager) told me to stand in front of the ice cream case OPPOSITE the one I was trying to decide from. No John. I'm trying to select from THIS cooler, not that one. Then I asked if I could get my scoop of ice cream with a half scoop of two different flavors. He said no. I said "you weigh them to be 4oz, can't you just give me 2oz of each? I don't want to eat two scoops". He wouldn't. He has that right. And I had the right to not buy and leave this review. I left. It was just really disappointing that a guy who has control issues wants that to spill out into his customer service, especially as a General Manager. How hard is it to fill up your scooper halfway twice and then weigh it to ensure I'm not getting more than I'm paying for? Way to strong arm me John. You won. But did you really?

UPDATE: While my family was eating ice cream outside, I saw John go into the back. I went back in to get help from the woman. I decided not to fight their policy and just asked for one of my desired flavors. She put a scoop on the cone and it was not a full scoop so she went to go scoop more and I simply asked her if she could finish the scoop with a different flavor. She said "sure" like it was no big deal. I paid for 4oz of ice cream which is what I got. Everyone wins. John needs to take lessons from his employees on...

We wanted to check out the fudge at Kilwins in St Armands Circle this Mother’s Day, I mean what mom wouldn’t love some delicious chocolate fudge to go with her flowers? So we mosey on over only to find a line going out the door! We inquire to see if this line was for their fudge, but find out instead the line was for their ice cream. We get it, Mother’s Day, 2023 was a bit warm, and ice cream would definitely hit the spot! However, we had our mind set on some creamy, delicious chocolatey fudge.! So off to the fudge section we went. The girl who waited on us was very sweet and helpful. Three slices of fudge ranging from salted caramel, plain fudge, and turtle fudge were purchased. We thanked the young girl and proceeded to go enjoy some delectable fudge. Sadly, when we sat down to cut a piece of fudge off to savor, it crumbled like a dry brick and had an overwhelming big salt, almost like an accidental salt overdose! Where was the creamy mouth indulging fudge we had hoped to enjoy? Sadly, we didn’t find it here on Mother’s Day at Kilwins in St Armands Circle. We are hopeful that future fudge products, like we purchased for this special occasion, will be thoroughly tested along with any mistakes possibly made in its creation being discovered sooner by staff so it can be corrected and other patrons that visit will receive a top quality product that Kilwins can definitely...