The Fat Donkey — Restaurant in Sarasota

Ice cream was good and their main selling point that has them stand out from their competition are the innovative ways to serve the ice cream, but the establishment itself left much to be desired. This seems exclusively due to the fact that there appears to be only one employee there, even on a Saturday afternoon. While all interaction with this employee was very pleasant, and we felt welcomed by their uplifting demeanor, everything else about the inside of the shop seemed to be designed to discourage people from staying.

The acrid scent of cleaning solution was sharp against my senses upon walking in, which was surprising, considering the evidence that the floors had some buildup of dirt and, in the corners, dust. One of the tables had a visible smudge of dried white and brown ice cream, and the seats were extremely uncomfortable, though necessary, because our order took some time longer than might be expected at an ice cream place as this one diligent and pleasant employee did all the tasks that should have been assigned to three people at least.

This feels like a business that doesn't care about its customers or employee(s[?]), one that doesn't care about its image in the eyes of the public that may come in. And although extremely minor of an issue, it feels like the interior design was planned by an 6 year old in...

The workers had loud music playing which made me want to get out of there as soon as possible. I was the only customer being served and the nice young man asked me what I wanted and I gave him my order. Then the young lady called me down to the register where I found out that each of the two items on the hot fudge sundae that I ordered which the server had suggested to me (whipped cream and nuts) was an additional $1 per item. I was unhappy that the individual item charges weren’t mentioned because in all my 52 years those particular toppings never had an extra charge before. I mentioned to the girl about the loud music as well at which point she proceeded to speak to me in a condescending manner which I perceived to be her laying on a dose of insincere politeness like the old “Bless her heart” that one might say when they actually mean they don’t like the person! To make matters worse, the mint chocolate chip ice cream did not have quality flavor and they used very very little and cold chocolate syrup....

Went there tonight and waited in line for 10 minutes to place our order. They had a young girl working the entire place on a Friday night?!! She was hustling and seemed like a good employee but clearly in over her head! The place had an odd smell as someone previously mentioned....couldn't quite put my finger on what the smell was! It is one of the only ice cream places I've ever been to where the ice cream is behind a wall and not visible to the human eye through a glass cooler like most ice cream shops...kind of weird but not the main reason for my 2 star review. Management needs to staff it with more than one person on a weekend and be able to help run the place if someone calls off of work which common in the food and bevarge business as I worked in this industry the entire time I was in college. Might give it another try but my first impression was not good! We ended up leaving after we waited too long so I cannot comment on ice...