Sugar Bowl — Restaurant in Scottsdale

It pains me to rate such a historic place with just 3-stars but simply speaking, their ice creams are not that great given today's standards. Yes, you sit in a historic candy-cane themed diner. I love that. It almost feels like you've time traveled into a movie scene. And the retro-style arcade also adds to the nostalgia. But when you are charging $10+ for sundaes and icecream, you have to use top notch icecream in 2025...

Icecream innovation comes in many variety these days - whether you are going for the airy feel, or thick and smooth, or genuinely innovative flavors. Innovation also happens with the type of cone or condiments.

Let's talk about the banana split - Desirable. It is a standard scoop of vanilla and strawberry - classic-style icecream, the one that you'd expect from a big tub at a supermarket. I didn't register any unique twist to the texture, depth of flavor, etc. It was decorated well with again, standard chocolate syrup. It was good to have bits and pieces of strawberry in the syrup, but that's about it. Middle of the line, nothing special.

Now the sundae that came with the cream-puff. You simply cannot serve a cream puff that is like cardboard. You just can't. In this day and age where cream puffs are airy, crisp like a cookie on the outside but light and chewy, you just cannot slap on a piece of thick paper on top of a icecream scoop, inundate with chocolate syrup and call it a day.

Sugar Bowl needs to innovate on its offerings and up its quality. It has everything going for it, especially the genuine and authentic interior. No where else can you get that "feel". However, without the evolution, it may only be the past and...

My family and I went in for a little food and a sweet treat. We were seated promptly, and service was decent. I ordered the Famous Nut Bread with butter on it, not knowing from the menu what I would be getting. It was almost like a banana bread or zucchini bread. It's not too sweet, dense, and delicious. But I wasn't expecting 2 thick slices with bread between them, like a sandwich, and I had a hard time eating it all. The leftovers were just as delicious the next day. My Orange Raft was a big disappointment. The "Sprite" was seltzer water or something. Perhaps it was just out of syrup. But I didn't want to just sit there waiting to get checked on, so I mostly just ate the orange sherbet. I wasn't expecting it to float over the drink since the menu described it as floating in the Sprite, so I was surprised by the way it looked and had no idea how to tackle it. When I pushed the sherbet into the cup with the straw I was given so I could get to the Sprite to drink it, there was a reaction, and the drink bubbled up extensively, resulting in my quick drinking of seltzer-water-tasting fizz and having it spill onto my plate as well. Some of the sherbet crusted over while submerged, too. The sherbet itself tasted fine, like any orange sherbet I've gotten at the grocery store. I'd come again to try another dessert out, but I wouldn't order this drink again. One of my kids got a Top Hat Sundae and enjoyed it, although it was bigger than they were anticipating. My other kid was distracted by the games in the other room and didn't care we didn't have cash on hand. The staff was patient with tantrums and even brought over some crackers, which my kid...

We walked in and sat at the bar, right from the start we could tell this is a fun upbeat place and they get your treat out to you fast.

I however wouldn't want my kids to work for this company as one young lady asked a younger new employee " Who trained you?" And he replied with a name and she retorted "Well, you need to be trained again, you suck." I could see the torment this caused to the boys' self-esteem, all because the float he was making was causing a mess. Heaven forbid the snarky young lady just shows him how to avoid the situation in the future, she needs to be retained as well, she grabbed the cherries with her bare hands, yuck, at least the boy was wearing his gloves and washing his hands.

We ordered the Buster Brownie and 2 scoops of cookie dough ice cream. The portions are big, plus high-quality products including ice cream, brownies, and whip cream. We would go again with a bigger appetite because it was so good.

The restaurant was clean, the facility well kept and there is a lot of passion among the employees both positive and negative. The sparky girl, though quick at getting food out didn't follow food-safe guidelines, unlike her Newly trained peer who at least wore and changed his gloves often, even if he did make it a mess. I would say most of these young teenagers need to be retrained on food safety and kindness to each other, not just...