Day 11: Marble Slab and Amy's Ice Cream

Post date: Oct 15, 2013 3:23:55 AM

I did not intend into doing another double, but my friend convinced me to go to the second stop.

Day 11: Marble Slab, October 11, 2013

Marble Slab has grown rapidly the past few years and you can now find them in almost every major city. They are certainly well known, and get high traffic. They mostly just offer the more traditional flavors, but allow you to mix in numerous toppings of your choosing. It sounds like a great concept, but my visit was not well received.

I ordered a single scoop of birthday cake ice cream with Reese's peanut butter cups mixed in. It cost $4.16. It was a fairly small container for the price.

The ice cream had very little flavor. The worker scooped out the very last remaining bits out of the carton, but it tasted like a very bland vanilla, nothing birthday about it! The density and creamy consistency was there, but it was honestly so lackluster in flavor that that meant very little in saving the dish. The chunks of Reese's were really small, so the tasty, big peanut butter chunks were lost.

Because they mix everything together on their "marble slab", there is bound to be some cross contamination. Normally this isn't too big of a deal, but the party in front of me ordered a couple blue colored ice creams. (I believe it was cotton candy flavored.) As a result, there were a couple blue streaks within my dish.

Another off-putting aspect was the placement of the spoons on top of the counter. A couple of the small children in front of me grabbed them directly instead of being handed one from a worker. Not a huge issue, but I could see potential hygiene problems if multiple sick people fumble around for spoons.

With so many other great alternatives around town, I cannot recommend Marble Slab.

On a scale of 1 to 5.

Taste: 2

Pricing: 2

Atmosphere: 2

Originality: 2

Another double day! A friend convinced me to go to Amy's.

What a fun contrast to Marble Slab. Amy's has a similar setup, where they can mix in various toppings, but the quality of ice cream and the unique, rotating flavors makes each trip different every time. Almost every time I have gone, there has been a long line.

One negative is they have a photo booth in store, but it has been broken ever since I started going. Either fix it or add something else!

They have a different movie quote written out every day, if you can name it, you get one free mix-in.

A word of honesty: I live the closest to Amy's so this has been my go to shop for the past year or so due to it's convenient location and consistently good service.

I ordered a regular pumpkin milkshake (approximately 16 oz.) for $5.41. I originally requested a small, but the worker accidentally made a regular size. The small was about 12 oz. and would have cost $4.33. A bit disappointing (it was a fairly busy evening), but mistakes happen!

The worker asked if I wanted whipped cream blended in or on top. I requested blended in. Much to my delight, it was homemade whipped cream, straight out of a big metal mixing bowl.

The milkshake tasted amazing! It was like my aunt's homemade pumpkin pie that had been blended together into a delicious drink. The pumpkin flavor was very strong with hints of spice: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. It was a vibrant, light orange color, and you could see the specs of spice sprinkled throughout.

The shake consistency was spot on, thick and creamy, but still incredibly easy to drink. 16 oz. was on the upper end on the amount of shake one would want to healthy drink and not fall into an ice cream coma. Next time I hope they give me a small!

I forgot to include a picture. Opps! Looks like you better go grab one yourself. And make sure to check out all the other rotating flavors.

On a scale of 1 to 5.

Taste: 4

Pricing: 4

Atmosphere: 5

Originality: 5