Greater’s (4.5/5)

Graeter’s Ice Cream is a parlor chain located on Rangeline Road. Graeter’s offers a variety of different flavors that can be purchased as different sizes of served scoops or as separate pints to take home. The restaurant is clean and well-kept, although customer service is limited. Deciding to order a single scoop of the Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip ice cream was simple because it’s Graeter’s signature flavor and best selling ice cream. Although spending $4.08 for a single scoop sounds fairly pricey at first, Graeter’s proved it was worth the price for the large portion sizes and the flavor of this ice cream. At first bite the tangy taste of raspberry followed by the bittersweet chocolate takes over the taste buds of those who try this beautifully purple-colored treat. All these flavors work together and balance each other out to make an ice cream that is just the right amount of sweet and tangy. The ice cream has a smooth, creamy consistency with the chocolate chips perfectly fitting in because of their finely shredded texture.

Handel’s (4/5)

Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt is a popular ice cream parlor located on 146th Street. This ice cream parlor is unique in comparison to the others as it is not an actual restaurant; the ice cream is served through a window. However, there are picnic tables located on the side of the building and there is reserved parking in front of the building for customers to enjoy their ice cream parked in their cars. The customer service here is friendly. The Graham Central Station flavor, priced at $3.43 for a small, is visually appealing with neat scoops of tan-colored ice cream. The ice cream itself is creamy with small chunks of graham cracker and chocolate throughout to create a delicious flavor and texture. The flavor isn’t too sweet and is overall enjoyable with a well-sized portion for the price.

Bub’s (3.5/5)

Bub’s Burgers & Ice Cream located in downtown Carmel, is famous for its burgers, most notably, the Big Ugly. However, this burger joint also sells ice cream that many rave about. The customer service at Bub’s is nice and social, with friendly and attentive employees, and at $2.45 for a kid’s size ice cream this is definitely affordable. The back area where the ice cream is served is a little cramped and there isn’t much room to sit and eat ice cream with only two tables in the sitting area, however this isn’t much of a problem in warmer seasons as Bub’s also provides outdoor seating. We ordered the Moose Tracks ice cream which consists of chocolate, fudge and tiny peanut butter cups all mixed into vanilla ice cream. This ice cream had a smooth texture, but the different components were not balanced. There were large, random chunks of chocolate unevenly cut and distributed and overall it tasted a little bitter. In many instances the only taste is the vanilla ice cream. Despite the slight flaws in ice cream, Bub’s is inexpensive and also offers a friendly, welcoming environment.

Sub Zero (3/5)

Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream is a parlor located in downtown Carmel where employees make customers their ice cream or frozen yogurt using liquid nitrogen right in front of them. While, this is a unique and intriguing experience, at $6.11 for one small ice cream, patrons pay more for the experience than the ice cream itself. Although Sub Zero had attentive customer service, the sitting area is constricted and not very clean. The Birthday Cake Capacitor flavor, which is a traditional cake batter ice cream that comes in a waffle cone is a little too sweet and the consistency is too thick and chunky. The ice cream has too many added ingredients, and despite the cool and interesting creation and presentation of this ice cream, it is not worth the price.

Cold Stone Creamery (2.5/5)

Cold Stone Creamery is a popular ice cream parlor chain located in Clay Terrace. Upon walking in, the lobby was a bit dirty and there were few tables. However, the staff is friendly and talkative. Cold Stone offers its sizes in “Like It,” which is a small, “Love It,” which is a regular size, and “Gotta Have It,” which is a large. Ordering the “Like It” size of the Chocolate Devotion flavor for $5.11 implies to the purchaser it’ll be worth it. However, first receiving this ice cream, it isn’t very visually appealing and there isn’t much ice cream for the price. The ice cream gets loaded with chocolate to the point where it is almost a little too powerful, but the different chocolates have different levels of sweetness, which offered good flavor variety.