Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor

Great little hole in the wall place! Two of the three workers were friendly and the other one seemed new. Delicious deserts, fun retro décor, and great people. Perfect for families and they have something for everyone to enjoy!

SLOW and mildly hostile employees. Save your time and walk a block south to Traditions and enjoy the same Olympic mountain ice cream and way better service.

I love Grandpa’s! We haven’t been back since the winter closing… I am so excited to have the Blackberry Cheesecake shake again. So good. It’s going to be a great summer.

My husband and I love this cute little ice cream shop! I am a sucker for a traditional soft serve twist and this is the only place I have found that has them, and it’s oh so good. They have so many favors to choose from! My husband gets the Olympic Mountain ice cream that is served there and he is obsessed. super busy and tends to be slower during summer, but in my mind, worth the wait! We also love supporting local shops so this is why we are ok with waiting when it’s really busy!

My favorite is the caramel icecream

This place is super cute! It totally reminds me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. Though I can’t say that I’m a fan. The flavor selection isn’t as large as I thought it’d be and they ran out of cones on the day that I was here. But they do have a good variety of soft serve ice cream which is something that’s a bit harder to find in the Bay Area.

Honestly, I would like to give more stars — grandpa is very sweet, and the place itself is darling! But the staff — they were terrible! They were not helpful — didn’t even greet us when we got there. They seemed irritated when my kids asked to sample a flavor of ice cream first. They barely spoke to us and didn’t smile once. It was almost like we were being punked. I mean we were in an old fashion ice cream parlor for crying out loud! The ice cream was good, and like I said, grandpa was nice (he was trying to fix the soft serve machine as it was down). But I hated the lack of service — I could have spent less at a chain ice cream place.

Some impressions: the joint wasn’t air conditioned. As my partner and I looked for ice cream and found something we liked, the boy forgot to come back so we waited ten minutes before politely asking if we could have some ice cream. He said he forgot and apologized. The ice cream was pretty good, not bad at all. It was on the sweet side, but isn’t ice cream supposed to be sweet? Maybe not that sweet. I asked for some water and the boy told me they don’t «do» water and that I’d have to pay. 8.50 later after two scoops of ice cream, I thought I’d leave a review.

I was just in for two soft served cones and proceeded to wait 30 minutes while everyone who walked in after us received their ice cream right away. Frustrated, but patient, I waited a bit longer before approaching a worker who had not once acknowledged us waiting, neither did her coworker who had a huge attitude, altogether TERRIBLE customer service. I said what we ordered and we proceeded to wait for probably 15 minutes more before receiving melted ice cream cones that didn’t taste at all like the flavors we paid for. After walking back in and trying to get new cones, we received a snarky comment from one worker before we decided to just leave with our terrible cones. they melted so much we had to toss them in the trash as soon as we went outside. What a waste of my money and my time, such disrespect it ruined my entire day. I will not be returning to Grandpa’s after this.

Ordered a chocolate storm with Reese’s, was given a chocolate storm with Oreo’s. When I asked for what I ordered I was told that I was wrong and they wouldn’t fix my order. I hate cookies! So pissed. Thanks for ruining my day. Taking my business elsewhere.

The only reason why this got the second star or any star at all was because the nice young man in there tried to make things right when the other employee completely messed up our whole order. He wasn’t wearing a name tag but the chubbier of the two young men took our order. as we walked in and stood in front of him to order (being it was our first time there) he didn’t even make eye contact. He just looked down or around and finally after we spoke to him first did he look at us to give us service. Then he took everyone’s order and when we ordered single scoops he just asked if we wanted a cone or cup. I ordered them all in cones thinking they would come in waffle cones being he didn’t ask us to specify a cone. That is my fault for assuming. I told the employee making the ice creams (the taller blonde slender) that I think there was a misunderstanding, I wanted waffle cones, I would have not minded paying a difference if that was necessary. He was completely apologetic and said no problem we will take care of you. He made 1 in a waffle cone and then informed us there would be a little wait because they needed to make more. I really appreciated that. The employee who rang us up however refused to fix the error and put our other scoops in a kids cone. It was the first and last time we will be there. Things were super unorganized and the person ringing us up was very unenthusiastic and unfriendly.

Grandpa’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Parlor is a fun place to come. Many options and desserts to chose from. They have a display case with chocolates that are wonderful. Be sure to try the milk chocolate salted caramel, it is very good! I had a root beer float and a strawberry lemonade and both were very good. Service was great! I will visit again.

SO disappointed… I went in on Monday (⁶⁄₈) afternoon, and it was fairly busy. I had never been in before and it’s so cute in there!
However, when I got up to the register I was not greeted at all. There was an older man and a young woman and neither said a word to me. Okay… When I ordered, I was told they don’t take cards. I nicely asked if there was an ATM around. Both just stared at me and said no.
There was a sign on the register that said they took cards, but there was a service fee. I figure the machine might have been broken? That’s fine, but they said nothing about the machine being down and didn’t apologize. There was also no sign saying ‘cash only’ or anything.
When I left the store I noticed there is a neon sign ON THE STORE WINDOW that says ‘ATM’. What? There are also MasterCard/​Visa stickers on the door.
So so disappointed, I don’t know if I would ever go back because they were so rude!

It’s so nice to have access to ice cream downtown, and the quality is pretty good but very over-​priced and the crowd feels a little judgy. I do wish there were some other strong options nearby that specialized in cold treats.

A great place to take family and friends for a tasty ice cream treat! Sometimes worth the wait.

Four of us arrived to Grandpa’s on a pleasant April afternoon. We ordered 2 scoops, 2 shakes and a couple dark chocolate salted caramel squares. The bill was under $ 20.

I’m not sure why some people gave this place 1 star, but it’s a super cute spot to grab some ice cream, sundaes, slushies, sodas, etc. They are very generous on their scoops and their single scoops are super generous! They have a wide variety of flavors as well. The people that work there are super nice and helpful if you have any questions. I also love how the inside is decorated as well! Super cute old school ice cream parlor, definitely check it out!

This place is over priced. I’ve been wanting to go here for awhile, but I was disappointed.
I got the banana split… luckily it was a huge portion so I felt a little better about spending $ 7… however, the milkshake my hubby got was also $ 7 and it wasn’t all that good.
The décor here is really cute though. I probably wouldn’t go here again.

The flavors are different and somewhat original as I haven’t seen some of the flavors before. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist elsewhere, but I’ve just never seen them before. When you come in off the hustle and bustle of 4^th street, it’s very 50s themed like an old style soda fountain shop. Even the hostesses and workers are dressed for the part. They could probably go an additional length to make the place have more of an olde timey feel, but for now it’s not too overdone.
They make the waffle bowls by hand which they were sadly out of when we went. :(Well fudge! I didn’t let that rain on my parade. I got Irish crème and salted caramel. I nearly crapped myself when she said they had rainbow jimmies (sprinkles). There are probably a lot of those froyo places out there that have sprinkles but I just love the texture sprinkles add to my slowly melting iced delite. It really was a nice treat with one of my friends after getting off work. And ya really really inexpensive and reasonable for the care they take with the waffle bowls and the ice cream. I’m not sure if they make the ice cream by hand but that would be even more impressive. Some people may not be thrilled by this place but I thought it was cute and a nice evening out with a friend of mine. I’ll probably be back… even with my low tolerance for lactose (haha I can’t help it! Don’t judge!)

Ok, so I waited 6 months to come back and give this place a try to see if they had gotten their wrinkles ironed out. They havent and I wont be back ever again.
My kids and I stopped in here on Saturday and there were TWO girls working. One taking orders and one making orders. The placed as pretty full of very unhappy looking people, which should have been my first clue to leave. The place was HOT too, like 85 degrees hot. Like the furnace was stuck on high. It was very uncomfortable waiting. And WAIT we did. We placed our order and I am not exaggerating in the least when I say we waited 23 minutes for two ice cream cones and a diet pepsi. Several people before us said they had been waiting for 15 – 20 minutes to get their orders.
This place has such potential and I love buying local but I just cant deal with the compete inefficiency of this place. You need more workers and better organization. Put the candy and sunday toppings by the ice cream station. Yes, they look cute above the counter in the sweet little jars but every time the girl making the ice cream had to make a sunday she had to walk over to them take them off shelf, scoop the toppings out, put the lid back on, walk back over the sunday station, etc, etc, etc,
They offer no sugar free desserts, candy, nothing here. If you are diabetic or are eating healhty, this is NOT the place for you unless you like diet pepsi. The only offering they have without sugar. Would it be that tough to offer one dessert or candy that is sugar free? really?
Even as much as I dislike Baskin and Robbins, I will go there before ever coming back here again.