Beal’s Ice Cream

Very average ice cream. Tried the pistachio nut and has the orange pineapple. Could not finish the massive portions served and will never be returning for the unmemorable experience.

I had three different flavors cause I couldn’t make up my mind and it was good but nothing special. The maine maple tasted really good but not like maple and so did the salted caramel. There’s not a lot that you can mess up with cookies’n’cream.
It’s a nice stop but if I’m on vacation in Portland I’d prefer different places.

Long lines, dirty tables need some attention.
I had coffee heathbar ice cream but could not find any heathbar but microscopic slivers.
Flavor of coffee was good. Skip the sprinkles they added crunch but no chocolate flavor at all.

A delight to find such a high quality ice cream shop in a high traffic tourist area. The selections are in many ways unique, creative and fresh. What got my attention was the selection of sugar free ice cream. Usually you only find a single flavor available, but, at Beal’s there are several sugar free selections.
Bravo!

My single scoop of coffee heath bar ice cream was creamy and had decent flavor (though a tad sugary) but didn”t really stand out compared to the other frozen treats I’ve had lately. I don’t think I got more than three slivers of heath in the enormous scoop! Still, it was refreshing to see that Beal’s had so many fabulous classics — I really wish I tried the chocolate raspberry after reading some of these reviews. Beal’s is cash only, so hit that ATM before you stop by!

So delicious!!!
Had the blueberry ice cream and it was super creamy. Best ice cream I have ever had! Highly recommend this place and I will be coming back for more. Very friendly
and helpful staff as well.

This was a great place to have some premium ice cream for a reasonable price in a great location in Portland Maine. I can’t believe that they had Chocolate Lovers fling which is chocolate ice cream and brownies with maraschino cherries! It was awesome

During a visit to Beal’s two weeks ago my child found several human body hairs in her Kahlua Fudge Ice Cream. They picked out two hairs on their own before bringing it to my attention, then showed me the ice cream and I noticed at least five visible body hairs sticking out of the ice cream. I immediately returned the ice cream and got a different flavor. I am writing this review after having written a review on another site and having it removed! I am appalled at the ability of business owners removing candid reviews of their establishments and review companies also allowing this. I would certainly like to know if incidents like this have taken place in restaurants I am visiting!

This one goes out to all my chocolate lovers out there. You know when you walk into an ice cream place and you really want chocolate ice cream, but you also really want chocolate chip cookie dough, but the thought of getting through all that boring vanilla ice cream to get to the cookie dough hits you and you just go with plain olé chocolate? CHOCOLATE. DOUGHBOY. That is the name that describes what we always needed: cookie dough in chocolate ice cream. Done. Boom. Why doesn’t every place have this?!
That being said I didn’t love their chocolate ice cream, it was a little bland for a homemade place. Definitely still good, and nothing to complain about, but I wasn’t wowed. Extra points for the cookie dough though.
The staff were friendly but disorganized (didn’t know who had ordered, who had paid, etc) and that might make it tough if you were trying to order 4+ ice creams at once.

Hubby and I frequently stop by Beal’s when walking around Old Port, and we like the ice cream flavors and huge portions. That said, the other day, we had a less than positive experience. The servers were both scooping ice cream and handling cash at the register, and not wearing gloves when scooping ice cream.
The problem was that their bare hands were hitting the sides of the tubs as they were scooping, but worse yet, they were using their bare thumbs or other fingers to hold on to the large scoops as they pulled them out of the tub. It was gross, and totally ruined our (pricey) ice cream that day. Guess we won’t be going back.

I’ve only checked in once, but I grew up in Portland and have been here often! The quality is great. The staff are always friendly. The shop is an igloo, which is awesome on summer days. The flavors are wonderful and varied. The toppings you want, they probably have. The size/​price ratio is generous.
The only reason I’d deduct a star is that I’m quite partial to Red’s in SoPo. Please understand tho, this is a top shelf choice for ice cream and a high quality product in and of itself.

Nice place in downtown Portland, but really it could have been better. The ice cream was all right and the place was definitely hopping, but what on earth is with places being cash only? They seemed to run out of flavors pretty regularly and would just take them down off of the menu. The ice cream itself was pretty average, but my husband wasn’t a fan of his malt– it wasn’t very well mixed. Really, this was ok, but nothing special.

I can’t go to any new city without getting some dessert. And, I do love ice cream, so, no better treat to get in the summer. I headed over to Beals Ice Cream in Portland, ME.
Beals uses their own exclusive ice cream base to make their many ice cream flavors, in addition to producing specialty products including frozen yogurt, sorbet, no sugar added ice cream, pies, cakes and more.
I ordered their Moose Trail. Vanilla ice cream as a base, it’s swirled with rich, chocolate fudge and tiny chocolate peanut butter cups. The ice cream is creamy and delicious, and the fudge and cups are bountiful, not leaving you searching for those «best parts», but being able to have some in every bite.

Family seemed to love the ice cream and I thought it tasted good but there was 1 thing that kept it from getting 4 stars for me.
The good:
Lots of choices
Good ice cream
Busy so high turnover
The meh:
Cash only (seems to be common in the region so they are not alone in this)
Long lines which at least means they are turning over product!
They run out of flavors so come early
The bad:
Malts made in the cups. Malt powder was not fully mixed in. So when I ordered a thick malt the bottom was very thin. It felt like a smoothie. I figured that was okay and we just left. Eventually it got thick so I removed the lid to use my spoon. And there it is… a pile of malt powder on the top not mixed in. Made for a very… chewy? second half of my malt.
If I lived in the area I’d go back and figure everyone screws up. But part of me can’t help but wonder if they blended the malts in a blender or metal cup if it would’ve come out better.

The Ice cream was «eh». I went with a standard chocolate kiddie cup and was thoroughly disappointed. The place looked packed so I assumed it was good. Bad decision.
The ice cream tasted like cocoa flavored ice, barely. The staff also was more concerned with their own conversations than with helping customers. Additionally, for as busy as they were I found it interesting how both workers waited on one person at a time.

This Beal’s location can’t really stand up against my local haunt at Kettle Cove. It isn’t just because of the ice cream either (which lacks a certain something that I can’t put my finger on).
The entire experience at this shop is a little bit of a bummer, from hunting for parking to its cash only operations – at $ 3+ for a kiddie cone of hard ice cream, you will need more than a fiver to pay for your treat. I’ve also found the staff to be less than interactive (they seem to prefer talking to each other rather than engaging customers).
On my latest visit, they were out of my staple flavor, so I decided to get a kiddie cone of Peanut Butter Cup. My bad on not getting a sample first – I assumed it was going to be peanut butter ice cream with some candy pieces, but it was chocolate! I guess most people would be fine with that, but I really don’t enjoy chocolate flavors. Hubby ate 80% of my cone while I pined for the Coffee Oreo at Kettle Cove.
If you come here, bring cash, ask for samples, and maybe try one of their flurries instead of their hard ice cream.

This ice cream was delicious!
They had a great selection to please everyone in our group of 7 — non fat frozen yogurt to every-​candy-​under-​the-​sun full fat ice cream.
It was a great stop while being a tourist in ME.
It’s cash only, so stop at an ATM before ordering.

Beal’s is such a great place to have a relaxing scoop (or two) of ice cream! I’ve been enjoying their ice cream for years, especially the Teaberry — which is FILLED with chunks of chocolate!
I love the location, the cute tables — this is the perfect place for a date. The staff are very helpful, patient, and sweet.
There are only two cons: 1) Parking is on the street, and sometimes it’s very hard to get a spot in the Old Port, 2) I’m allergic to dairy now, so I can only enjoy the sorbet — I’ve had amazing plant-​based ice creams, and would love it if Beal’s could add some to their menu!

If it says anything, it’s my second day here in a row. I’m from CA and beside it being freezing weather, this ice cream is a real treat worth being cold over! I’m no ice cream expert but I like to have dessert in every new city that I’m in.
My faves are Grasshopper and Coffee Oreo! Flavorful and light feeling ice cream which can be deceiving as it means more time at the gym.

As I’m writing this, we’re in the middle of the infamous Polar Vortex of 2014. It’s snowing and all I can think about is… Beals.
The Old Port is positively saturated with «frozen dairy» options the same way Seattle is with coffee shops. Every. SINGLE. block there’s some kind of gelato, frozen yogurt, or ice cream store. And among them, Beals is probably my favorite.
If you’re looking for bizarre or unique flavor options like so many other of the nearby stores offer… you will be sorely disappointed. Beals isn’t in competition with the rest of them to confuse or blow-​out your taste buds (which, by the way, exhausts me. Woohoo, you created Jack Daniels-​Caramel-​Diet Coke-​Cherry-​Regret flavored gelato. Yawn. And for how much? $ 6 for a small? Appealing to tourists maybe. As a local? I’m all set). Beals offers tried and true flavors that have long stood the test of time in the history of ice cream, including: cookie dough, cake batter, mocha fudge, french vanilla, rum raisin, orange pineapple, and teaberry (whenever my sister visits from away one of the VERY first things we do is coordinate a time for her to swing over to Beals to eat her weight in teaberry ice cream. She’s a teaberry aficionado and claims Beals makes the absolute best… and, truthfully, she won’t eat anyone else’s!). Served in heaping portions on cones or in a dish for Maine-​appropriate prices — what’s not to love?
My personal favorite? Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. If this particular flavor was a boy, I wouldn’t be ashamed of a lotta PDA (read: I would make-​out with him absolutely everywhere and not care who I was offending). It’s seductive, it’s intense, it’s comforting… it’s a straight-​up mouthgasm. The downfall (because even in seemingly perfect relationships there are issues)? Beals doesn’t always have it. And if they don’t — and that’s what this seriously irrational chocholic is craving — I’ll leave empty-​handed more often than not. Also — to echo other folk’s frustrations — the cash only policy sucks. Seriously, there’s no way to sugar (cone) coat it. In my perfect ice cream world they’d change that and always have a little ChocoRaspTruffleSexiness on hand for me!