Saint Louis Frozen Custard Factory

St. Louis Frozen Custard Factory is a decent frozen custard and frozen treat restaurant. The frozen custard is not bad. The prices could be a tad bit cheaper but the prices aren’t bad. The biggest plus about this place is the drive-​thru! It’s nice to get custard on the go any day! They have a large menu with much more ice cream desserts than frozen custard, featuring customizable options, as well as pre-​set menu items. Whatever your heart’s desire, STLFCF is sure to please.

So is it a little pricey? Yes. But is it delicious and close to home? Yes! My fav? The peanut butter Island! Yum!

We were in town visiting friends, and I wanted to take my kids around our old stomping grounds for some custard. We were driving by St Louis Custard Factory, so I went there rather than driving down to Ted Drewes or the Custard Station for better quality custard. When I asked if I could have one of the concretes split in three for my little kids, the guy said, «No, we can’t.» I thought he was being sarcastic, because I’ve never had anyone say no to that before, but when I got to the window to pay, he handed me two concretes. I asked if I could have cups to split it myself. He told me he couldn’t give them to me and that I’d have to pay extra. I’m sorry, I think my preschoolers don’t each need a $ 6 concrete. And the cups are literally the cheapest bulk kind from costco. Would it really have hurt their bottom line to give me ten cents worth of cups when I’d just spent $ 12 on twenty ounces of dairy? Do they charge extra for spoons? I’ll definitely be steering clear of this place next time I’m in STL. Why pay outrageous prices for meh quality custard and snarky customer service?

— Horrible customer service: forgot about us and left us sitting in 90+ temp in the sun for at least five minutes before I had to remind them that we were there (should have just driven away at that point), then were borderline rude at the window, no thank you’s or anything pleasant, and they weren’t even busy as an excuse.
— Hugely overpriced. We get far more bang for our buck at Ted Drews.
— Bad custard. Icy chunks throughout, didn’t taste nearly as good as TD or others.
— Mix in was woefully minimal. I got M&M’s and had to hunt for them.
Will never spend my money or time at this place again.

Even with factoring in the buy 10 get 1 free card this place is WAY overpriced. Small sundae is over $ 4. We have to spend $ 20 for a family of four to drive through and get about $ 6 worth of stuff from Schnuck’s down the road a ways.

Holy overpriced, Batman! $ 4.12 for small custard with 1 mix-​in? That’s $ 2.60 at Ted Drewes’. The custard was okay, and they are generous with the amount of topping added, but how about some lower-​priced options? The sign about the price increases on the board doesn’t help with the pain in my wallet, and is a little tacky. Oh, and you misspelled sprinkles on your big brand new sign. The drive-​thru seems to be designed for SUVs, so don’t bother going through if you have a regular car.

The gold standard for custard is Ted Drewes, so I’m thinking if you are going to open up a custard shop in St. Louis, the quality should be very high. I had the eggnog concrete and my wife had the brownie concrete. The custard had an icy, granular texture to it. It must have been a powder mixture because I felt I could taste the bite of that a bit plus the overall taste felt «processed» to me. I was disappointed especially since the price is very similar to Ted Drewes. My rating is 1.5 stars for the quality of the custard, so I’m rounding up to a 2.

It was a Tuesday, a day like any other day. Or, was it? Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I discovered that this particular Tuesday was National Dog Day 2014!
I decided to celebrate this special day with my husband by going out for concretes. We would have shared our concretes with our dog, but we don’t have a dog. Even if we did, however, the dog could not have had any. Both concretes contained chocolate. Anyway, it’s the thought that counts.
Saint Louis Frozen Custard Factory usually isn’t my first pick for concretes, but recently, something amazing happened there. In addition to peanut butter cups, they now have peanut butter AND Nutter Butter cookies as mix-​ins. It’s a dream come true for me, and I hope they keep them on the menu.
If you aren’t into peanut butter, you can check out their menu online. I’ve only had concretes made with regular vanilla custard, but according to their website, they also have chocolate and a 98% fat-​free vanilla custard. The menu is typical of what you would expect at a custard place. They have concretes, shakes, sundaes, etc. They also have a few things other places don’t have: smoothies, snow cones, and even coffee.
I’ve never had much of a problem with the service here. They got my order wrong once, but they happily corrected it. They make getting custard really easy. Almost too easy. You can order inside, at the outside window, or in the drive-​thru, and they have both indoor and outdoor seating.
The only thing I don’t quite understand about this place is the tropical theme of the menu. Nearly everything has a tropical name. They have menu items such as «Peanut Butter Island,» «Fish Bait,» and «Aloha Granola.» The banana split is the «Banana Boat,» and snow cones actually are called «lagoons» here. With a menu like that, they should call it the «Custard Cabana» or something. I don’t expect a theme at my custard destinations, but if you are going with a theme at a «Factory,» I would go with an industrial menu. Here are some ideas:
Assembly Line Banana Split
The Well-​Oiled Machine (perhaps a turtle sundae atop a brownie)
The Night Shift (a concrete made with chocolate custard, hot fudge, and brownies)
To me, the tropical theme makes about as much sense as celebrating National Dog Day with a concrete when you don’t even have a dog. :)
Oh, well. They can call their custard whatever they want as long as it tastes good.
And it does.

Consistently good custard without the wait of Ted Drews. They have great service and a drive through which makes getting your fat on even easier.
I would recommend any of the concretes, actually I am going to get one right now.

I love that it’s drive thru and has a place to sit outside. I wanted custard but didn’t want to get out of my comfy clothes… So we went thru the drive thru. The custard was great. The only thing that I was turned off by was the person taking are order thru the drive thru sounded so depressing… If you aren’t happy with your job, maybe you should find another. You work at an amazing ice cream place… Act like it!

From the time I ordered until the time I got my order, 17 minutes. I did walk up to save time. They mixed up orders, served people out of sequence, told a kid he did not order what he ordered. Thankfully his dad stepped in. The place needs to figure out its operations. I try to go local, but this was not even close to worth it. just a poor experience for custard that was just OK.

I went here tonight, unfortunately the place didn’t stand out as something remarkable. While sitting inside you can here people at the drive through, who seem like they are yelling. The flavor didn’t stand out more than any other ice cream places. I found the menu to be a little confusing, but I felt rushed so that could be why. I would say culver’s is better, but that could just be me.

Oh man, I definitely had a huge cookie dough concrete here the other day. (If you’re not from STL, a «concrete» is like a DQ Blizzard — just pure custard and your choice of mix-​ins.)
This place is really cute! There are hand-​painted colorful walls all around — lined with picture frames of Cardinals memorabilia. There’s a handful of tables/​chairs inside on which to relax, too, which is nice if the weather is super hot or cold. If you’re lucky, Wheel of Fortune will be playing on the TV, as well.
The custard is very reasonably priced and the servings are large. I got a medium, but sort of wish I had just gotten a small! Very tasty, and better than the alternative Baskin Robbins across the street.

Nope… just nope.
This was recommended by a friend. I was having a craving for one of those delicious apple pie creations at Ted Drewes, but I actually was craving peaches at the time. A friend who shall remain anonymous mentioned that the Custard Factory had a peach pie concrete item that was similar to the apple pie goodness at Ted Drewes so we rolled on over there.
Not the same AT ALL. The peach pie chunks were A. processed and B. not very plentiful. The custard left a weird taste in my mouth. It just wasn’t the same, and I went home with a sad heart. OK not really, but it definitely did not compare to anything Ted Drewes offers. Perhaps we are spoiled, but I am generally too picky when it comes to ice cream. I don’t think it comes anywhere close to Ted Drewes in my honest opinion. Sorry Custard Factory…

I am a big fan of this place and have been going for years with my family! While it is not Ted Drewes, it is pretty close. The only difference is that it is not quite as thick/​solid as Ted Drewes, but as far as taste goes, I cannot tell the difference. They have an excellent selection of mix-​ins and their flavor combinations are also delicious. I can never decide what I want when I go. Additionally, they have a light version of their custard which is just as good as the real deal and I cannot tell the difference. I also like the fact that you can get ice cream cookie sandwiches, scoops of custard on a cone, or concretes or sundaes so there is a little something for everyone!
Additionally, they are very speedy. Even when it is crowded, I have never had to wait more then a few min for my ice cream and they have never messed up my order. They also have plenty of seating both outdoors and indoors as well as a drive through if you want to get your ice cream to go which is excellent. They also have a nice, clean bathroom on site which is always a plus.
While they may lack the charm that comes with the tradition that Ted Drewes carries, they have just about everything else and do it just as well. I also like their sizes better than Ted Drewes. So stop by next time you want some ice cream!

Actually pretty decent. By no means as good as any custard I’ve had on the east coast, but certainly every bit as good as any custard in St. Louis. They also have chocolate custard, which a certain St. Louis favorite cannot claim.
Their menu was a bit odd, and all of the photos looked super unappealing. They do take credit cards now, though, and have a drive-​thru! God, you kids today have such an easy time getting fat.
They had pleasant indoor and outdoor seating.
Pretty silky chocolate custard that I would say was pretty fresh. Ordered a large and the portion was huge. Lots of friendly and enthusiastic teenagers working. Yes, actually working. There is hope for the future.

I wouldn’t save that this place has the best custard in town, and I actually prefer hard ice cream with mix-​ins to custard, or even the Fro Yo style flavored yogurt where you dump your favorite toppings on top.
That said, the St. Louis Custard Factory has 3 major plusses going for it.
1) They have a drive thru! Oh yeah.
2) They offer a tiny size that is über cheap. Perfect for when you are craving something ice creamy but it’s between meals and you aren’t even really hungry.
3) They offer a light version of the custard which tastes exactly the same to me. Especially after you add a mix-​in into your concrete. I’m not sure how many calories it saves you, but it can’t hurt.
They are also open year round with indoor seating. I think I’ve done that once a few years back. The outside eating space isn’t my favorite. Plastic tables on the edge of the strip mall parking lot.
They do have a lot of combinations and for the money, you can’t go wrong. But next time I’m going to avoid the concrete with hard shell… I was expecting big chunks like you get at Lion’s Choice, but there wasn’t all that much in there and it was so fine that I could barely taste the chocolate. Think I’ll need to go back to my old standard — small light concrete with cookie dough.

Four words:
Great pumpkin ice cream
Try a sample if you are in the Galleria food court. It’s better than any other pumpkin ice cream I have had (comparing to Ben and Jerrys, Baskin Robbins, Carvel, grocery brands like Edys and Haagen Daaz).

Not my favorite custard compared to Ted Drewes or good old SnJ, but it will do since it is right up the street. They have a variety of suggested topping combinations on the menu as well as make your own selections. I enjoyed a simple cookie’s and cream concrete which is basically an Oreo concrete. Not sure why they just don’t call it Oreo…
Anyway, my favorite part is their cute little patio with plenty of tables and umbrellas. This was perfect when we took our group of friends from out of town here for a quick snack to prevent ice cream spillage in my car. The drive thru is also nice to satisfy a quick stop and they just remodeled a bit to make a small indoor area with a couple tables to attract people year round. I think they take credit cards, but I think they have a minimum charge amount.
It’s pretty good and I’ll definitely be back based on the convenience factor.

***I actually went to it’s new location in St. Peters but couldn’t find it listed on Unilocal.
I’l be the first to admit, I have an ice cream addiction… it is too good!
So this weekend after lunch I headed to the St. Louis Custard Factory to get my ice cream fix.
I opted for something a little different and tried their piña colada concrete, the perfect summer concoction! Their custard is nice and creamy and they have a large selection of mix-​ins and sundae toppings.