No hard ice cream, just soft serve. Service took forever. Sure was a mess with boxes everywhere.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Joshua Gluck
This Carvel's in a pretty sorry state. The cashier was helpful enough, but similarly to other recent reviews, they didn't seem to care about online cake orders. Ultimately, ours was honored, but it really should've been ready in advance with the requested customizations.
To top it off, they didn't have any normal ice cream beyond generic soft serve.....apparently, they haven't had any since covid.
As a previous East Coast resident, this is a far cry from the Carvel I'm accustomed to.
Any stars awarded to this place go to the cashier who helped us, otherwise this'd be 1 or below.
Atmosphere: 2
Service: 4
Krystal Teresa
Tried to steal my money, yes it’s only $3.50 USD but it’s the concept that is wrong. I ordered online Uber eats multiple items and I got a notification that there was a price adjustment. They took an extra 3.50 from me, when I checked why, it said “requested new item”. I did no such thing. They clearly just pretended that I did that to automatically charge me more on my online order. Unacceptable and very bad first impression. It is not okay to lie.
Ali Easterling (Ali)
Not the Carvel you know and love.This is a mismanaged store, hopefully you are reading this before attempting to order a custom cake, and my honest advice is don't.Given weird rigamarole about cancelling online order after calling to confirm, and then at pickup they give us a generic vanilla/chocolate cake instead of custom flavors.It's not worth the money or the time spent in traffic. Go to Vons and grab a premade cake and avoid a headache.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Jill Hartley
*WARNING* DO NOT place an online order with this Carvel Santa Monica franchise. They are completely disreputable. If you place an online order on their website, this franchise will take your money and never honor or confirm your online order. You will never see the custom cake that you ordered or your money again.Here's a summary of my experience:- Monday, May 6 - I placed an online order for a Fudgie the whale personalized birthday cake plus one box of candles for my husband's birthday with a requested pick up time/date between 4-5 pm on Saturday, May 11. I did this on the Carvel website. Order total $55.01.- Tuesday, May 7 - I received an email from Carvel saying my order was not confirmed and to call the Carvel store to confirm my order.- Tuesday, May 7 - I called the store and spoke with owner/manager who grumpily told me he would not honor the online order because he did not want to pay the 15% fee to corporate. He said he would cancel the order and it would need to be replaced either in person or over the phone. He asked me to email my order to him and he would call me back. The store is open until 11 pm - I received no call back or response to my email.- Wednesday, May 8 - no call back received or response to my email. More importantly, i received no order confirmation. I called again and left a message with his staff who told me only the owner could confirm or cancel my order and refund the charge. In the meantime the $55.01 charge hit my bank account. I emailed again and asked that my order be cancelled.- Thursday, May 9 - still no response from the owner/manager. No order confirmation either. His staff once again took my message and said they'd pass it on. Now I'm really nervous because I have no order confirmation, no cake for my husband's birthday party and I'm working with a franchise owner who has clearly expressed he will not accept an online order because he will have to pay corporate 15% for online orders. Oh yeah, he's already charged my account.Not responding to a customer's order follow up, emails or phone calls is inexcusable. Worse yet, debiting a charge from a customer's checking account without confirming an order is a really bad business practice.Am I furious - yes! All this stress and I still never received a custom cake (fudgie the whale) for my husband's birthday on Saturday May 11. Shame on you Carvel Santa Monica - you took my money but you never delivered.Carvel Santa Monica promotes that they do catering and online orders -- but this not true. If the franchise owner (Steven Winick) resents paying corporate 15% of all online orders referred to him, then he should take his location's website and the online order option down asap.As they say "let the buyer beware..."
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Andrew Aziz
Please keep supporting the only Carvel in California!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Ather Ahmed
I had a negative experience at the store (overcharged, dirty store, poor selection, and had to wait long) and I do not recommend it. But I do recommend visiting the store so you can see for yourself how ineptly a person can run a business. It's honestly amazing and must be seen to be believed.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Jerry Yu
owner/manager seems like a rude ignorant sad person. to all future employees that see the constant help wanted sign out front, just walk along go work anywhere else. you'll be happier flipping burgers then working for this guy. He seemingly hates his life so much that he wants everybody around him to feel it as well. biggest ripoff, 8 bucks for a tiny McDonald's size cone, and the manager was rude to me and his employees at the same time. just don't go in there unless you just want to see the sideshow.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Dayoldbread 16
The ice cream is really good! But the owner is kind of a jerk. I just called to ask if they were hiring and instead of putting me on hold like a regular person the owner was mumbling I could barely understand what he was saying. Anyways he got angry at me and said he had to serve customers and that they don’t hire boys. Like what? Most awkward conversation I’ve ever had in my life and this is coming from me who is anxious every day. Anyways definitely was weird af
Tracey Feher
Carvels was a wonderful experience the workers are very kind. It’s a very nice clean ice cream shop I like how it’s a one of a kind “carvels” the place it’s at and atmosphere of it is very fun and
I heard about Carvel from the east coast for many years. I didn't realize we have one here in LA. I stumbled upon it last week and I had a dasher there which was absolutely amazing. Drove especially tonight again to get another dasher. I walk in Nobody is in the counter for a while. I yell hello hello. Finally after a while somebody gets up from the floor. Completely wasted. I decided not to get a dasher since he was barely able to stand ..very disappointing. I don't know if I'll make that trip again.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 1
Lia Towers
My friend and I are waiting outside to pick up a cake ordered and paid for in advance and no one is here despite being told it would be open at 11am today. It’s now 11:30… what gives? This cake was for a
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Birthday Cake
walker F
Deplorable business plays games with credit cards. Charged me thirty one dollars for a four dollar ice cream sandwich. Call bem m. They refused to correct it. So I had to file a credit card charge back.
Service: 1
Todd Gewant
This is NOT what I grew up with my entire youth. They had a ridiculous low inventory of choices/flavors. Didn't have the cherry dip. No mint chocolate chip. No half dipped ice cream sandwiches. The young man working there was very nice and apologetic, but the owner just won't improve on this establishment. What a shame. Carvel was always my fav. This has the same name but is NOT the Carvel I grew up with.
Natasha Aponte
Extremely rude customer service.I wanted to order a cake for my album release party and the owner or manager I spoke with was just completely rude and yelling in the background. You just lost a major client. Will be ordering from a local bakery and business that CAN make a cake according to the client’s needs. I would avoid this carvel. Support a local baker that will do 100% better job.
No hard ice cream, just soft serve. Service took forever. Sure was a mess with boxes everywhere.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
This Carvel's in a pretty sorry state. The cashier was helpful enough, but similarly to other recent reviews, they didn't seem to care about online cake orders. Ultimately, ours was honored, but it really should've been ready in advance with the requested customizations.
To top it off, they didn't have any normal ice cream beyond generic soft serve.....apparently, they haven't had any since covid.
As a previous East Coast resident, this is a far cry from the Carvel I'm accustomed to.
Any stars awarded to this place go to the cashier who helped us, otherwise this'd be 1 or below.
Atmosphere: 2
Service: 4
Tried to steal my money, yes it’s only $3.50 USD but it’s the concept that is wrong. I ordered online Uber eats multiple items and I got a notification that there was a price adjustment. They took an extra 3.50 from me, when I checked why, it said “requested new item”. I did no such thing. They clearly just pretended that I did that to automatically charge me more on my online order. Unacceptable and very bad first impression. It is not okay to lie.
Not the Carvel you know and love.This is a mismanaged store, hopefully you are reading this before attempting to order a custom cake, and my honest advice is don't.Given weird rigamarole about cancelling online order after calling to confirm, and then at pickup they give us a generic vanilla/chocolate cake instead of custom flavors.It's not worth the money or the time spent in traffic. Go to Vons and grab a premade cake and avoid a headache.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
*WARNING* DO NOT place an online order with this Carvel Santa Monica franchise. They are completely disreputable. If you place an online order on their website, this franchise will take your money and never honor or confirm your online order. You will never see the custom cake that you ordered or your money again.Here's a summary of my experience:- Monday, May 6 - I placed an online order for a Fudgie the whale personalized birthday cake plus one box of candles for my husband's birthday with a requested pick up time/date between 4-5 pm on Saturday, May 11. I did this on the Carvel website. Order total $55.01.- Tuesday, May 7 - I received an email from Carvel saying my order was not confirmed and to call the Carvel store to confirm my order.- Tuesday, May 7 - I called the store and spoke with owner/manager who grumpily told me he would not honor the online order because he did not want to pay the 15% fee to corporate. He said he would cancel the order and it would need to be replaced either in person or over the phone. He asked me to email my order to him and he would call me back. The store is open until 11 pm - I received no call back or response to my email.- Wednesday, May 8 - no call back received or response to my email. More importantly, i received no order confirmation. I called again and left a message with his staff who told me only the owner could confirm or cancel my order and refund the charge. In the meantime the $55.01 charge hit my bank account. I emailed again and asked that my order be cancelled.- Thursday, May 9 - still no response from the owner/manager. No order confirmation either. His staff once again took my message and said they'd pass it on. Now I'm really nervous because I have no order confirmation, no cake for my husband's birthday party and I'm working with a franchise owner who has clearly expressed he will not accept an online order because he will have to pay corporate 15% for online orders. Oh yeah, he's already charged my account.Not responding to a customer's order follow up, emails or phone calls is inexcusable. Worse yet, debiting a charge from a customer's checking account without confirming an order is a really bad business practice.Am I furious - yes! All this stress and I still never received a custom cake (fudgie the whale) for my husband's birthday on Saturday May 11. Shame on you Carvel Santa Monica - you took my money but you never delivered.Carvel Santa Monica promotes that they do catering and online orders -- but this not true. If the franchise owner (Steven Winick) resents paying corporate 15% of all online orders referred to him, then he should take his location's website and the online order option down asap.As they say "let the buyer beware..."
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Please keep supporting the only Carvel in California!!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I had a negative experience at the store (overcharged, dirty store, poor selection, and had to wait long) and I do not recommend it. But I do recommend visiting the store so you can see for yourself how ineptly a person can run a business. It's honestly amazing and must be seen to be believed.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
owner/manager seems like a rude ignorant sad person. to all future employees that see the constant help wanted sign out front, just walk along go work anywhere else. you'll be happier flipping burgers then working for this guy. He seemingly hates his life so much that he wants everybody around him to feel it as well. biggest ripoff, 8 bucks for a tiny McDonald's size cone, and the manager was rude to me and his employees at the same time. just don't go in there unless you just want to see the sideshow.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
The ice cream is really good! But the owner is kind of a jerk. I just called to ask if they were hiring and instead of putting me on hold like a regular person the owner was mumbling I could barely understand what he was saying. Anyways he got angry at me and said he had to serve customers and that they don’t hire boys. Like what? Most awkward conversation I’ve ever had in my life and this is coming from me who is anxious every day. Anyways definitely was weird af
Carvels was a wonderful experience the workers are very kind. It’s a very nice clean ice cream shop I like how it’s a one of a kind “carvels” the place it’s at and atmosphere of it is very fun and
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
I heard about Carvel from the east coast for many years. I didn't realize we have one here in LA. I stumbled upon it last week and I had a dasher there which was absolutely amazing. Drove especially tonight again to get another dasher. I walk in Nobody is in the counter for a while. I yell hello hello. Finally after a while somebody gets up from the floor. Completely wasted. I decided not to get a dasher since he was barely able to stand ..very disappointing. I don't know if I'll make that trip again.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 5
Service: 1
My friend and I are waiting outside to pick up a cake ordered and paid for in advance and no one is here despite being told it would be open at 11am today. It’s now 11:30… what gives? This cake was for a
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Birthday Cake
Deplorable business plays games with credit cards. Charged me thirty one dollars for a four dollar ice cream sandwich. Call bem m. They refused to correct it. So I had to file a credit card charge back.
Service: 1
This is NOT what I grew up with my entire youth. They had a ridiculous low inventory of choices/flavors. Didn't have the cherry dip. No mint chocolate chip. No half dipped ice cream sandwiches. The young man working there was very nice and apologetic, but the owner just won't improve on this establishment. What a shame. Carvel was always my fav. This has the same name but is NOT the Carvel I grew up with.
Extremely rude customer service.I wanted to order a cake for my album release party and the owner or manager I spoke with was just completely rude and yelling in the background. You just lost a major client. Will be ordering from a local bakery and business that CAN make a cake according to the client’s needs. I would avoid this carvel. Support a local baker that will do 100% better job.
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
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