The Outside Scoop

I’d like to thank the Outside Scoop, operated by the 12-year-old Kylia for supporting the troop on the RAGBRAI events! We’re grateful for your awesome ice cream on a hot day, and it reminded us of why we choose to serve the people of the USA everyday!

Resident Services Director speaking here from Rock Creek Senior Living. Huge shout out to the staff at the Ankeny location today at about 3:15. I brought in IL/AL and memory care residents today for ice cream. The staff were patient, courteous, and caring as they worked with this elderly population. It was wonderful to see. Thank you so much for making this outing such a huge success!

We’ve been coming here every Friday for over a year because the ice cream is excellent—easily one of the best spots in town. The quality has always felt worth the higher price, and it’s been a fun weekly tradition for our family.

Lately though, the portion sizes have become extremely inconsistent. We always order two scoops in one bowl, but what we receive depends entirely on who’s working that night. Sometimes it’s overflowing, and other times it barely looks like a single scoop. Tonight, my two-scoop order was noticeably smaller than my daughter’s one scoop.

A couple weeks ago, one employee seemed confused and thought two scoops meant a half scoop on each side of the bowl. It really feels like the newer staff aren’t being properly trained on standard portion sizes.

There shouldn’t be this much variation week to week. This is basic food prep, and we’re sure there are portion guidelines or scales to keep things consistent. I can’t keep justifying paying these premium prices when I never know how much ice cream I’m actually going to get.

Great variety of flavors, and the location is perfect walking distance to other store fronts.

Still thinking about this ice cream.. yummm..

In the nicest way possible, this place was so overwhelming!! There were over 60+ options & flavors to choose from. Everyone working there was so kind and patient with me. They let us try as many samples as we needed and let me roam around the flavors for several minutes because I couldn’t make up my mind LOL.

I decided to be simple and get my reliable Rocky Road, but they had a lot of vegan, milk friendly, sorbet options as well! They were very generous with their scoop sizes, I don’t know why my friend insisted on getting 3 scoops 🫣. I would be interested in trying a sundae next time!

There is NO better ice cream around. I love this place.

Must Try!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I'm not a gluten-free person, but the gf dark chocolate raspberry was superb!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

High quality, rotating ice cream flavors made in-house. Lots of selection, both in the dipping case and to-go pints in the freezer. This ice cream is premium - it's my very favorite shop in the area and I gladly pay a little extra for something this incredibly delicious.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Cheesecake, Chocolate Oreo Cookie Dough, Apple Crisp

We booked The Outside Scoop for our wedding in Des Moines and it was a hit! The staff did a great job and we heard nothing but positive feedback from all of our guests. Would highly recommend!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Tortoise Sundae, Cheesecake, Chocolate Oreo Cookie Dough, Raspberry Cheesecake

This is a second time I ordered a 1/2 gallon of the white chocolate caramel cheesecake and it is not full. With the increase in price costing now $29.99. The least they should do is to fill the 1/2 gallons as the pint that are on the freezer ready for purchase.

The icecream is really good but the service is questionable

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Cheesecake

Let you sample, have TONS of Gluten Free and Keto Friendly options too.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I was looking forward to a Banana split. I heard great things about this place However the banana spit was very disappointing. The presentation was messy, the chocolate peanutbutter ice cream had crystalized sugar in it, and the kit kat Ice cream was stale every bit was stale kit kat, it was very off putting. I was very shocked because it came so highly recommended. sadly I do not recommend this place. maybe I'll give them another chance when I'm back in town

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Banana Split

Great ice cream shop, nice variety, good prices for what you get, friendly service!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Chocolate Oreo, Coffee Toffee