The Yard Milkshake Bar - Downtown Raleigh

I recommend the ice cream but it is a shame for only two people working keeping up with about 40 orders on a weekend. Hire more people and don’t put your staff in stressful situations with no help!

Great catering option thats available to the Raleigh area! The service is always great and the ice cream concoctions are top notch. Nothing like it in the triangle!

Insane shakes and ice cream! The service was great

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great presentation- everything looked like the photos! The was a decent crowd on a Saturday night and a bit of a wait but not too terrible. Service was doing their best.

One order of cookies and cream ice cream on a cone was very good.

However, the shakes tasted very strange. The milkshake itself was very chemical tasting- both of ours and the one our friends ordered too. The taste was somewhere between plastic and terribly inaccurate artificial flavoring. I cannot recommend the shakes especially at $18 each! (PB brownie something and cookie dough delicious.)

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 4

AWESOME AND ICE CREAM WAS

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Ultimate Oreo

We went on a Friday night around 9pm and there was one worker. She did AMAZING. (Young black female) Kept everything clean, worked fast and stayed level headed. Our milkshakes were wonderful as well.
My only complaint was that there was ONE worker. Although she did great, I really felt for her. There were people in and out the whole time we were there. As we were leaving around 9:50 about 6 people walked in. I can only imagine what time she was there till. Keep her around, but get her some help!

First time I went there and I noticed it from the street, once I walked in the place was so nice it felt really cozy. The lady there was phenomenal she was really sweet and was more than happy to assist me. If you're the type to like you things get made and like quality milkshakes or sundaes then you HAVE TO GO. It didn't take that long to make my sundae and the rest of my families order, even after I was interested in the edible cookie dough. She talked me through a few flavors and even let me try a few flavors it got done super quick and let me be honest as a person that has never had cookie dough at all this jar from there is so succulent. So glad I left a tip. Truly delicious treats cannot wait to go again

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: M&M Sugar Cookie, Edible Cookie Dough

This fun and fantastic place is located in downtown Raleigh, a great location to bring your family for a walk. The Yard Milkshake Bar is clean, and the staff is really friendly. It has a warm, decorative ambiance. The selection of ice cream flavors and shakes is very broad and can satisfy everyone’s taste buds. I highly recommend bringing the whole family. It’s a great meet-up spot and a perfect place to treat the kids. We can’t wait to go back.

Kid-friendliness: Our children were super BLOWN AWAY with the incredible menu. They loved the whole experience. ❤️

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Strawberries & Cream Cheesecake

We took our girls there as a surprise. They have been asking to go back every sense. We enjoyed the different selections and was thoroughly satisfied with the customer service especially since my oldest had a ton of questions. We look forward to returning soon!!

Kid-friendliness: Kid-friendly flavors and themes.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Cookies N Cream, Strawberry Sundae, Strawberries & Cream Cheesecake

Place was super clean. Clean as in looks and atmosphere everything you see and as soon as I walk in smells like a sanitized pool room. The shakes are perfect. The vegan one is specifically tried. This is a spot I will be at to many times coming back from the gym. Great stuff!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Just look at the pictures!!!!! YUMMY!!!!! They also have a sink for you to clean your milkshake jar so you can take it with you as a keepsake! If you have a nut allergy, which my youngest son and another guest with us did, there has to be a waiver signed and unfortunately, you cannot get a milkshake since ALL the mixing nozzles come into contact with nuts and other possible allergens☹️ which was a bummer but the sundaes they were able to get were fantastic! If there was a separate machine solely dedicated for those with allergies, it would be great, BUT it was a great place to visit and we will definitely be going back.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Warning: The Yard is NOT for people with allergen sensitivities and may even be violating ADA laws. After the long wait to get to the counter and order, they then require you to sign a paper waiver, and then after signing the waiver, they refuse to serve you even if what you ordered wouldn’t be an allergen issue for you.

Well… The Yard is a case study in allergy management gone wrong. My family and I went to one of the first The Yard locations in Atlanta back in 2021 and it has been legendary in the family since. We were so excited when Raleigh got one and have been waiting to go here on a family date night for months. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of disclosing Gluten intolerance while ordering and requesting obvious glutenous ingredients like chocolate chip cookies and Oreo crumbles be left off. Only After going through the long process of placing 6 milkshake orders (at over $20 each with modifications!) were we then given a PAPER waiver to sign for “allergens”.

Not since an ill-fated Disney cruise have we experienced such a heavy handed and totally overkill approach to managing a food allergy. Only AFTER signing said waiver were we then informed “we can’t make you any milkshakes because you disclosed a gluten allergy.” This was explained to be due to cross contamination on the milkshake mixer. I explained that we are ok with that level of cross contamination. Just so long as they omit the requested gluten items we would be fine. The manager then came out to say that, in fact, they could not sell us $120 worth of milkshakes. I again reiterated that mixer cross contamination is fine, but she stated that since we had signed the waiver, they could not make us any milkshakes. I asked for the waiver back, but she said that they couldn’t “undo” the waiver. The manager and staff were polite, but this policy is absurd.

Nowhere on the waiver did it say they couldn’t make us anything but rather simply stated clearly that there could/would be cross contamination.

I totally understand a need to have common sense disclosure about food allergens and some degree of liability coverage. But this??!! This was insane. It ruined a long awaited family date night, wasted an HOUR of our time (driving, parking, waking, in-parking, driving), and left two parents with four very sad and disappointed kids.

It seems The Yard should be renamed “The Yard only for certain people”. Given how this was handled, I’m actually concerned that The Yard is in violation of ADA requirements by subversively getting customers to disclose health conditions and then discriminating and refusing service based on said health conditions. Imagine a restaurant that asked if you needed a handrail to walk down their stairs, and then said you had to sign a waiver before proceeding, and then after the waiver was signed, refused to allow you to enter because “you disclosed you needed a hand rail to walk down our stairs.”

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Decent place that is what it is -- a fancy ice cream shop where you're paying more for the bells and whistles. The specialty bowls and pints that seem to be their bread and butter are pricey (more practical if shared) and take a little time to craft, but the other menu items looked more reasonable. Not a lot of seating. Staff was friendly.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 4

So the milkshakes are good. Don’t get me wrong; however, paying more for a milkshake than we did for our dinner that night was actually ridiculous. Also, I worked at Starbucks for a while and there was this smell when we knew we had to clean the drains from milk and the whole store kinda smelled like that. If you want sweet, the things you think might be “too sweet” definitely will be haha the coffee one was pretty good tho! The donut on top was kinda trash tho

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 4

We were finally able to make it to The Yard and we were not disappointed. If you have not been, you're indeed missing out on a great experience.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5