I've never once been to a coldstone. Are there any in San Francisco? All this talk is giving me a hankering for any kind of ice cream.

In case you ever want real ice cream and are in the Bay Area, check out Mitchell's on San Jose and 29th in San Francisco's Mission district. It's not a chain, no songs are sung, just great ice cream and a long line.

They rip off really classic tunes such as The Flintstones and make it sound really catchy, when in fact it's really annoying.

Hi everyone! I like Cold Stone, because I dont' know where else they have cake batter ice cream.

This sounds very disgusting just reading about it.

MisterNice

Never heard of "cake batter" ice cream. Now I'm really interested. There's one on 119 Ellis St. in downtown SF. A visit is in my future.

They sing basically to beg for tips. It's bad enough to have tip jar at self-service counters instead of sit down places, it's really bad when they resort to this. Read the following:

http://www.famousfamily.com/mark/coldstone.html

Tasaka Guri Guri in the Maui Mall, Kahului, Hawai'i.

2 scoops for $1. Ono-licious.

Rip yes. Other equal rips: definitely. Here we have Lappert's. Boring run-of-the-mill stuff, out the door (with a topping) at about $7 a cone. We laugh when we see the tourists pulling in. They are never very busy, but I guess at $7 a cone, they don't need to be.

One of the joys of travelling is finding ice cream shops. Coldstone just does not cut it nor does Ben and Jerry's when experimenting. I can get those here.

The best I ever had chocolate/banana gelato. What a bloody taste treat.

Try finding universities with agriculture programs. Michigan State University makes their own ice cream for sale on campus and it is awesome. I have heard the same about Penn State. Anybody know of others?

Last I heard, University of Georgia raves about their creamery.

Virginia Tech as well.

Cold Stone's about the best I've got near me, unfortunately. I always order the smallest size in a cup and yet I can't ever finish it-the ONLY ice cream place I've ever had that experience. Their flavor choices are limited, but they do have Peanut Butter, which is a little different. (Cake Batter, uh, not for me, thanks!)

Now, that singing! Aughh!! Can't stand it!!! Certainly doesn't inspire any desire to tip in me-unless it would be to tip them NOT to sing...

BUT they do give a free birthday treat ;) and it's kind of nice to occasionally go out just for dessert instead of dinner, and they're lots nicer (and cleaner, I think) than the Baskin & Robbins locations near my house.

I've always figured that the reason Coldstone has all the add-ons available is that their ice cream isn't all that good. And it is way over priced.
I'd rather have the $1.00 ice cream sundae at McDonald's.

I noticed one just openned up down the street. Thanks FT, I am not going now because I do not want to be sang at-how dumb.

The Cold Stone near me doesn't have any singing.