Essex Ice Cream Cafe

Wonderful ice cream and service. Owner was super friendly (though we were polite and wore masks). Had a nice chat with the owner about how hard she tries to keep the place safe for young kids (all unvaccinated). Our family of 4 had 4 different flavors and they were all wonderful. Best ice cream we've had in a long time. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

We had a wonderful experience with the woman behind the counter. She was informative when describing all of the local items in the shop as well as being patient with my children as they inquired about all of the ice cream flavors. The ice cream was delicious (we went with maple, chocolate, and Superman)! I respected this shop’s mask rules, which includes wearing your mask properly. They explained that they care about their customers who are primarily children (unvaccinated) and that their employees are in various stages of vaccination. It’s ridiculous to see these reviews of others caring so little for others, simply because they don’t want to wear a mask. It’s more a review of their own beliefs and not this business. We’ll be back next year for sure!

My older, now deleted, negative review is no longer relevant. Last week I was greeted by a very friendly server who served me up a very delicious ice cream cone. 5-stars!

We went last night to get ice cream. The person working was very friendly and the ice cream was great. We took our ice cream to walk around and enjoy. I would definitely return here.

My family has been coming here for years and have always had a good experience, new owner at counter was passive-aggressive and made us all uncomfortable. Nagged at us to shut door as the rest of our family was still entering, snapped at us for looking at goods, and generally seemed unhappy to be serving us. Ice cream ordered in cone was just in a cup with a cone stuck on top, although other customers were eating from cone. Also, our order was not even served correctly. Unfortunately we will be likely to return in the future because we enjoy coming over to the other side of the lake, but hopefully we will come back to better service.

There aren't a lot of options if you're waiting for the ferry and I appreciate this business working to stay open during the pandemic. It doesn't seem like the owner is comfortable working right now. The sandwiches were good.

These reviews are mixed so to help others interpret this one I'll say my family and I take COVID-19 seriously and wouldn't intentionally violate a policy or common sense, etc. and I totally respect a business owner's need to set and reiterate policies. That outlook didn't save us from being berated and spoken to like bold children any time we did something slightly out of line.

But I don't expect this "customer service" issue is just related to COVID-19- the owner also acted like our placing a "large" order (5 sandwiches) right after another group had ordered 6 was a big inconvenience and almost gave us the option to change our mind because it was all too much for her? I ordered an ice cream for my kid along with our food order and she said "yeah OK but it will be half an hour because I need to make these sandwiches." I'd think don't even put something like ice cream on your menu if it can only be served in between half hour sandwich orders. I hate to think what would have happened to this woman if a third group had come along to place an order (even for ice cream?)!

I started my review by saying there aren't a lot of options open here but I would still not go back to this spot, it just wasn't worth it. We felt uneasy for hours afterward and overheard the other group (who were masked and had absolutely been trying to distance) mulling over the same exact experience, going through everything they did and why they were berated for it.

Ice cream with kids most always ends in tears, however the woman who owns this place managed to have two of my kids (all masked) crying before they even got it. She might be a good person, but she is a misanthrope and doesn't belong in customer service. But I guess she saved us some money and just skipped straight to the tears. Thanks?

The drinks and treats looked wonderful but the woman at the window was incredibly rude. Just a couple of doors down there is another sweet cafe and the people were very nice. Do yourself a favor and skip Essex Ice Cream and go straight to the other one.

Terrible customer service. Do not go here. Ice cream server incredibly, aggressively rude as if we were an inconvenience trying to order. She even asked if something was wrong with us as we placed our order, then slammed her serving window. Extremely strange behavior that I've never before encountered at a business. Note - we had our masks and sunglasses on the entire encounter; only verbal exchange on our part was asking for a flavor that was displayed and that "didn't even exist!"

My boyfriend and I live in Westport and wanted to bring my mom, sister, and her son here to get icecream and I wish I hadn't.. So, when we arrived, we were excited to see all the new things on the menu (there's a new owner now), and we had everything picked out and then my bf realized there was a small sign that said they were only taking cash or checks, so he went to see if there were any atms nearby, luckily she informed us that the ferry had one, so we went on to tell her our order, except she didn't want to take it because she couldn't trust us! Apparently, she had been "burned before." There were quite a few people there so we just wanted to put our order in so we didn't have to wait longer. So even though she had just given us attitude, we still went to the atm because my 3yr old nephew wanted icecream. So when we got back we went to just get his icecream because we were so upset we decided not to get the sandwiches.. so while we were ordering my nephew went up the step to the counter and stumbled a bit and she told him with attitude to not play on the steps and then laughed and said my insurance doesn't cover it. It was an overall extremely disappointing experience, especially since the last time we came here the previous owner was very sweet and kind.