J Foster Ice Cream

Love the ice cream. But would it hurt to sweep up and run a mop over the place. Maybe wipe out the cases. The floors under the standing freezers are all caked with gunk. How about do some touch up painting.

I made an impromptu ice cream stop here over a month ago after driving past and remembering the high praise this place gets on Unilocal.I’m so glad I stopped in! On a weekday afternoon, the place was empty, and I got to sample a few of the flavors, including the Cookie Monster and Graham Central Station. Both were stellar – the Cookie Monster was noticeably better than your typical cookies and cream ice cream, while the Graham Central Station was really rich and flavorful. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough Graham Central Station left to fill a cup, and the next tub of it needed a while to thaw out, so I eventually decided on the Salted Caramel, which struck the perfect balance between sweet and salty. I noticed a few ice crystals but for the most part, it was smooth and dreamy.
The only downside is that it’s expensive, with a small setting you back ~$ 4. I was a little annoyed by the pricing, until I watched the server pile multiple scoops in my cup, filling it up as much as she could. That at least makes it tolerable. Like most ice cream stores, this place was pretty small, but they have a little outdoor deck with some tables and chairs, as well as a couple of picnic tables by the parking lot. Even though there was only one server working when I visited, she was efficient, friendly, and accommodating of my desire to sample way too many flavors. I highly recommend stopping in if you’re in the area!

I don’t like to give local businesses low ratings unless they really give me a reason to. I feel comfortable giving J Foster 2 stars after my 4 visits.
Visit 1: Good selection of flavors (same flavors you’ll find at any other «gourmet» ice cream shop). Friendly staff. Ice cream was very good.
Visit 2: Ordered a large milkshake. Milkshake was too thick to drink and there was about an inch of space at the top of the cup. The milkshake procedure needs a lot of work… or just milk… yea, milk. Ate my milkshake using the straw as a makeshift spoon.
Visit 3: Door is locked at 2:30pm on a Friday afternoon. No note as to why or when it will reopen.
Visit 4: Door is locked at 5:00pm on a Thursday evening. Again, no indication as to why or when it will reopen.
After visit #2 I was still willing to give them another shot, but their posted hours aren’t accurate and I’m not about to camp out in front of an ice cream shop waiting for them to open like it’s Black Friday.

Very good ice cream with lots of flavor options! Coconut mounds was delicious. Service was friendly and never had to wait long.

The best simple/​traditional/​well made ice cream in central Connecticut. The waffle cones are homemade, and their cakes look phenomenal. My favorite flavors are cherry chip and cookie monster!

Best ice cream around, fun atmosphere and a wide selection. It’s a great place on a nice summer evening.

Best ice cream I have ever had, period. The hot fudge is amazing and not overly sweet and globby. I recommend trying it without toppings and move forward from there. I found that it’s the best as is.

Best ice cream around. I get sad when my ice cream is gone. I always want to order more but don’t want to be greedy. I have yet to find ice cream in CT that can compete with this holy goodness! Keep up the good work and great friendly service!

Just a quick review for now.
Clean bright space with super friendly staff.
My baseline is vanilla in a cup, theirs was yummy with little tiny bits of cream that stood out.

So, it’s FINALLY warm and I went to J. Foster to get an ice cream cone. I got a double scoop — one scoop of Salted Caramel and one scoop of some Chocolate Brownie something. While I am a total chocolate fan, Salted Caramel was the star. Delicious! Since it was a nice day, it would have been nice to see some outdoor seating, instead of just the indoor area. It might have existed and I just missed it though. The teenagers behind the counter could have been a bit friendlier and offered up a smile, they looked miserable… probably b/​c it was such a nice day and they were stuck inside!

Wow. Buttery smoothness on the tongue. Nicely flavored, not overwhelming. Very very good ice cream from someone who has tried it literally around the world. The vanilla chocolate chunk was classic as it should be (seemed to be high quality chunks in there). The Kaluha Heath crunch was yummy. The daughter gave me taste of her graham central station — I love graham crackers, that ice cream nailed it. Worth a trip I think.

Unfortunately, I found that J Foster does not live up to its great reviews.
The ice cream is nothing notable, with flavors that are available at most creameries. I tried several flavors, including salted caramel, black raspberry, coffee, and graham central station. The graham central station is decent, but again nothing notable as this flavor may be found at Mortensen’s on the Berlin Turnpike. My friends and I got a coffee milkshake, a hot fudge sundae with cookie monster ice cream, a scoop of coffee ice cream, and a coconut mounds ice cream cone.
Keep in mind: this is not a place for a milkshake. The coffee milkshake I got did not even taste like the coffee ice cream I sampled. It was extremely milky, and our server told me it was thick, giving me a spoon when she served me. It didn’t even taste like coffee ice cream was in it, though I saw her scoop it. I took maybe three sips before going back to get a small scoop of the graham central station, a lesser consolation as I had wanted a thick, flavorful coffee milkshake.
The building and its gallery where you can sit to eat your treats are in need of an update and are not very comfortable. There’s a large awkward space that could be taken advantage of with more tables near where the ice cream is scooped.
The staff was not pleasant at all. Our server was very rude and rushed our choices. It seemed as though it pained her to give samples to my friends and I when we wanted to try a few of the flavors since we had never visited before. She was impatient and had attitude.
Disappointed, my friends and I will most certainly keep driving past this so-​called unique, homemade ice cream place.

With all the competition out there, you could overlook this place.
Don’t. It’s still among the best in the Hartford area and very supportive of the community. Great flavors, great service and great place.

WARNING!!! The graham central station ice cream will leave you with midnight dreams of delicious, sweet, fire-​camp s’more icy cold goodness at least twice a week.
Try if you dare…
Who am I kidding? GO NOW

Some of the best locally made ice cream in the area.
Service is great, portions are big and the price is right.

People were not kidding: Graham Central Station is where it’s at! (if you like graham cracker that is. Delicious, fatty, airy ice cream. It melts at just the right rate to be able to savor all the delicious flavor and remain refreshed at the same time.
I got a sugar cone with two scoops — one graham central station, one kahlua heath. My boyfriend got a sundae with heath crunch, hot fudge, peanuts, and whipped cream. Both were delicious.
I know J Foster likes to say their ice cream is dense and chewy, but it is not as dense as Wentworth’s in Hamden, which I would have to call the chewiest ice cream I’ve ever had (and enjoyed). Speaking of W’s, there are a lot of flavor overlaps between the two places (cookie monster is named and looks identical to its Hamden counterpart… related? ripping eachother off? Not sure…)
Very much enjoyed my cone and will be back again whenever this dreary New England weather lets up for some ice cream craving inducing sunshine.

Holy moly.
The Cookie Monster ice cream here is a lifechanger. Perhaps my strong feelings are due in part to an unwavering craving for chocolate chip cookies that I’ve had for weeks, but I don’t think that’s the whole reason. This is just mindblowing, tastebud stimulating, aesthetically pleasing, ridiculously amazing ice cream. Even my friend who was with me, the toughest critic and snobbiest of food snobs, agreed. She said it was the best ice cream she’d ever had. I love that it’s blue. I will go to great lengths to avoid using red food coloring in my red velvet cupcakes (hello, beet juice!) but for some reason my brain registers that blue ice cream is ok (I’m not having it on the regular). Especially when there are moist chocolate chip cookie crumbles in it and the base tastes like frosting.
What a dream. An absolute dream.
The fan favorite, the crowd pleaser, Graham Central Station is probably still my number one but I don’t know… the Cookie Monster might be tied with it or a very close second. I also had Black Raspberry (a northern New England classic) when I came two days ago and its safe to say it was some of the best I’ve had. The girl behind the counter let me sample a bunch more making the decision even harder because I did not taste a single one that I didn’t like. The Kahlua Chip is another once I almost couldn’t walk away without.
Do I agree with my friend that this is the best ice cream? It’s definitely up there! I would say top two or three. When I did my ice cream tour of Connecticut two summers ago the winners were UConn Dairy Bar in Storrs and Sweet Claude’s in Cheshire (which also has a blue ice cream — the Smurf! Also delicious). It’s at least as good as the others and probably even better. Haven’t stopped thinking about it for the past two days. Can’t wait to come back! Looking forward to ice cream dates on the patio once it starts to get warmer.

Graham Central Station.
I’ve had it in restaurant desserts, from Flatbreads in Canton to the deconstructed s’mores dish at Firebox. But once I actually had it at the J Foster store — in a waffle cone accompanied by salted caramel ice cream, the experience solidified my suspicion of this being my favorite ice cream in CT. Graham cracker — it goes with everything. Pumpkin ice cream & whipped cream in the fall (pumpkin pie right there), the cashew caramel, EVERYTHING.
Nice spacious layout, billions of flavors, indoor and outdoor seating, pints & cakes to go. Fig ice cream. J Foster is the best.

the J Foster ice cream has always been consistently damn fine. the big problem is the flavors. so many flavors to choose from and they all sound so good. a small scoop is pretty big here. never had the gelato, but it is on the list to try. Had some graham central and some girl scout cookie mint thing. Melty goodness.
I can give you what you want
I can make your back real taut
fantastic flavored fancies
sick like Sid and Nancy
wicked as a joyride jaunt
parking spots are painted weird, so there is usually parking lot confusion. it’s sorta tucked in between two strip malls or something and if you blink you will miss it.

A very solid choice. Decent variety of ice cream plus some gelatos and sorbets, Very nice dining room to sit and relax, or to host a kiddie birthday party and play «Pin the cherry on the sundae». Young, hard-​working, but very pleasant servers.
We ordered two «small» sugar cones– a mint chocolate chunk gelato and a Coconut Mounds. The gelato was very good but had a pretty high mint quotient in it– any more and it would have been too much. My wife thought the Mounds wasn’t very coconutty, but the sample I tried seemed pretty well flavored, so maybe the ice cream wasn’t mixed uniformly?
Two good sized small cones cost around $ 8 — definitely not cheap. But the quality, nice surroundings, and pleasant staff were all a plus.