Paradise Ice Cream

As much as I love Paradise, the inconsistent hours, and variance from batch to batch has forced me to downgrade them. Apple Pie, Banana Puddin’, and Lemon Poundcake continue to remain excellent, but many of the other flavors are just too haphazard and thrown together.
I still say their base has the best consistency of any ice cream I’ve had, but I need more than just that. I fear they aren’t doing well as they seem to be closed at random intervals throughout the day.

I am always amazed by some small business’ ability to handle an onslaught of 20+ unannounced Unilocalers. The lone staffer welcomed us with open arms, especially shocking due to the late hour and the chilly weather conditions.
Our fair ice cream friend served up some good eats and was even nice enough to let me sample a few before I made my final decision. I settled on the cookies and cream, which was one of the more heavily flavored ice creams I’ve had in a long time. So much cookie! So much cream! It was so rich I wasn’t able to finish my pretzel cone and pawned it off on the always ravenous Jeff W.
I liked the selection here and was pretty impressed by this small shop in the middle of nowhere, VA. Prices were a tad high, but I think that’s just ice cream these days… has anyone else noticed how expensive it is?! $ 5 should be the cost of my entrée, not my dessert, thankyouverymuch.

Golly, I haven’t had a pretzel cone to hold my ice cream scoops in years! Back in PA where I grew up, every summer we’d make nightly trips to Kelly’s Ice Cream and I’d always get raspberry ice cream in a pretzel cone. For some reason, I preferred it over the sugar cone, waffle cone and wafer cone. This was new to some Unilocalers but I feel like they warmed up to the idea of ice cream and pretzels fairly quickly.
There were many flavors to choose from — including some flavors like apple pie, mocha brownie and banana pudding as well as some standard flavors. I chose chocolate chip ice cream (specifically vanilla; they also had chocolate chocolate chip) and it was good. I generally tend to go for flavors with a caramel swirl in it, but they didn’t have any. The pretzel cone here was as good as I remembered them from my younger years.
The décor was kinda cheesy and terrible but I suppose that’s what you should expect from a place in Virginia! (Ooooh, all you Virginian’s are probably going to smack me… haha.)
As others have mentioned — there were about 20 or so of us and the place was entirely empty before we got there. I’m guessing the guy working there wasn’t expecting 20 Unilocalers to take over the whole space 1 hour before closing. He didn’t seem angry or annoyed that we were there. He was quite efficient actually and worked to fill our orders and take our cash as quickly as he could. Extra star for him.
If I’m ever in Chantilly again, I could see myself stopping in for a cold treat… that is, before checking out the spa treatments at Venu’s Day Spa across the parking lot.

So the carnie crew came here after filling up at Willard’s BBQ. The place is set up in a kitschy ‘tiki hut’ décor. It’s well-​lit and clean. I had the 2 scoops of pistachio that was pretty good. The other Unilocalers had commented that the apple pie and mocha brownie were also very good.
They had a good assortment of toppings to go with the menagerie of ice cream flavors offered.

I tried Paradise Ice Cream last night along with other Unilocalers (Carni Crew). It was late Sunday evening and the guy behind the counter must be getting ready to close when all 20+ of us showed up for Ice Cream. I think the guy was a mix of emotions — happy to see many customers (tips $$$) and horrified at feeding us hungry (for ice cream), loud people!
Everyone was satisfied with their ice cream. I tried Caramel Apple Pie — which was highly recommended by Jeff W. I’m from India and there’s no Apple Pie there, so it has been an acquired taste for me. And I have to say, the ice cream was pretty darn good!
Go check it out… :)

So my wife tells me of this family that basically taught their kids that frozen peas and other vegetables was «dessert,» and the kids looked forward to their frozen treats nightly. Can someone please tell me how that is not child abuse? If I were a kid, I’d rather offer my backside to repeated thrashings than eat frozen vegetables as a treat. Needless to say, I won’t be using such cruel parenting tricks on my child, though I will tell her that buying a DS will make you go blind and dating a boy will give you testicular cancer. Anywho, since I’d rather not have a family that resembles an offensive line, I definitely need to stop finding tasty dessert places like Paradise Ice Cream. That, or I’ll have to pretend to take up golf and go out to the driving range at night, but in reality, I’m going out to get my fat on. Let’s keep this our little secret, Unilocal.
Food stuffs — fantastic flavors. The ice cream tasted very fresh and despite having a double ($ 3.95), I didn’t feel any heavier afterwards. The mocha brownie was excellent, with crumbly, chewy bits of brownie. The caramel apple pie had a great flavor but it was more ice than it was cream. The prices are a little better than Island Style (
), but I’ll pay the extra buck or two for the flavors and creaminess. And sure, they don’t mix-​in toppings in front of your eyes, a la Maggie Moo’s/Cold Stone, but the ice cream is far superior. In fact, don’t ever mention a place like this and those other stone-​y places in the same sentence in my presence.
Also, take note of their specialty cones. For $ 1.50 extra, you can get a pretzel, M&M, or other specialty cone. The pretzel cone may sound weird to some, but I’m a big fan of dipping my fries into the Frosty at Wendy’s, as salty and sweet go together like me and bacon grease.
Service — came here with a group of 20 or so Unilocalers, and the guy was incredibly friendly. That poor guy was giving out samples, scooping ice cream and taking payments for close to 40 minutes.
Location — in a strip mall near Venu’s day spa. It’s a hike from MD, and probably not worth the drive for the ³⁰¹⁄₄₁₀ crowd. The credit card machine was broken yesterday, but thankfully, there’s a 7 – 11 just across the street.
And remember, if you ever see my FB status say, «Su is golfing…,» you know what’s up… and don’t tell my kids!

Apple Pie Ice Cream. F*ck yeah.

Came here after Willard’s for some dessert (I can already see that my increasing involvement with Unilocal is going to force me back to the gym…) After deliberation I decided to go with the mocha brownie (close runners up were the mocha white chocolate cheesecake or the chocolate chocolate chip). The ice cream was delish, and props to the guy working there for not minding the Unilocal takeover… though he did finally have to turn off the lights to signal us to get out. Perfect ending to a night of gastronomic indulgence.

The brightly-​colored, kitschy tropical décor suggested Tiki bar or Jamaican/​Caribbean eatery, but actually is for ice cream. Hence the name Paradise Ice Cream. And after eating the well-​balanced flavors of the Caramel Apple Pie ice cream, I felt like I really had ice cream of paradise. If it weren’t for my attempt at hiding my Unilocal-​induced belly fat, I’d be doing the hula in a grass skirt and coconut bikini top dancing my praise of their dairy creations.

I think PC W. hit it on the head by going with the Team America theme for this one.
Jeff, Michelle, The Wife, and I walked in and were greeted by the dude behind the counter. He looked as if it were a rather sleepy day in the ice cream shop and was rather shocked when we warned him about the group that was coming.
Jeff: Hey man, what’s up?
Ice Cream Dude: Hi — what can I get for you?
Jake: Oh man — you’re in for it — we have a huge group coming.
Jeff: Yeah — there’s a lot of us.
ICD: Is this all of you? (points at the six of us)
Jake: Uh… no. About ¼?
ICD: (horrified) umm… ok, should I get started?
He seemed to have the look of a kid who had just come out of his weed high after having the police flash a badge in his face after this conversation.
I had the apple pie and banana pudding ice creams — not bad, not bad at all. I mean, seriously, in this world where all I find are things that piss me off, the apple pie ice cream gave me a woody that most of Centreville couldn’t get going. Not even Venus (pronounced vee-​noos) Massage parlor could get this going. Oh yeah — inside joke baby.
I can’t see myself driving out to Centreville from Falls Church to get this stuff unless I was on my monthly Costco run. But who knows — maybe I’ll get a hankering for apple pie ice cream and have to trot out this way. Oh, and if I want to remind myself that I overpaid for my house (they had signs for houses in the FIFTIES out there). Gah.

After dining at Catfish Lewie’s, I took an 18 mile drive for some ice cream.
Paradise Ice Cream is near a 7 – 11, and in a strip mall with a Phở joint.
You walk inside and it’s very big, bigger than a Baskin Robbins.
The other reviewers were right on their creativity. Some of their flavors are unique. I had an apple pie ice cream, which was very good. I think the person working there was the assistant manager, and she was a very nice, friendly person.
I can’t really rant too much about this place. It’s ice cream. It’s reasonably priced. Parking’s easy. And the people are friendly.
But if I had to choose between a Baskin Robbins, or even a Ben & Jerry’s vs this place, I’d go to Paradise.
Why?
For one, they’re not a ginormous chain. But the fact is the quality and flavor of their ice cream is better than what you get from 31 flavors. It’s in a location where there aren’t a lot of dessert places in general.
On a side note, the best ice cream I ever had was in Atlanta. I forget the place, but they had a brown sugar ice cream which put about 20 pounds on me, but it was well worth it.

I know it is January and who in their right mind would want to eat ice cream in January besides me, but it makes me sad how this place is always empty. This ice cream is awesome!
The flavors are so creative. They had a coffee cake ice cream that had actual pieces of coffee cake in it, which made it delicious. My personal favorite is the confetti birthday cake. I’m normally not a huge fan of the cake batter style of ice cream, but this stuff is awesome.
Hal (the guy that works there) is so friendly he is always willing to talk about his ice cream and give you plenty of samples. He also takes suggestions for new flavors (like cappucino and oreo) and is always willing to experiment with anything
They have these things called Microbatches which are basically ice cream and fruit mixed together and forms a nice softserve texture. I tried one with candy and it left it a little soupy, which i was ok with but if you’re not i would stick to the fruit.
So if you’re like me and crave ice cream all year long, check this place out! i dont want it going anywhere