The Parlor Ice Cream Puffs

Yep, I’m totally a fan for this ice cream parlor location right here at the Arden-​Arcade neighborhood in Sacramento! With over 670 Unilocal reviews and counting, the «Parlor Ice Cream Puffs» brings the customers to experience the irresistible duo dessert combining your choice of ice cream and toppings by adding this flaky pastries of all time. On 6÷2÷2016, as I headed for this location for the first time, the atmosphere is quite modern and elegant as I welcomed. The concept is much like visiting to Vampire Penguin meets Gunther’s and Baker’s Donuts combined into a sensational product.
The employees are doing a fantastic job for making the customers like me a great service. No cons at all.
Now onto the food! To start, I picked a choice of ice cream flavors which I picked that flavor called, «Midnight in Paris» which it contains chocolate or coffee flavored ice cream with almonds. Then, I picked unlimited amount of toppings (costs 50 cents extra) which I added colored sprinkles, more almonds, pecans, etc. Once it’s completed, the server added and finished with a glazed donut by attaching it on the hole while it pressed it in. Topped with a powdered sugar, it became a magical dream dessert as I created my own ice cream donut sandwich! As I ate it, it tasted sensational after creating it. Very flavorful, crunchy, gooey, smooth, and remarkably good as I can feel the ingredients combined. Not a bad dessert meal at all during in a hot, summer day!
There’s a good parking spots available, but it’s quite limited here, so go there early before the doors open. You can also ride a bike, walk, or use public transportation easier without the hassles.
In the end, The Parlor Ice Cream Puffs is the most wickest local ice cream shop that I’ve ever tired for the very first time! I’ll mostly come back for more if the summer heat occurs. A must visit for all ages! My rating: 4 solid stars.

Love love the ice cream donuts they have here!!! Seriously a huge desert person and they’re not expensive at all! My favorite ice cream flavor has to be the mint ice cream with Oreo cookies in them!

For some reason, I imagined something the size of Fenton’s…not sure where that came from. I came for the first time after a birthday dinner a couple miles away, and was confused as to how it all worked when I walked in. Then my friends told me there was a sign on the ice cream case (out of sight from the door, and small) that showed the pricing for an ice cream puff versus waffle versus whatever else they have.
— FOOD
I sampled a few flavors and decided to go with the (oddly blue) 50 Shades of Earl Grey as a puff with no toppings. Clever name, although idk why anyone would want to name an ice cream after a story like that…(haven’t read, just heard things). They scoop the ice cream onto pre-​sliced doughnuts, and then hand it to someone in the back so it can be pressed and warmed before it’s handed to the cashier for you. Mine was ugly — it looked like a pair of lips after someone ate a blue Icee. BUT it did taste good. Just couldn’t get a nice photo out of it. The warm doughnut was nice against the cold ice cream, though it was a struggle to eat — melting everywhere, my paper bag started leaking, and by the end, it was too sweet. :(
— MISC
I was really thrown off by why the sign with ordering options and prices was not in line of sight with the door. Otherwise, the workers were friendly and service was quick. There’s a decent amount of seating inside, and some outside as well. $$ not because you’re going to pay more than $ 10, but because I think it’s a little pricey for what it is.
I’d swing through again if I were in the area and if someone really wanted to go, but wouldn’t go out of my way.

If your in the mood for a sugar load, this is the perfect fix of good and bad. I have a sweet tooth, but one whole doughnut felt like it was a bit much, and half a doughnut would be perfect! Next time I want to try the macaroons. Great place and seems like a positive environment. The price is a little steep to pay almost $ 5 for a doughnut though, when you could get a great doughnut for under a buck and get a pint of ice cream for roughly the same price.

Just went here last night and was pretty disappointed.
I love both inventive ice cream flavors and donuts. Together I thought they would be amazing, kind of like fruitcake. But who the hell likes fruitcake?
I think the dude who was putting together the ice cream puff just didn’t do his job correctly; all of the pictures I see on Unilocal have the donut sort of surrounding all of the ice cream. Kind of like they injected the ice cream into the donut.
The one I had, was nothing like that and the ice cream was spilling out everywhere. Everywhere. He must’ve kept it in the press too long. I honestly had to throw like ¼ of it in the trash because it was a total loss, too far gone and not worth the trouble anymore. Sad day.
The ice cream I got — thai tease and fifty shades of earl grey — were very good though. I guess next time I’d opt for it just in a waffle cone, but it’s a little expensive just for that though.

Definitely worth the hype!
Ordered the Chaco taco ice cream puff — yummy, warm doughnuts, with ice cream filling.
Hubby ordered green tea and earl grey ice cream scoops. The green tea was okay, but the earl grey was on point.

Delicious!
The doughnut was so warm the ice cream started to melt, but the ice cream was so good that I wanted to eat it slowly. I might get just ice cream next time so I can really savor it. Definitely will be bringing friends back!

This is my second time coming here. I love the location, the inside is beautiful, but the menu was hard to understand. I Unilocaled this location and I’ve seen pictures of macaroons that they didn’t have last night when I visited this place. There’s also a hidden menu/​price on the side when you walk closer to the ice cream area and I didn’t want an Ice cream cup. I ended up getting cake batter (¹⁰⁄₁₀) with captain crunch on top. If I seen the menu a lot better than creeping around the corner I would have got a donut or a puff. Sadly, I had to try one more time to get my order right. Other than that… it’s busy at night so stop by in the afternoon.

Ok, well… My experience was pretty good. My husband and I came here for the first time last night and we needed to figure out what ice cream we wanted, and at the same time figure out the whole donut-​ice cream puff thang.
We felt like we were being rushed. I got several *looks* from the girls behind the counter. You know the looks I’m talking about. You feel like you have to just pick something! So we did & kept an optimistic attitude. When we got to the check out, the girl there was the same way. Not very good customer service.
You’ll see in just about all of my reviews, I give slack if I was given great customer service because it’s hard to find sometimes. For this place, it’s the opposite. I’m giving slack because I actually enjoyed the ice cream donut puff. The ice cream was good and unique (which is why it would have been nice to explore more). Also, the pricing was very fair compared to what I’ve seen. We spent $ 6 total. I’d say that’s fair.
Just as a note, they have about 10 – 12 flavors of ice cream, and I believe you can pick different donuts to go with it as well.
Overall it was a pretty good experience. I think we would come back, but we would have to really be in the mood.

Donut. Ice cream. Panini press. Toppings
What more could you possibly want?
This place is heavenly. The staff is friendly and their creations will satisfy any craving.

Really delicious!
I had seen people post pictures of this place many times and my boyfriend wanted to finally try it! The shop is the cutest place ever. Looks like an ice cream shop that is so inviting and wanting you to try their ice cream puffs!
They’re known for their ice cream puffs which are ice cream of your choice put into a warm soft doughnut. And my goodness, the warmness of the doughnut was so perfect with the ice cream. They also give you the option to put toppings on it for 50 cent more I believe.
I got the Thai Tease puff which is vanilla ice cream with a thai tea surprise. We loved every bite. It was so creamy and perfect. The taste actually had thai tea flavors but could taste the vanilla. Perfect.
We really loved this place and cant wait to come back for more! Prices are reasonable and are not too high. You can get ice cream in a cup, but i would recommend getting the puffs! They dont have normal flavor ice cream, because well. Its a different kind of ice cream shop! You’ll love every bit of it!

The best ice cream I have ever had! They even have a puffle which is a donut put in the waffle maker and toasted. It was a lot of ice cream so I split one with my friend. They had a mint flavour mixed with crushed Oreos and a taro flavour mixes with coconut so naturally I had to get both. SO GOOD!

FOOD
— Everything But The… Ice Cream Puff: vanilla ice cream with caramel, pretzels, and fudge bits in a unglazed donut. The ice cream was good, though I didn’t taste any pretzels and hardly and fudge bits. The donut was good and surprisingly sweet even though it wasn’t glazed. ⁴⁄₅
— Midnight in Paris Ice Cream Puff: coffee ice cream with Nutella swirls in a glazed donut. The ice cream was good, it had a good balance between coffee and Nutella flavors. The glazed donut was good, as well. It was slightly sweeter than the plain donut. ⁴⁄₅
SERVICE
Fast and fair. I was excited to use the Unilocal deal until I read the fine print. The deal is only valid between noon and 6pm. There’s minimal indoor seating and no outdoor seatings. 3.5÷5
FINAL THOUGHTS
Good but I wasn’t wowed. I didn’t expect to be though. I didn’t think the ice cream puffs were too sweet, but then again, I have a huge sweet tooth.

The parlor has what is basically an ice cream sandwich made out of ice cream in between a donut, and it is amazing. You pick the flavor of ice cream, whether you want a regular or a glazed donut (definitely glazed), add in your mix-​ins, and then they toast it for you. It makes the ice cream nice and melty without being too messy. But of course, because of the glazed donut, your fingers get a little sticky, but they’ve even thought of that because they have moist towelettes available for after you finish. Basically, I’m going to have trouble not coming back here every other day now.
I give the Parlor 5 out of 5 cream puffs!

The customer service at this location far exceeds all the others — but I still think the Parlor is just okay.
I thought I’d be a huge fan of ice cream donuts because I love donuts and I would kill for ice cream. The ice cream’s decent but the donuts are just REALLY way too sweet. I kind of wish they had different flavors of donuts or sweetness levels — something to really help cut through the creaminess of the ice cream because that donut flavor where it is now just adds too much sweet flavor to an already sweet treat!
If you’re coming here for the first time you might enjoy trying the taro ice cream in a puff, it’s delicious and I feel like the taro is a mild enough flavor that the donut doesn’t taste super sweet with it. I’d avoid the mint — it’s tastes really artificial.
So the bright side about this place is that the employees are nice and very patient about you trying samples — if you want to try all the flavors, go for it here! The downside is I’m just not a huge fan of how overly sweet the whole donut-​ice cream concoction is. BUT the taro ice cream was really good so I’ll be back for that!

After a long day taking our buddy’s kid to play in Coloma, all I wanted was to chill out with some ice cream. Searched on Unilocal and found one that stuffs their ice cream in donuts… need I say more???
Located on the corner of Fair Oaks and Munroe is The Parlor Ice Cream Puffs! It’s tucked in between a pretty outdated-​looking plaza. I thought that for something so hype, it would be located at a more hip/​trendy location. Oh well, that only means less of a crowd for us customers!
Inside, it’s pretty small. Think pop-​up boba spot size.
The SO and I ordered:
Double scoop Everything But The… on a waffle cone
Hello Kalo Puff
Total came to about $ 10, which is aight. I mean, an average glazed donut is like, what, $ 0.89? and the ice cream I believe is made by Gunther’s. An average scoop on a cone would be like $ 3 – 4. Not bad at all.
Taste-​wise is where I’m kind of meh. Since I got a puff, my ice cream was enclosed in a sweet glazed donut. The two sweet things together totally canceled out and I was left with just a cloyingly cold taste in my mouth.** I could not detect the taro flavor nor the coconut or condensed milk in the ice cream. Sad boi.
**Next time I’ll probably ask for a non-​glazed donut so I could still get the crispy outside puff texture, but still taste the ice cream interior. This will have to be my science experiment of the year: Perfect the Parlor Ice Cream Puff by trial and error. #I’malittlefatgirl
Customer service was so-​so. Our scooper dude was super friendly and nice, but our cashier didn’t seem too cordial. She kinda just wanted to do her job and leave. Wah.
In the end, will I come back? For the sake of the «science experiment» I mentioned above, sure. Otherwise, I think I’m cool off it as a one-​time try.

My nephew is a lover of sweets so I found this place by his school and the whole ice cream in the doughnut enticed me. So when my Nieces came to town on a rainy day we went and checked it out.
I died… they had Halo Halo (Hello Kalo) which is definelty one of my top 3 ice cream flavors. None of got the ice cream in the doughnut but we loved everything we got. The Hello Kallo and the Choco Taco were super dee-​lish.

Great concept but expected more from a place with a line out the door.
I’ll got the «everything but the…» single scoop with a waffle cone.
First the pros… Loved that the waffle cone was only additional .50 and it was pretty large. Also, $ 3.25 for a single scoop for the win… Super cheap and they really pack it in-​a «single» scoop is HUGE.
The cons… The ice cream just wasn’t very good. It was supposed to be vanilla with crunchy pretzel, caramel, and chocolate but I barely got any caramel or chocolate. The «crunchy» pretzel was just hard, cold, and chewy (which i should have anticipated considering the medium it came in). The vanilla also had ice crystals.
Conclusion: cheap and good value for the $ but don’t expect gourmet ice cream and maybe consider hiding the ice cream in their pastry option.

After hearing a lot about this place and the popularity of the newest ice cream puff fad, Joe K. brought me to this shop to finally experience it first hand. It’s located in a small strip mall that doesn’t have a lot of availability for parking, since many of the adjoining businesses have to share the same lot. Fortunately, we were there on a slow Sunday afternoon and found a space at the far end.
As we entered, the line of customers was fairly short, and I noticed that they had a lot of delicious choices on their wall menu. At first we didn’t see anything about ice cream puffs until we got closer to the order counter and found our attention drawn to the left. That’s where we spotted another wall menu listing the ice cream puff selections. As soon as I reached the counter to place my order, I suddenly couldn’t decide what I wanted and didn’t want to hold up other customers. We had just eaten a big lunch not too long prior, and the thought of having a donut with ice cream in it seemed too heavy for my stomach to handle, so I ended up ordering my favorite old standby of chocolate chip mint in a sugar cone. But Joe, being a manly man, was able to get an ice cream puff for himself.
We sat on a bench along the elongated, narrow room of the shop and quietly ate our desserts. But after about 5 minutes of calm, it seemed like a bus load of people arrived and formed a long line towards the counter. The noise level in the room increased pretty quickly, and I felt a little uncomfortable eating and having to face others sitting and/​or standing across from us. I was able to sample Joe’s ice cream puff and thought it was tasty, but I was certain that I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it on an already full stomach. Hopefully we can return again when in the area, so I can actually try one out to give a better opinion on this unusual combo. But I have to say that my ice cream and it’s traditional cone was good enough to eat!

A cute & tiny parlor indeed and there were only 3 tables inside, 2 chairs each. There is also benches along the wall that face inside, a little awkward since you’ll be talking to people right next to you instead of in front of you. Line moves fairly quickly, go on their Tuesday deals and get a $ 1 off of everything. Love how colorful the ice cream is, thank you Gunther’s Ice Cream and the best part, for only 50 cents more, you get endless toppings! (:
I love that they have the Earl Grey flavor, big fan of the color as well! However, you can’t even taste the Earl Grey in a donut as the sweetness of the donut overpowers everything else… This time around, I opted for just a scoop in a cup instead of the donut. Much better since you can actually taste the tea flavor this time!
My bf loved the donut ice cream combination a lot for his first time and ate it quickly before it melted. He got the Hello Halo I believe with cookie crisps, he said he had cookies in every bite! Parking is packed on their Tuesday deals and peak hours, so it can be difficult to find. No bathroom here fyi!
One of my favorite places to stop by while I’m in Sacramento for dessert (: