Carl’s Ice Cream Factory

When I first moved to Bloomington/​Normal, Carl’s was the place I would go to get ice cream. I would always take friends there when they came to visit. However, I noticed over time that the service has progressively gotten worse.
This past Saturday was the last time I will go ever go to Carl’s. My girlfriend and I walked in and none of the employees acknowledged us. Ok, fine. I’ll take the time to look over the selections while I wait. A few minutes later a family walks in. One of the employees turns around says to them, «I’ll be with you in a minute.» Mind you, they weren’t even standing near the counter. They were standing closer to the seating area scanning the menu. I walked out when she began taking their order. I would have thought it was a simple mistake if I wasn’t I standing between the family and the employee.
I can get similar ice cream at an establishment that has much better service.

I’ve been to this location maybe only twice because the customer service is so bad. You go inside to oder enjoy the day out and the whole staff acts like they don’t notice you come in and this has happen each visit. It’s sad the way they act. The last place I want to go for ice cream is this place, all the other place have way better service and the ice cream at other places is just as tasty. I don’t recommend going here food and ice cream is just as good else where and service is much better. Rather have a good experience when you make the effort to go out with family and spend money on treating them.

Food isn’t great and prices are high. Customer service isn’t great. I agree that the teenagers does not adequate training/​supervision. I will say when I had an issue I went in and personally spoke with the manager and she was very kind and resolved the issue.

Best ice cream in town! Great blast from the past, classic ice cream shop. Love it!

I went today for lunch because I had a coupon for the Ribeye Sandwich. I LOVED this sandwich. The meat was moist, not chewy and seasoned just right. I highly recommend getting the ribeye sandwich. Yum!

I visit Carl’s in Bloomington at least once a week in the summer for ice cream. Recently on my way to a sporting event I swung by the drive thru in Normal and ordered cheeseburgers. To my surprise, the burgers were fantastic. A side of coleslaw came with the combo and it was very tasty, and fries were good, but they did have an «old grease» flavor; I’m sure most people wouldn’t have even noticed that, but I did. Overall, the burgers and fries were good and I will order them again.

Best local ice cream in BLONO. Two location, but I have only been to the one on college. Blows DQ out of the water. The food is not that bad either.
Ice cream– 5 stars
Food — 2 stars

best soft serve in town. just as good as gene’s why people choose between the two, i don’t know. they’re both terrific.

My go-​to place for ice cream. It’s comparatively cheap to other ice cream shops which is a huge plus, and I’m pretty sure it’s homemade ice cream. My favorite flavor is Mudpie. Coffee ice cream with Oreo’s (the WHOLE Oreo crushed up, not just the Oreo crumbs) and peanuts. Mmm. It’s often busy, but worth the wait. I was even given a free ice cream once because I wanted something super small and there was a short line.

Great place to get a sweet treat! Have a yogurt flavor ever week. Lots of ice cream to choose from. Pretty good burgers and fries too.

Carl’s! Yum! Birthday Cake Ice Cream! Loved coming here with friends for a little treat. You are such a great local small town place. Way to get yourself featured in a national Mitsubishi commercial! I was so excited when I saw that.

Three words: PUMPKIN ICE CREAM!
Gotta love central Illinois and the beginning of fall! They do pumpkin ice cream right! And if they can knock this unique flavor out the park, I’m sure the other common flavors are top notch!
I’ll certainly be back to try their food and of course more of their home made deliciousness they call ice cream and shakes!

Made a visit on a Sunday night with the family. Each tried a different flavor of homemade hard ice cream. Excellent! My peanut butter cup rivaled both the mint choc chip and white choc almond — their choices. Family friendly, great seating, clean and friendly staff. From the photo you can see one of the ‘scoopers’ added a funny face with sprinkles for my daughter since she didn’t realize sprinkles only come with soft serve! :)

Most people familiar with Bloomington know of Carl’s Ice Cream on Locust and Oak. It’s the old shed-​style seasonal ice cream place with zilch for indoor seating and little outdoor seating.
This new location now serves grill food in addition to their famous ice cream. The burgers are Steak n Shake style (thin patties=double isn’t obnoxiously large) and they are made to order. The fries are thin and crisply battered. There’s another restaurant that has fries very similar to these — help me out if you can think of where.
In addition to food, the Carl’s on College has added seating. There’s room for maybe 50 people indoors and about the same outdoors. This building used to be a bank but turns out it works well for serving up ice cream as well. There’s even a drive through (though oddly no ATM).
The ice cream is the same goodness as the original Carl’s. There are plenty of reviews of that spot so check out those reviews if you’re looking for ice cream suggestions.