Ever wondered why Baskin Robbins never really picked up here in Sri Lanka? We did, and now we know exactly why.. It's like spending 300 bucks for a scoop of Elephant House ice cream.
Flavours & Variety
Being the largest ice cream shop franchise in the world you'd think the standards would be high, but we don't find it that competitive, either with our high end local ice creams or the grocery variety. A single scoop costs you Rs. 300, which is the same as Il Gelato and three scoops costs more (Rs. 900 as opposed to Rs. 725). Only problem is that it doesn't taste nearly as good. Actually, we prefer the premium ranges from Cargills and Elephant House, which are way cheaper to boot. Baskin Robbins has around 24 flavours of which we sampled a few with the tiny yoghurt spoon. They've given them fancy names but most of the chocolate flavours tasted very similar and the same can be said for the fruit variations.
After sampling we'd already lost any semblance of excitement we had, but we went ahead and got a three scoop sundae (Rs. 900) with strawberry sorbet, swiss chocolate and butterscotch. Don't be fooled by the word "sundae" here, 'cause it's just ice cream with sprinkles. The butterscotch was the only one that we actually enjoyed a bit here. The Swiss chocolate was frozen to the point where we had to thaw it with the spoon, and the strawberry sorbet tasted more or less like crushed ice. I stared at it for like ten minutes trying to figure out what we just paid 900 bucks for.
How hard is it to make a milkshake, right? Not easy, apparently. From what we got, it seems they take the milk part of the word very seriously because that's pretty much all we tasted, with a hint of caramel.
Ambience and Service
There really wasn't a saving grace for these guys. The place is in a really sorry state, with torn couch cushions, a hella dodgy play castle and just a generally run down look to it.
There were 2 employees when we went. One was young and energetic but he just cleaned the place from what we saw. The other one was rude, looked depressed and just really didn't care. We ordered the milkshake and the ice cream together, but by the time he finished making the shake he had forgotten about the sundae which we had to remind him about.
Conclusion
From what we experienced, the Baskin Robbins on Galle Road is run-down and not a good value for money. They managed to disappoint us in pretty much every department, while charging us Rs. 1400 for a three scoop sundae and milkshake.
