Swensens

[ctrunfree]

I guess I'm just naturally nosy, but I'd be interested if anyone knows how there came to be two Swensens in the Airport Plaza- its not as though either appear to be overflowing with customers...

[Greenside]

They added the top floor branch to take advantage of the people waiting to go into the movies (or get away from the deafening noise from those football machines).

[Ulysses G.]

They used to have plenty of customers. Maybe the world economy and lack of tourists has hit them too?

[gotlost]

For the same reason there are two COSMO Petrol Stations on the north side of the 118 going towards Doi Saket within 100 meters of each other. The first one is about 20 satang cheaper. Go figure

[Ulysses G.]

The ice cream at Butter is Better is better and much cheaper, but they usually only have 2 or 3 flavors at a time.

[Greenside]

The ice cream at Butter is Better is better and much cheaper, but they usually only have 2 or 3 flavors at a time.

I think the best ice cream in town at the moment is Piccalo in the basement of Airport Plaza by the up escalator at the Robinson's end or Sesto at Rimping Riverside (Buenissimo's excellent chocolate excepted, although I still haven't found his new shop yet).

Whatever happened to Ice Chic with all those trendy (and doubtless pricey) Vespa style seats?

Edited December 16, 2010 by Greenside

[ctrunfree]

I'm presuming the two Airport Plaza branches must have common ownership, rather than being separate franchises- if the latter you'd expect some exclusivity arrangement as part of the deal..

Edited December 16, 2010 by ctrunfree

[Ulysses G.]

Whatever happened to Ice Chic with all those trendy (and doubtless pricey) Vespa style seats?

I've never been able to find the place, but got a good report just yesterday on their blueberry cheesecake ice cream, so they are still around.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Ulysses G.

[elektrified]

They used to have plenty of customers. Maybe the world economy and lack of tourists has hit them too?

Possibly. But the Swensens at Carrefour is always packed with Thais. I tried it once and thought that everything was much too sweet and artificial tasting.

[LarryBird]

Both seem to be pretty busy. Either that, or they just want to increase overhead.

[LarryBird]

Whatever happened to Ice Chic with all those trendy (and doubtless pricey) Vespa style seats?

I've never been able to find the place, but got a good report just yesterday on their blueberry cheesecake ice cream, so they are still around.

Ice Chic is off of nimanheamen soi 13 . (2 roads away from kuhn mohrs cuisine..)

[SwaziBird]

My wife and I go to the lower ground Swensens at Airport Plaza pretty frequently as we do at the Kad Suan Kaew branch. Sure, there're times when they're not too busy but most times we visit they're pretty well patronised. As for the week-ends, one queues for a table.

We love the huge range of flavours and their specials under 60 baht are always acceptable, especially if you hold a card ( gifted when they redeem the purchase price for a free icecream sundae )and they take a further 10% off automatically as well as giving you two scoops for the price of one a few times a month.

Also like their prompt service and continuous topping-up of cold water

If you like their ice-creams there's not a much better deal going on in town.

Just don't go on the week-ends expecting empty tables.

If you don't like Swensens, well...you don't like them.

Cheers.

[nikster]

They used to have plenty of customers. Maybe the world economy and lack of tourists has hit them too?

Or people suddenly had an epiphany and figured out that Swensen's is crap

[nikster]

Whatever happened to Ice Chic with all those trendy (and doubtless pricey) Vespa style seats?

I've never been able to find the place, but got a good report just yesterday on their blueberry cheesecake ice cream, so they are still around.

Ice Chic is off of nimanheamen soi 13 . (2 roads away from kuhn mohrs cuisine..)

Nice ice cream, I went there once. Not sure it's better than the various other Italian Ice cream chains that seem to pop up everywhere, but it was quite good. Clearly better than the American chains, and also better than any Thai ice cream I know, the best of which is probably iBerry. I should try again actually. Ice Chic now also has pasta / italian foods.

With all the italians popping up everywhere, I think Thailand is in the middle of an ice cream revolution, actually. Reminds me of the time when Nescafe got replaced by espresso machines all over the country - that didn't take long at all. One or two years it went from "it's really hard to find the very special fresh coffee" to espresso machines on ever corner.

[Ulysses G.]

With all the italians popping up everywhere, I think Thailand is in the middle of an ice cream revolution, actually.

I'm pretty sure that the owner of Ice Chic is either American or English, but I could be wrong. I thought that I met her when she was planning the place.

As far as the Italian ice cream in Thailand being any better than Hagen Daz or Baskin Robbins, I respectfully disagree. A lot of it is uninspired to say the least.

[Ulysses G.]

They used to have plenty of customers. Maybe the world economy and lack of tourists has hit them too?

Possibly. But the Swensens at Carrefour is always packed with Thais. I tried it once and thought that everything was much too sweet and artificial tasting.

It tastes fine to me. It is marketed as all natural and I could not find anything on the Internet to dispute this. However, if you don't like the taste, that is your business.

[el jefe]

With all the italians popping up everywhere, I think Thailand is in the middle of an ice cream revolution, actually.

I'm pretty sure that the owner of Ice Chic is either American or English, but I could be wrong. I thought that I met her when she was planning the place.

As far as the Italian ice cream in Thailand being any better than Hagen Daz or Baskin Robbins, I respectfully disagree. A lot of it is uninspired to say the least.

I'm not sure if she's the manager or the owner, but yes, Mary is American.

And just to nitpick an earlier post by Khun Bird, Ice Chic is NOT "off of" Nimmanhaemin Soi 13. It's ON Soi 13. There is also an entrance on Soi 11 with a nice garden.

All that said, their Italian Ice cream, while very good, is overpriced.

[Asmerom]

(Buenissimo's excellent chocolate excepted, although I still haven't found his new shop yet).

Really! How's that then? I've just lifted these clear directions from a previous thead. So, no excuse now.

"If you are heading south on Chang Klan Road you will pass the entrance to Chiang Mai Land on your right. About another 100 or so meters on the left you will see a sign for Smart Karate (or maybe it's Smart Tae Kwan Do). At this corner there is also a building housing the Caffe D'Amore whose sign fronts the soi and the Health and Beauty Shop whose sign fronts the Chang Klan Road. Turn left here. Buonissimo's will be about 50 meters down on the left hand side. Miles of wine shelves.

[nikster]

With all the italians popping up everywhere, I think Thailand is in the middle of an ice cream revolution, actually.

I'm pretty sure that the owner of Ice Chic is either American or English, but I could be wrong. I thought that I met her when she was planning the place.

As far as the Italian ice cream in Thailand being any better than Hagen Daz or Baskin Robbins, I respectfully disagree. A lot of it is uninspired to say the least.

Not better than Hagen Daz but also not 200 baht / scoop. I don't mind paying for good food but $6 for a single scoop is excessive. Baskin Robbins, I didn't know it's good, I should try! I thought it's similar Swensen's and other world wide chains...

[Ulysses G.]

I agree that Hagan Daz is too expensive. Baskin Robbins is about as good quality-wise, but cheaper.

The best ice cream that I know of in Chiang Mai is at Butter is Better for only 20 baht a scoop. There are only a few flavors at a time, but I love most of them.

[ThaiWx]

I'm content waiting for the little cutie pushing the Thai ice cream barrell down the soi and ordering a cup full of the coconut ice cream. mmmmm, love Thai coconut ice cream and cheap too. I also prefer the cup versus the hotdog bun though.

[ctrunfree]

I'm content waiting for the little cutie pushing the Thai ice cream barrell down the soi and ordering a cup full of the coconut ice cream. mmmmm, love Thai coconut ice cream and cheap too. I also prefer the cup versus the hotdog bun though.

Speaking of coconut icecream, the coconut icecream shake at the Artist Cafe is excellent!

[butterisbetter]

The ice cream at Butter is Better is better and much cheaper, but they usually only have 2 or 3 flavors at a time.

Actually, we now offer 4 flavors: Dulce de Leche, French Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, & Passion Fruit.