 The Ice Cream Parlour 
Ice Cream For Any Weather!
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Recommendation added: 05/05/2007 01:44
By: dewberry (YSUK rating +1061)dewberry has been thanked 8 times for this contribution
"I have elderly relatives living in Henley in Arden and, as neither of them drive, it's much easier for us to visit them than it is for them to come to Brum. A couple of weeks ago it was their wedding anniversary so I popped down to see them with my mum, a couple of presents and a particularly nasty case of pregnancy heartburn. “Ice cream”, said Auntie Mabel as soon as I mentioned it, and within minutes we were all in the car on the way to the Henley Ice Cream Parlour.
To be honest I'm possibly the only girl in the world who doesn't particularly like ice cream, if you've read my restaurant reviews before you'll see I'm more of a choc cake or apple pie kinda person but Auntie Mabel can be pretty persuasive!
We parked a short walk away and Uncle Ted pointed out a gorgeous white and black beamed building which stood out beautifully on the corner of a historical looking high street; this general area has a nice calm seaside feel to it, despite being in the landlocked Midlands! It's really the perfect location for such a sweet little tea shop as the Ice Cream Parlour.
Inside it's gorgeously traditional, decorated in neutral pastel shades with some lovely old fashioned ornaments dotted around along with olde worlde art on the walls. I like the feel of this place, it has a relaxing and calm atmosphere - in perfect fitting with such a quaint idea as an ice cream oriented tea shop. We sat near the window to take in the tranquil view of the street outside and looked through the ice cream menu.
Let me tell you now, the Henley Ice Cream Parlour is NOT Mr Whippy. If you have trouble deciding whether to eat the strawberry or chocolate strip first out of a Neopolitan then you'll definitely have problems choosing from their ice cream menu. Wow, this place serves no less (possibly more) than 30 different flavours and varieties of ice cream from bog standard Vanilla or Chocolate to the wonderfully exotic sounding Coconut & Pineapple and Morello Cherry. When you're eating in you order it by the scoop served in a proper dish with a spoon; you can have as many scoops of a single flavour as you like, or mix scoops of different flavour ice creams. You can also buy take outs of ice cream in either large tubs or multipacks of individual ice cream pots, although there isn't as much choice of flavours as if you're eating in the tea shop.
I adore anything coffee flavoured so the obvious choice for me was their Cappuccino ice cream, which I quickly paired with a scoop of Morello Cherry and a third scoop of Pralines & Cream. The lady who took my order actually commented that this was a good combination of flavours and she really seemed to know her stuff regarding the ice cream - I'd bet if someone tried to order something weird she'd let them know it was possibly going to be a bad choice! Gotta love honest staff like that! We were offered a choice of toppings, wafers and sauces with no pressure to order an extras, although she suggested a sprinkling of chopped nuts on the Cappuccino portion of my ice cream.
You know what? Forget what I said further up about not liking ice cream, if all ice cream tasted like this I'd be as hooked as the rest of you. The ice cream is full of flavour, tasting true to its name with a strong natural aftertaste. Each ice cream is totally individual too with the different flavours and varieties having their own specific texture and characteristics. That sounds totally bizarre I know, but it's like ice cream is more a science than a snack in the Ice Cream Parlour. My three scoops were all perfect; the Cappuccino and Pralines & Cream flavours were both rich and creamy while the Morello Cherry was a thinner, more delicate ice cream and intensely fruity. There was a distinct flavour of double cream in the Cappuccino ice cream while the Pralines one had a smattering of ultra finely chopped nuts embedded into the actual ice cream.
My mum's diabetic so we were pleased to see the Ice Cream Parlour offers a range of special diabetic ice creams, of a more basic selection than the standard range but as she's a Vanilla and Strawberry fan she was happy. She said it was much nicer than her usual supermarket diabetic ice cream and if she hadn't known it wasn't 'proper' ice cream she wouldn't have been sure; she commented on how natural the flavours tasted and also how fruity the Strawberry variety was. This is definitely one of the jewels in the Ice Cream Parlours crown as how many restaurants or cafes can you think of that serve *decent* diabetic food?
You can also choose from a selection of frozen yogurt and sorbets, my Uncle (who's watching his weight as well as his cholesterol) had a sorbet which looked both refreshing and delicious. Again these are served by the scoop and you're encouraged to order a mix and match selection.
The tea shop also serves a range of hot and cold light meals if you're looking for something more substantial than ice cream. To be honest I wasn't even aware of the fact that I could order anything with a temperature of above freezing in this place until 5 minutes before we were leaving when mum pointed out a chap eating a full English fry up! I was much too engrossed on the cold stuff to concentrate on the food menu, but I saw people eating baguettes, tea cakes and scones so I'm thinking it's the kind of place to stop in for a cup of tea and a quick snack rather than somewhere to come for a hearty meal.
The prices in the Ice Cream Parlour aren't too bad, it's definitely not the cheapest way to experience ice cream but the settings and the sheer excellent quality of their ice cream makes up for the slightly inflated prices. I actually didn't work out the price per item as I'd decided to treat us all as a small scale anniversary celebration, but if I tell you I ordered a total of six scoops of ice cream, three scoops each of diabetic ice cream and fruit sorbet plus four pots of tea and our bill was a smidgen below £14 - sounds pricey for ice cream but based on quality, flavour and the lovely atmosphere inside made it fantastic value for money as far as I'm concerned.
Disabled access is fine to a certain extent; there's an upstairs section of the tea shop which looked to be completely inaccessible to wheelchair users and families with pushchairs but providing you're happy to sit downstairs you'll be ok! To be fair the downstairs section is exactly the same and wheelchair access probably wouldn't be a viable option in order to preserve both the limited space and authenticity of the Parlour. There is plenty of room to get around inside as the space between the tables is wide and there are no awkward turns or steps to navigate.
On a bit of a tangent, Henley in Arden is generally a beautiful place and overlooked by the summer day trip crowd so if you're in the area and spot the signs for Henley then do take a detour and spend a couple of hours wondering around. Just remember to pop into the Henley Ice Cream Parlour before you leave, your taste buds will thank you for it.
Finding the Ice Cream Parlour is easy. We approached from the M42 motorway, getting off at Junction 4 and following the signs for Henley in Arden. Once you're aware you're in the centre of town you'll find yourself on High Street, and the Ice Cream Parlour is right next to the historical Heritage Centre on the corner of High Street and School Road.
Henley Ice Cream Parlour
152 High Street
Henley In Arden
Warwickshire
B95 5BS
Tel: 01564 795172"
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