Harris & James in Waveney

The place is definitely popular as there were two queues from different doors so confusing from the beginning. They must have been closing down as there were different flavours on each side and the servers seemed to be rushing to call last order. The gelato was delicious though, just not sure if it makes up for the wait and price.

Really delicious gelato!! I had the salted caramel gelato and was given a very generous portion. It was creamy and yummy! I came back the next day to get another one. Had a wide range of other flavours too. Would defo recommend this place for ice cream.

Amazing gelato from this place. Lots of flavours to choose from. They also offer, a range of tasty treats as well, but we only had room for the gelato. The single cone was huge and the chocolate ripple was to die for.

This place seems to have a constant stream of visitors queuing all the way out of the door. They are always busy serving enormous cones of home made ice cream of pretty much every flavour you can think of. It is clearly popular and the ice cream is probably the best I've had. If you are in Southwold, this should be on your list of places to visit.

Ice cream was tasty but at 2.95 for one small scoop in a tub it is very expensive. This seems like a trend for all of the food establishments we encountered in Southwold.

They highlight that there's is GELATO and therefore creamier than ice-cream. I'm Italian and GELATO is the translation of ice-cream. What is important, both in Italy and the UK is flavour. I had 2 flavours and they tasted of absolutely nothing. They were creamy, yes, but I didn't even realize I had finished one flavour and started with the other. Both flavours were just cold!

We visited here today because I was craving a proper Ice-cream after having very disappointing fish and chips in Aldeburgh. The selection of Ice-cream and sweet treats is amazing! They sell coffee, biscuits and other things too but my eyes were on the ice cream only. I chose a 2 scoop cone, one scoop mint and the other rum and raisin. My partner had a pistachio 2 scoop. Both were unreal!! The mint wasn’t too sweet and none of the artificial taste that you can get with the mint flavouring sometimes. The rum and raisin was slightly sweeter but the flavour was sooo good! The pistachio was very tasty too (of course I tried his too!) but I preferred my selection. We will be going back for more this weekend! I just wish they had a shop closer to Ipswich.

We always have Southwold fish and chips, followed by a gelato, on our family day trips to Walberswick crabbing and Southwold pier/beach. One granddaughter has an egg allergy, and on asking which ice cream flavours she would be able to have, the staff were very helpful and had the information on hand. Once she had decided, they went to the store for a fresh batch, just to ensure there was no contamination. We were impressed. We visit several times a year, and always have a gelato (or two!!)

It was a miserable, wet day but we were at the seaside so had to call for the obligatory ice cream (we’d already done the fish and chips!). There’s a very good selection of flavours and, although I was spoiled for choice, I finally settled on a cone of salted caramel whilst my son-in-law had raspberry ripple and my young granddaughter had vanilla. Delicious! The scoops are really large and, at £3.95 for a cone, it’s reasonable value for money. There’s some lovely goodies in the shop, too, including lots of gorgeous chocolate treats, biscuits and festive gifts. However, service wasn't the best and a couple of staff members didn't seem particularly happy, with one being noticeably abrupt and unnecessarily sharp with another customer.

Doughnuts were ‘best ever’ according to our Feb year old (who, to be fair as tasted a lot of doughnuts in his short life so is some what of a doughnut king). Light as air with a crispy, sugary shell. Made to order and utterly delicious. Next time, we will try the incredible looking gelato (with a side order of a doughnut).

Amazing, yummy with so much choice! Welcoming & friendly. Super helpful & customer focused. My Hubbie & I found this by chance as it is just off the main streets in Southwold. So glad we did. The super friendly young brown haired lady served us. I was undecided between the pistachio & Bakewell tart gelato so I was offered to try both first. How nice was that! I decided on Bakewell tart in a cup, Hubbie had the mint chocolate, both were super yummy!

The gelato here is truly wonderful, tasty and creamy and a wonderful selection of flavours. We have been here 2 weeks and have gone every day, so far. My favourite flavour is Key Lime Pie although the wonderfully textured strawberry and peanutty have pushed it close. Staff are so friendly and have been happy to give us a taste if we couldn't make up our minds.

Great selection of delicious ice creams Portion sizes single scoop or double scoop more than enough !!!!! Went twice in one day very friendly and helpful staff .

We tried various flavours of ice cream and sorbet and all were in our opinion incredibly sweet and very artificial in flavour. Even the lemon sorbet was sweet and almost milky. The coffee and hot chocolate however were very good.

Lovely ice cream, lovely doughnuts. Bad service, verging on rude. Would recommend and hope for more personable and polite service.

The ice cream is tasty and many flavours to choose from. The doughnuts are not your usual fluffy seaside variety but a more dense and heavy variety with loads of sugar. The staff here are welcoming and helpful but the customers tend to be the ‘barge your way through’ kind of people and too many are quite rude to the staff!!

Visited here with my young family last week whilst in Southwold. The choice was excellent and the ice cream really really tasty and the doughnuts were delicious. The server behind the counter (Scarlet - I think🤔) was really friendly and chatty to my young son. She was great 👏👏👏 Will definitely be back on our next visit.

Always loads of choice and always delicious. Worth the wait and the staff are friendly - a pleasure to speak to. I’ve been several times and will always come here when in The ‘Wold.

Wonderful place, staff are so friendly and welcoming. The food is amazing! The gelato is an absolute must! We were staying for the weekend and visited three times! Dog friendly too!

This afternoon myself and a female associate enjoyed relaxing civilised trip to Southwold. While on our excursion we made the decision to end our trip with Coffee and cake. While I found the customer experience excellent, even being given the biggest peace of cake…… Result !!! 😊😊 Unfortunately my friend did not have the same experience. The lady behind the counter who had just been so nice to me had decided to take a disliking to my friend. This was totally random and unnecessary my friend had been just as polite as me to lady however In return she was greeted sarcasm, eye rolls and customer service you’d expect from a moody teenage who just been told off. In summary, the coffee and hot chocolate were average. The cake was actually very nice but the customer service was poor.

Gelato really nice - rich, creamy and full of taste. A little confused to see some of the other reviewer’s comments on this. Cakes and chocolate absolutely top notch. You expect to pay around £4 for a cake in Suffolk, so it may as well be really nice, definitely worth trying this place.

We like coming here when visiting, but since lock down, we weren't able to go in for our usual coffee and cake, however, going back today, we saw the tables and chairs had been put back so we were pleased to be able to sit in. Had coffees, one cake (which my husband commented to the waitress that he was pleased to see a decent size portion of it) and I had 2 fresh doughnuts with melted choc dip. I wasn't too keen on the choc as it was a bit strong for me...Im used to milk choc and this had a strong after taste but that was because it was PROPER chocolate, not the stuff we normally eat! Doughnuts were beautiful. Staff very nice.

We called in here today for coffee & cake, the young girl who served us was really lovely and made very nice coffee's and the cakes were DELICIOUS, we have called in here a few times whilst visiting Southwold and it has alway been lovely.

We had heard that the gelato was great and so we went for our first taste which had mixed reviews from our group. Some of us went back the next day for another chance and this time I went for the chocolate which, in a...

We came across this Gelato shop a stones throw from our accommodation and couldn’t wait to try it. Unfortunately everyone in our group found the ice cream lacked any distinguishing flavours. We all had different flavours and yet the feedback was the same: it was...

What an amazing experience - Salted Caramel 1 scoop in a Waffle Cone - massive single scoop - well worth the money and lasted for ages - will definitely visit again.

Attracted to this place due to the queues outside. We were not disappointed. My family went for more traditional flavours (strawberry and mint choc) but I noticed something a little different (bakewell tart), absolutely delicious. Probably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Don’t go...

We lined up for some time in the hot shop to find a moderately disappointing selection of ice cream or gelato… I chose the blackcurrant sorbet and we also had the lemon and ginger sorbet .I’ve got to say it was the worst I cream...

We always come here, this time I got a loyalty card. Only here 4 days and no problem filling my card. Great flavours of ice cream and amazing cake.

Lovely place for dessert and not just in summer. We visited in winter too when the hot choc was so good, very real and almost bitter...proper chocolate. In summer we have their doughnut and ice cream box, the best creaminest ice cream and fluffiest doughnuts..delicious....

Great selection for a sweet tooth - many ice cream flavours and the churros are served warm with an excellent chocolate sauce

Nice ice cream but scrumptious traditional seaside sugar ring doughnuts. Friendly staff are an added bonus too.

We miss not being able to have a Capuchino and cake here any more. One more Covid casualty that they feel is not needed any more! The ice cream is still delicious though so we still go, whenever we are there, and have as a...

Very disappointed with my visit yesterday. No queuing system in place or any clear instructions. Staff just not offering a good customer service. No welcome or won’t be long etc. Just left you standing. Terrible service. Came away unnecessarily upset. Didn’t try the ice cream...

The gelato ice cream was excellent. I had three flavours and all were great. It drips a lot though, so you’ll need a wet wipe for your hands. The shop was very busy though, with a big queue and loud music, so I found it...

I visited here on a very busy Sunday afternoon, I was greeted by warm and friendly staff, who were very helpful. I had a dream box, freshly cooked doughnuts, gelato of your choice, I had the amazing Salted Caramel, whipped cream and chocolate sauce,absolutely amazing....

Absolutely delicious high quality ice cream recommended by my daughter from a recent visit to Southwold. I chose Raspberry Ripple and it was perfect. This will be my pudding spot from now on whenever I visit the area!

Seriously scrumptious doughnuts, I love just plain sugar ring donuts and these are just like the ones from my childhood memories of the seaside. Lovely gelato even if my 8yr old always demands bubblegum flavour!

The best selection and tastiest flavours of gelato in Suffolk…topped with the most delicious hot, freshly made donuts too! Fabulous friendly service, you always leave with a smile :)

Truly lip smackingly delicious ice cream that is so smooth and creamy. Such a choice of great flavours and what massive scoops too! You don’t need to ask for a double scoop here! On a negative note, the churros are hit and miss; sometimes, they’ve...

Great coffee and brownie to takeaway. Ordering products for collection/delivery is a totally different experience Harris and James customer service online is unacceptable, they totally ignore you.

Me and my boyfriend went here for food and it was so nice we really enjoyed it all the girls had really good customer service and very polite I would deffo recommend for anyone thinking of visiting.

It is such a lovely place, the staff working there are amazing, and the food is delicious! Love it here and visit regularly. I would recommend anyone visiting the area to pop in and get a sweet treat!

such a lovely cafè all of the staff are so welcoming and friendly would definitely recommend! Food and drinks were yummy and will definitely be going back

Just bought two cones of churro's for myself and my colleagues at work. Was told to wait outside after I had placed my order as the shop was full of people buying icecreams. The assistant went out to the back of the shop to cook...

Stopped here today absolutely fantastic ice cream,hot donuts and coffee a great treat particularly so close to the beach a great stop off to go place thank you so so much

This place ticks all the boxes-great (and fresh) ice cream and great hot chocolate on a chilly day too. Beautifully presented and professionally ran!

Excellent service and amazing choices of flavour. Well worth it even on a cold sunny day in Southwold. Tried several different flavours all amazing.

Stopped off for churros and hot chocolate. Selected the dark chocolate which was delicious. Churros were nice if a little sugary and came with a dipping sauce. Certainly gave us the sugar hit we needed! There was an amazing selection of ice creams, chocolates, cakes...

Popped in earlier this week for some icecream and can’t stay away ! Everyday on my holiday I can’t help but to pop in to grab a coffee or an icecream! There is so many flavours it’s unreal! My favourite flavour I have tried so...

Long wait for churros which were served cold so clearly not made fresh to order. They were tasteless and hard. Not served with traditional Spanish chocolate sauce either. Avoid these over priced cold tasteless churros.

Bought one 3-scoop and one 2-scoop tub; forced to pay contactless with no receipt. "Its gone through" said the assistant, without me having any chance to see how much I was paying. On checking afterwards, found I had been charged £12.70, about £5 more than...

Despite a long queue and a busy service, the staff were super helpful and smiley. Gluten-free? No problem, with GF cones available too, hand wash and then ice cream scooped from a separate area with no contentious cone crumbs over. Some of the best rum...

Very nice ice cream, possibly the best salted caramel and chocolate we’ve eaten and vanilla was very nice too. Loads of flavours and the cakes and chocolates looked equally good.

Right by our accommodation and perfect for a good coffee or delicious ice cream (Gelato).. friendly staff

You could tell by the queue to get in that the ice cream/gelato here is popular! Absolutely delicious. It became part of our night time routine to get a gelato and sit on a bench overlooking the sea while eating it.

Wow just wow, as a family we love a day out in Southwold, especially if it involves getting icecream from here ❤️ there’s is simply the best xx nobody else comes close, 5* all round, the girls/ladies are so friendly & welcoming, can’t fault them...

Absolutely amazing! The best quality ice cream you'll get for miles! The staff are so lovely and friendly and so welcoming.. this is a weekly/monthly treat for me and my mum and every time we go, they always recognise us and have a chat! Always...

Dissatisfied and annoyed. Had been traveling for hours, and we always get an ice cream from this shop. Waiting in line for a while, as it’s peak time understandable. Got to our turn, 2 young ladies on the takeout ice cream counter. Clearly fed up...

The staff were friendly and chatty. Lots of choice. Obviously made with good ingredients as everything was beautiful! We had ice cream and it was very tasty. Great texture and very decent portion sizes for the price. Loved that there were some unusual flavours. I...

This place is ideal for a sunny beach side treat! They were very knowledgeable about allergies and provided an extensive range of gluten free flavours of icecream, they even had gluten free cones if you so wished. The coffee tasted really good and lovely location,...

Absolutely delicious gelato ice cream, and a huge selection of flavours. Portions are huge, and the staff are absolutely lovely. Fantastic chocolate and other gifts also sold in the shop.

Worth the queue. Huge cones. Mango sorbet to die for. And then to sit overlooking the sea. Happy, happy days.

Fabulous ice cream with a great choice of flavours. Visited 3 times in our week. Four stars though due to lack of consistency in portion size. Had a 3 scoop which was great followed by a 3 scoop the next day of much less quantity...

Really nice gelato with amazing flavours. Hard to choose so had to visit more than once. Generous scoops of ice cream as well and the best ice cream cones.

Great gelato and an amazing selection of flavours. The staff were friendly and helpful and very organised. I reduced the star rating as the Churros need some work as they were tasteless and hard.

Really, really, really good ice cream. Lots and lots of unusual flavours. Huge scoops. What more could you want?

We were on a stroll to the beach and chanced upon this lovely shop. It has a pretty rose arch outside so you can't miss it. There is clear signage for queueing and all Covid precautions were in place. I only wanted a takeaway coffee...

Mediocre ice cream, very rude staff! Should state clearly the amount of people that are allowed in at the same time instead of talking rudely to customers!

Too much choice, we choose the chocolate cake, too bad you couldn’t buy a slice, the cost of the whole cake was very reasonable for Southwold prices. Let’s just say none went to waste.

My second time visiting Harris & James and the churros were just as amazing. Delish hot caramel sauce with churros, a MUST. Will be trying the ice cream next time!

Fantastic ice cream. Covid-19 measures in place meant long cues but the ice cream was as worth the wait. We also had the churros on another visit which weren’t that good and I’ve eaten loads in Spain shame.

Have visited H&J twice during our week in Southwold. The ice cream is up there with the best I have tasted, especially the cherry ripple. The churros were freshly cooked and came with a thick chocolate sauce, just as good as the churros we've had in Spain. Friendly and helpful staff, small shop so there's sometimes a queue but worth the wait in my view. Will definitely be back next time we're in the area.

We were excited to try some churros. The staff were really welcoming and helpful and made hot chocolate for our kids that they loved. But as other reviews state, the churros are not churros. They come with a gloopy dip not traditional hot choc. Essentially it was a chip stick pot.

Most ice creams were gluten free and they even have gluten free cones. The staff were helpful and understood the risk of cross contamination. My kids said the ice-cream was delicious!

At £4.50 a portion I was expecting something resembling proper churros, but these were over cooked and like rock hard sticks. Terrible, avoid, shame as they seemed such a quality shop. If it was not raining so heavy I would have taken them back for a full refund.

Fabulous gelato, great flavours and generous servings! Recommend the berry crumble and bakewell flavours 😊

Excellent ice cream, certainly the best in southwold. Really nice people and a very well organised (though tiny) shop. Highly recommended.

We queued for about 5 mins somewhere around 4pm midweek and the town was busy. One cornet with key lime pie and one with orange - absolutely delicious gelato that didn’t leave any aftertaste (like some do).Highly recommend if you’re in the town and in the mood for ice cream.

Must say this place produces some high quality ice cream they don’t cut corners use quality ingredients and have some great machinery in there . I would call it a success story and friendly staff

Amazing ice cream and well worth the wait in the queue. Nice variety of flavours and generous portions! I’m surprised to read reviews saying that the staff were rude - we visited twice and the staff were friendly, helpful and doing their best to keep people safe.

We absolutely love this ice-cream shop - it's the best in town! The ice-cream is delicious! The staff are very patient with our children, who do take a little while to decide which flavour they want and we are always greeted with the biggest smiles. It's a must go to when visiting Southwold!

I can see from some of the previous reviews that Harris & James gets a fairly mixed bag of opinions . First visit for me though and having not been in Southwold for some time have even forgotten the name of the trendy, pricey but admittedly good Deli that it replaced! I was buying ice cream for little ones but the very generous scoop, upmarket cone and lovely flavours ( from the small amounts I was able to try) were certainly very good and certainly a place to recommend.

The ice cream had been recommended to me but having been barked at by the manageress to “to get out of the shop as only three people were allowed at a time” I lost my appetite. I was in a group of three and there was a group of three in the shop, I was thinking bubbles and hadn’t seen the sign. Shame she didn’t see a confused little old man. I felt ashamed at having broken the rules and humiliated in public.

Lovely ice cream, definitely not cheap but worth the money. Shame about the rude and blunt staff though

This is a tale of two halves, the ice cream in this establishment is truly delicious unfortunately the staff are sullen rude and off hand. I understand it can be stressful working in a ice cream parlour on a hot day but your staff still need to be able to greet your customers with at least a smile.

Went today for the first time, ice cream was lovely but such a shame with the service, the girls behind the counter were so rude and made us feel so unwelcome

OK well there was a queue obviously atm thou. Staff member was doing it all bless her. Shop looked clean. No parking as in top of seafront there is narrow streets so car parks are at bottom of hill or top of it n you have to walk in. Wheelchair access is over a little lip but that's it.2 scoops on cone are big n not really put together properly so it's gets messy quickly. Flavour weren't that great so won't bother going there again.

Good beans, good selection. Love the chocks and ice cream too. Whilst working in Belgium I managed to export some of their beautiful chocolates for giving-away in the office. Like coals to Newcastle, my Flemish co-workers rated these highly.

Overpriced & although hand wash available the queuing system was chaotic ... 2 queues , queued for half an hour only to be told when we got to the door we had to join the back of the other queue ridiculous & when explained we had already queues we were told that we couldn’t jump the queue then the ice cream really wasn’t worth the wait .... won’t bother again

Visited today, Covid-19 preventative measures good, staff friendly, ice cream awful! Super-sweet and really nothing special for the price.

Afternoon tea with superb ice creams and chocolate bars to go Also does chirros in season, whats not to like?

A cup of tea and a cup of coffee cost us £6.70pRipped off ! Apparently should have been £5.70, but when we complained they said we should have had receipts, they did not give receipts, or at least we did not have one, but even £5.70 is a bit much for one tea and coffee. Anyway they use cups and not mugs.Never go again even to say hello.

I came here for dessert and was looking for a lovely bit of cake! whilst not a lot of cake choice, the cakes they did have all looked very appitising and it was hard to choose. I decided for the Walnut and Carrot cake which was lovely and not too heavy. It was on the pricey side however and there was limited choice of seating, however I will definitely be back again in the future ( to try their Ice Creams!).

I visited here with my husband for mid-week ice-cream. Neither of us had been before. There is no dedicated parking. We wanted some gelato to take away. We stood by the gelato counter for a while but nobody came so we moved down to the cafe till to order. There was quite a wait to order and it seemed a bit chaotic but that's not the end of the world in winter. I'm not sure how this would be in summer though as I'd imagine it makes the wait VERY long. We were moved back down to the gelato counter and placed our order. My husband ordered milk and coffee flavours. I ordered lemon sorbet and mango sorbet. Both were ordered in tubs and not cones (although these are available too). The two gelato tubs came to just under £10. I've heard Southwold is very expensive so I think these prices wouldn't come as a shock to people that live there or holiday there regularly. However, as a Northerner I nearly had a heart attack!My husband's flavours were both very nice. Mine were okay. They weren't sorbets and were still gelato like so a creamy lemon and a creamy mango were a tad sickly, rather than the bitter tang I was expecting. They were still nice though. I probably wouldn't visit again at those prices. And they need to be clearer if it's one queue or if the cafe and gelato queues are seperate (and if they ARE seperate, please acknowledge people waiting at the gelato counter, even if it's just to say there will be a bit of a wait).But they were a nice treat as a one off.

Popped in for a mid morning snack, had coffee and bakewell. Both were fantastic. It was our first visit but won't be the last.

Cant come to Southwold without at least one visit here. Either eat in or have an ice cream. This time had coffee and black forest gateau. Normally you would get a nice slice, this time it was humungous ! We were warned but still had it and it was so nice but too much for me. Couldnt finish my coffee ! There are lots to choose from and they make their own chocolate (which I have not tried). Their ice cream is lovely with lots of unusual flavours. They also do gift vouchers which I buy as presents for people I know will be visiting .

Our last stop of the day, even near closing time, we were invited in to the cafe. Lovely strong coffee, an absolute plethora of choices and flavours not only of gelato (which was amazing, recommend the peach melba) but also of cakes and other sweet treats.

Had the best ice cream i’ve ever tasted here! Wonderful staff, friendly and polite. Will definitely be back

Great items of top quality, generous portions, friendly staff and allows dogs. Only 4 stars as the price is a little on the high side for this part of the country.