beXnlog

Yogurt Love

Tonight be, the Rice House and i checked out the new Phileo Yogurt on South Street (btwn 4th & 5th Streets) in Philadelphia. The frozen yogurt + toppings concept is not new -- i have plenty of experience with eating that thanks to Pinkberry in Midtown, New York -- but what makes Phileo Yogurt BETTER is that it's 100% self serve!

First of all, the decor is ultra modern but quite nice in a kiwi-green kind of way. There are a few small tables and stools for you to eat in the shop but most customers we witnessed opted to take out. At the back of the shop is an incredible row of yogurt machines, offering every flavor from plain tart yogurt to strawberry to things like snickerdoodle and taro! I asked if i could sample some flavors and was given two tiny paper cups to do so. Once you fill up your bowl with frozen yogurt, you walk over to the toppings bar, which had many kinds of chopped fruit, candies and cereals, but also chocolate syrups, cheesecake bits, cookie dough bits, crushed graham crackers and red bean sauce! Right next to the toppings bar are two registers where your bowl is weighed. At 49 cents per ounce, you can keep it under a few bucks by using restraint, or go nuts and pay a hefty sum. All of us pretty much filled our bowls and the prices ranged from $4-5 each. Note that fruit chunks are definitely the heaviest topping but totally worth it.

I ended up tasting mango, plain, blueberry and taro yogurts. I finally decided on a bowl of mainly plain yogurt with granola and Oreos, with some blueberry yogurt with fresh blueberries and kiwi chunks. I LOVED the blueberry on blueberry -- the blueberry yogurt was so flavorful and tart -- while the plain was a solid standby. I thought granola and Oreos would be neat but i actually could've just done with one or the other, not both. Dude ate his yogurt the quickest and spent the rest of the time looking sad while watching us finish, while be ate his very quick and convinced himself to be satisfied with the amount he ate (instead of getting another bowl). Maybe that's why it's a good idea to take out; watching numerous other folks making their fro yo creations is just too tempting.

We all loved Phileo Yogurt. Great concept, addictive yogurt, fun place for a treat. We're going at least once a week, although we all really would love to go every day! My *only* complaint is the use of styrofoam bowls. Hopefully they'll switch to paper and/or offer an edible bowl soon!

posted by beXn @ 10:59 PM