Kiwi Yogurt Review- Collegeville, PA
Kiwi Yogurt is one of those places that my Daughter asks me to visit every time she sees the sign. When I was growing up it was all about Dairy Queen but the new frozen yogurt self-serve, sold by weight trend has taken off over the recent years. Frozen Yogurt to me used to mean TCBY. When you look for all of these new frozen yogurt shops you find that they mostly follow the franchise model and when I saw the first Kiwi Yogurt, I thought this one did as well. Then I learned they weren’t a franchise… they are a family owned business (brother and sister) with 8 locations in mostly PA… pretty cool. They should actually be proud that they built a brand that made me think this is a big franchised business with muscle behind it.
So this weekend after a quick meal with the family, my Daughter asked to go to Kiwi. It was three of us total and I figured why not I’ll write a review when I’m there.
There are 8 locations but we went to the Kiwi in Collegeville, PA in the Providence Town Center. So how is the experience? Let’s get started.
First , you have the pick a container, now they don’t hit you with any old container, there are multiple sizes with one of them being a large container with 4 compartments. This way you think “wow I can stick 4 flavors in here without them touching… well played Kiwi, well played. I was immediately asked by my little one for the big container but luckily I was able to hold my ground and say no.
Second you have a row of flavors ranging from Natural Vanilla to mint Oreo Cookie, Cheesecake, Birthday Cake, Peanut Butter, Salted Caramel Pretzel and Pomegranate Raspberry Sorbet. I kept it simple by getting natural vanilla and mint Oreo cookie. My daughter and her friend … who knows. By the time they were done it was some odd mixture of various flavors which I guess is part of the fun. They just grabbed containers and start filling! Its really hard just to grab just one flavor so I stuck with simple (but tasty) Natural Vanilla and topped it off with a little Mint Oreo Cookie which is the closest thing I could find to Mint Chocolate Chip (my second favorite flavor of Ice Cream).
Next are the toppings. Here is where the weight can really stack up. The first little “toppings center” has sauces which include: Marshmallow, Peanut Butter, Oreo Cream, Caramel and the age old standard, Chocolate. Moving right along you have some refrigerated choices and some …gulp…healthy stuff. There are some berries, bananas and those little strange Boba things. Down the line are these big containers of “crunchy toppings” like: pretzel pieces, jimmy’s (they called them sprinkles, how dare they), peanut butter cup pieces, candy, chocolate chips, Oreo bits and a bunch of different breakfast cereals like fruity pebbles. The funny thing about these vessels are the little knobs to release them. Luckily they do put a warning that you should turn them slowly but it almost doesn’t work. This stuff pours out… Here are a few extra ounces for you buddy.
Now its pay time… The price Kiwi charges is a simple .55 cents per ounce. Sounds reasonable. So each pay station has a scale in front of it and since your total bill is based on total weight, we put all 3 on the scale. Then bill… $17.23. You pay and grab one of the nice plastic spoons in various colors and you are on your way. On the surface that price seemed kind of steep but really you are paying for the level of customization you have at a place like this. One other thing we noticed next to the point of sale stations was a water dispenser. Not any old water dispenser, this one included strawberries floating around in it for some flavoring. This portion of the trip was gratis. I guess this is meant as a palette cleanser or maybe a flavor enhancer like eating strawberries with champagne. Hey don’t make fun of me because I remembered that from Pretty Woman, you know you watched it.
The seating arrangements are good for a smaller space and they had a nice bar area looking out of the windows. Overall it was relatively clean but could have been better. Whenever I review any space whether its retail or food, the cleanliness is a huge concern of mine with food establishments being extra scrutinized. Maybe it’s my Retail experience all of these years but the #1 thing I look at is how does this place look? Do I feel welcomed? Is it clean and shiny? A well run retail establishment of any type should be paying attention to this all day long. For me, this space was very pink and pastel. I feel like I just walked into the Justice store with my daughter minus the Justin Beiber music playing (Thank goodness for that).
Overall these are nice little places to take the kids. Don’t go in really looking for healthy desert in the end but it’s a fresh stop for some cold dessert on your next trip.
Oh, in case you were wondering, this is what I got… tasty.
Kiwi Yogurt has multiple locations that you can find here throughout the Southeastern PA area.
Find them on the web:
WEBSITE: https://kiwifrozenyogurt.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kiwifroyo/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/kiwifroyo
CONNECT:
Training & Development Director by day; Daddy, Husband and web junkie by night. For years I have benefited by creating many things including : Web Sites, Logos, illustrations, online training courses , writings and much more.
