Cafe $ $$$ Yo-Chi, the frozen yoghurt chain that’s blossomed from four venues to almost 40 in four years, may be the most zeitgeist of eating out experiences. Reasonably priced, highly social, soundtracked with pop hits and framed by leafy plants and neon calls to “Share the Chi”, its venues, vibe and menu are as fun as they are dapperly designed. On a warm summer Friday evening at Yo-Chi’s new Barangaroo flagship store, couples, friend groups, teenagers, tiny children and a bevy of office workers with loosened ties take turns filling the chain’s black and white cups with yoghurt flavours from 12 wall taps.
Strawberry cream, chocolate, vanilla, mango, tart and salted butterscotch flavours ooze out, surprisingly fast. A metre away, at a long, curving, glass-roofed, double-sided topping counter, wide porcelain bowls bear fresh lychees, cut strawberries and piled blueberries. Others have mango popping pearls, sour rainbow lolly strips, nutty granola, ginger crumble, mini M&Ms and chocolate brownie chunks.
There are dishes, bottles and jugs of warm chocolate, Nutella and butterscotch sauce. Should tart yoghurt (the best) be paired with chocolate freckles, cornflake crunch, crunchy milk balls, chopped almonds and Pistachio Papi spread? Do matcha and strawberry cream yoghurts work with fresh rockmelon and pineapple, chocolate wafer rolls, strawberry mochi and crumble (a buttery mix of oats and cinnamon)? And would mango yoghurt layered with choc chip cookie dough, chocola.