REVIEW: Menchie's Frozen Yogurt

104 Lake Drive
Covington, LA

View the website

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Overall:
Service:	It's self-serve.
Atmosphere:
Food:
Price:

Pros: You can create your own dessert by mixing and matching from a large variety of frozen yogurt flavors and toppings.
Cons: Not all flavors are up to par.
Bottom Line: Fun concept, but the frozen yogurt needs improvement.

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Menchie's is a self-serve frozen yogurt franchise that has just opened up a new location off of Hwy 190 in Covington. The store itself has a youthful, modern look and feel. The premise is that you serve your own soft-serve frozen yogurt, choosing from 10 flavors that rotate out from over 40 total, and 25+ toppings. There is only one size cup, and you build your own creation and pay by the ounce at the end.

We are huge fans of frozen yogurt and have tried numerous places over the years, so we were excited to try a another new one. The thought of selecting from a large variety of flavors was appealing. Menchie's allows you to sample the frozen yogurt flavors, which is a definite plus, since there are many from which to choose. You start by picking the only size cup - either with or without a waffle cone. On this night, the yogurt flavors offered were strawberry banana, mocha, vanilla, chocolate, white chocolate macadamia nut, pomegranate tart, Kahlua, root beer float, natural, and Georgia peach. The toppings come in three stations - bins of candy bars (like Snickers), cereals (like Golden Grahams and Cookie Crisps), chocolate chips, and nuts; a cold station including chopped fruit, cookie dough bites, and mochi; and a hot station with hot fudge and caramel sauce. Needless to say, there are an infinite number of combinations you could create, and it's easy to start tacking on the ounces (and therefore, price) when you are in control of serving yourself!

We tried a few of the flavors offered that night. The mocha was, unfortunately, overpowering, tasting almost like straight espresso with no creaminess or sweetness. The Kahlua had a good coffee flavor but also had a slightly unappealing (and unidentifiable) aftertaste. The flavor didn't seem like it was mixed very well because there were a few icy chunks in it - but this was the only flavor like that. The white chocolate macadamia nut was the best flavor we sampled, with strong flavors and the right amount of sweetness. The chocolate was very dark brown in color, and accordingly, was far richer than most chocolate flavors - which makes us wonder what the dark chocolate flavor tastes like. The strawberry banana was enjoyable, with bold fruit flavors. One of us thought that Menchie's yogurts had a slight tangy-ness to them, but the other disagreed, so you'll have to judge for yourself.

The toppings offered were plentiful and delicious, and the variety of cereals was a nice alternative to normal toppings. The only downside is that we were expecting a few more of the standard candy bar toppings - there were no Heath bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, etc. The fruit bar had a very nice selection of fruits, from berries to mangos and kiwi. Being able to select a low-fat yogurt and top it off with fruit and granola provides a healthy dessert option for those interested.

We liked the concept of Menchie's more than the execution. Having a variety of toppings and frozen yogurt flavors to choose from is exciting. Unfortunately, many of the flavors we sampled were sub-par to other frozen yogurt shops we've tried. Maybe we caught the rotation on a bad night, and we are willing to give it another try. But on this particular night, we were somewhat disappointed.