Our Nine Favorite Frozen-Yogurt Spots
A delicious, fruity, healthy treat from Tutti Frutti
There may not be a more satisfying summer dessert than a good cup of frozen yogurt. As temperatures tick upwards, we want something cool that won’t pack on the pounds. Frozen yogurt to the rescue.
The creamy texture of low-fat, low-calorie, probiotic-rich fro-yo topped with fresh fruit hits the spot without killing your diet. Here are nine of our favorite local frozen yogurt destinations, where you can concoct endless flavor combinations for a treat that never disappoints.
Kiwi
This perky shop is usually brimming with students from nearby Penn and Drexel universities. Customers here serve themselves, allowing them to mix flavors and pay per ounce. Most of the flavors are fat-free, and a few have no added sugar. And at an average 115 calories per half cup, it’s a relatively healthy dessert (as long as you stick to the fresh-fruit toppings and avoid the crushed Oreos and Heath bars). After you’ve scraped every morsel of creamy goodness from your cup, wash it down with a glass of fruit-flavored water that Kiwi keeps in a pitcher at the counter.
3606 Chestnut Street, 215-387-1222; other locations in Haverford, West Chester, and Cherry Hill.
Whirled Peace
Flavor is the name of the game at this yogurt joint, where exotic summer varieties like lychee, Tahitian vanilla, and Island Surfer (a blend of mango, coconut, and orange) are on the menu. Even the toppings are top shelf: rich carmel and dark and white chocolate from Ghirardelli (though those won’t do anything to help your waistline). There are also a few organic toppers, like peanut butter and granola, alongside all-natural mint, raspberry, and chocolate sauces. With its eco-friendly packaging materials, Whirled Peace puts out a product that’s good for both your belly and Mother Earth.
In Manayunk at 4321 Main Street, 215-487- 0489; in Paoli at 111 East Lancaster Avenue, 215-318-7735.
Yogorino
If you crave the creamy texture of an authentic Italian gelato but don’t want all the calories that come with it, check out this Italy-based dessert shop. Yogorino serves only one flavor—plain, basic tart—and lets you choose which toppings and sauces to decorate it with. Though more simplistic than its competitors, it delivers a healthy and flavorful treat packed with probiotics and gains an aesthetic edge with its futuristic, modular furniture. Just make sure you can make it past the not-so-healthy ice creams and pastries that Yogorino also whips up each day.
233 South 20th Street, 267-639-5287.
TCBY
Did you know TBCY stands for The Country’s Best Yogurt? The chain is the only establishment on our list to bear the honor of serving “Super FroYo,” an industry classification that ensures each serving contains a minimum three grams of fiber, four grams of protein, seven varieties of live and active cultures, and 20 percent of your daily value of calcium and vitamin D. The shop also churns out some of the least-calorie-dense servings we could find, with some flavors weighing in at only 70 calories per half cup.
2385 West Cheltenham Avenue, 215-887-1250.
Phileo Yogurt
If you’re spending the afternoon strolling through Old City, stop in at Phileo Yogurt on South Street. With its hot-pink-and-lime-green interior, the store provides a fun, upbeat place to hang out while savoring a cup of yogurt, including sweet flavors like snickerdoodle and butter brickle along with the basic tart. A toppings bar offers fresh and healthy accompaniments, like kiwi, banana and blueberries.
416 South Street, 215-873-8361.
Toppings
Mount Laurel’s Toppings has all the same features you’d find at nearly all frozen-yogurt shops these days: a self-serve dispenser, various toppings including fresh fruits and candies, and a pay-per-ounce policy. But what makes this little store unique are its frozen yogurt cupcakes—yes, one delicious dessert in the form of another. The yogurt is swirled into a cupcake-foil wrapper and chilled to a more solid state, then iced and finished off with tasty additions of your choice. The only downside is that these must be assembled at least two days prior to pickup, ruling fresh fruit out as a topper. To keep this treat waistline friendly, opt for the granola or bypass the toppings altogether. But feel free to indulge in the Triple Chocolate flavor—there’s no sugar added.
4309 Dearborn Circle, Mount Laurel, NJ,
856-222-4600.
Sweet Ending
With a location in Center City, Sweet Ending makes it hard not to stop in and sample its nonfat, low-calorie frozen yogurt during your lunch break. It features standby fruity flavors along with original tart and chocolate, but still entices the adventurous palate with its unique ginseng option. Maybe that would pair well with the cream cheese flavor?
1800 Chestnut Street, 215-586-0089.
Tutti Frutti
You’re sure to find a taste you like among Tutti Frutti’s 24 tart and 19 creamy flavors, featuring options not commonly found in your average yogurt shop—yacoo, guava, taro. Even the toppings, such as carob chips, lean toward the unconventional. Made from the pulp of a carob-tree bean, these chips resemble the color and texture of chocolate, with more sweetness but not quite the same cocoa flavor. Curiosity alone should convince you to check this place out.
1315 Walnut Street, 215-546-9600.
Yogurt City
Yogurt City threw itself into the fro-yo frenzy just last year and found a niche: Its yogurt is both gluten-free and kosher. It can also boast of an only-found-here topping: tapioca balls. For added texture, staffers top off your dessert with chewy bubble-tea bubbles.
1306 Chestnut Street, 215-545-8887.
