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Food Tour Party - Frolik Browns Bay

currently: listening to The Ready Set - 'Give Me Your Hand'


Good looking froyo, yo.
It only took one short froyo trip, but my friends and I were instantly hooked on it. We wanted more. More of that sweet, cold, delicious goodness in a cup. Filled with lollies and toppings of our hearts desire. Frozen self-serve yoghurt, how we fell for thee.

And this is how we strolled to Frolik Browns Bay.
The Poor Man's Takapuna, but with lots of dogs.
Browns Bay on Auckland's North Shore has one of the nicest townships suburbs in Auckland. It's quaint, it's authentic, and filled with lovely people. Essentially, it's like the poor man's Takapuna, but with less designer and more thrifty character.

My 'Don't want to look odd taking photo' photo.
Frolik has become one of the newest shops in Browns Bay. Previously an ethnic South African supermarket, Frolik took over in November last year with a fresh coat of white paint and I think became the first frozen yoghurt shop in the North Shore (before KiwiYo's opening in Takapuna).

At first glance at the store, you notice how big the store is, and how bare it looks. Unlike shops at Mission Bay which are quite close and compact, Browns Bay have reasonable sized lots. And with all the space they have, it's a true shame they don't utilise it. They easily have space for a number of window bench seats, bar tables, small cafe sofas... But instead they have three squares that look like foot stools. It looked uninviting, especially with how white and sterile the walls looked (in the empty sort of way).

They're low on Peach and Mango.
Next, the self serve machines. The cashier girl working in the store (it was Sunday night) kinda let us do our own thing, and thankfully we knew what to do this time. We got our cups and looked at the eight different flavours, which ranged from peach and mango, to red bull, to kiwifruit. Unlike YOGG, Frolik change their flavours each week, so there was a bit of mix and match in there. We decided to try and get complimentary flavours going, so each of us chose the Peach and Mango, the Pineapple, and the dairy free lemon. Kelly decided to add mocha to hers too, just because she could, and I think Roxy got an extra bit of Kiwifruit froyo herself (correct me if I'm wrong Roxy.)

Can I have them all?
The toppings bar was a good size, with a large amount of topping choices. Plenty of gummy lollies, chocolates, fruits, and candies. Kelly and Roxy noticed the special addition of Willy Wonka's 'Nerds' candy. I picked coke bottles, gummy worms, chocolate sprinkles, this "chocolate toastie" thing, and this pineapple/passionfruit compote stuff which I chose rather than using one of the 4 limited sauce toppings. I will add that their weight scale right next to the toppings bar was really helpful, as between you getting your froyo and putting toppings on it, you could get a cost figure of how much you could pay at the end.

Overall the cost came to around $8, and they even gave us loyalty cards with two already stamped on. (Ten stamps gets you one free large take home pack.)

Since there was no place to sit in Frolik, my best mates and I headed for the beach. Which seemed a great idea at the time because one, the beach is next to the shops, and two, it was a nice day. What we failed to realise was how blimming windy the beachfront was, and how eating froyo while facing strong beachfront winds does not make for the most pleasant of experiences.

On second look, not so great.
And sadly, the froyo did not rectify the situation. A few spoons in and all seemed well, but then Roxy, who had got to her Peach and Mango section of froyo first, noticed this off-taste about the flavour. Then as we began trying each fruity froyo, we noticed that something didn't please us as much as we hoped. The "chocolate toastie" (which was a chocolate square with pink and white marshmallow inside) did not taste that great, the lollies felt a bit fake and lacking flavour, and the yoghurt combinations we imagined would work just didn't in the end. Peach and Mango left a weird after taste, while the dairy free lemon tasted like frozen lemon juice slushie. The pineapple tasted the best, and the compote I had used definitely improved everything.

But for a combination that was purely tropical/citrus fruits, you really expected some sort of trio harmony. Not a over-tangy discourse.

We weren't in any rush to finish our froyos as we chatted and 'aww'ed over the cute dogs on the beach. Quite frankly it was mainly because we weren't in a rush to want more froyo. Kelly's mixture had eventually turned to some sort of purple soup concoction before she finished it off - and it's not like any of the yoghurt flavours were purple in the first place.

As we got up, with our over-windswept hair and our empty cups, we all said the same thing - it was nice, but let's not go back any time soon. Sorry Frolik.

Food Party review:
Money friendliness - Reasonable if you control your serving.
Purchase fun - The toppings bar seemed so good in appearance, not so good in overall taste.
Deliciousness factor - Not outstanding, but not a place we would shun. Maybe again in a year's time.

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