Review: Let’s Yo! {frozen yogurt}

The first time I visited a Let’s Yo! frozen yogurt location, I was out with friends and the kids were with The Ex. As soon as Nick saw a picture of my frozen yogurt on Instagram, I knew I was in trouble.

At our recent Apres Thanksgiving Blogger Dinner, Patsy mentioned that there was a new Let’s Yo! in Parsippany, which is a lot closer than the original one I had visited, so after school one day last week, I took the kids.

I knew as soon as they saw the tabletop iPads for customer use on every table, they would be instantly hooked.

Of course it doesn’t hurt that the kids love frozen yogurt too.

Like their competition, the yogurt is priced per ounce (0.49/oz) and weighed upon check-out. The space is bright and features pops of color. Both locations that I visited have a giant screen on the wall, showing the Let’s Yo facebook and Twitter page. While that’s a fun feature, I think it would be more fun if they were actually interacting real-time with their customers. I tweeted when I was at the Montclair location over a month ago, and nothing. With the screen being so big and visible on the wall, what’s the point if there isn’t going to be two-way interaction?

They have a wide variety of flavors and combinations available, including unique ones that I haven’t seen anywhere else yet (sea salt caramel pretzel anyone?). The flavors are shown on a small computer screen above each dispenser, which is cool, but the screens flash through a series of slides and move too quickly. I either just catch it, or miss it and have to wait for it to display what the flavor is again. Which is kind of frustrating.

In addition to the usual suspects of toppings, they also have wet walnuts, which I haven’t seen before, the biggest maraschino cherries ever, and a pretty awesome cereal bar for toppings as well, along with several varieties of granola. Among the toppings, there was also hot fudge and caramel available, which is rarely seen. Most of their competitors have the Ghirardelli chocolate syrup. With the areas for yogurt choices, the toppings, and the cereal bar section laid out in different sections of the store, it lacks a reasonable, common-sense flow. I would suspect it’s done to break up the crowd a bit, when there is one, but when it’s empty, you’re going from one spot to the other (and they’re not consecutively one right after the other), which is a bit choppy and weird.

They offer a rewards card, letting customers accumulate points for every dollar they spent (60 points gets you a free 16 oz yogurt or $5 off your total), similar to what Red Mango does, which I love. I’m all for stores rewarding frequent customer visits.

The restroom was clean and easily accessible, although there are no hooks in the bathroom, so you’ll need to get creative to avoid putting your purse/tote/what-have-you on the floor.

All in all, we’d go back if we’re in the area. Just be warned, if you have kids, it will be hard to tear them away from the iPads! *They have a TON of locations in New Jersey, one in New York, one in Florida, and more coming soon.

Hungry for more frozen yogurt reviews?
Last month, we visited Strawberry Fields in Morristown for the first time. Love the happy art on the walls!
Red Mango is still our one-to-beat.
CUPS is good, if you can get past the loud club-like atmosphere.
Although it’s the closest, we’re overdue for a visit to Yogurtland.

Tomorrow? Old School Mini Black Olive Pizzas!
Saturday? A new recipe for Skinny Fettuccine Alfredo!
Sunday? Weekend wrap-up in photos.
Monday? A review on a new grilled cheese restaurant!
Tuesday? A new recipe for Gazpacho Salad!
Wednesday? A review on a new art exhibit!

*All the pictures above were from the Parsippany location, with the exception of the cereal bar picture, which was from the Montclair location.