EMERGENCY NEWS ALERT!!!

The best thing EVER just happened to the eastside! Blissberri in Bel-Square Mall is now open and it is the eastside's first SELF-SERVE fro yo place! They have lots of flavors that are perfect for kids like Thin Mint, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and watermelon. They have every topping I can even think of, and you can put them on yourself.

You can mix flavors of yogurt and toppings and make it just like you want. When you are finished, they weigh it and you pay by the ounce. Here is my sister's yogurt and a good example of what happens when you just want it all...

Emily's Frozen Yogurt Eat of the Week!!!

Congratulations Ben & Jerry's for winning the elite award of "Emily's Eat of the Week!" After tasting lots of frozen yogurt, I can say with complete confidence that if you are a kid, Ben & Jerry's is the place for you. TCBY only lost by one point, so TCBY should be another place to try this summer. I now know that I love all frozen yogurt - tart and sweet, hard and soft. I want to give a shout out to everyone who loves frozen yogurt too:)

I am taking the rest of the week off from blogging to go to L.A. and meet Nick Jonas!!!!! While I am there, I am hoping to go to the must-try fro yo place, Pinkberry. You can expect a review next week.

Follow me next week as I move on from fro yo and enter the world of pizza. Be prepared, I like pineapple on my pizza. Don't judge.

Ben & Jerry's - saving the best for last!

Today I went to the final fro yo place for the week - Ben and Jerry's in downtown Kirkland. It was a great way to end the week, and boy did we save the best for last!

The decor of the restaurant is very unique to Ben and Jerry's. I give it a 3 because it is very small and there isn't a lot of seating. It seems "hippyish" and has a painting of a VW bus. They also have bright colors with big pictures for the counter menus.

On friendliness of staff towards kids, I give it a 4. Colin was the person working there, and he seemed happy to be there. Whenever I said "thank you," he said "you're welcome." He was not annoyed to hand tasters to the customers. He made the store smell great while he made homemade waffle cones behind glass so I could see.

On service speed, I give it a 5. I was served right away.

I ordered chocolate fudge brownie hard yogurt on a cake cone. For taste of food, I give it a 5. It wasn't tart, but it was very yummy and rich! It was filled with chewy brownie bites. It tasted like homemade fudge on a hot summer day. It is a girl's dream come true! All of the chocolate with only 100 calories and 90% less fat than ice cream. They also had black raspberry frozen yogurt but I didn't try it.

On appearance of food, I give it a 4. It was served sightly melted but that made it taste creamier and better than when it is served really cold. It was a deep chocolate color and looked very appetizing. Although they have homemade waffle cones, the rest of their cones were generic.

On price of food, I give it a 4. My yogurt was $3.00.

I have decided to give Ben and Jerry's an extra point. They have more delicious frozen yogurt flavors like vanilla and Half-Baked, which is half cookie dough and half chocolate fudge brownie mixed together. They deserve an extra point because you don't only have to go into the store to enjoy the yummy yogurts. Pint sized yogurts are sold at grocery stores around the country! Also, they sell lip balms in their fabulous ice cream flavors. Is there anything better than a smile that smells like cookie dough?

The final score is 26/30, which makes Ben and Jerry's the best place to get frozen yogurt on the eastside!!!!!

Yogurt Puts the 1 in 31 Flavors

When I say 31 flavors, I actually mean 48 flavors. Baskin Robbins, get your facts right! Today I visited "31 Flavors" in Belleve Bridle Trails. I have been to Baskin Robbins many times in many places, but never tried the frozen yogurt. Here is what I learned...

On decor of restaurant, I give it a 2. When I walked in, nothing caught my eye. It has very dull colors like whites and greys and the signs are all faded like they are from the olden days. Although the counter signs were very bright and they had big pictures so it was easy to read. Sadly, they post calories - they must want the customers to feel bad about what they are eating.

On friendliness of staff towards kids, I give it a 4. They smiled while they let me taste everything I wanted without making a face like they were annoyed. When I was given too much of a sample by accident, we both laughed together and had a moment:) When I left, I was told "thank you, have a nice afternoon."

On service speed, I give it a 5. There was no wait, and the person working was very speedy. She seemed determined to be as fast as possible.

Out of all 48 flavors, only one was frozen yogurt. It was hard vanilla yogurt. I tried a scoop of it on a cake cone.

On taste of food, I give it a 3. It doesn't taste anything like frozen yogurt but just like ice cream. I have no idea why they are able to claim it as fro yo. It was very good vanilla "ice cream." It was creamy, sweet, but not tart at all. I have to say, it is just as good as vanilla ice cream with less calories and fat. Instead of fro yo they should call it diet vanilla ice cream!

On appearance of food, I give it a 2. It was nothing special, looked average, and like TCBY had generic cones.

On price, I give it a 4. For one regular cone, it was $3.00.

The best thing about Baskin Robbins frozen yogurt is that it can be turned into any of their cakes and pies, but most importantly, their amazingly adorable clown cones!!!

If you are having a bad day, go to "48 Flavors" and get yourself a clown cone. Sometimes they look like creepy clowns, but most of the time they are cute.

The final score is 20/30. Not the best, not the worst. At the end of the day, I would go to Baskin Robbins/ "48 Flavors" for ice cream, not fro yo. That is unless you have the fro yo turned into one of their magical creations. Although you can always count on the water fountain that seems to be from the 1800's, or like my mom says, the 80's. Same difference.

O Red Mango is Faux Red Mango

Today was the second day of my frozen yogurt adventure, and I went to O Red Mango in Bellevue Square Mall. Here's the 411...

On decor of restaurant, I give it a 3. It is very modern inside, with a red and black color scheme. There are large glass walls and it has a convenient corner location. It is modern, but I wouldn't call it special.

On friendliness of staff towards kids, I give it a 2. There were 5 people working behind the counter and not one smiled at me. One of the people working at the counter commented on the song playing in a rude manner. She said in a snotty way, "Like a G6. I HATE this song." Then she left to change the music instead of taking my order. She was more concerned about the music than the customers.

On service speed, I give it a 4. There were a lot of people there but they got through the line very quickly. It took less than 5 minutes to get the yogurt.

I tasted a plain soft serve yogurt with chocolate chips and fresh mangos and a vanilla soft serve yogurt with mochi bits and funny little balls that popped with fruit juice when I bit them.

On taste of food, I give them a 4. The yogurt is tart and creamy and makes me feel fresh and healthy. The original is better than the vanilla because the tartness makes it taste more yogurty and special. They have a great selection of toppings like fresh fruit, cereal, candy, and Asian toppings like mochi and the fruit juice balls. The fruit was very fresh and tasted great.

On appearance of food, I also give it a 4. It had a very modern appearance. I liked how they separated the toppings and didn't mix them together. The swirl was tall, narrow and hollow so it was wobbly.

For the price, I definitely give it a 2. It is very expensive. For a small with 2 toppings, it is $5.00.

The final score is 19/30. There are some things about Faux Red Mango that bother me. There was nowhere to sit. There are not enough tables (and barely any chairs) so I had to sit outside. There was also blasting music and I had to yell to give my order. The area where the line was was very narrow and crowded. Also, the employees looked annoyed.

As I was walking out of the mall, I noticed this sign for a new fro yo place. Hopefully blissberri will be better than Faux Red Mango.

TCBY? TCB Why Not?!

My first stop on the frozen yogurt week was TCBY in Factoria.

On décor, from 1 to 5, (1 being the worst and 5 being the best) I give it a 2. The wall’s colors are a very boring white and one small wall is dark red. Also, there are coffee colored stains on the ceilings and there are small counter signs that are hard to read.

          On friendliness of staff towards kids, I give it a 5 - the best! Our server’s name was Janay and she didn’t care when kids were literally climbing on the counters. She let me taste everything I wanted to taste without getting annoyed. Trust me, I tasted a lot. She also greeted me warmly when I walked in the door. I definitely recommend it for kids of all ages.

         I give TCBY a 5 on service speed because there was absolutely no wait. It took less than two minutes to make my yogurt, my friend’s, and my sister’s. If you are in a rush, go to TCBY.

         For taste of food, I give them a 4. It was really good, but in an odd way some of the flavors tasted the same. I got soft serve white chocolate mousse and it was very creamy. It tasted like vanilla birthday cake frosting. My friend got rainbow cream hard frozen yogurt and it strangely tasted very similar to mine. My sister got cotton candy flavored hard yogurt. My friend and my sister both agreed that the hard yogurt tasted a lot like ice cream. When I tasted the cotton candy flavor I felt like I was at the Evergreen State Fair. The flavor was very realistic!

          I give TCBY a 4 for the appearance of food. My soft serve just looked like typical vanilla frozen yogurt, but the hard rainbow cream had florescent and neon colors. The colors really popped! The cotton candy colors were very authentic with classic pink and blue. I wish the cones were better. They had typical generic cake and sugar cones. Overall, the yogurt looked great!

          The price is a 5 because on Wednesdays they have $0.99 cone day. That includes any type of cone and any type of yogurt.

          The overall score is 25/30 which is really good! The best part is that it’s right near a pet store where you can hold puppies!!! Also, if you are looking for a cake or pie, they have frozen yogurt cakes and pies. They have a lot of toppings like fresh fruit, candy, and cereal. It’s open until 9:00 PM every single day. I recommend TCBY to everyone.

          Keep reading Eating With Emily all week to learn more about frozen yogurt week. At the end of the week, I will announce which place is “Emily’s Eat of the Week.” My little sister said TCBY is better than olives and that says a lot!