Recently, I was invited to try out Ayomo, a still fairly new (about four months old) frozen yoghurt place on South Melbourne's busy Clarendon St.
Music finishing up at Ayomo
I had been communicating with their founder Sherie, who greeted us with a big smile on arrival. She had informed me that they would be having some live Christmas music between 8-9pm, but unfortunately, running a bit late that night we arrived when they were packing up.
The Flavour Lab
The store was comprised of modern decor, floorboards and clean white walls. It's not laid out similarly to other franchised frozen yoghurt places like Tutti Frutti where it is more DIY. Ayomo is dedicated to having people serve you and not only just frozen yoghurt, but special juices, smoothies, tea and coffee, parfaits and even waffles.
Sherie informed me that they experiment and launch new flavours every few weeks. She provided us with some samples whilst we waited for our other friends, which included macadamia, natural and special flavours, ginger lemon and cinnamon for Christmas.
Samples of frozen yogurt and chocolate frolato
Macadamia is apparently their signature and most popular - and there's no doubting why. My friend downed the sample as quick as lightning. All the samples have a subtlety in flavour, but as you eat more of each, the flavours shine through. My favourite was the ginger lemon, and my friends who came later seconded this.
We were also given a special chocolate frolato - a cross between of frozen yoghurt/gelato that Ayomo has created. Any chocolate lover will definitely love this one. Perhaps our least favourite was the cinnamon. Sherie did say it was a bit nerve-racking launching this one, but they had experimented and launched it for Christmas. It's our least favourite, but after eating a bit of it you kind of warm towards the flavour, so I'm sure cinnamon lovers would enjoy it.
A selection of toppings
When it came to choosing an actual serving of the yoghurt, we went with the macadamia and ginger lemon. The toppings had a cute presentation and I chose the white chocolate crispearls, green apple pearls and honey-glazed macadamia, which is also apparently quite popular.
The serving was very generous for a medium, the pearls popped with fruity juice and the macadamia added a bit of a crunchier texture to the cup. My friend prefers her pearls more like the chewy ones in bubble tea, but for me I enjoy it more with flavour.
Our medium froyo and Beginner's Green juice
They also provided a complimentary juice, which they create fresh everyday so I wasn't able to choose from the full range as they had sold out some of their other flavours. This didn't bother me as it's great that they are dedicated to creating these juices every day and so I went with the Beginner's Green: apple, celery, honey and lemon.
It came straight from their fridge bottled in simple Ayomo packaging. The celery and lemon provide a tad of a sour taste, but overall all the other ingredients make it a refreshing and nutritious drink.
Sherie was nice enough to provide more samples once more of my friends had arrived, so they all got to provide their feedback, which was similar to what I had already thought - ginger lemon really won everyone's opinion.
Banana and strawberry Belgian waffles
In addition to this, we received some beautifully presented strawberry and banana waffles drizzled in chocolate and icing sugar, with cutlery for all of us to share. They tasted a bit different for one of my friends to the usual and he found this to be a good thing. Personally, I found them quite tasty especially when eaten with lots of chocolate sauce and the bananas. It was nice to have both bananas and strawberries on one plate too, it helps cater to more than one person's taste.
To add to this, the service from Sherrie was lovely, setting up a table for our large group outside as the indoors is more suited for people in groups of two or so.
A Yogurt Moment
Upon leaving, we curiously asked her where the name Ayomo came from, and even though it sounded Japanese to us, she indicated it's a play on words, shortening their phrase
"A Yogurt Moment" to a lovely sounding name. I definitely recommend dropping by and trying their unique flavours such as their signature macadamia, or their ginger lemon whilst it still remains on the menu! It's a great place to drop by for dessert and luckily it stays open late for a tasty yet healthy late-night snack.
