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FroYo Frozen Yogurt
6520 East 82nd Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46250
http://www.froyotreats.com/

Self serve, pay-by-the ounce frozen  yogurt places are apparently all the rage in Central Indiana recently as these things seemingly pop up just about every day.  There’s Huddles, Yogi, Orange Leaf, etc.  I’ve previously reviewed Yogi, who has since expanded to a second location in Fishers, but this time, I’m trying one of the newer entries into the competition:  FroYo Frozen Yogurt.  Located in a building on 82nd Street that has housed just about every kind of business imaginable, FroYo opened in August and I was just recently able to get there for a visit on a rainy Sunday.

FroYo’s setup is pretty much the same as the rest of these shops.  They have multiple flavors of frozen yogurt (FroYo offers sixteen varieties that change on a semi-regular basis) and a toppings bar that includes a plethora of toppings.  I didn’t count and was too dumb to get a picture, but I would guess that there were at least 25 different toppings.  Toppings ranged from liquids/syrups (chocolate, raspberry, hot fudge, etc.) to fruits (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc.) to candy (Skittles, M&M’s, Reese’s Cups, etc.) to cookies (Oreos, Nutter Butters, etc.) to nuts (pecans, walnuts, etc.), crunchy items (waffle cone pieces, wafers, etc.) to baked goods (cookie dough, brownie pieces, etc.).  I’m sure I’m missing a ton of them, but you get the basic idea…they have nearly everything.  Although, when I say nearly, I mean it because there was one thing missing and I was deeply disappointed that one of the toppings available was not Reese’s Pieces.  That made me a sad little boy.

Of the sixteen yogurt flavorings, some of the days offerings were Dulce De Leche, Cheesecake, Apple Pie, Peanut Butter, Cake Batter and Plain, among others.  FroYo allows free sampling, so I tried out a few beforehand and after sampling, I was ready for my treat.

What I Got:  Create your own treat; $0.48 per ounce.

Much like my visit to Yogi and obviously based on the picture above, I was not bashful in my commitment to gluttony (Frozen yogurt is healthy, right?!  Ha!).  I’m not going to list all the toppings that I got because it was standard stuff, but I’ll specifically point out the cookie dough pieces and the brownie pieces because they were OUTSTANDING.  They weren’t dried out and old like most times that you go to these places and that was a welcome change.

Now, toppings aside, the real question at one of these places is “how was the yogurt?”  In FroYo’s case, I can say it was excellent.  I opted to create a mix of cake batter, dulce de leche and apple pie and all of them were outstanding.  The dulce le leche has a distinctly caramel taste and was quite hearty, almost like an ice cream and not really like an icy frozen yogurt at all.  The apple pie was unlike any frozen yogurt I had ever had as well.  I was skeptical when I saw the flavor because I thought there’d be no way that they could re-create that flavor, but not only did they re-create it, they did an outstanding job and it really did have the taste of a real apple pie!  The cake batter flavor, while not earth shattering, was also tasty and had nice body to it as well.  All in all, I was quite pleased with all of my choices.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, absolutely I would.  I’ll have to make this a sporadic treat though because like a little kid in a candy store (this is kind of a candy store, isn’t it?), I go out of control with the sundaes that I make and at $0.48 per ounce, that can get a little costly.  I never did get an exact weight on my concoction, but as you can see, it was not small.  Still, based on yogurt flavors/taste alone because that is what you really have to measure at these places since the toppings are always roughly the same, I have to give FroYo a big thumbs up.

FYI, FroYo does have multiple container sizes, so you can choose a smaller container and give yourself a governor based on container size so you aren’t a total slob like I was.

-IndianapolisEater

FroYo Frozen Yogurt on Urbanspoon

Review: FroYo Frozen Yogurt

Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Food Reviews, Location: Indianapolis, IN

Update:  Thanks to a reader, I have been informed that Thursday, August 11th is Miracle Treat Day at Dairy Queen.  They’ll be donating at least $1 for each Blizzard sold to your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.  So, if you are looking to try this Blizzard (or get any Blizzard for that matter), Thursday is the day to do it!  Thanks Indy Grub Review for the heads-up!

Dairy Queen
http://www.dairyqueen.com

You may or may not know this, but Dairy Queen has a Blizzard of the Month that they feature each month.  This Blizzard of the Month is one that is not ordinarily on their Blizzard menu and in the past has featured Blizzard flavors such as Girl Scout Tagalong cookie (a personal favorite), Mint Oreo, German Chocolate, Caramel Toffee Cookie, etc.  If you are ever curious what the treat for the month is, you can visit Dairy Queen’s website where they have a special page setup for the Blizzard of the Month.

Most months, the Blizzard of the Month doesn’t really interest me because Dairy Queen is not at the top of my frozen treat list.  But, when I saw that this month’s Blizzard of the Month was the Nutter Butter Blizzard, I knew I absolutely had to give it a shot because not only do I LOVE Nutter Butter cookies, but I also saw a glowing review of the Blizzard at On Second Scoop‘s website (awesome site, by the way and I would highly recommend it if you are an ice cream lover like me).  In my opinion, Nutter Butter cookies are one of the most underrated cookies that exists and they don’t get the publicity or notoriety that they deserve.  They aren’t as popular/mainstream as Oreos or Chips Ahoy, but in my mind, they are just as good, if not better.

Dissertation on cookies aside, off I went to Dairy Queen…

What I Got:  Nutter Butter Blizzard (medium); $3.69.

Dairy Queen describes this Blizzard as “NUTTER BUTTER® cookies pieces and NUTTER BUTTER® peanut butter crème filling blended with creamy vanilla soft serve.”  

Well, as you can see in both of my pictures (especially the close-up), there was definitely vanilla soft serve in there and there were definitely Nutter Butter cookie pieces (a lot of them, actually).  As for the peanut butter crème filling, you can clearly see that swirled in as well in both of the pictures.

In terms of taste, this was just as dreamy as I could have expected it would be.  It had a strong peanut butter taste and a lot of crunch because of the amount of Nutter Butter cookies that they mixed in there.  I could have gotten lucky in how they prepared mine, but if they make them all with this amount of cookies, you are going to be in luck because I had Nutter Butter in every single bite and as a lover of those cookies, I could not have been more delighted.  The vanilla soft serve was as you’d expect it would be (and always is), but the strong peanut butter taste of the cookies made this one a big winner.

Would I Buy It Again?  Oh yeah, definitely.  I’ll be getting it at least one or two more times this month, which is pretty incredible since as I stated earlier, I’m not a frequent Dairy Queen fan.  What I’m hoping is that this Blizzard does so well that they decided to keep it on the regular menu, because if they do, I’ll start hitting Dairy Queen a lot more often than I do (probably only about half dozen times a year).

That said, if you don’t like peanut butter and/or Nutter Butter cookies, then you aren’t going to like this Blizzard.  Keep that in mind.

FYI, Dairy Queen will also make a Nutter Butter Blizzard cake as well.  Does anyone have a birthday coming up where they want to get one of these and invite me to the party?  :)

-IndianapolisEater

Review: Dairy Queen Nutter Butter Blizzard

Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Food Reviews

Luca Pizza di Roma
7407 N. Shadeland Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana
http://www.pizzadiroma.com/nam/index.php?lang=en&region=nam

I was driving around one random Sunday weeks ago and came across this place.  I’ve known this place from the Castleton Square Mall for years (most of their locations are in mall food courts) but I didn’t know that they had locations outside of the mall, so I was intrigued.  When I got closer, I saw the sign for the All You Can Eat Buffet and I was hooked.  Unfortunately, I had already eaten lunch that day, so I went back a week later and gave the buffet a shot.

What I Got:  All You Can Eat Buffet $6.99 (drink not included)

I went with two friends and when we walked in on a Saturday around 11:45, we were the only ones there, so that was not a good sign.  We walked in and asked if they had the buffet going and they said they would get it going.  Again, not a good sign that they were totally unprepared for something despite the fact that they open at 10:00 or 10:30.

They threw a couple of pizzas and some breadsticks in the oven (they already had lettuce salad, pasta salad and cookies out on the buffet, so at least they were partially set up).  I’ll just go through this by the types of menu items they had out there.

Pizza:  This wasn’t their normal huge size pizza by the slice type pizza that they put out there at the mall.  These were normal sized (think a medium pizza at any pizza place) and they were pretty basic types of pizza.  Sausage and pepperoni, pepperoni, etc.  The pizza was fairly tasty, but the lack of originality and the lack of pizzas being changed out was very disappointing.  Granted, we were the only three in there but I was hoping I could have a pizza that wasn’t just a normal type of pizza.

Breadsticks:  After a bit, they took a batch of these out of the oven and I must say, these things were awesome.  They weren’t stuffed or anything like that…they were just basic breadsticks and they were wonderful.  I’ve never been a huge breadstick guy, but I could have sat there and eaten these all day long (I did have about five of them, so I did do some damage).  They also included a nacho cheese style dip (not a fan, so didn’t try it) and a marinara style dip (runny, gross and flavorless).

Salad Bar:  Didn’t have any, but this was just your basic salad mix that you see at the grocery store with lettuce, carrots, cabbage, etc.  There was some shredded cheese to throw on there, but that is about it.  They just had basic dressings as well (Ranch, French, Italian, etc.).  Boring.

Pasta:  At first, they had two mayonnaise based pasta salads out there.  One was your basic tri-color rotini with broccoli, etc. (boring and essentially flavorless) and the other was a small shell shaped pasta (like you might find in some macaroni and cheeses) that included chunks of bacon and honestly, it was awesome.  Later, they threw out some spaghetti that they didn’t strain that was watery and terrible.  The marinara sauce you were supposed to use was the same one for the breadsticks, so that was depressing.

“Dessert”:  They had chocolate chip cookies out and I’m a huge cookie lover and will eat almost any type of cookie and like it, but these were awful.  They tasted just like the cheap store brand cookies that you get at the grocery store that are dry and hard.  Not cool at all.

Would I Buy It Again?  Most likely not.  I really was upset after this experience because I was really looking forward to it.  The only way that this place could ever give a positive experience is that if you went there during the busy part of the day when they were continually cycling food and fresh pizzas out of there.  The funny thing is, I’m not sure when the busy part of the day would be because of the location of this place.  It is near an office park, but I don’t think that office park could sustain it to stay busy enough to make it worth it.  You’d almost have to rally twenty of your friends to go with you so that the kitchen would stay busy.

That said, if you want a calzone, this is your place.  As I was depressingly looking at the buffet, I looked over at the “regular” food and saw some of the most delicious looking calzones that I’ve ever seen in my life.  I wish I had gone that route instead of the buffet.  Oh well, from now on, I’ll just stick to ordering by the individual slice at the Luca in the mall.  By the way, even as depressing as this place was, it is still better than CiCi’s.  Just thinking about that place makes me want to gag.

-IndianapolisEater

Luca Pizza on Urbanspoon

Review: Luca Pizza

Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Food Reviews, Location: Indianapolis, IN

Indy Winter Farmer’s Market
http://indywinterfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/

It’s funny what a personal invite can do at times.  I knew about IWFM, but after a conversation with Erin from Country Mouse/City Mouse, she said that I really need to come check it out.   I have made plenty of excuses not to go, but I told her that she would see me there within the next two weeks.  Last Saturday, my two weeks were up so I packed up Mini WIBIA and we took the twenty minute trek downtown.

There are over fifty tables and there is a good variety of just about everything at the market.   On my short list was to pick up some winter veggies so I can start making my son’s food instead of him eating 100% Gerber.   The bad news was that I only found just a few produce stands.  What was there, was really good though and there were a lot of winter greens to choose from.  However, I found plenty of other goodies as well.

Rene’s Bakery
My first booth was Renee’s Bakery where I had a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. The cookie was excellent and definitely more about the chocolate than the cookie, which is the way it should be, in my opinion. In hindsight, I should’ve bought more here.  They had a lot of good looking bread as well.
http://www.renesbakery.com/

Country Mouse City Mouse
I picked up a Romesco Sauce and Red Lentil Soup. My Sunday lunch was a bowl of the Red Lentil and a grilled cheese… a dynamite combination. I really enjoyed the Romesco sauce a lot! I found plenty of uses throughout the week, including making a few crustinis with goat cheese and Romesco.  I really like the CMCM offerings as they are consistently good and comfortable food.  Just a reminder, they also do catering.
http://www.countrymousecitymouseindy.com/

Taste of Philly Pretzel - Country Mouse/City Mouse Romesco

Taste of Philly
I first learned about Taste of Philly from local blog Indianapolis Amy.  Amy’s blog is my favorite food/lifestyle blog in Indianapolis.  If you haven’t checked it out, you should!

Taste of Philly had a table of traditional Philly pretzels.   I bought the three link pretzel (can’t remember the technical name) and I really enjoyed this. It has a nice chew to it and was really tasty.  My only recommendation would be to add a little more salt to it, but I can understand the desire to error on the conservative side.  Pic is above…sorry, I ate a link on the way home.
http://www.indypretzel.com/

Nicole & Taylor’s Pasta
I am a big fan of fresh pasta but I don’t like doing all the work, so Nicole & Taylor’s is the place to get it from.  Every time I am at a farmer’s market, they are there, so I buy their pasta and am always pleased.   $1.50 a stack and super tasty.  This time, I picked up the Porcini Mushroom and Parpadelle.
http://nicoletaylorspasta.com/

Nicole and Taylor's Pasta

I really enjoyed my trip to IWFM. It appears to be pretty popular and they are quickly running out of space. FYI, if you have a young one, it is easier to leave the stroller out in the car and strap ‘em to you.

-WIBIA