On August 20, a two-hour queue stretched through the streets of Notting Hill as Australian frozen yoghurt brand Yo-Chi opened its first UK store. Fans hailed the debut as the 'best thing to happen since One Direction', with onlookers claiming the line nearly reached High Street Kensington.
Viral debut and a flagship venue
Yo-Chi has been a viral hit since it launched Melbourne's self-serve frozen yoghurt scene with its first store in 2012. The London branch spans 2,000sqft across two floors, seating 120 customers, with endless topping stations after choosing one of the signature flavours. It is the brand's biggest ever store to date.
The venue includes a DJ booth and a disco ball. Co-owner Oliver Allis said it has 'become like the new club' in Australia, with bouncers guarding the doors on Friday and Saturday nights. One influencer at the soft-launch remarked: 'Who needs to go to Clapham on a night out when you've got night club music and frozen yoghurt?'
Flavours, toppings, and pricing
The store offers self-serve machines with nine flavours, including matcha and salted butterscotch, plus 30 topping options. Allis recommends a combination of açaí with 'signature tart' (the chain's original flavour), topped with oat and cinnamon crumble, biscoff, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, and chocolate chunk cookie cake.
Yo-Chi uses yoghurt made from Australian cow's milk, giving a tangy rather than overly sweet taste. A reporter's three scoops—matcha with strawberries, chocolate soil, and pistachio kataifi spread—came to £7.20, with a note that customers pay by weight.
Australian hospitality and fan excitement
Allis said Australian hospitality is at the heart of Yo-Chi. 'When you come here you're getting genuine welcomes and staff asking "how are you going?"' he said. 'It's a beautiful venue made for all ages. You can come here up until 11 or 12 o'clock at night and enjoy a Yo-Chi.'
Fan Lucy Sedgwick explained the hype on TikTok: 'People that have never lived or been to Australia probably do not understand the magnitude of Yo-Chi opening in this country. Yo-Chi is the single greatest export of that nation. People will say to you, "it's just frozen yoghurt, how good can it be?", and you should not listen to these people.' She described 'every topping you could possibly think of' including sweets, chocolate, fruit, nuts, seeds, and crumble, plus a hot plate with warm cookies, brownies, and warm sauce to drizzle 'all over your masterpiece'.
'At the end, you're salivating so much around your mouth that you actually do not care how much this beauty costs,' she said. 'I would like to thank the Yo-Chi gods for arriving in this country.'
Nostalgia driving the fro-yo comeback
Popular influencers Sophia Tuxford and Cinzia Baylis-Zullo from The Girls Bathroom podcast have praised the store. Fans online shared plans to travel from Devon and Essex to try Yo-Chi. Vhari Russell, founder of The Food Marketing Experts, attributes the frozen yoghurt comeback to nostalgia.
'There's definitely a strong 00s/2010s throwback flavour to the fro-yo resurgence; it was everywhere a decade ago, riding the same wave as juice cleanses and "frozen yoghurt is healthier than ice cream" messaging,' the food trends expert said. 'Chains like Pinkberry and Yog defined a whole era of self-serve, pay-by-weight dessert bars, and for a while it felt like every UK high street had one.'
'What's interesting is that the US and Australian brands entering the UK now aren't just reheating that era; they're leaning into nostalgia marketing deliberately. They know their audience: consumers in their late 20s and 30s who remember that first wave fondly, and a younger cohort who are discovering it fresh through TikTok's appetite for anything retro-but-remixed.'
'It's dessert as entertainment rather than a lighter alternative to ice cream, which feels like a much more honest pitch anyway,' Russell added.
