Soft Crush

Drove by on 6÷10÷2010 and it was closed down

DELICIOUS. this place is one of my other favorite yogurt places. it’s such a shame how i have no favorite fro-​yo place in my own city.
I was eating at the restaurant next door with the family when in comes a girl holding a tray of little cups filled with yogurt? She hands out a few to my large table and I immediately grabbed whatever was close to me (after politely asking if any of the elders wanted some of course). It was pretty tasty, after a not so tasty meal. So I whispered over to a cousin and asked if she wanted to go get the kids some yogurt later. She agreed and on we went.
First off, this place was so clean! Everything was all white. I kind of had the urge to color in one of the letters spelling out «Soft Crush» on the wall. But I didn’t. =) The employees were friendly, offering small sample cups so that my relatives could try the interesting flavors. Btw, self-​serve yogurt is awesome.
I went on filling my cup as my cousins were making their decisions. I got Lychee, Green Tea, Taro, Tart, Pomegranite, and Mango topped with cheesecake pieces. It was all incredibly yummy. I remember the taro being particularly good, and if I didn’t make a note of how bad the others tasted, then that means I enjoyed it all because I was really full at the end. Oh and the cheesecake pieces were bomb.

Okay here’s the whole deal with me and yogurt places… Whenever my uncle from milpitas comes down, he likes to go to different yogurt places and find out which ones are good. I took him here with my aunt (his wife) and my other aunt.
We went here after we took my aunt to get her registered at baby’s R Us. (fun fun fun)!
Okay back to Soft Crush, when we first walked in we were greeted by three people, the place was empty though but that’s okay ALL FOR US YESS! One of the workers came out and i was like uh… but then she asked us if we wanted to try any of the flavors (WITHOUT US ASKING! so awesome) so my aunts and uncle tried whatevers and they liked the ya oh (the vietnamese yogurt flavor one) and i was stuck with Acai Blueberry and Mango Strawberry… so what do i do… i get both! hahah
I loaded my cup with the two types of yogurt with mango, strawberry, and lychee… and guess what happened. NO COOKIE DOUGH *cries* what’s up with good yogurt places with no cookie dough. Mann ruined my flow! But what can i do?
To the owners of the yogurt places: PLEASE HAVE COOKIE DOUGH!
Back to the yogurt, everything mixed together was an explosion of sour-​ness in my mouth… I like it, would have loved it if they had cookie dough :]

hey! I know that guy with the tattoo in the 3^rd pix! Just had to say it LOL. He’s the reason I’m writing this review? Just to say that I know him? WTFFFF o_​O? I went here last night with the girls & it’s nothing special. It’s like every other yogurt place out there. There’s so many yogurt places popping up in Orange County & they all taste the same to me. They have a variety of flavors to choose from, a big assortment of toppings to layer on top, you know… etc etc. ALL THE SAME! Nothing special about this place.
However, my friend Xtina does really love this place. She said it tastes better then Yogurt Passion or whatever.

I noticed they had durian… but we sampled two other flavors (strawberry pom & mango something) but didn’t care for them. I ended up getting the «ya-​ua» flavor which is supposed to be their extra extra extra tart. It was very tart and quite good!

Tried this place again recently, and it wasn’t so great this time around.
After going making my rounds to other yogurt places, I’ve come to realize that convenience isn’t worth sacrificing quality. Sorry, Soft Crush — I’m not so much a fan anymore. You’ve been officially downgraded to Meh, I’ve had better. I know — ROUGH.

There’s a War going on
in Little Saigon!
Actually, its sort of like the USA…
there are TWO wars going on
in Little Saigon.
No I am not talking about the Tet Offensive 40 years ago in Vietnam. And not necessarily the battle between North owned and South owned businesses.
I am talking about two wars trying to win the Hearts and Minds,
well, more accurately, trying to win the Stomachs and Pocketbooks
of Vietnamese in Little Saigon.
The SECOND war is a price war, targeted at the older generations by the businesses, even the restaurants. There are discount signs popping up it the Viet Malls on Bolsa. One offers 50% off Phở Ga from 8am — 8pm. Another offers discounts on Hu Tieu and Mi. With the recession hitting everywhere, Little Saigon is not spared, and tactics, long clandestine and underground in nature to get and maintain business, has become overt campaigns.
The FIRST war, however, is targeted at the Hearts and Minds, er, I mean Stomachs and Pocketbooks of the youth! More exactly, the young females in particular.
The tactics? FROZEN YOGURT!
Fro-​Yo places are opening up every month. Most are one-​off copies of those well known chains whose names start with colors in the Red/​Pink spectrum. And most have a color and a feeling in their titles. Like BerryPassion, or Yummy Yummy Yo, or PassionYogurt. They all have a similar décor like PinkBerry or Red Mango… trendy, cheap candy colored plastic furniture, or Italian modern little ottoman seats, and white or colored walls reminiscent of the 1960’s «Mod» Fashions a la Twiggy and Barnaby Street, or the original yellow «Happy Face» now eternally immortailzed as an Emoticon! :-)
Soft Crush opened in November, in a remodeled strip mall, just down the street on the same side of Bolsa as the famous all-​Viet mall, Phuoc Loc Tho.
It incorporates the newer Fro-​Yo place trend, which is 6 — 8 flavors in 3 — 4 machines, that you pour yourself in large cups, add fresh fruit or candy/​nut toppings, and weigh by the ounce. Like YogurtLand. Or some place called Swirl… something or other. Soft Crush charges $ 0.35/oz, which is 3 — 5 cents more than the competition in most places.
However, they make it up in Asian flavors! Yup, this is like 99 Ranch produce section meets YogurtLand/​PinkBerry/​Red Mango!
How about these Asian only appreciated flavors:
— Green Tea
— Taro Root
Those two are the most popular! More than chocolate, raspberry, or blueberry! (Well, this is Little Saigon!)
Yes, they serve Green Tea ice cream at Benihana’s to non-​Asians all day and night, but Taro? You got to be Chinese, Vietnamese, maybe Japanese, or Hawaiian to appreciate that!
But wait, there is even more Asian flavors:
— Lychee
and the most Asian,
— Durian
What the!!!
They have pop music playing, a large 42 inch LCD monitor playing music videos, and 2 cute young girls, Marisa and Christina weighing you in with a smile!
I think the war maybe lost.

great staff, good prices, large portions. what else could you ask for? if your looking to share something try the shaved ice. 1 order is enough to feed a small family! :)

Overall creamy experience!
35cents an ounce (fortunately buy 1 get 1 free for now!)
Taro — Creamy. Taro flavor wasn’t super strong.
Original — Very tarty, similar to pinkberry.
Mango — It’s white colored. Threw me off but good.
Pomegranate Strawberry — Strong strawberry flavor.
Toppings look good. They had golden raspberries (that was interesting).
Mochi topping — very powdery.
Coconut cubes (aka fake toddy palm?) — Strong essence flavor, it was okay.
Décor is SUPER WHITE. I mean it’s whiter than white. I felt like I was in a museum of contemporary white-​only art. It makes ModeBeri in FV look colorful. =)
I like it!

The fro-​yo craze has gone so far that it’s even penetrated the Vietnamese community. After having lunch next door we noticed the grand opening sign. I don’t remember what this place used to be but the whole strip mall has been renovated and looking much nicer than I remember it a year or so ago. Too badthe parking hasn’t gotten any better. But i digress.
Soft Crush does the do it yourself style, where you get a huge cup and you mix and match flavors as you please, which is also true with the toppings. At the end they weigh the suckers and you pay by the poundage.
Got the pomegranate-​strawberry and taro flavor with almonds. I thought the former was going to be the one I’d lean towards but it was in fact the latter that I liked most. Two decently sized cups came out only to be $ 4.04, which Im not sure or grand opening prices or not but that’s pretty cheap. There were two little girls in front of us that had both cups maxed out, beaming with smiles.
The people are fairly friendly, as Im sure first impressions are going to be important and the space has that futurre from the 70’s point of view that a lot of these places are going for. Clean, spartan with a handful of accents here and there. Im sure they’ll do pretty well as it’s a solid product and there’s definitely not too many fro-​yo places in the area.