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Yo-Chi, the frozen yoghurt chain that’s blossomed from four venues to almost 40 in four years, may be the most zeitgeist of eating out experiences.

Reasonably priced, highly social, soundtracked with pop hits and framed by leafy plants and neon calls to “Share the Chi”, its venues, vibe and menu are as fun as they are dapperly designed.

On a warm summer Friday evening at Yo-Chi’s new Barangaroo flagship store, couples, friend groups, teenagers, tiny children and a bevy of office workers with loosened ties take turns filling the chain’s black and white cups with yoghurt flavours from 12 wall taps.

Strawberry cream, chocolate, vanilla, mango, tart and salted butterscotch flavours ooze out, surprisingly fast.

A metre away, at a long, curving, glass-roofed, double-sided topping counter, wide porcelain bowls bear fresh lychees, cut strawberries and piled blueberries.

Others have mango popping pearls, sour rainbow lolly strips, nutty granola, ginger crumble, mini M&Ms and chocolate brownie chunks. There are dishes, bottles and jugs of warm chocolate, Nutella and butterscotch sauce.

Should tart yoghurt (the best) be paired with chocolate freckles, cornflake crunch, crunchy milk balls, chopped almonds and Pistachio Papi spread?

Do matcha and strawberry cream yoghurts work with fresh rockmelon and pineapple, chocolate wafer rolls, strawberry mochi and crumble (a buttery mix of oats and cinnamon)?

And would mango yoghurt layered with choc chip cookie dough, chocolate soil (slightly sweetened, crushed dark chocolate cacao nibs), kiwi fruit, passionfruit and lemon curd and raspberry coulis work together?

Choice is king. Tonight, after each cup is weighed at the till, it costs an average of $12-$18 per cup to find out. The answers are: Yes, yes and, unexpectedly, yes.

Yo-Chi’s yoghurt is fresh, clean and lightly sweet and creamy. The fruity flavours ring true and the tart, matcha and chocolate stand out.

Swing towards fresh fruit toppings, push the boat out with mountains of lollies, or ladle on dark and fruity granola, chopped nuts and a crumble. The customer decides.

This Yo-Chi, based in an impressive water-fronted, glass-sided building that housed hospitality group Bentley’s seafood-focused bistro Cirrus up until September, is the chain’s flagship store.

Yo-Chi brand director and co-owner Oliver Allis, who bought what was a four-store chain in 2020 with his brother Riley (their mother is Boost Juice founder Janine Allis), says it symbolises pushing the status-quo.

“We were up against it in Sydney when we first started,” he says. “Everyone thought, ‘Oh, it’s just cheap frozen yoghurt. Who are these guys again?’ We’ve been fighting to get rid of that misconception ever since.”

First, they distinguished their yoghurt from various competitors.

“Some just put powder and water in a machine but we get bladders of the yoghurt that we pour into the machines,” he says. “It’s completely different. You can taste the creaminess and the quality.”

Visitor experience is also striking. A uniformed maitre-d greets each visitor, explaining the process to novices.

From staff to customers, everyone is the picture of manners. Queues move quickly but people stunned into indecision at the toppings bar are not rushed.

Yo-Chi at Barangaroo, with its wood, plant and twinkling light-filled interior created by design director Claudia Marro (Allis’s cousin), upends stereotypes about frozen yoghurt chains being tacky, plastic and oversugared dairy.

Allis is also emphatic about reducing waste. All Yo-Chi packaging is compostable, including spoons, cups and sample pots. In South Australia and Western Australia it goes straight from stores to commercial composting companies.

“The cup that goes into the bin is turned into soil,” he says. “Some of the strawberry farms where we get our strawberries from use the compost. And then we buy the strawberries.”

Allis, who hopes commercial composting facilities in NSW, Queensland and Victoria will be able to accept their packaging in the future, says Yo-Chi also stopped selling bottled water and soft drinks in-store two years ago.

Free still and sparkling water stations have taken their place.

“We’re trying to build on the fact that we’re like a third space, a place for social connection, rather than a frozen yoghurt visit,” he says. “It’s a place for everyone.”