Ranu's Reviews

Swirls

688 Westwood Avenue

Rivervale, NJ 07675

Hours: 10am -10pm Seven Days a Week

Bergen County—the frozen yogurt gods have heard you and now there is a place where you can get the same exact delicious yogurt as Cups in Clifton and not have to deal with the GSP, Route 17 or Route 3.

All’s Fair in Love and Fro-Yo

Let’s face it—there was only so much time that Cups could keep their distributor, YoCream (the Willy Wonka of fro-yo), under wraps before the imitators started popping up all over Jersey. Swirls is one of those imitators, but they wisely have made improvements on the flawed design of Cups.

First off—you can actually breathe inside the comfy confines of Swirls. There is plenty of room to hang out, sit down at one of the many tables and enjoy your fro-yo. You can even have a real, face-to-face conversation with people instead of having to communicate via Twitter.

Second—the yogurt dispensing area is wide open. You are not forced into a refined area like cattle—so feel free to graze among the numerous flavors of tasty fro-yo at Swirls.

Third—the yogurt dispensers look to be top-of-the-line. Not sure if they are the 4S versions, but they have a digital front-face that makes it look pretty damn cool for a frigging fro-yo machine. Just don’t try talking to it—they are not voice-activated. However, I have to say that I thought it took less effort to pull down the handle and the yogurt appeared to stop coming out a lot quicker than the Cups dispensers once I let go of it.

Lastly—the nutritional information is on full display for each flavor. No need to defer to a three-ring binder or website to get something so simple like the nutritional information.

Best Fro-Yo in Bergen County

If you’ve read my past reviews of Cups or Bberries you know I am a huge fan of their yogurt, which is distributed by YoCream. Swirls also uses YoCream so check out one of my past reviews to see how passionate I am about the YoCream brand. Without a doubt, it is the best fro-yo I’ve ever had.

Swirls has eight machines with three handles, so that comes out to 24 total flavors (16 flavors and eight flavors “swirled” together). They also have 50 different toppings to choose from: fresh fruit, cereal, candy, cheesecake bites (my personal favorite) and much more.

The End Result

Without a doubt, Swirls is the place to go for fro-yo in Bergen County. I just wish the place was closer to where I live, because I definitely prefer the spacious accommodations and well-designed layout of Swirls compared to the fro-yo joints in my neck of the woods.

I do have to tell you that the price per ounce at Swirls is a whopping two cents more per ounce than the other places I’ve been where it is 49 cents an ounce. However, you do have to keep in mind that Swirls is in Bergen County, so I don’t think the two cents is a big deal. Heck, even Clifton’s own Mr. Cupcake charges more for a cupcake in Bergen County than he does in Clifton.

The bottom line is that I have now been to three establishments selling the YoCream brand frozen yogurt and they are all pretty similar. As more of these fro-yo places pop up, differentiation is going to be the key to success and longevity. Cups was the first and closest to me, but after seeing the competition, I am starting to gravitate towards them as each one appears to make appealing improvements.

Swirls by far is the nicest one of the three I visited. It is super clean and not the least bit confining. I know Cups is trying to push their place as more of an experience, but I’m just not sure if blaring club music with extremely limited seating and TVs that run the same movie from 1960 is something I want to experience. Call me old, but I much rather enjoy my delicious fro-yo at a place where I can sit comfortably, watch current television programming and chat with my friends without having to yell. If you agree and live in Bergen County then Swirls is the place for you.