My first experience with Mixue happened in Thailand. I was walking through a mall that I have visited many times when I noticed a new ice cream place. It appeared to be a soft serve ice cream shop, and I didn’t really give it much thought. Later that afternoon I walked by the shop again only to see a gigantic line forming outside the shop. This isn’t something new to Thailand as it’s a bit of a collection spot for trendy foods. I figured that that ice cream shop might just be the newest hip thing and eventually the lines would die down and maybe on a future visit I’ll give it a try. I’m not really the type of person to line up for soft serve ice cream, unless someone I trust tells me it’s worth the wait.
I few months later I was back in Thailand and once again I walked by this unassuming ice cream place and once again it had a huge line. It was a little peculiar as often the trendy places in Thailand die down in popularity fairly quickly, and in some cases they even shut down in a few months. This one however had some staying power. I once again didn’t get a cone, but I decided to keep an eye on this place.
A little while later I found myself in Singapore, and I happened to walk by an ice cream place, and once again it had a huge line. Upon closer inspection I realized that this was actually the same place that I saw in Thailand. Now I was seriously intrigued. After all it just looks like a run of the mill soft serve ice cream place, so why are people lined up for basic soft serve all over Asia? Could it be that there’s some kind of special treat they offer, or maybe the vanilla ice cream is that great?
When I past the first shop in Singapore, I didn’t have time to stop, but as luck would have it Allison and I came across another location and amazingly enough there wasn’t a huge line. It was just after supper and a soft serve ice cream would make for the perfect dessert. While there wasn’t a lineup, it was still a bit of a challenge to get a cone.
I’m not sure if this is the same at every Mixue location, but the stores in Singapore don’t take credit card. This is problematic for us since we were only visiting Singapore for a short time, and didn’t have much cash. We tried to go to the kiosks to pay and order only to learn that they only took certain forms of payment, none of them being credit card. In order to pay cash you had to walk up to the register. I didn’t even know what I wanted to order, so I used the self service screens to pick what I wanted and walked up to the register.
As it turns out, they offered a super cheap 1 Singapore dollar “World Famous” ice cream cone. Since it was world famous I figured that’s what I should probably get. I walked up to the counter and the person explained that if I was paying cash and only wanted an ice cream cone that I had to go to the walk up window outside the store. At this point the long lineup seemed very inviting. We made our way to the window outside the shop and by that time a short lineup had started to form, but we were already committed.
At the window there was one man frantically making ice cream cones and taking people’s dollar. My time came and fortunately I had a few people in front of me to show me what to do. I soon had a cone in my hand and I was super excited to see what all the fuss was about.
Turns out... the fuss was about nothing that great. I wouldn’t really call the ice cream bad, but I’ve had better. Give me a Canadian ice cream truck soft serve, or a cone from Joe’s in Wales any day over this. Sure the size was pretty good, and it looked cool, but flavour wise it was average. The cone was actually the highlight of the whole treat, it was a bit better than the store bought ones you get with most soft serve ice cream places.
That price was certainly worth it, but I’m not sure that this ice cream is worth the waiting time I’ve seen at some locations. I feel like the hype of this place and the nice mascot design is the real draw. I got my photos, ate my cone, and cooled off on a hot Singapore night, but I can’t say that I was overly impressed.
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