As self-serve frozen yogurt spots have sprung up around Dayton and other parts of Ohio, each one has sought to do something to make it stand out. Bad Frog Frozen Yogurt, which has a location each in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, stands out for its heavy emphasis on the toppings. The one open in Dayton closes in on 75 toppings, to be exact, with just about anything you would ever want to put in your frozen yogurt concoction. So it’s a great place if you want to pile toppings high, but the yogurt itself is just OK.
We might as well start with the toppings, there’s just about every kind of candy and sprinkles, gummies, sometimes fruit, and sauces to put on the frozen yogurt. It tempts you to put in a ton. Which is nice, especially if you’re with someone who just has a sweet tooth for lots of different kinds of candy, but it only works so well when we’re talking about a small cup of yogurt to put it all on. Take into account that you’re paying for the food by weight, and it seems like the yogurt part of the equation is almost a loss leader.
The yogurt flavors are good, most of them are a mix of some artificial fruit flavors and the candy flavors, like chocolate, coffee, and cake batter. The yogurt has a great texture but the flavors are really sort of boxed. Don’t taste like they’re made with any fresh ingredients, or else so inundated with sugar that they lose something. It’s a shame; tastes like the kind of stuff you can buy at the store. Put that together with the toppings issue, and really you can almost make a better cup of yogurt at the store.
The people are nice, and it’s a very friendly small business with a good branding concept. The interior is clean and polished, so it’s definitely and attractive concept. It’s just the yogurt itself that I’m not sold on. It’s a crowded market in Ohio for yogurt, this one doesn’t stand out to me.
Recommendations
- There is a frequent buyer card if you go to this place a lot.
- The topping bar here is the biggest for any frozen yogurt place I’ve seen.
- I don’t like the fruit flavors, but the cake and coffee ones are pretty good.
Another Food Critic 
I actually liked this place – A LOT! The choice of toppings is wonderful, and there are many flavors of frozen yogurt. Plus, you can find half off coupons on groupon. I support local so I always come here as opposed to some corporate chain.
I am the guy that designed these locations! At one point we had 176 toppings on the topping bar. Also in reference to the comment about artificial flavors, we NEVER used anything but the best yogurts available. I spent so much time developing, branding and dreaming up this concept. It was great, but like he said…it was a crowded market. I intended (and I think I was pretty successful at) doing everything our competition wasn’t. In the end we simply didn’t make it. But we had a hell of a ride.