With the city’s soaring prices, everyone is on the hunt for affordable dining options.
Establishments like Kokoro Mazesoba and Steve’s Poke Bar are even responding by either dropping their prices or upsizing portions, ensuring locals get more bang for their buck.
Even newer ventures, such as Oyo Korean Noodles, are luring customers downtown with their appealing $10 menu.
In contrast, DuoDuo Fruit Shop, a new-ish yogurt bowl and drink spot in Richmond, is bucking this trend.
Occupying the space formerly held by XiXiGo bubble tea shop, and prior to that, the Chun Yang chain, the location hasn’t had much success with beverage-centric businesses.
Yet, something drastically different may change the fate of this cursed spot?
DuoDuo Fruit Shop opened back in December with their premium-priced $25.99 yogurt bowls.
Yup, you read that right.
The menu has flavours like Peach Strawberry Yogurt Bowl, Mix Fruit Yogurt Bowl, Lychee Yogurt Bowl, and Blue Spirulina Yogurt Bowl, each tagged at $25.99.
Surprisingly, their Toronto branch’s Fantuan page (Chinese food delivery app) reports over 100 of these bowls are sold monthly.
But considering the sparse reviews on their Google Business page and minimal posts on Chinese social media, that tag is quite hard to believe.
Furthermore, the same Fantuan page indicates that DuoDuo offers premium-priced fruit slices—seedless green grapes for $13.99 and red heart dragon fruit for $18.99.
However, during our glimpse inside the Richmond location (they were closed then), these items were absent from their TV menus.
Conversely, the pricing of DuoDuo’s drinks is more in line with local standards, averaging around $6.50 each.
Although these prices are startling, if people eventually accepted Erewhon – the L.A. upscale supermarket with the viral $20 smoothies – then we don’t doubt that there will be a certain demographic that fits DuoDuo.
As DuoDuo continues in the Richmond market, it will be fascinating to observe how this high-end concept fares amidst the local competition.
And if DuoDuo does work and take off – it is clear that we gotta start our own yogurt bowl shop.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Address: 7971 Alderbridge Way #130, Richmond, BC V6X 2A4