Recently opened on Griffith Park in Silver Lake - across from Gelson’s.
Solid all around. Malted chocolate favors malt and chocolate flavors over sweet. Vanilla was simple and suitably vanilla-y, if a little mild. Corn/Almond vegan was surprisingly good, with a nice mouthfeel which is contrary to most vegan frozen desserts I’ve had.
“Junior” size will be more than enough for most. Didn’t try any of the toppings - selection seemed pretty limited.
2660 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039
good info, thanks. on those rare occasions (not rare enough for the present waistline, clearly) i treat
myself to a chocolate malt, i’m always bitching they don’t put enough malt in.
When I visited, they didn’t mark on their menu which of their offerings (or toppings) were vegan - not sure if they still don’t do this. From piecing together different reviews and the like, I’m pretty sure I ended up with one of their vegan flavors that night (mint chocolate). It was just OK…maybe good as vegan ice cream goes, but give me the animal, please.
The menu board does not denote which flavors are vegan. It should. When I asked to taste the corn/almond the counter girl told me it was vegan.
I tasted.
I liked.
I ordered.
I won’t say it was as good as a dairy based dessert. I will say that I’ve been trying to cut back on dairy and this presented a decent alternative, meaning it’s good for what it is. Just don’t expect too much.
Magpies is awesome. Just awesome.
My only complaint is that while I love the sweet corn and the espresso-inspired Cortadito, I really wish they did a simple vanilla.
They had vanilla when we visited today. I don’t know how “simple” it was but it was vanilla.
Dunno about today, but in the past that has always been vanilla latte, whatever that is, but it’s not straight basic vanilla.
I liked the toppings, but I doubt I would come back. The flavors in the soft serve were just muted. Strawberry rhubarb was better than the bland sweet cream.
It was for my three year old nephew so we just asked for a junior vanilla and that’s what he got. When I sampled his - he was more interested in smearing it on his face and t-shirt than actually eating it - I didn’t taste anything that would evoke latte but I also didn’t taste a deep, eggy vanilla either - like the flavor you’d associate with vanilla frozen custard.
I posted a radio piece on Magpies by Marketplace on Public Radio over on the media board. The audio portion covers more than the text:
This may not be a popular criticism of Magpies, but while I really like Magpies (and I really do), I just hope that they don’t get too enamored with just making unique and inventive flavors and lose sight of the fact that what makes for a great soft-serve is texture and clarity of flavor.
Nothing wrong with things like corn almond or maple ube every once in a while but not on a regular rotating basis. Feel free to make some basic flavors like vanilla and chocolate – not Vanilla Latte and Malted Milk Chocolate – just to demonstrate to the world, if not yourself, that you can. That your soft serve can stand on its own without appearing to be hiding behind uniquely different flavors.
