Indigo Cow Hokkaido Milk soft serve with shiratama kuromitsu kinako: I haven't experienced many long lines in Seattle, but Indigo Cow, a soft-serve "window" adjacent to the Japanese restaurant Yoroshiku in Wallingford, had an impressive showing for their Hokkaido milk treat. The line took about 40 minutes, even right after an afternoon shower, and unfortunately they were out of mochi for their classic Japanese topping (which normally comes with soybean powder and brown sugar syrup) by the time I got to the front of the line. The humble shop is literally one person serving up every order, which I can only imagine would be exhausting with the turnout. The soft-serve itself is on the sweet side but has a smooth and creamy milk flavor. My favorite part was actually the soybean powder, which did remind me of kinako you would have on a variety of pastries in Japan – a savory, nutty flavor that helps offset the sweetness of the brown sugar syrup. Servings are on the small size but not abnormal for a Japanese sweet shop. I'm personally not sure it's something I'd wait 40 minutes again for, but I did enjoy it and can see why people would find a creamy milk flavored ice cream to be refreshing if you're used to classic vanilla. 3.5/5.0

recommended wallingford japanese indigocow hokkaido milk soft serve shiratama kuromitsu kinako 3.5