Vampire Penguin — Restaurant in Arlington

A mouthwatering treat at an eye watering price.

Vampire Penguin brings a wholly unique dessert to the area: Snow. Unlike your usual shaved ice, the flavors are packed into the ice itself and shaved extremely fine. The result is a heavenly texture closer to soft serve than the usual crunch of shaved ice. The flavor variety is plentiful with a selection familiar to those who frequent bubble tea shops, although much more mild than your usual frozen dessert. There are also some tantalizing outliers such as a Mexican dessert themed flavor with chamoy and fresh fruit as well as some safer ice-cream-shop-staple options like Rocky road and cotton candy.

The inside of the shop is your average startup Asian dessert Cafe atmosphere: White surfaces, a few tables and couches, and some community created artwork. Staff are quick to explain the gimmick for the new and confused before pointing to the visual menu laid out on the counter. Overall inoffensive but a tad disappointing for such a striking name and a menu items like "potions".

While something could be said about a name like "Vampire Penguin" choosing such a safe atmosphere and flavor selection, my only real complaint comes from the price. At $15 before tip for the medium size, you're getting a couple spoonfuls of store bought toppings (coconut, fruity pebbles, marshmallows, etc.) over some gourmet frozen water. I was honestly unable to find another dessert in the area at the $15 price point besides Sweet Moon's most expensive items using giant slices of imported Japanese bread with local fruit and honey.

Regardless of the price it is worth at least one visit if only for the novelty, but if prices came down to ~$10 for the large I could easily see this being a more regular...

So... To start off, I would like to thank the guy that warned us not to take another step, since there was a hypodermic needle on the ground in the parking lot. This area is a DUMP. If you want the exhilarating feeling of wondering if you'll get robbed and stabbed walking to your car with your children, this is it. Google Smokey point Wa. It'll keep you entertained. After spending over $60 for flavored ice we left very unsatisfied. It's a ground down snow cone they call "snow" with fruit n flavors. That's it, an expensive trendy form of carnival treats. When they say there's a sucker born every minute, they mean it. But it won't be us again, we came,we saw, n glad we're not going back. On the bright side The Best Western nearby is fairly clean with a really good continental breakfast and police usually in the area. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. ---per your reply, clearly you're not involved in urban planning and now we see you're not involved in even caring about the safety of your...

Bummer- first time we came here we had a great experience. But...not today. DO NOT call for a to go order near the end of their shift you will receive horrible customer service and they will make you feel horrible. My husband called to order for a to go and asked if it was okay to order and have it picked up about 5-10 minutes before closing. There was a long pause and then they said, sure, and so he put in the order. When I got there, all of the workers were just standing around talking and nothing was prepared or put into the register. There was no customer service , just everyone glaring at me for coming in and paying at 4:57. I've worked in restaurants/cafes and you are supposed to keep the 'kitchen' open until your closing time (5pm). That was definitely not what they were doing and made sure I knew it.

Unfortunately, we will not be coming here again and supporting...