Vampire Penguin

I love Dracula Badtz-​Maru! No really I do. Vampire penguin is the shizz! It’s mandatory that my friends and I stop by here when we come to Davis. The ice is finely shaved, like powder almost… so yeah, SNOW. My fave (s) has to be the mexican candy and thai tea snow ice. Either order from the menu or create your own.
They have a good amount of snow flavors to choose from – vanilla, chocolate, mango, taro, green tea, etc. And plenty of toppings and syrups to make it look all fancy and instagram-​worthy – fruits, cheesecake bites, pocky sticks, condensed milk, nuts, etc. For $ 5 – 7, its well worth it. If you’re lucky enough to catch their $ 10 deal on groupon, buy them all! One time I was able to order a regular sized snow and a macaron ice cream sammich with a groupon. And their sammiches are just as good… when they’re available. I recommend the cookies and crème.
This place is definitely a must try.

My dad was raving about this shave ice place, so after my cousin’s birthday party in Sacramento we decided to stop in on our way home. I have a LOT of experience with shave ice, and having just come back from Korea I was craving some good ice!
What my dad had failed to mention was that this is Taiwanese style shave ice. Still delicious but a totally different style. The ice is flavored before it is shaved, resulting in fluffy ice flavor.
The prices seem pretty fair and their presentation is good. The ice itself was good — we had the green tea one and my dad had one of the chocolate ones. His had too much overwhelming flavor for me but the green tea flavor was on point!
I don’t think I would every come back to this place, however, because the inside of this place is just weird. I don’t care what theme you come up with for your restaurant, but when the paint job is bad and there is an obvious lack of care in keeping the place looking presentable I just can’t bring myself to enjoy the place. Unfortunately all the outside seating (all two or three tables) were occupied, so we were forced to eat inside. Blegh. If it had been outside I could have maybe overlooked the lack of attention to detail inside, but oh well.

Vampire penguin… you’ve been on my mind lately. I want to go back and visit. Their desserts are to die for. Referring to the shaved ice: We had the tuxedo the first time we came. Ordered the large and though we thought we couldn’t finish it, we did. It was that delish. My husband is not a fan of chocolate but he loved this. See pic I posted. The second time we went we had the dulce de leche. It was yum as well. Friendly service, has seating inside and outside. Hope to be back soon to fulfill my craving.

I honestly was surprised to see Shaved/​Snow Ice in Davis. It’s a very socal thing and well. Davis is nowhere close to having that socal hype for asian food.
Anyways, they dont have much Special options only about 5 – 6 things on their menu. Which isnt bad!
We decided to go with the green tea shaved ice with strawberry and red bean. Definitely a recommended plate!
They have two different sizes:
Small — $ 6
Large — $ 8
You can also customize your own shaved ice
Small (one toppings) $ 3
Large (two toppings) $ 5
The place is not that big, but it has quite a few seating and tables, so good to come here with a party of 3 – 4.
Cheers!

When Vampire Penguin opened, it was a really nice refresher from all of the fro-​yo and ice cream places in town. I’ve tried a couple of desserts here in the few times that I’ve visited. I’ve had the Snow Tiger, Cookies and Cream, Taro, and Strawberry Cheesecake. The shaved snow is great. It’s very light and each bite melts in your mouth. They are great to share and you get to enjoy a dessert without it being too heavy.
The Strawberry Cheesecake is my favorite by far. You can get the deluxe version for $ 2 extra, and it is worth it. You get cheesecake bites and graham crackers dust and it is great. I took my family here when they wanted something «different» and they all loved it.
I would recommend dining in because they present the desserts really nicely. If you take them to-​go, they start melting really quickly and are not as aesthetically pleasing.

Super refreshing and light dessert, perfect for the hot summer days in Davis. My only gripe would be that even though my Groupon said $ 10 towards «shaved snow and treats», apparently the system only lets the cashier ring you up for the snow… pretty bummed because I really wanted to try the $ 5 macaron ice cream sandwich but I guess there’s always next time!
Prompt service and great selection of flavors/​toppings. I’ll definitely be back!!!

I was in the mood for something sweet and a little different and after a brief search on Unilocal I found this place!
My sister and I waited about 10 mins for it to be open. (Open at noon… Whhyyyy) and the place looked pretty modern with little toons painted on the walls. One thing that stood out rather badly is the lack of happy employees. The lady didn’t greet us nor return our hello. Wow it’s not 7am in the morning please be a little more pleasant. She was however helpful in explaining the menu and other alternatives to my sister who didn’t really know what to get. In the end my sister got the deluxe strawberry cheesecake (which was HUGE by the way) and I decided to make my own. Which consisted of chocolate ice with condensed milk and chocolate syrup. All topped off with almond slices and brownie bites!
Safe to say both were delicious and we will be coming back. But please fix the customer service, it really does effect the experience!

I came here with my wife twice now. The first time we came here it was pretty crowded. I guess this place is pretty popular and it was pretty warm outside. I had both time the «s’moreos «. I was suprise how tasty it was. Not so sweet just right and both times I have it I pretty satisfied. The first time we check out this place like I said it was pretty crowded and the ladies that were serving was pretty much busy… So they didn’t get to us faster than I thought they would but u expected that. The second time, we were the only ones there and there only two that was manning the store.
All in all pretty satisfied with the service and the choices. My wife and I will make a conscious effort to pass by every time we hear back home coming from the bay. Since this place in Davis is the only one we know nearest to our home.

Delicious!
It was around 4:30p in the afternoon and the place was BUSY! Waited and ate inside the parlor. wow! it was totally worth the wait. This was my first time having their desserts and I must say that it was love at first bite… and second, and third! I had the Tuxedo ($ 6 small)– chocolate shaved snow with sliced almonds, marshmallow, strawberries, chocolate sauce and condensed milk. The ice-​cream was so light and tasted just right, not too sweet. The presentation was beautiful on a white, square plate.
Located near many shops and restaurants and also near the university, most of the patrons were young adults/​college kids. Definitely coming back for more, maybe try the other locations which is closer to Roseville. Wished there was one in Roseville.
Not sure how many employees were working inside the kitchen but the two gals that I could see behind the counter did a great job accommodating customers. Busy and yet they still had great customer service. Friendly.

Can’t get enough of this place! Best Shaved Ice I’ve ever had, Hand down! The strawberry cheesecake has swept me of my feet. I was in complete amazement. From the texture being soft as snow to the flavors being spot on that I forgot I was eating shaved ice. The graham crackers combinations with the fruits and cheesecake bites take you on a journey to the real thing.
I think what Vampire Penguin does best is that their consistent with the texture. So regardless of the flavor you still fall into forgetting that you’re eating shaved ice. A lot of places you can still taste some bits and places of it.

If i had to post vampire penguin on ig i would hashtag #unimpressed, let me explain. We got the small twix shaved ice and their box of macaroons. I’ve just recently entered the macaroon game, and i must say the maccaroons here are mediocre beyond belief aka not good aka bad. There’s 8 or9 different flavors and you can only buy a box of 7 and the flavor i wanted, salty caramel, was not in the box and i requested another box and it wasn’t in that box either, sad. But the macaroons are soft, not savory, too sweet at times, and i dont recommend.
As far as the specialty dish goes, we choose the twix. It’s basically chocolate caramel and dry ice. Have if you ever had that combination before? Well if you haven’t don’t. Chocolate and dry ice simply don’t go together. I mean aesthetically it looks beautiful like a hot chick. But when you dig deep into the personality, the whole package becomes lackluster.
Side note, i asked for a cup of water, and he said ‘we don’t have that.’ ummmm, question mark? I’ll just end there…

This is for their new Hong Kong style egg waffle.
They cover it in powdered sugar which I didn’t really like and also made it very messy to eat. I would have preferred it without the powdered sugar, which is how I’m used to eating it. Mine was also slightly burnt. It’s a bit pricey, but it’s probably one of the only places in Davis to get it if you’re craving them.