10/08/2026
A PSA on Durian: The King of Fruits isn’t for everyone! 👑🍈
We rarely address negative reviews publicly, but this is a learning moment.
Across Southeast Asia and diaspora communities, durian is revered as the “King of Fruits”—a cherished delicacy, not a novelty. It is also an intense flavor that is not for the faint of heart.
As Anthony Bourdain famously put it on No Reservations, it’s like “pungent, runny French cheese... something you will either love or despise. Your breath will smell as if you’d been French kissing your dead grandmother.”
Because of its distinct nature, our durian ice cream is sold strictly in pre-packed pints, not in the display case for sampling. It took us a full year of sourcing authentic fruit and recipe development to bring this batch back. We take immense pride in our heritage and craft—which is why we will not tolerate what happened in our shop recently.
A customer bought a pint out of curiosity without asking about it, brought it back opened, and demanded an exchange because he didn’t like it. When we explained that we don’t swap opened pints for personal flavor preferences, he escalated:
-Repeatedly degraded the fruit and our culinary culture, calling it “cat urine.”
Threatened ownership with a two 1-star reviews to force a free replacement—despite admitting he loved every other flavor he bought.
-Blamed our staff for his own purchase and tried to lecture us on running our business.
-When offered an immediate refund to de-escalate, he ignored it and called the owner a “twit.”Lines were crossed. The refund was processed, and he was told to leave his 1-star reviews and never return. We have zero tolerance for review blackmail, disrespect toward our team, or bigotry directed at our cultural foods.
A sincere request to our community:
Before grabbing a pint of durian, do some research or talk to our team first! We love sharing our food culture, and we are always happy to answer questions.
Sourcing this fruit takes immense labor, and for the communities who grew up on it, it is a treasured delicacy.
Describing an authentic cultural staple as “cat urine” is deeply insulting to the harvesters, the culinary tradition, an
