As a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Chicago, Kham Phommahaxay dips into his French chef skills as he creates recipes for the Japanese style ice cream he and his wife, Yim Phommahaxay, serve at Miruku Creamery and Cafe in McKinney.

The backstory

Phommahaxay said he met and became friends with Onel Perez, co-owner of McKinney’s Guava Tree, while owning and operating Yim Yam, a Thai food truck.

“He suggested this spot in McKinney,” Phommahaxay said. “We were looking for a place to open a Thai restaurant but this ended up being our choice, because it was much cheaper to build out an ice cream shop than a full restaurant.”

Phommahaxay said he bought a countertop ice cream maker and, wielding his knowledge from culinary school, started creating recipes for Japanese ice cream.


In 2021, the couple opened Miruku Creamery and Cafe.

On the menu

Yim Phommahaxay said she handles marketing and coffee menu items while her husband takes care of all things related to ice cream.

Phommahaxay opted to offer Japanese-style soft serve ice cream, which he describes as being lighter and less sweet than other styles of ice cream.


The milk flavor, which is similar to vanilla, and chocolate flavored ice cream are always available, and two other flavors rotate monthly. One of the rotating options is always a nondairy variety.

Many of the shop’s ice cream recipes, all of which are created by Phommahaxay, feature Asian-influenced flavors such as mango, taro, black sesame and lychee hibiscus.

Popular menu items include the berry berry sundae, chocolate madness sundae and coffee affogato sundae. Another top seller is the day dream sundae which includes a cup ringed with house-spun cotton candy.

“It's basically to make the kids happy,” Yim Phommahaxay said.


The shop also sells paninis and coffee. Panini options also rotate and feature Asian-influenced flavors such as banh-mi-ni and satay-ni.

One more thing

The Phommahaxays said they are happy they chose to open their business in downtown McKinney because of the support they’ve received from the city and the community.

“We love the area, it’s very family oriented, and everybody is really nice,” Phommahaxay said. “I’ve been to a lot of downtowns with my food truck and you don't get this charm in many downtowns. This is by far one of the best.”