Meet Fresh, a Taiwanese cafe: Irvine, California

Meet Fresh is a Taiwanese cafe, serving up teas, snacks and desserts.  They have locations all over Asia, but currently only one location in the United States in Irvine, California at the always busy Jamboree Diamond Plaza.

My friends and I stopped here to pick up something sweet to offset our very garlic filled lunch at Kicking Crab. The location is on the opposite end of the parking lot from Kicking Crab, in the corner next door to Tokyo Table. The first thing I noticed was the inside was very clean. It also looked like it may have once been an Japanese restaurant, as the counter and wall decoration looked like it may have been a sushi bar.

Outside

The pick up counter looks like it used to be a sushi bar

Menu

Menu of traditional Taiwanese hot desserts

Anna wanted an actual dessert and ordered the taro ball, tofu pudding dessert with sweet potato to go.  Annette and I wanted drinks, and we lucked out as their Anniversary Special Happy Hour was starting in 5 minutes at 1:00 pm.  Originally, we thought the BOGO was buy one, get another (at equal or lesser value) for free, but the offer was for specific drinks, and they had to be the same drink. So we got the Milk Green Tea with Boba for $4.00, which was a good deal since we got 2 drinks.

They were generous on the boba, but I thought it was a bit on the hard side. I would  say it tasted more al dente than saying it had been sitting there. The drink wasn’t overly sweet, but I think the price of $4.00 is a bit high for the size they gave. However, considering Lollicup, another Asian boba place, was just a few doors down, I guess you can say its comparable to the competition.

The restaurant is not very large, and I can see that it would get busy during the evenings or weekends. If I can find parking and not have to wait in a long line, I would come back and try this place again. Otherwise, this plaza has too many choices, especially Taiwanese snacks/ desserts to make this my first choice overall.

Anniversary specials – until September 20

The Happy Hour BOGO must be the same drink

Taro ball, tofu pudding with sweet potato