Matcha Ren — Restaurant in Arcadia

If you're a fan of any and all things matcha, you'll definitely love Matcha Matcha. This cute dessert/drink place recently opened up in the Food Alley near the Promenade by Side Chick. It's a relatively small food stand that offers desserts such as soft serve, shaved  ice, and pastries as well as iced and hot drinks. My friend and I were able to try quite a few samples from them that day, and as a person who isn't fond of matcha, I have to say that I was pretty taken aback by how good everything tasted.

Their matcha donuts with sesame seeds on top were really tasty. If they hadn't told me that the donut was baked and not fried, I don't think I'd be able to tell. The cake was super fluffy with just enough matcha taste while it maintained the perfect sweetness that you expect a doughnut to taste. Definitely not bad!

Matcha Pico was interesting, but not something I'd order again. It had the sourness of a regular Calpico drink, but also had a slightly bitter undertone from the matcha. It did taste healthy, but I can't imagine drinking a whole cup of Matcha Calpico.

Matcha soft serve - if you're a fan of matcha and ice cream, I think you should definitely try this out. The pictures of the matcha swirl (mixed with vanilla or sesame) looked so amazing, topped with various toppings. Sadly we were too full to get a whole cup of soft serve, but the flavor was on point. Not too heavy, good matcha flavor with enough sweetness - it comes in a pretty big cup for $4.75 (additional toppings are $0.25 each). It's a bit pricey, but worth a try.

Vanilla soft serve - I was actually a much bigger fan of the vanilla soft serve than the matcha. While it's not as smooth and creamy as the custards that I like from Frostbites, it definitely tastes a lot healthier than ice cream from a fast food store. Felt like the ingredients were pretty high quality, making for a very smooth texture and on-point flavor. I can definitely see the matcha and vanilla swirl being a huge hit as one is sweeter while the other is not as sweet.

Matcha Hokkaido milk tea - my friend and I were sold on this drink. The sample that we had tried only had 25% sweetness in it - and it was already pretty sweet for the both of us. I would say the drink is much creamier and richer than any other matcha tea I've ever had before. We ended up ordering the drink at the same sweetness level. They have simple syrup and matcha simple syrup on the side for you to add if you are not satisfied with the level of sweetness. The drink definitely was not too bitter nor too sweet - the perfect blend of matcha and Hokkaido milk tea. I'm still not a fan of matcha, but I would recommend this drink.

The workers here were all super sweet and friendly. They were super friendly and patient as we asked about various items before finally settling on the milk tea. Prices of their pastries do vary, so be sure to ask before you buy. Loved the simplicity of the store. They specialize in only a few things, but they do it well.

tl;dr - Matcha Matcha is a great addition to Westfield! It definitely fit the aesthetic of the overall Food Alley. Great for picking up a drink or splitting a dessert if you're on a date. I do want to return to try the soft serve, but not in any rush. The prices are a little on the higher side, but I think the quality of the items justifies the price. Highly recommend giving this place a try if you're a...

Finally got the chance to try this place out and I loved it!

First off, you get the option of 2 free toppings with Yelp check in. You also get a 10% mall employee discount as well (but make sure to ask before paying)!

The menu itself is very small and their specialty is, of course, matcha green tea. They have a variety of treats from milk teas to rice crispy treats to even cookies but I decided to stick with their matcha swirl with matcha mochi and almond pocky toppings. The mochi has a bit of a gelatin texture to it rather than the sticky mochi I am quite used to and it was also rather tasteless. Almond pocky isn't really hard to dislike, so I'm glad I liked one of my two toppings.

As a huge ice cream lover, I can certainly say that the matcha soft serve was the reason why I was drawn to this place and it certainly did not disappoint. I didn't get a chance to ask about the ingredients but I was glad to see that it didn't have a gritty feeling to it as you would get in most matcha products.

The line here, like most of the dining locations in the EAT section of the Santa Anita mall, can get very long very quickly. But!!!! It certainly is...

If any place has the word "matcha" in it, I'm definitely there. This place serves AWESOME soft serve!! There's regular matcha soft serve and there's a soft serve swirl! Of course, the soft serve swirl contains 2 flavors, matcha and whatever flavor they decide to have. I've heard they had thai tea as one of the flavors, but I've only had the black sesame! I like the idea that you get to pick 2 toppings for FREE when you buy it. Definitely the matcha cake and matcha mochi are the best toppings alongside the ice cream. Although you get a lot considering it's $5, they don't fill the cup all the way. When you scoop yourself some of the ice cream, you can see a hole right in the middle of it hence the...