Meet Fresh Irvine — Restaurant in Irvine

I've been to Meet Fresh a couple of times now and both times I'd have to say that it's just okay... then again I'm not really too keen or a huge fan of shaved ice and desserts similar to it so that may also affect my judgement.

It was the girlfriend's first time though and she's always wanted to try it out for a long time so we finally had some time to check it out last Saturday night. My first experience with this place was during a weekday right after lunch with a co-worker of mine. We walked over after parking, got in line and ordered and within 5 minutes got our orders and nom-nom-nomed away. Saturday night however was a completely different experience though. It might be because it was the trifecta that we went on a Saturday night, it's in Diamond Jamboree, and there's a plethora of Asians in Irvine, either students from UCI or local residents.

Although the line looked long, it progressed pretty quick. They have 3 huge screens on what you can order but these screens apparently don't encompass their WHOLE menu. Apparently they also have a couple iPads that are wall mounted that customers can use to figure out what they want, but for some reason they were missing... hmmm, wonder why?

Between the two of us, we ordered our own drinks and shared a shaved ice. Here's the low down of what I thought about each item:

Taro Ball Tofu Pudding (3/5): We added some grass jelly to the mix since she's into that stuff. My first bite of this was without the coconut milk and it wasn't bad, but I thought that it was a pretty blan taste overall. I figured, "hey, maybe the coconut milk will help?..." Although it does give that coconut kick to it with each bite, it wasn't enough to make me go "ohhhh yeahhhh... this is the s#!* right here!" As for the mochi... no taste AT ALL and was pretty much utter disappointment.

Winter Melon Tea w/ Lemon Juice (2/5): I'll just say that I was ohh so glad that this was my girlfriend's drink! After she tried it out, her first reaction was "ohh wow that's tangy!" Then I decided to give it a try and she was not exaggerating! The moment that liquid touches your tongue, you get that sour taste as if they put too much lemon juice and not enough sweetness to compensate. That taste lingers for a bit and I had to wash it down with my Taro Milk Tea. Unless you're into sour tastes and sensations, I'd say avoid this drink.

Taro Milk Tea (3/5): Probably the best thing I've had at Meet Fresh thus far. I'm not saying it's anything different or great, but the Taro taste isn't overwhelming or strong as I feared it would be. If anything, it's more of your typical milk tea taste with a hint of taro and some small bits of taro with each sip.

Although I can't speak on my girlfriend's behalf, I'd say that Meet Fresh is a bit overhyped and overrated. I'm sure that there are better places out there in the Irvine area where you can get better shaved ice at a cheaper cost and...

This place used to be my favorite dessert place but I will refuse to go there again if they keep the same store manager. I would rather spend extra money and enjoy my time somewhere else. My wife and I went to this location last Sunday around 4:20pm. We ordered our usual Icy Grass Jelly Combo B but was told that we could only order from the LIMITED MENU on the screen. We ordered DOUBLE TARO BALL SIGNATURE. We have never ordered it but since we love taro, Double Taro sounded really good.

It turned out that it had one scoop of vanilla ice cream instead of 2 scoops of taro ball. The picture from the TV screen showed 2 PURPLE balls. The manager told me the colors of the TV has been off and there was nothing she could do about it. I asked her since this was my first time ordering it and their TV's color was way off, could they just swap out the ice cream with a taro ball? She told me that substition is not allowed. I told her that how would I know if the TV was displaying wrong information to the customer. This could have been a quick $0.50 fix but she just wouldn't.

As a store manager, she could have resolve this issue without breaking a sweat but she just made it worse...a lot worse. When I asked for a refund, she rolled her eyes and acted impatiently. I immediately asked her name and she refused to provide that info. I asked her if I could talk to the store manager and she said she's the store manager. I then asked her where I could file a complaint. She pointed me to a poster that has franchising info.

Well, she is definitely imcompotent to be a store manager and I believe I am not the only one who feels that way. Angela, you or the senior management team should serious consider a new manager for this location otherwise you will start...

Meet Fresh? More like Meet Rude Staff and Nasty Bathrooms.

My family and I visited this establishment since we were craving some delicious Taiwanese desserts. This wasn’t my first rodeo with Meet Fresh, I had liked the desserts I tried before and I was actually quite excited to bring my family here. We ordered a “Double Taro Signature” as well as a “Pudding & Q Mochi Shaved Ice” when I received the order we were given three spoons, I kindly asked for 1 more. With an exasperated sigh and an annoyed tone, the staff member said “look there’s a total of three spoons” I was caught a back by his response but shook it off and explained that we were sharing with someone else so there were 4 of us in total. He begrudgingly gave me a plastic spoon, and quickly went off to doing other business. Keep in mind that the time we came in was not busy there was barely 10 people making orders so it wasn’t like I was asking for anything crazy like a modification to the desserts. Despite all this we still enjoyed ourselves and made the best of the moment. But I mean really, why would you try to fight someone down for a spoon??

I think the straw that broke the camels back for me was when I was ready to return the trays and use the bathroom, I was caught completely off guard by how disgusting the bathrooms were. The state the bathroom was in made me feel sick to my stomach and had me questioning if the kitchen that these workers prepared these dishes in were just as nasty. The bathroom looked like it hadn’t seen some soap and a scrubbing brush since the opening of the establishment. Crusty sinks, and musty walls, toppled over plungers with what looked like dried up poop on it. DISGUSTING. I was APPALLED. After this experience, I don’t think that I will...