Fresh Roast — Restaurant in San Gabriel

Mixed feelings about this place. I’ve been a frequent guest over the years and my experiences have varied. I first came here to study a few years back. Ordered the popcorn chicken and a Mexican Mocha. They were both delicious and my only complaint at the time was the owner kept visiting my table to try to sell me something every 15 minutes or so. It was very distracting. The last couple times I’ve gone, the owner always seems to be in a cranky mood and it’s hard to tell if he actually heard your order. I once wanted to order two drinks and food but as soon as I told him the first drink of my order, he walked off. I then had to make several attempts to get my entire order down and he seemed entirely over it. He treats Mandarin speaking guests very kindly; smiling, joking, offering seating, but it’s a night and day difference when he speaks to English speaking guests.

Otherwise, the food and drink is delicious If you don’t mind being served on paper plates and plastic cups. I guess the owner is not a fan of dish duty.

The cleanliness is also in question. It’s a normal occurrence to see roach bodies littered throughout the establishment, uncleaned tables, and general clutter and dust collection.

I see a lot of hype around the waffles but honestly, spare yourself the money spent. It is nothing special.

TLDR; if you close your eyes when inside and take your food to go, you will love it. Don’t look to hard at...

For over a decade, Fresh Roast has been a popular coffee shop serving citizens of San Gabriel. It was around even before the "third-wave coffeehouse" movement began. Dating back in the late 90's and early 2000's, customers around the neighborhood came to surf the Internet at computer stations in exchange for purchasing a cup of coffee. This practice remains the same today, except customers are bringing in their own electronics, and they understand and appreciate artisan coffee much more.

Fresh Roast is one of the rare places in the San Gabriel Valley that uses a siphon to brew coffee. The siphon technique involves brewing coffee at a constant temperature, which ensures the extraction time is controlled. It yields one of the cleanest and most crisp cup of filtered coffee. Pair it with the latest roast and you have the best tasting 20oz (~2 to 3 cups) of coffee in San Gabriel.

A wide variety of single-origin coffee beans is roasted in-house by owner Jimmy. The beans are country specific, but are not sourced from specific microlots or farms like third-wave coffeeshops do. However, the beans are inexpensive at around $10 to $12 per pound except for the special Jamaican Blue Mountain Wallensford Estate ($50/lb). Third-wave coffee shops typically charge much more, in excess of $20 per pound. Jimmy seems to roast the beans a little darker...

A small place with numerous fresh roasted coffees options. I have passed by this place many times until I saw a review on Yelp about their pandan Mochi waffle.

Stopped by here today to try out their famous pandan Mochi Waffle. When we walked in, greeting us were at 15 coffee grinding machines at the door. Whatever flavors or types of coffee you want they can make it fresh from your favorite coffees beans.

Since we don’t drink coffee, we wanted to try their pandan coconut milk tea and their famous pandan mochi waffle. After the first bite, we immediate got why people flood here from all over to get the waffle. Unlike other cafes, this place make a perfect pandan mochi waffle. The waffle was very crispy and the mochi inside was so soft and chewy. The flavor from the pandan leaves made this waffle so tasty. Now I am a fan of their pandan mochi waffle.

Now for the pandan coconut milk tea, it’s a perfect drink for those people who love HK milk tea but are sensitive to dairy products. With the combination of coconut milk and pandan, the milk tea drink is like a drink make in heaven. I love the flavor. The owner told us that people would drive all the way from New Port Beach to come just to pick up this drink.

The restaurant does offer food, but we didn’t really see any people eating inside. So we can’t really comment...