Meet Fresh, a Taiwanese dessert chain with hundreds of locations worldwide, recently opened their first location in San Diego. The store is located in Mira Mesa, in the same plaza as H Mart.
I was invited in for a preview of the store and try some of their menu items.
I have been to several other Meet Fresh locations, so I was excited when I learned that a location would be opening in San Diego.
Meet Fresh offers traditional Taiwanese desserts including taro balls, herbal grass jelly, tofu pudding, mochi, and tea drinks. They are most known for their taro balls and grass jelly (which is stated in the Chinese name for the chain).
Grass Jelly has a jelly-like texture and is eaten in many parts of Asia. It is made using the Platostoma palustre plant, a member of the mint family, and has an herbal taste. It is usually served sweetened in syrup and used as a topping for drinks and desserts. It can also be served hot as well.
Taro Ball is a very traditional Taiwanese food. It is one of my personal favorites. Taro is mashed down and mixed with sweet potato or potato starch, giving it a chewy, bouncy texture. It is then sweetened with syrup and usually served as a dessert or a dessert topping. When you see taro ball desserts, they usually come in two colors: a light purple and orange. Technically only the purple one is made of taro. The orange ones are made of sweet potato. But the two are almost always mixed together and labeled taro balls.
Signature Icy Grass Jelly
This is one of their most popular menu items. The base of the dessert is grass jelly flavored shaved ice and grass jelly. Then there are a number of toppings you can choose to add. This one is topped with taro balls, boba, red beans, and sweetened taro.
It’s a pretty generous sized bowl and can easily feed two.
I enjoyed the toppings and thought they tasted the same as what I’ve had at the other locations.
Tofu Pudding with Taro Balls and Sweetened Kidney Beans
This is one of the few desserts I have not tried at Meet Fresh before and I was pleasantly surprised. The tofu is made fresh daily and the texture was very silky and smooth. I enjoyed it a lot and would order it again.
Q Mochi and Egg Pudding
Though they don’t get as much attention as their taro ball desserts, we really like the mochi at Meet Fresh.
Mung Bean Cake & Peanut and Sesame Mochi Combo
I like this particular style of mochi a little more and I like both the peanut and black sesame fillings.
Fluffy Green Tea | Milk Tea with mini taro balls
We also tried some drinks during our visit. I love that they offer mini taro balls as an option. The fluffy teas are topped with a layer of cream.
Overall, I enjoyed what I tried and thought everything was on par with the other locations we’ve been to. While the grass jelly and taro balls are not quite as good my favorite spots in Taiwan, they are a pretty decent version. And since it is hard to find these traditional Taiwanese desserts in the US, I’m happy that Meet Fresh is serving them and opening so many locations.
Tips: The store has been quite busy and the wait can be long. I’ve heard from people that the wait is up to an hour long with the line extending to Daiso. I recommend coming during off-peak hours. Since the preview visit, we’ve visited right when they open (11am) and around 6pm on a Sunday and there were only a few people in line. You can also your food to-go.
My favorites: tofu pudding with taro balls, purple rice soup with rice balls, q mochi.
Menu:
Meet Fresh
9420 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92126
As stated above, I was invited in for a prevew and the food I sampled during my initial visit was complimentary. I’ve since been back a few times on my own. All opinions expressed are my own.
It’s interesting that as they continue to open stores world-wide, most shops in Taiwan have already shut down.
I think it’s similar with 85C and their expansion in the US. It makes sense to me–the market is far less saturated here.