This place is become one of my favorite dessert place and I'm not a dessert fan. To me it's really homey and comforting. The restaurant is pretty big and sometimes I don't have to wait which is really nice. I always visit them when I go to San Mateo. Their dessert glass jelly is really good and I love it that it's not too sweet. I always add taro and black sesame ball. I don't care much about other choices. Seems too much carb and sweet for me. So just my favorite order I definitely give them 5 stars ! read more

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At first I thought this place was a grocery store when my bf asked me to go here but he said he wanted desserts so I was down. We ordered the QQ Wintermelon tea without the jelly noodles and added brown boba balls and it was so delicious, I will definitely go here again, they also made it really quick and liked how spacious it was and clean as well. read more

Ordered a hot Grass Jelly Signature and no toppings were added at all. We didn't find out until we got home and opened it. Very disappointed. $10 for a bowl of GJ water. read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

We saw Meet Fresh in downtown, San Mateo and we were craving for some dessert after we had salty ramen. We ordered the huge size of the shaved ice with ice-cream on top and mochi on the side. (Around $14) It was enough for 4 of us. It was so refreshing and enough sweetness but it wasn't way too sweet. We love it. read more

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Pls do not come here. This place has the longest wait for your food. We waited for a hour and still have not gotten our food. It is literally a normal Monday night. read more

Great little place to grab your Asian desserts to go :) Drinks are a little too much on the sweet side for me. There's a self service kiosk and a human cashier Service was friendly read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

Dessert is must have right after AYCED at Ultra! Although it took about 20 mins for our orders to come out, it was worth the wait! I was super full so I didn't want anything too heavy. As I was scrolling down their menu, I saw that they had drinks so I ordered their Almond milk with taro balls. It was absolutely perfect and hit the spot! Inside is bright, clean, and has tons of space! read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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30min in line and 45min to receive your order.... why are there long lines? because the app sucks! the kiosk also sucks!. we complained about the user interface and yet no improvement. I only like coming here because I love the dessert, but we've been coming less and less often due to the amount of time that is wasted per order. by the time we get our dessert, we're too tired to eat and just want to go home. my hot dessert ends up going in the fridge for the next day's consumption. read more

This one located in downtown San Mateo. Great and brightly lit inside. Clean and spacious seating. They have great varieties of shaved ice, grass jelly, rice balls and all. Service is fast & helpful. You line up and place the order. They will call your number when ready. read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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You wonder why Meet fresh is 2 stars. Look at my pictures lol. I was shocked at the hot almond soup when i got it. And soup tasted so artificial and i saw the worker just warmed it up in the microwave and poured it into the bowl. I'm speechless at the hot Almond soup, i cant even finish it. It's that bad! i dont recommend it!!! read more

Meet Fresh - Hot Almond Soup - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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I've been to this Meet Fresh location a couple times with friends and I have to say that while the drinks are decent and the desserts satisfying, the service can be really hit or miss. Being one of the few places in downtown San Mateo that's open later than 9 p.m., it tends to get very crowded, especially in the evening. A friend and I came here for a late night snack, and while there were only two people in line ahead of us, it took almost half an hour for our order (two drinks, nothing extravagant) to come out. Had we known it would take this long, we would have opted to go elsewhere or just forego the late night sugar cravings completely. Not sure why service was so slow as no explanation was given. Otherwise, there is ample space inside the establishment for friends to sit and gab, all while enjoying traditional Taiwanese desserts such as bingsoo (shaved ice) or an assortment of boba/other desserts. I might just recommend going to another location, like the one in Fremont. read more

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Meet Fresh is a family favorite. Kids love the various dessert jellies they offer (grass jelly, melon jelly, lychee jelly, etc) and adults enjoy the taro balls, red bean, etc. This downtown San Mateo location is relatively less busy (especially compared to the bustling Cupertino Main Street location) and gives out more generous portions. Very clean with nice restrooms too. For some reason, this location isn't as busy so not sure how long it can survive, but we enjoyed our visit here. read more

This is my boyf & I's fav dessert spot after a dinner out in Main Street. We have yet to find a Tawainese-inspired shaved ice space better than here! Our go-to order is the Icy Taro Ball Signature (+ Grass Jelly, Condensed Milk, & Rice Ball). We've also tried their Original Egg Waffles - so tasty, fluffy and chewy, and super big in size. Would love to try the other flavors but always too full. I will say, do not expect attentive service as this place gets super packed and busy! I would recommend studying the menu before you come because the menu is large and it can get overwhelming. Addiitonally, if you come during post-dinner time, it will be so packed and seating will be hard to find. read more

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Love the hot almond soup that is seasonal. Normally go to Cupertino but was visiting San Mateo so went to this store. Seemed understaffed. Saw 2 people behind the counter, it took 20 minutes for the order to be served and the soup was cold. There wasn't as much "stuff" inside the soup either. The guy behind the counter said he'd heat it up but no regret was expressed. I'm disappointed in the quality and service at this store and am glad that I live close to Cupertino where the service and quality is far better. read more

Black sugar boba and a red bean dessert. First off their ordering system sucks. It made the line even longer because there's only one self ordering system and the cashier tells everyone to use it rather than helping out. They were super slow with only one customer in the store. The boba drink was awful and the red bean tasted like something from a can at the grocery store. Not worth the money. Skip this place. read more

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auto servicio, lugar tranquilo con música ambiente comida ligera , no tienen atención al cliente son fríos en la atención, lo que comi le doy un 5 de 10% el parqueadero es difícil y falta humanizar la marca la gente que trabaja en este lugar parece robot sin sentimientos ni servicio read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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Quality down, taste no good at all. One order pick up and the other by delivery platform, both disappointed. Will not be back! Signature grass jelly. read more

The last two times we got coconut sago, both times the order was missing items. The other day, we got the signature coconut sago and it was missing potaro balls. While I was waiting, another customer came up to the staff to tell their order was missing items too. This time the coconut sago soup is missing sago and had less potaro balls than it should. Both times it was the same female employee that gave our order, I wonder if she made them. The male staff quickly resolved the issues. If I got this togo, I'd be upset to find out and there's no way I'd go back for the missing stuff.. read more

Meet Fresh - Hot Coco Sago Soup Custom - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

Maybe worth coming here if you're in the area and in dire need of shave ice. I wouldn't go out of your way, even from SF. Between the long wait and the low quality of the ice itself (and lack of fresh fruit toppings), I was pretty disappointed. PARKING We fairly easily found paid street parking a block away (Saturday afternoon). THE WAIT At 3pm on a warm Saturday in May, there was about a 15 minute wait to order, and another 20 minute wait to get our shave ice. The wait for the ice was pretty long, and our toddlers were getting antsy. Good thing there are TVs playing Meet Fresh commercials on a short loop. We were able to get a table for 8 fairly easily. THE COST $32.34 total for 2 medium Shave Ice bowls. THE SHAVE ICE * Pudding & Q Mochi Shave Ice - 3 stars The toppings were good, the mochi could be a little more fresh and soft. However, I was disappointed at the quality of the ice, which was not silky or smooth, but was closer to Italian ice quality. * Mango Strawberry Shave Ice (Seasonal) - 2.5 stars While the mango was ok, the "seasonal" strawberry was clearly frozen & thawed - mushy and soft. Same complaint about the ice not being silky or smooth. read more

Is it worth it? Maybe if you REALLY like shaved ice, or if you've never tried Taiwanese style shaved ice before. Having recently had Hawaiian shave ice, and also tried Korean shave ice, this was a meh from me. The ice is flakey and no flavor aside from the sauce. I prefer the finely shaved snow consistency of Hawaiian shave ice, or Korean shave ice which is actually shave milk (milk that's been frozen). For such a huge pile of ice, you definitely need to pay for the extra condensed milk or flavoring, but then you are looking at like $15 for ice. I had never tried this before so I am glad for the experience but probably will write this off as a tourist trap. The bubble pancake was dry and no flavor, wouldn't recommend. The wait alone makes this not worth it, we waited so long in the packed restaurant. Tables were not really cleaned, and the paper napkins they have had a gross smell to them. read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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Terrible menu. Unable to separate condense milk and change to just syrup over shaved ice. Due to allergy we tried to ask if the store employee can help us omit condense milk, we were told they can't. Such poor customer service. read more

My first time here and this is a great place for dessert when you don't want something sweet. They have drinks and different kinds of dessert. I always see that it's pretty crowded so I was pleasantly surprised when I came after lunch and it was pretty empty. It's a big place with lots of seats and it's also pretty clean. Great place to come if you want some dessert read more

We got the mochi saved ice and it was huge! We didn't expect the medium to be so big haha. The ice cream on top was a bit hard to eat without making a mess, but overall it was really good. Towards the middle though, it was just ice. Maybe we didn't mix it well enough but considering the shape, it was pretty hard to mix anything. Overall really good tho! A nice dessert after dinner read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

This place gets a lot of poor reviews but other than the slow service, I didn't think it was as bad as everyone says it is. We came here to get shaved ice though, and it didn't really deliver on the shaved ice front, though there was ice in the bowl. I ordered the grass jelly dessert special that included some chewy taro balls and added on the potaro balls as well. The chewy sweet potato and taro balls were pretty good! I liked the chewy texture and mild flavor of the taro and sweet potato - would have been better if it was a stronger flavor but this isn't Taiwan. The potaro balls were a nice surprise! They were the same taro and sweet potato balls but filled with black sesame filling - would like to get those again for sure. The only disappointment was we were expecting this to be a shaved ice dessert but they kind of bury a very small amount of ice under the grass jelly so you don't get that satisfaction. Oh well. The cafe is surprisingly large with a ton of seating. They claim to have free wifi but I didn't see that it was available. It was pretty basic overall. read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

The wait time sometimes is crazy at this location. If you want good dessert with a good environment to talk or to hang out at, it's perfect. I would recommend coming when there's not too many people. read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

First (and last time) I'll try meet fresh. When I came in the place looked authentic and smelled super good, with a wide variety of bubble waffle desserts and sweets. Thought it'll be good for boba teas and was enticed by their ube menu. That's where I went wrong. Their ube drink is only customizable to be 50% sugar and I literally thought it was at 100% still... it was more sweet than my partner's 100% milk tea drink!! It also tasted like sugary cereal instead of ube milk tea. Bleh. Didn't even finish half of the drink. The milk tea was okay.. still not noteworthy but their tea flavor isn't that strong. More milky sugar than anything. Wouldn't be coming back. The 3 stars is for the service (was pretty quick despite the bad reviews on here) and ambience. Lots of tables and seating for people to chat. read more

Meet Fresh - Ube Milk Tea, Boba Milk Tea - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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My friend and I got the almond soup dessert. The stuff in the soup sink down and you can't tell which one is which. Although the almond soup taste pretty good and the milk tea pretty good. I just didn't like much about the stuff inside the almond soup. The dessert came out pretty late as well. No servers you have to pick up your food and drop off the tray after you're done with your food. read more

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We came here twice prior to the pandemic and really enjoyed the desserts. We've gotten the mango and also the red bean desserts. Prices were reasonable and, at least prior to the pandemic, this place was packed even at 9:00-9:30pm. Looking forward to coming back during this summer and comparing our experience to a few years ago. read more

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Love their desserts especially the hot grass jelly with different mochi toppings, or sometimes I get the double taro signature grass jelly whenever I crave taro. If you go there on Friday night or Saturday the wait can be very long, you can order with their app if you don't want to wait. read more

This has been open at this location a number of years and despite walking past it many times, this was my first visit. I'm not sure how it was pre-pandemic, but the ordering system was SLOW, SLOW, SLOW and the queues can be quite long. There's only 1 ordering kiosk available, payable by card only. There was someone at the front counter under the "Order Here" sign, so it appears you had an option to order in person, but you are quickly turned away and must queue up. This is really inefficient, hence the resulting, potentially long wait to order. If you're going to rely on an ordering kiosk, they should have 2 or 3 kiosks available. However, once you place your order, it comes up relatively quickly--at least on my visit. Your name is called and go to the pick up window to fetch your order. I ordered the icy grass jelly signature with taro balls and I thought it was a generous amount of grass jelly and taro balls and the balance of ice to grass jelly was even. It was very refreshing on a warm summer-like evening. I thought however, the desserts are kind of pricey--all said and done, my dessert was over $10 for literally grass jelly (which is about $4 for a can at the Asian market), about a dozen taro balls and shaved ice. Hard to say if I would return--definitely not if the lines are long! The price point is an issue too. There are other dessert options in downtown San Mateo, although it may not be Asian style. read more

Meet Fresh - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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A lot of room inside the establishment with plenty of tables and seating. Ordered the Icy Taro Ball Combo A (I forget the exact name of the item). Boba was nice and chewy, peanuts and red bean good texture. Taro balls didn't really taste like taro. The shaved ice portion was literally just crushed ice drowned in brown sugar syrup. I was expecting the shaved ice portion to be more of the silky and fluffy texture instead of just crushed ice. Regardless, it's a good dessert place after a meal if you're looking for comfort Chinese dessert. read more

Meet Fresh is my go to for Asian desserts. I always try to be adventurous by trying the different items on their menu, but I feel like every time I do that I somehow get really disappointed. Maybe I should stick to their shaved ice or taro ball dessert. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever tried any of their drinks. They always look very tasty on the menu. We got there at 8pm on a Saturday night and the place was packed from people waiting for their order to people already seated. Not sure why there was only one machine to order when the line was almost out the door. There was a guy at the resister, but I wasn't sure what he was doing. He eventually started taking orders. Although there was a bunch of seats and tables, most of them were full so we had to wait for someone to leave. If you're coming with another person, I would suggest having that person get a seat while you're ordering. It was a cold night so I decided to get a hot dessert - Taro Tofu Ball. I am a big fan of taro balls, especially theirs but I didn't think it was as good compared to before. The balls weren't as chewy. The tofu pudding was extremely soft, but the soup wasn't sweet enough for me. I also ordered the Q Mochi & Egg Pudding, which was as good as I remembered. I didn't get a chance to taste the Red Bean Almond Pudding because I was already extremely full from dinner and my dessert, but my cousin liked it. This spot is located in downtown with many restaurants nearby. They also close late, so you can always stop by after dinner if you're in the area and craving Asian dessert. read more

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After reading through reviews it seems the trick to this place is to come half an hour before closing like I did. Queue was short and it wasn't too long to get the order. Friday night can get busy downtown but just find a spot and have a nice walk. They have quite an extensive menu which made me initially skeptical they could deliver. Decided to split a large shave ice between 4 people which was definitely enough. Got the standard Q mochi shave ice and added rice balls. Wait wasn't too long considering how much time it takes to make one of these dishes. Shave ice was nice and refreshing and I enjoyed the red bean mochi on the side. The puddings were also v good. I guess my experience is different than others with the service but I enjoyed the food! read more

Meet Fresh - Inside - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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Our grandchildren love Meet Fresh in downtown San Mateo for a fresh refreshing snack. Especially good after school or a trip to the library. Meet Fresh is on the corner of B Street and Third, in what used to be a bank. B Street is now closed to traffic and set up with lots of tables to enjoy any food from the many restaurants in the vicinity. Meet Fresh also has lots of seating inside as well, with large windows to watch the world go by. Ordering is all done with technology--touch screen. It's fairly straightforward, but can be a bit confusing if it's your first time. Try to go with someone who knows the products and give you some hints about what to order. Also, if there is a line, and people are unsure of what to order, your wait can be long. You have to input your phone number to receive a text. Each dessert and/or drink is individually made, with a text sent when your order is ready. Service is good, but be prepared to wait if there is a large crowd. read more

I don't really understand the low reviews for Meet Fresh. Tbh it's delicious and it's such a fun place to just come chill out if you want something sweet and refreshing. Not gonna lie, Meet Fresh is probably one of my favorite dessert places in downtown San Mateo. You order by a kiosk and you essentially wait until your order is called. There's little to no service as it is pretty much a grab and go type of place. My go-to order is their grass jelly icy with the taro balls/mochi balls/. I love love love their grass jelly as it just tastes so light and airy. Maybe I'm biased cause I love grass jelly but bottom line it's that good. The icy itself is very refreshing and it also comes with a tiny half n half container to make the dessert a little bit creamier. Highly recommend this one. We also tried the Mango and Strawberry Ice with Vanilla Ice Cream and I loved how sweet the mangoes were. The fruit was pretty ripe including the strawberries and everything as a whole was good. Other than that, Meet Fresh is your classic go-to Taiwanese dessert place. There are so many things to choose off from the menu and they even have seasonal things for you to try as well. If by any chance there is a lot of people, I do want to prepare you that you will have to wait for a long time! read more

Meet Fresh - Mango Strawerry Shaved Ice w/ Vanilla Ice Cream + Grass Jelly Icy - Desserts Near Me - San Mateo, California

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It's a great corner spacious spot to meet up for some shaved ice and iced tea drinks! Their desserts are tasty and refreshing for the hot days. I like their mochi chewiness with the whole shaved ice combo. read more

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Have to say Meet Fresh is the hubs favorite place to get dessert. Usually we get the mango snow or some kind of fruity snow but went with some friends who wanted the "hot soups". I'm not a boba pro so the menu for the red bean soup was confusing. Did it have everything in it? How much does it cost? Is it better to get it and build your own? I still don't know the answer. We ordered the Hot Almond Soup with tofu pudding. Yum! Just like tofu da without the ginger taste. Little bits of almond floating in it made it delish. My friends got the Red Bean Soup Custom Hot and one person ordered mini taro balls only to find out they had larger ones in them already. Again a bit confusing. But we had a fun night, the food come out quick and there was plenty of seating. A much more comfortable spot than Daly City. Check it out and enjoy! read more

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This was my first time here and given the experience I was surprised how crowded it was. We ordered at the kiosk up front and easily found a table in the back area. We had ordered one of their shaved ice desserts to share. We waited for quite a bit of time and noticed that no numbers were being called for order pick up so kept looking over at the counter. When a dish we thought might be ours was placed on the counter I wandered over to see if it was ours. There was no receipt or anything to determine who had ordered this dish. After inquiring it was confirmed that it was our dish. If we weren't looking how else would we have known it was ready and ours? I picked up some spoons and brought it back to our table. I've had shaved ice desserts from Taiwan, Hawaii and Korea. This was mediocre at best. It came with some taro dumplings (which were decent) and had syrup and ice cream along with a heaping mound of coarsely shaved ice. While not as bad as a snow cone the ice here was not as smooth or as fine as what I've had in Taiwan. Additionally, this dish was 75% plain ice with minimal flavor, toppings and syrup. I didn't realize I would be paying so much for frozen granules of water. Service is pretty much non-existent as it's self service from ordering to pick up to bussing your table and leaving your dishes in a window. There are plenty of spots that offer Asian desserts in San Mateo and it's best to visit those other ones. If you have to have dessert here, I'd take it to go. read more

I'm looking at this 2.6 star rating on this place, and can't help feeling that the ultra low rating is the recognition of quality I expect from more ethnic asian places. Given the low rating, lets start with all the reasons to not come here. 1. Service sucks. Its a pretty low personal place, with electronic kiosks for your order, text message notifications when your food is ready, and people only to prepare your order. 2. You desserts and bevs can be a hit or miss. How much of that is poor service, bad recipes, or their asian flavor, unclear to me though. 3. Figuring out what to order is an exercise in long arithmetic. The place has a more Asian style 1000 options menu, so you pick the base, eg. cold grass jelly, warm grass jelly, etc, and then there are a dozen choices depending what toppings you want. So you can spend 10min trying to optimize for what gets you the highest variety of sweet potato balls. With that said, I'm giving the place 4 stars because its really one of the best places in the Bay Area to go for grass jelly, sweet potato balls, etc to quench your dessert cravings. Meet Fresh is a Taiwanese chain with locations through Asia and in the US. Bay area has several locations, and I've been to most of them. I have to say that they all really seem similar to each other, and my favorite here is the icy grass jelly with taro and sweet potato (regular sized and mini) balls. If you know what you want, it's a clear easy home run place. And its a chain, so its the first place you search for when you are in different areas looking to satisfy you Asian dessert cravings. So its a recommend for me. read more

Meet Fresh is one of my favourite dessert joints. Luckily for me, they are a chain, so they have a location nearby most of the areas that I frequent. So far, after visiting on the early evening of June 25, 2021, Meet Fresh SAN MATEO wins for best locale... Venue: A+. Located at the corner of B Street and 3rd Avenue in downtown San Mateo, when the street isn't closed off to traffic, street metered parking is available in front of the eatery. Unfortunately, they do not have their own parking lot, but there are nearby garages within walking distance. The shop is a considerable size that houses a single huge dining room. After placing my order at the counter, I sat down right away at a table as the salle a manger was nearly full of empty seats. The interior was simple in decor and pristine. Service: A+. Even though I usually order the same item, the menu always seems to have been expanded since my last visit. As such, I tend to feel unfamiliar with the offerings, so I tend to ask a lot of questions. The staff member who took my order was very patient with me, answered all of my inquiries....and even offered to let me sample some items, like Rice Balls, to help me select my toppings. Food: A+. I always create my own bowl of goodness at Meet Fresh; Hot Almond Soup with Almond Pudding + Grass Jelly + Boba + Taro Balls. The delicious hot soup is perfect for cold nights to warm you, but somehow it doesn't melt the Almond Pudding nor the Grass Jelly. The added Boba and Taro Balls add an enjoyably chewy layer of texture to mix with the creamy Almond Soup & Pudding and softness from the Grass Jelly. Packed for to go, the kitchen separated the Hot Almond Soup from the TOPPINGS which I appreciated - the Daly City store has never done that for me. Overall strong A+ grade. read more

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