Go Big with Grass Jelly and Shaved Ice Desserts at Meet Fresh in Plano

If eating loads of shaved ice topped with creamy milk, brown sugar syrup, boba pearls, assorted fresh fruit and other sweet toppings sounds like your thing, you might want to pay a visit to Meet Fresh in Plano. This international chain was founded by "Sister and Brother Fu," according to their website. It's a Taiwanese dessert boutique focused on using taro balls, jellies and traditional Taiwanese ingredients.
Life-sized mannequins of the brother-and-sister duo greet visitors near the door with a smile and a friendly thumbs up. Snap some pictures, snag a menu from the front and take a seat at one of the tables. Trust us, you’ll need your sweet time to decide.
Meet Fresh’s menu is huge. There’s almost no end to the dessert options, ranging from bubble waffles to tofu-based puddings to Asian shaved ice. With scant descriptions, the menu does little to help you out. Customers are forced to use pictures and context clues to navigate. But when there’s sugar involved, it’s hard to go wrong.

Meet Fresh is best known for shaved ice, which is served in shareable platters meant for 3 or 4 people. Each dessert comes with a heap of shaved ice drenched in condensed milk and different flavored syrups. The black sugar boba shaved ice ($13.25) is one of the chain’s most popular. The shaved ice base is soaked in a mixture of black sugar syrup and condensed milk.

It’s topped with black sugar tapioca balls, sweetened red beans and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The dessert makes for a unique combination of creamy, chewy and icy all at once.

Other flavor combinations include mango milk, strawberry milk and mango berry. If none of the options on the menu interest you, go for the create-your-own shaved ice, an all-inclusive option that lets you choose among some interesting toppings like almond pudding, sweet potato balls and mochi.
In the rare instance that sharing a heap of shaved ice and sugar with the table isn’t your thing, Meet Fresh has a signature series of shaved ice desserts that are sized better for the individual. We tried the icy taro ball signature ($8.50), which starts with a sugar-soaked bowl of shaved ice. The dessert bowl is topped with chewy taro balls, taro paste and boba pearls. The grass jelly signature ($8.50) is also a popular option here.

The bowl is presented similar to the first, except it’s topped with grass jelly, a traditional Asian delicacy made of the Chinese mesons plant. Our advice: order at least one of the signature series items while you’re here. If nothing else, you can at least say that you tried something new.

Meet Fresh also sells hot soups, boba teas and bubble waffles to satisfy any sweet-toothed foodie. While prices are slightly on the higher side, the portions here make up for the cost. Just bring a few friends.

Meet Fresh, 2001 Coit Road, No. 137B, Plano. Noon – 9:30 p.m. Monday – Thursday; Noon – 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.