Taiwanese Shaved Ice Recs?

irvinehomeowner

irvinehomeowner

Well-known member
So we've recently gone to The Balcony a few times for their shaved ice and while we like it... it's expensive (almost $10 after all our add-ons).

Is there somewhere in Irvine with a similar product but a bit more affordable (or with smaller sizes so the kids can have their own)?

And I'm talking the Asian version that uses shaved frozen milk and fruits... not ice and syrup.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
So we've recently gone to The Balcony a few times for their shaved ice and while we like it... it's expensive (almost $10 after all our add-ons).

Is there somewhere in Irvine with a similar product but a bit more affordable (or with smaller sizes so the kids can have their own)?

And I'm talking the Asian version that uses shaved frozen milk and fruits... not ice and syrup.
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Class 302 is excellent. 

Guppy House has a better shaved ice than the Balcony IMO. 

I have also heard really good things about the Boiling Point on Culver.
 
Mochilato is pretty good but not Taiwanese... iTea is decent as well... Second Class 302 but I hate eating there.  The tables and chairs are not built for big guys.
 
ps9 said:
Mochilato is pretty good but not Taiwanese... iTea is decent as well... Second Class 302 but I hate eating there.  The tables and chairs are not built for big guys.
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Mochilato is pretty expensive though.  We usually just get the shaved ice from 302 to go...avoid the wait.
 
Just went to Mochilato... it is expensive.

It was pretty good though... not sure if they use frozen milk or just ice because ours had condensed milk and vanilla gelato (the gelato was good).

For some reason, the family didn't like Guppy House but maybe we should give it another try.

I guess 302 is out due to size issues... maybe we'll try I-Tea.
 
You can buy your own shaved ice machine and just make the dessert yourself for less.
 
momopi said:
You can buy your own shaved ice machine and just make the dessert yourself for less.
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Yeah...but it gets messy.  Also, you would have to gather all the ingredients.  It's like doing oil changes...I can do it myself but for $5 more, I will get someone else to do it.
 
Can the home machines make the fluffy snowy ice?  It's all about the texture, otherwise it's like eating ice cubes.
 
We have a home one... it works okay. I think the difference with these Asian shaved ice places is it's frozen milk (I forgot who discovered that... PS9?).
 
We went to I-Tea Cafe tonight... so far it's our favorite and they have two sizes... small $3.95 and large $5.95. The Taiwanese snowy ice (frozen milk) is $6.95.

We got great service from a young guy which is different from what I've read on Yelp about these places (esp Cafe 302).

I think our search is done... I-Tea will be our go-to place for milky shaved ice... and we can order regular food there too.
 
IHO - while I-Tea is good, it is not quite the same shaved ice as The Balcony.  Class 302 makes identical shaved ice for $7.  It's a very special method where they freeze water and flavored condensed milk into a large block and then use a machine to thinly slice off layers to make that wonderful "snowy" texture.  I was told that the machine costs $10,000 by the guys at Ajisen Ramen who used to have a machine but it broke. 

If you want the exact texture as The Balcony, definitely try Class 302.
 
@Irvine Doc:

Actually... I-Tea does have the same frozen milk style... they have both, the regular ice with the brown syrup and the snowy ice with the condensed milk.

We went again last night to try the regular ice, we've had it before at a few places so we wanted to give it another go. We prefer the snowy/milk ice more (which actually costs less).
 
We finally went to Cafe 302.

It was Saturday night at around 9:30pm and they were packed. Too cold to eat outside so we took it home... pretty good... similar to what we ate at the Balcony and I-Tea.

They have a regular size which is 6.50 and includes 5 toppings... but... that's for regular ice. To get the milk ice or one the flavored ices, there's a 1.75 upcharge, so it's actually 8.25.

We went again yesterday around 6:30pm and it wasn't crowded so we were able to sit inside but they have a $3 per person minimum so with the kids, we had to order one of their slush drinks to get to the required $12 minimum (their drinks come in a bowl-like container). And yes, PS9, I barely fit in the classroom seat/desk. I also noticed that the female servers were dressed up in school girl uniforms... I was tempted to ask them to do a Hadoken freeze photo. :)

I think I prefer I-Tea the most, esp for the cost... but Cafe 302 has much more toppings than all the others.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
We finally went to Cafe 302.

It was Saturday night at around 9:30pm and they were packed. Too cold to eat outside so we took it home... pretty good... similar to what we ate at the Balcony and I-Tea.

They have a regular size which is 6.50 and includes 5 toppings... but... that's for regular ice. To get the milk ice or one the flavored ices, there's a 1.75 upcharge, so it's actually 8.25.

We went again yesterday around 6:30pm and it wasn't crowded so we were able to sit inside but they have a $3 per person minimum so with the kids, we had to order one of their slush drinks to get to the required $12 minimum (their drinks come in a bowl-like container). And yes, PS9, I barely fit in the classroom seat/desk. I also noticed that the female servers were dressed up in school girl uniforms... I was tempted to ask them to do a Hadoken freeze photo. :)

I think I prefer I-Tea the most, esp for the cost... but Cafe 302 has much more toppings than all the others.
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It's cheaper if you get the pre-set combo at 302 rather than choosing your own. 
 
irvinehomeowner said:
We finally went to Cafe 302.
Click to expand...

So, is it called Class 302 or Cafe 302? I only see a Class 302 on Yelp.

I've been looking at info online. Supposedly they have a website but the link is broken so who knows what it's really called.

A couple things stood out to me.

It's all cash. Should we just assume all Asian businesses in Irvine are now all cash? I'm not being sarcastic at all. I went to get a facial at a Korean place off Yale over by Zion market. The total was like $150 and they wanted me to pay with cash. Seriously! I didn't see that one coming. I naturally assumed credit card was a-okay. They reluctantly agreed to accept a credit card since it was my first time but made a fuss about the 3% card company charge like it was unfair to them. I was like whatever, made a call, and just waited outside for my cash-drop to arrive.

Also, a Yelp comment says they don't have any seating for people over 5'3". They only have children's school chairs? Where are the accommodations for tall folks... or they don't want our business? I think the latter is true.

Weird about the minimum dollar order since it is not a credit card issue like, say, $20 minimum cc charge where they pay a fee. Dumb.
 
Sorry... it's "Class"... getting mixed up with I-Tea "Cafe".

Yeah... the all-cash is lame but I guess because they get a lot of sub-$10 transactions so it gets costly... maybe you should tell them about Square.

As for the $12 minimum, that's because it's frequented by students and to prevent just hanging out (not a lot of tables inside), they want to make sure everyone orders something because it does get very crowded later in the evening.

One other issue (and I see this more and more), they don't allow outside food or drinks. Not good when you have picky kids. We were going to eat there but because of that policy, we just had Subway and Ameci's and then went in for desserts.
 
SoCal said:
irvinehomeowner said:
We finally went to Cafe 302.
Click to expand...

So, is it called Class 302 or Cafe 302? I only see a Class 302 on Yelp.

I've been looking at info online. Supposedly they have a website but the link is broken so who knows what it's really called.

A couple things stood out to me.

It's all cash. Should we just assume all Asian businesses in Irvine are now all cash? I'm not being sarcastic at all. I went to get a facial at a Korean place off Yale over by Zion market. The total was like $150 and they wanted me to pay with cash. Seriously! I didn't see that one coming. I naturally assumed credit card was a-okay. They reluctantly agreed to accept a credit card since it was my first time but made a fuss about the 3% card company charge like it was unfair to them. I was like whatever, made a call, and just waited outside for my cash-drop to arrive.

Also, a Yelp comment says they don't have any seating for people over 5'3". They only have children's school chairs? Where are the accommodations for tall folks... or they don't want our business? I think the latter is true.

Weird about the minimum dollar order since it is not a credit card issue like, say, $20 minimum cc charge where they pay a fee. Dumb.
Click to expand...

Many asian restaurants do have a minimum charge for credit card... I never looked into it.. but the fee for restaurants for accepting cc is a flat fee + 2-3% depending on the cc (AMEX is the most expensive).  I don't want to generalize,  but the $ margin at asian restaurants seems much lower than say their American counterparts.. so a cc taking away 2-3% of their margin would be a huge factor in the success of the business.  Remember CC use is mainly US where in old school asia, cash is king. 
 
Have you tried Tea Station?  Old school Taiwanese place before all the new places popped up.  Don't think they have the new style milk shaved ice, but their mango shaved ice, and red bean shaved ice are pretty good.
 
I had really good shaved ice at Boiling Point. Been wanting to go there just for that but hesitant due to long waits.
 
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