Matcha REN, 400 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007
Matcha REN seems to be doing well – or at least opening quite a few locations, including one at the Shops at Santa Anita. The menu includes matcha drinks, soft serve, mochi crepes made with rice flour, matcha mont blanc, soft serve shakes. The matcha is organic and comes from Kagoshima, Japan.
Order from the kiosk and they’ll call your name when your order is ready.
The mochi were sitting in the refrigerated case.
Matcha strawberry mochi ($4.80): fresh strawberry wrapped with white bean and matcha mochi. The matcha mochi didn’t have much matcha flavor. Also, it stuck to the paper cup. I didn’t read the description carefully so I was disappointed that they used white bean puree rather than red bean. The bean puree was very sweet. The strawberry was large. They left part of the stem in.
Strawberry cream mochi ($3.80): The strawberry mochi dough was thicker and softer than the matcha dough. The filling consisted of a light cream and strawberry puree. The puree was tangy and not super sweet.
I preferred the cream mochi to the fresh strawberry mochi.
3.5 out of 5 stars
By Lolia S.