Mini Monster Cafe

Originally known as Snow Monster when it launched in Westminster back in 2012, the small chain now known as Mini Monster Cafe has tightened both its focus and locations over the years. Gone are its oversized macaron ice cream sandwiches and Taiwanese-style shaved ice in favor of $5 to $9 drinks – Vietnamese coffees, milk teas, matchas, and fruit drinks served in transparent lightbulbs, baby bottles, or cups, as well as freshly cut coconuts, and Himalayan salted hot chocolate. Similarly, its original, Huntington Beach, Irvine, and LA Koreatown stores have disappeared (giving way to Steadfast Cafe, Black Pearl, Pink Pig, and Cha Redefine, respectively), leaving only one Orange County location inside the Anaheim Packing House, plus three other stores spread across Long Beach, Hawaii, and Vietnam.

Mini Monster’s last signature attraction – a cotton candy cloud that can be added to any drink for $1 – remains intact at the Anaheim cafe, thanks to a full-sized cotton candy spinner at the counter. Added to the sunset strawberry lemonade ($7/16 oz.), a rich red drink in a basic plastic cup, the cloud starts so large as to obsure the lemonade’s colors until eaten off the top. It’s a novelty, but local competitors offering similar options have mostly disappeared after more than a dozen years, making this more of a standout than it was soon after its debut. Similarly, banana berry matcha ($7.50) hits all of its namesake notes, with matcha and berry liquids at the bottom and a banana cream top mixing nicely rather than tasting imbalanced or texturally off.