Snow Station

We come here for a family night at least once a week. My two little ones love it here (their favorite combination is chocolate shaved ice with chocolate syrup and a marshmallow topping — go figure). They have so many varieties of shaved snow, such as taro, thai tea, chai, pumpkin, chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, green tea, lychee, etc… and lots of toppings to choose from. I think their smallest «mini» size is plenty for one person. This place is very spacious and there is lots of parking in the lot. Friendly service too!

Mango snow with mango mochi! You had me at hello… I don’t ever eat ice cream or go to ice cream parlors, but since the first time I tried snow station I can’t seem to stop craving it… This is not really ice cream as it is very light and not milky… It’s a very healthy option and it’s delicious as well…

Came here after getting dinner @ Shabu Shabu Bar in Santa Ana (hop over to the 5S and it’s only about 3 min away).
Onto the shaved ice. It wasn’t like the Korean shaved ice that I’m used to; it was more of a light, fluffy, flavored ice cream. Not what I expected, but ’twas a pleasant surprise.
For the 4 of us, we ordered the Hungry Bear (largest size) taro/​milk shaved ice. Though my friends liked the milk shaved ice better, I preferred the more flavorful taro. For the toppings we got blueberries, strawberries, and strawberry mochi with cheesecake on the side (two small slices of cheesecake for only $ 2 extra!).
Objectively, this place is pretty good. However, after spending one year in Korea and eating probably the absolute BEST shaved ice in the world, this pales in comparison. BUT. I would come here for a lighter dessert if I were in the area!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Snow Station! It is one of our favorite places to get dessert, especially when we have a sweet tooth late at night!
The snow is packed with flavor and is also topped with delicious toppings! The staff is always super nice and ready to make your snow!
Thank you for bringing awesome snow locally =]

Walking into this place on a cold winter night, twas pretty dead. But of course, its winter! We were craving something sweet after dinner so this place was on the way back home. They have specialty plates where you don’t have to think about what toppings go well with what snow ice cream. They were 10 bucks a plate and they looked pretty large for the serving amount. We weren’t that hungry so we just ordered a mini size which was the smallest. I got to try my first sample of their snow ice cream which was Horchata… I said hold it right there! Yuppppp! That was the flavor I was going to order! So I got that with some Cinnamon Toast Crunch and White Chocolate syrup. Wow… just wow… it was 3 simple ingredients but such a delicious and grand flavor! I think I did well with my selection. We’re definitely gonna try Brandon’s Breakfast (specialty) in the near future!

You don’t have to go to the mountains to catch snowflakes in your mouth anymore! Snow has landed in Tustin but with a twist, FLAVOR!
Snow Station provides plenty of attractive flavors applying to every customers liking. Mango, Strawberry, Chocolate, Taro, and Green Tea are just a few of many! Toppings are the next step. Do you like Cereal, Fruit, Nuts, Cookies, or Mochi? If so, mix it up or keep it simple because no matter what you pick it will compliment your choice of snow perfectly!
Whether you enjoy your order it in a cup or on a plate, you’ll be amazed by the crystal layers of flavored shaved ice that is surprisingly creamy! Although it might look like it would have the texture of a snow cone it really has the smoothness of Ice Cream! Snow Station puts a spin on a simple dessert like Ice Cream and makes it creative! Snow has never been so fun to eat!

Where do I go?
Located in what I like to call «the Weird» El Camino Plaza. There’s a bunch of foods and restaurants you’d never know were there. In fact I’d been to this plaza 400 times when my gym used to be located there, and the only other businesses I was familiar with were Cream Pan, Acai Republic, and the MMA gym, and dinner show place which I believe is now something else. And knew of one sushi/​thai fusion place in here but never got too close (haha).
If you get into this back corner, into the Food Court of the Weird, you will actually find some pretty large signs declaring it «Snow Station» world. Kind of like landing in Antarctica or something, and finding humanity was there all along. Beware the weird parking in the first row, they’ve got all kinds of signs marked «reserved for this or that», some of which may already be closed because it’s 9 o clock. So just avoid it and park anywhere else.
The edibles:
Walked in and confronted with basically 15 – 20 flavors, not really sure what to get. My friend had already been there before but apparently no help. I wanted something savory but not too fruity or not too traditional (vanilla and chocolate). I like green tea ice cream, so went with that kinda snow. Went with the mini (or baby or some other insulting size they call it, can’t remember) and they started to prepare my snow. I figured out a topping with their help which would be condensed milk. Price was normal, about $ 3.75 for the «little baby» which was equivalent to 1 generous XL scoop of ice cream.
Little did I know in 15 seconds it would already be ready, and they’d be asking me to figure out my toppings. I already said graham cracker but smartly changed this to crushed waffle at the last second, and the guy said good choice cuz apparently it’s better. But it’s off to the side, hard to notice.
Sat down and ate my snow and the first bite was super sweet, not really what I was going for but OK whatever. As I dug into the «snow» (which is a bit like ice cream, just more air and less sweet) I was pleased by the taste and texture. However as much as I mixed, I couldn’t really get away from the overly sweetness even though they didn’t put «a lot». Yeah I get it now, the toppings are supposed to provide all the sweet. But it was just a little bit too much for me. So next time, something else, or I just ask to drizzle a few drops of the condensed milk myself? The waffle was super tasty but also sweet, so that didn’t really help with the situation as much as I’d liked. But I ate it all except for one tiny last clumped bite of waffle, my mouth was just all sugared out at that point.
The rest:
It feels like this place’s interior was designed since the first Penguins Froyo opened. But actually I doubt that. Except for some padded seating along the wall, the décor just has little appeal, more than a junior high school cafeteria It’s very spacious inside but they don’t really do much to make it feel loungy, just tacky cheap lighting and tables. After eating my snow I felt a little more relax and wanted to hang out and talk, but before I got that way I was like uhhh tack-​o-​rama.
Needs more booths /​couches. And spend $ 199 at Home Depot, upgrade your lighting.
Pro tip:
They also have giant plates o’ snow (to share and eat there only, or bury your whole face into if you’re into that), and waffles topped with all kinds of shenanigans if you want any of those instead.
All in all, I appreciated the effort provided by this frozen concoction. They also gave me a stamp card, buy 9 and the 10^th is free. Yadda yadda.
3.8 999 998 out of 5.0 stars.

Great dessert stop in Tustin. They are located conveniently off I-​5 in a plaza with various restaurants.
We ordered a medium plate strawberry snow ice topped with regular and strawberry Mochi, topped with condensed milk. Loved every bite. Enough for a family of four –2 adults and 2 kids. Snow ice was smooth and creamy.
They offer specialty snow ice, but they are available only on a large plate. We wanted to try the strawberry shortcake, but will save it for another visit.
Fast customer service. Tables inside and outside to enjoy your snow ice.
Perfect cool dessert on a hot evening in SoCal. Will definitely come back.

First time here. I love me some dessert!
We shared the choco-​lava something or other:
Chocolate Snow
2 pieces of cheese cake
Mounds of chocolate chips, crushed oreos and chocolate/​white chocolate drizzle
Only 4 stars because I think the toppings were «over the top». If you have a major sweet tooth, then its spot on. But a mouth full of toppings in every bite of soft snow is a bit too much.
Its a great treat and there is a good amount of seating inside and out in the common area.
We’ll be back. Next time, I’ll ask for them to go easy on the toppings or just put them around the base of the snow instead of all over. I feel my blood sugar go up just thinking about how overly sweet it was.

Snow station must be loving this heat wave! Shaved snow is a perfect option in the hot summer days.
If you haven’t had Taiwanese shaved snow, you’ve find it much fluffier than the old school Taiwanese shaved ice. I prefer it this way, as they blend in the flavors into the ice blocks, then shave away. You’ll get a great flavor in every bite.
Snow station doesn’t lack flavors. I’ve tried strawberry and green tea, and there are a ton of other options. Both the ones I tried were solid. For toppings you can get anything from fresh fruit, mochi, jelly, candy, etc. Top it off with condensed milk and you’re good to go. Feel free to share, Snow station gives HUGE portions

This place is
. Literally!
I came here on a hot summer day, one of those weekends when it was in the high 90’s and my friend and I split a medium sized mango shaved ice with strawberry mochi and rainbow jelly. It seriously melts in your mouth, tastes pretty good for a mango flavored dessert (sometimes the mango flavor just tastes weird) and it was the perfect cooling treat for a hot summer day. I think my favorite part was watching all the big eyes and cheek to cheek grins after each little nino who came from a soccer or ballet practice got their shaved snow. I mean heck, If I was playing soccer outside, I’d probably want this shaved snow as a treat too!
The only recommendations I would give would be to be patient as it does take time to make the individual snow portions and also to not put too much condensed milk on top because it can be too sweet otherwise. check it out!

Wow. The fact that I live within walking distance of this store is very dangerous after tonight! :)
We walked up to a short line of 3 – 5 people ahead of us on a Sunday night, around 8:30pm.
I ordered a baby bear size ($ 7.95 with two toppings) and chose strawberry snow, with crushed Oreos and mango mochi.
My boyfriend ordered a mini bear ($ 5.95, one topping) with pineapple.
Wow. These things are so good. It’s like a shave ice and a gelato had a free spirited wild child, and they just ran with it. I’m so glad.
We walked home with our snow, and the mini bear was gone before we got to our front door. Good thing we had a baby bear to devour still (that sounds wrong, I love bears).
Pros:
1) great selection of flavors (all the popular regular ones, and unique ones like lychee!)
2) great selection of toppings, including four mochi flavors!
3) lots of parking, and friendly service (fast too considering they have to put a new flavor ice block on each time to shave it per order!)
Cons:
1) $ 7.95 with two toppings… a little high when compared to Pinkberry, and other frozen yoghurt or frozen treat shops.
2) I wish they had a small plate for in store eating, not just medium and large.
3) $ 10+ for their special treats! Woah. Looks like it feeds four people at least though. So yeah, maybe that’s not so bad. :)
Overall:
I’m going to be back. I already am wondering if snow counts as one of the food groups? Can I eat this for lunch? Dinner? How about breakfast? 11am opening time… late breakfast? Second breakfast?

If you’ve never tried snow or fluff ice, then you HAVE to try it. That being said, I have my favorite places to go to— Blockheads Shavery (in Los Angeles) and Snow Bar (there is one in Westminster). This store appeared to be a bit pricier, but still good.
1. Green Tea– Great green tea flavor. More bitter than sweet. The passionfruit popping boba was good, but not a good topping with this. I always get condensed milk.
2. Salted Butterscotch– I was surprised that it wasn’t too sweet. Not as sweet as salted caramel that I’ve had at other places.

Snow Station certainly represents the newest fad of desserts from the Far East. It’s a take on the kakigori and ammitsu, or flavored shave ice and dessert places ubiquitous in Japan and Hawaii.
Nestled in the corner of an antiquated strip mall in one of the older sections of Tustin, it’s be easy to miss if not for the line of hungry kids and adults looking for a sweet retreat on a perfect OC (always sunny at 80 degree) day.
The inside is clean, sparsely decorated, and with multiple locations for water and napkins.
When you ante up to the counter, it’s a bit daunting to see the options: 10 flavors of shave ice, 6 options for size, and a ton of toppings and drizzles. What’s unique about this place is that instead of flavoring the ice after its shaved, they flavor it beforehand. I think they must flavor the water and then freeze it into blocks, and the result is colored and flavored shave ice, with the flavoring equally distributed throughout the dessert and less chance of the less cold flavoring melting your ice. What a smart idea!
I chose the mint ice with chocolate shavings, mochi, and condensed milk. I chose a «medium» plate for in restaurant eating. Unfortunately, they ran out of shavings, so I oped for chocolate chips instead, and there was no more condensed milk, so choco sauce it was. Holy smokes the thing was huge! Like seriously 4 people could have eaten it! The portion was very generous with tons of toppings, and the nice lady making my dessert was very generous on the chocolate sauce topping. It was so tasty and refreshing on the hot day!
A few things that made this place 4 and not 5 stars:
1. They run out of a lot of toppings. Chief among these are the chocolate shavings and condensed milk
2. They upcharge $ 2 for to go orders, and that’s not posted anywhere in the restaurant
3. Price — the desserts are expensive for what amounts to shaved ice. $ 6 for a medium plate is a lot to spend for ice, but I do recommend sharing even the smaller desserts. If it was ice cream of this size, the price would fit, but cmon… it’s just flavored ice!
Overall:
Service: ⁵⁄₅ — very patient with us shave ice noobs
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Price/​option availability: ³⁄₅
Overall: ⁴⁄₅. Great job — I’ll most def be back, but Imma share my dessert next time!

Came here because the line for Afters was too long. Ordered the snow and found out that now they charge $ 2 extra to plate it nicely for you because apparently «it comes with more», which it doesn’t at all. Also the quality of the flavors went down. Green tea barely tasted like anything and condensed milk didn’t help make it better. Won’t be coming back with the inflated prices and decreased quality.

I don’t know what just happened to my tastebuds but I don’t want it to stop!!!
I went here after a sugar craving, never having snow before, and can say that they’ve made a new regular!
With the soft sugary velvet of ice cream and the lightness of shaved ice — snow is purely delectable. And this location has SO many toppings — come with your imagination loaded. If it’s on the menu, try the mango. The flavor hit my tongue with a POW that I never wanted to stop.
In summary — try a new treat. Snow may become your new summer cheat!

Out of the 3 Snow Stations I’ve been to, the Tustin location is my favorite. There’s plenty of parking, but there are only about 8 tables. This place gets busy, so sometimes you have to wait or find some seating outside.
For the Snow, I usually go for the specialty plates because they’re so much cooler looking than the cups. They also feed 4 easily. My favorites are the banana split and the choc-​o-​razz. Either way, bring out your friends to somewhere new and enjoy some snow.

My friends had never tried snow, so we decided to stop by here on a Monday night.
The order setup reminded me of a frozen yogurt place. Choose snow flavor, sauce, toppings, and size. We ended up getting a baby-​bear sized (I’m not making that up) almond snow with condensed milk, blueberries, and strawberry mochi. The sweetness was perfectly balanced between the almond snow and the condensed milk, the blueberries were plump and fresh, and the strawberry mochi added a nice texture to the whole arrangement. The baby-​bear size was enough to split between two people.
This was my first time here and I was glad I was able to introduce my friends to some delicious snow!

Unilocal 2015 Challenge #14
Snow. I did not know how close I was to shaved snow!
I first heard the concept of shaved snow in a land down under called San Diego, Iceskimo to be exact. But fellow Unilocaler Natasha told me that shaved snow existed in Southern California, in Tustin to be exact! Imagine my surprise when I saw the same machine and the same block of flavor there! Hehe. Now, I gave the Iceskimo down in San Diego a 5. Why does Snow Station get a 4?
Well Snow Station has more variety in a couple ways. They have 3 sizes. Mini Bear ($ 3.95), Baby Bear ($ 5.95) and Hungry Bear ($ 7.95). Mini inc 1 topping, baby & hungry inc 2. It’s an extra 50 cents for additional toppings.
Then you move on to what flavor you want. They have tons here!
Strawberry, Mango, green apple, passion fruit, lychee, raspberry, mint, pineapple, coconut, green tea, watermelon, thai tea, honeydew, horchata, almond, taro, coffee, chocolate, vanilla, pumpkin spice, salted butterscotch.
You get toppings and then drizzle (condensed milk please) :P
Where it falls short: Not too many toppings. It’s like Yogurtland but there was more variety in the Iceskimo one that I had previously D:
They have many «creations» as well:
We got a thai tea with mochi and condensed milk in a mini. Thai tea made into a shaved snow is a great idea. It tasted good and hehe I would come back again. It’s a fun experiment to try new flavors each time (cough cough TARO maybe?). They also have a couple seats in the store and it’s very clean as well~ :) Come give it a try!
Same plaza as Cream Pan!

Are you a Mini bear, Baby bear, or a Hungry bear?
Those are the three size options and cost $ 3.95, $ 5.95, or $ 7.95. For the mini you get a choice of two toppings, while the baby and hungry bear size, you get three. Extra toppings are $ 0.50 each.
You pick your flavor of shaved snow, then your toppings, and then a drizzle of sauce. If you get the hungry bear size, you can choose to different flavors of snow. There are a ton of snow flavors and include taro, coconut, green tea, lychee, passion fruit, mango, strawberry, green apple, almond, thai tea, etc. As for toppings, there’s strawberry mochi, mango mochi, popping boba, berries, nuts, cereals, fruits, etc. The drizzle includes condensed milk, chocolate, caramel, honey, and white chocolate.
We came here on Small Business Saturday to take advantage of Amexs’ deal and got two hungry bear size shaved snow to share. We tried almond and green tea snow with tons and tons of flavored mochi, pineapple, red bean, and a drizzle of condensed milk. On the other we had coconut and taro snow with berries, popping boba, and mochi.
I really enjoyed the snow flavors which were very finely shaved that it melted pretty quickly on the plate. The guy who added our toppings was also very generous in his scoops, so the ratio of toppings to shave snow was off. We had a lot of toppings leftover on our plate. I didn’t like their mochi too much, it was a bit hard and not as chewy.
Service was very friendly and helpful. Plentiful of parking in a private lot.