Meet Fresh

Taro Ball No. 4 — that’s all I need! I miss leaving in Sydney, and I certainly miss having this place so close by that all I had to do was walk a few short minutes to Meet Fresh to get a bowl of awesome Taiwanese dessert with friends. No no no, I never shared, because I wanted the whole bowl to myself!
The place is essentially two levels, plus tables outside. It’s usually packed, but you can also usually find a table if you’re vigilant ;) Here’s the drill: you walk in and get in the queue, and decide what you want from a large selection on the massive menu board complete with colour pictures. I haven’t been back here in awhile, but I recall paying about $ 5 for my fave taro ball no. 4, and they have a loyalty card –at least they did– where you got a stamp for every item –NOT for every visit– purchased, and get a free dessert with a full card.
After you order, you’ll get a buzzer which vibrates and flashes when your order’s ready. Take your buzzer to the counter right next to the register where you had placed your order, and exchange the buzzer for your dessert. And enjoy!
Taro Ball No. 4 is my favourite and comes with taro balls, shaved ice, cooked barley, cooked sweet potatoes, and more! I long for the day I finally return for my fave bowl…

This joint is located at the corner of the heart of china town. You can’t miss it with the tables outside and busy line ups on a weekend night.
The tables don’t get cleaned regularly so I ended up having to clean one of them just to sit there.
In terms of food, I had the signature herbal jelly. The taro balls don’t taste like taro at all which was pretty disappointing, but the grass jelly is super refreshing with the herbal ice. Overall, the dish had pretty interesting chewy texture with all the different toppings. The 1 litre bubble teas seemed pretty interesting. I’ll try it next time I come back if I’m dying of thirst!

I do think there’s a degree of hype in this store but honestly there are it’s moments that you kinda crave it.
Interesting northern Chinese dessert, I’d say worth trying once at least.

Love this place in Taiwan! This place pretty much live up to the one in Taiwan. Got the grass jelly here. The only thing I have to complain is the milk they use for the grass jelly is actually milk instead for cream. Will come back to this place, the sitting area is very nice too.

Passed by here three times and decided to stop by as the sun was scorching today.
Looked at the menu on the screen and the dessert bowl that attracted me was under the herbal jelly series — signature dessert.
The dessert bowl contains herbal jelly, taro and sweet potato balls, pearls (boba) and some shaved ice. The herbal jelly hasn’t got much sweet taste on it. Would have to jumble up other ingredients to make it sweeter. The balls were chewy but the pearl were not that chewy. For $ 6.50 it was definitely a good portion — ingredient mix and chewiness.
There are indoor (2 levels) and outdoor seatings. But as more and more customers trickling in it is definitely not easy to secure a spot.
Preparation was quick and the workers were friendly. And location wise is a good spot as it is located to one of the famous restaurants in town (Mamak). This store has mango series as well as soft serves or tofu puddings.
The downside of here is that the window has no blinds so the sun rays will refract through the windows. It might also be better if they have the dessert bowls chilled instead of having shaved ice. Do try this out if you are in the area.
Tried out the coconut mango sago (glared in my eyes). Portion was good and they provided more chewy sago. The coconut is actually the coconut milk (canned ones). The sorbet was refreshing and not too sweet.

So we came across this meet fresh because we were just wondering around Chinatown and my boyfriend love meet fresh from Taiwan so we decided to stop by and have some… I really like the ambience of the place… Food wise… For me it is just a normal Taiwanese dessert, love the taro balls… Can’t say I will be back for more cause I am not from Sydney but I will definitely go to other meet fresh from Taiwan and Irvine hehehe…

It’s not a butcher or typo, it is a country-​wide Taiwanese dessert place and one of them is on the left while you are queuing for Mamak.
We all know that they are good at their ice-​based Asian flavoured desserts. I just had to try their other specials.
SALTED CARAMEL & BANANA WAFFLE ~ $ 10
To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations. This stereotype is true, Western desserts suck at Asian places. The waffles had the consistency of a compacted sponge cake: heavy and dry. That’s pretty much what makes waffles good. That was a fail. The salted caramel did not show proof of life but the banana and some pecan nuts did show up.
HERBAL JELLY (TARO+RED BEANS+PEARLS) ~$ 5.50
It might not look like it but this is so much better than the waffle. Amazing mixture of textures from the chewy pearls, to the spam-​like taro paste that just falls apart in the mouth (it just looks like spam lol). The familiar pearls make famous by bubble tea and the herbal jelly combine to give a great texture. The taste of the red beans normally a savory protein in Western cuisine is sweet here and is an acquired taste but I like it. The barrier to enjoy this dessert for the uninitiated is the look and alien flavour combination. That was my first impression but I quite like it as it is refreshing even after a heavy meal. Also always order iced as the hot version is another beast.
Conclusion
Meet Fresh offers unique Taiwanese style desserts and I guess they are good without any real competitor in the market. The Western offerings such as the waffle above attempt to give an alternative to those that find these bowls of foreign material too challenging. However, it is only the signature bowls of jelly and taro balls that are worth trying.
@thesydneynoob

When I was young and friends came over to my house, they would never stay over for dinner cause they always thought our family ate weird stuff. One of those weird items was dessert cause we rarely ate cake or ice cream and I was asked why I enjoyed eating a bowl of ice with red beans and weird purple cubes.
Fast forward to now and my friends are asking me if my mum is coming over to cook Pad Thai or whether I’m free for a drive to the city for dessert at Meet Fresh.
This Taiwanese dessert chain sells popular Chinese desserts hot or cold that comes in a variety of styles such as taro ball, herbal jelly, pudding etc. I always end up stopping at taro ball cause I love taro so much but you can mix amongst the other styles.
The taro balls and pearls are always prepared correctly here still chewy and cooked right before it goes soft. Some places over cook it and it becomes too soft and mushy. While the red beans are nice and soft once you break into the skin.
If the cold version is picked, shaved ice covers all these goodies and the sugar syrup sweetens everything up wants it’s all mixed.
Meet Fresh definitely satisfies my late night cravings for Asian desserts and with summer coming soon I’ll be there more often.

I always held a soft spot for some good Asian desserts. And honestly I wish we had more places like this back in the states. Meet Fresh is so freaking delicious and reasonably priced for the size that you get.
They sell an assortment of Taiwanese desserts from red bean soup, black rice soup, and herbal jelly. They also have their own pearls, pudding, and shaved ice drinks which is even harder to find! This is seriously a must try. And for someone like me? It’s a place I have to visit multiple times to stock up the memory of this awesomeness!

Had a herbal jelly dessert no. 5
It’s pretty good, tastes right and no unexpected «surprises». Although I’d like to have a bit more coconut jelly in it.
After ordering, they give you a transponder for your order so there’s no chaos of standing around the counter to wait for your order, that’s a good feature.

My sister wanted some boba, so we stopped by here after eating at Mamak! We both got their pearl milk teas and it was good. They have a large size and it was huge! Their other desserts looked tempting and I’ll probably try it the next time I’m around the area.

This review is for you Chi Hai (Steffani)
It’s no secret that I have a pretty large, non-​cavity infested sweet tooth. It’s also not a secret I get overwhelmed when there are too many sweet options! MEET FRESH is the prime example! Thank goodness I went with a group of friends so I got to try a little bit of everything!
SERVICE:
It was 9pm on a Sunday evening and there was a line out the door and down the stairs. Why would you put a trainee on the till BY HERSELF!?! As all newbies are to a new job, she was working at glacial speed and couldn’t get my order correct the first 5 times. Bless her heart! I don’t blame her, management should’ve stepped in and taken over.
QUALITY:
*Duo Deluxe — a multilayer of ice cream, egg pudding (flan), bubbles (boba), creamy milk and some other heavenly goodness. BOMB!!!
*Supreme Mango Shaved Ice — it’s a mountain of mango yumness. Definitely share this with another person unless you feel like getting diabetes.
*Wintermelon Iced Tea — REFRESHING!
VALUE:
Best bang for your buck!!! If you like Taiwanese dessert. Come come come!!!

I’m a big fan of Chinese desserts and this place certainly gets me excited! I have tried the tofu pudding w/​taro and sweet potato balls and also their winter melon tea w/​herbal jelly. Both were delicious and not overly sweet. I particularly enjoyed the smoothness of the pudding! Will be returning.
***Cash only

The famous dessert chain from Hong Kong!
I ordered the tofu pudding with taro balls, with additional herbal jelly.
I love the smoothness of the tofu pudding and herbal jelly. The taro balls were chewy but not hard despite being left for more than an hour.
I ordered the warm dessert for takeout and it remained fresh and delicious after 2 hours. The service here is VERY slow so be prepared to wait 10 – 15 min for your dessert to be ready. Still, I’d say its worth the wait!

Good place to fill your sweet tooth. Love the tapoica bubble things and grass jelly. Price is a bit expensive for a dessert

Delicious fresh TW dessert — fresh taro, red bean, green bean, taro paste, peanuts, lentils — has everything. Portions for sharing.

After having dinner at a local Chinatown food court, I wanted my friend to try some Taiwanese dessert. It’s been awhile since I’ve had shaved ice but each time I walk by, I can’t help but stare at the glorious mountain of ice and sugar (errr.fruit).
We ordered and split the mango shaved ice and even though the weather was cold, we still really enjoyed it. There’s nothing like digging your spoon through the ice and mixing it together so you get the sweetness of the syrup in each bite.
It’s always easier easing people into eating the fruit flavored ones. Maybe after a few visits, I’ll go for the red beans and taro if they’re ready for it!

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but I will gladly have another bowl of herbal jelly with red beans, taro, tapioca and shaved ice. This Taiwanese treat really is the perfect ending to a meal! Whether it’s the herbal dessert or shaved ice with mango & condensed milk, portions are big enough for sharing. The herbal dessert is made hot or cold so it’s suitable to satisfy you in any weather!
It seems most poppin’ at night so it might be hard to grab a seat then, but since you order at the counter before sitting down, you can always order to-​go and walk around, exploring Chinatown!

I love the herbal desserts at Meet Fresh. Ok to a lot of people, the thought of a «herbal» dessert is not their cup of tea (sorry) and just plain weird. But once you become used to asian desserts you’ll love them. I love mine with herbal jelly, sweet potato or taro, tapioca balls, red bean and barley. So good! Depending on the weather I have it hot or cold and with the creamer on top. I haven’t tried the tofu fah (sweet tofu pudding) but I’m sure it is good too.
There are a few asian dessert houses popping up everywhere but this is a goodie. Its also part of huge chain from Taiwan (the home of pearl milk teas), with this being the first Australian branch.
Now, if all of this freaks you out, just try something simple first. Or keep drinking pearl milk tea from Chatime/​Easyway to ease yourself into it lol.
A must try even if the queue is ridiculous sometimes.

If you’re easily weirded out by floating balls in your drink, shaved ice and warm liquids for dessert, then you need to live a little.
For those of you already open to pearl drinks, easy way, ice ka cang, and other asian desserts this place is about to blow your mind. It’s a little confusing at first, but once you’ve been here, you’ll be well equipped to order better on your next trip.
Choose a number from the wall that best matches what you feel like trying today, pearls, taro, barley or jelly options are always good and I like mine warm, but just go for what feels right. If all else fails just see something you like thats being prepared in front and ask for that!