Meet Fresh, Sunnybank

Meet Fresh
Shop 123, Sunnybank Plaza, Sunnybank

The first time I saw someone check-in to Meet Fresh on Facebook, I thought it was a sleazy nightclub.  Mochi gave me an education. No, not a nightclub. It was in fact a very popular Taiwan-originated dessert chain that had spread to Sydney and now to Brisbane.

I'll admit I'm not crazy about Asian desserts. I have a weakness for certain elements - taro and coconut. I don't love tofu flower, black sesame, grass jelly or the likes. Never the less, I really wanted to try the place and see what all the fuss was about.

I did some online research and saw mixed reviews. There were several complaints about the place being packed and the long waits etc. When I walked past Meet Fresh in Sunnybank, I was relieved to see that it was fairly empty. It was about 1pm in the afternoon so maybe it wasn't the time for people to be craving dessert?

My parents and I had lunch at Himawari first before popping into Meet Fresh. Their marketed speciality item is the taro balls. As I mentioned above, I am very much a taro lover. There was a large selection of taro ball dessert bowls - basically, featuring the taro balls with a combination of other popular Asian dessert elements (red bean, sweet potato, peanuts and flavored jellies, to name a few).

All of them came in hot and cold versions.

I chose taro ball dessert no 2 in cold and dad went with a hot version of no 1.

I must say, our desserts looked very different when they were brought out.

Frozen taro dessert # 2 - with sweet potato,  barley and pearls

My icy taro dessert was a big mountain of shaved ice with each component neatly stacked around the bowl. I tried a taro ball first. Big Meh. It just tasted like those glutinous rice balls we have at new years. There was no taro flavor to it at all. There were sweet potato balls too and I'd say that aside from the colour, there was no difference. The sweet potato mash was pretty good. I liked the pearl barley best but I can't attribute that to skill. The shaved ice was too sweet for me.

Hot taro balls dessert # 1 - with green beans, pearls and lotus seeds

Dad's dessert was a sweet, desserty soup. It didn't look as attractive as mine but he thought it tasted alright. My parents are against anything too sweet and this wasn't classed as too sweet for them. Dad was in agreement with me about the taro and sweet potato balls. He was unimpressed with this dessert.

I didn't think much of Meet Fresh. Mochi insists we ordered the wrong stuff. She recommends the tofu flower desserts. That may be true but I'm not too keen on going back to find out!