Asian desserts can be a bit weird and kooky to the uninitiated. Everyone feels a bit strange thinking of eating red beans as a sweet instead of savoury, but we say it’s time to open your eyes to the wonders of Asian desserts.
Shaved ice, soy custard, matcha tea ice cream, bean paste, taro mash, tapioca pearls; these are a few of our favourite things—and should be yours too! If you share our passion for delectable and delightful desserts then take the plunge and try some of what Brisbane has to offer in the Asian dessert department.
Here is where to pick up Brisbane's best Asian desserts.
Bonsai Botanika
Brisbane CBD
A fusion of Japanese and Western resides at Bonsai Botanika in the CBD. Great for catch ups and to soak up the cozy natural wood vibes, we recommend the matcha tea latte paired with a slice of their matcha cake. Mmm, so green. So delicious!
Passion Tree
Brisbane CBD
French bakeries are a plenty in Korea but Passion Tree brings elements of both cultures to Brisbane’s CBD. Grab a croissant or some sweet honey bread, or go more left field and grab a green tea bingsoo. A shaved ice dessert usually made with condensed milk, served with a variety of fruit toppings or flavours, this stuff is completely amazing.
Sweet Treats Dessert Cafe
Runcorn
With a signature like green tea crème brulee on the menu, you can’t ignore the genius that is Sweet Treats. Up for for sweetness overload? Grab an Iced Royal Thai Tea Latte (aka your new obsession). They also do fresh in-house soy milk or wobbly soy custard. Which is way better than it sounds. Trust us.
Surabing
Sunnybank
Remember the delicious shaved ice dessert we spoke of earlier? Surabing nails this dessert. The bingsoo here has super fluffy shaved ice and has a wider variety of types and toppings than your average bingsoo flogger. Grab a cookies and cream or Nutella bingsoo, or go their original soybean bingsoo if you’re feeling adventurous. Either way, you've nailed dessert.
Sonder
Sunnybank Hills
Sonder is the master of green tea desserts in Brisbane. They do a host of drinks in either matcha or hojicha—a roasted green tea giving it a richer darker flavour, FYI— similar to coffee. Grab a green tea parfait and dig your way through the toppings or nail a flight of Asian ice cream flavours. Ice cream flights? Now you're talking!
Just Soy Cafe
Sunnybank Hills
They don’t do just soy at Just Soy Cafe (totally misleading, we agree), they also serve refreshing shaved ice desserts as well as classic milk teas, but it’s their soy custard that’s super smooth and well worth the journey south of the river. The menu here is superbly huge; navigating it can be tricky. Our advice? Just try to eat as much as humanly possible...
Meet Fresh
Sunnybank
Meet Fresh does the Taiwanese equivalent to Korean bingsoo; freshly shaved ice topped with pearls made from tapioca and sweet potato. You can’t go past the herbal jelly or the taro mash. Total game changers.
Nominom
Brisbane CBD
To top off this list we have to include the infamous ‘froyo’ from Nominom. While not truly Asian, frozen yoghurt takes an Asian twist with flavours and toppings including popping pearls and mochi.
Still hungry? How about dinner plans; have a read of Brisbane's best laksa!
Image credit: Passiontree