Taiwanese in Dallas

Happy Lemon, a Taiwan-based boba tea company, is famous for bubble teas, citrusy teas and slushies, as well as bubble waffles and salted cheese drinks. The menu is extensive and complicated for someone with no experience in cheese drinks, ice and sugar ratios, or boba, but in our experience the staff is super helpful with explaining it. We started with black tea with salted cheese. The verdict? This was some of the best stuff sipped in a long time. The salted cheese sat atop the tea much like whipped cream would, or a foam, and had a similar texture. We alternated between just sucking it down with the straw at the bottom of the glass, and moving the straw within the delightful cheese foam to get an extremely satisfying mixture of the tea and cheese. It was surprising in a good way. Other salted cheese options include green tea, chocolate smoothie, roast tea, matcha latter, dragon fruit and mango. Be sure to save room (or make a run for) their bubble waffles. We selected two original (plain not flavored batter) waffles, one with and one without boba, and opted for a puff cream dipping sauce. Oh man. This was so good we immediately regretted not ordering more (other flavors/fillings include matcha, chocolate, red bean, or Oreo). The waffles were perfectly cooked and warm, not too sweet, with a delicate texture. The air pocket bubbles presented a lovely mouth feel as well as the perfect location to house the boba. They also offer a slew of other beverages including milk teas, fruit teas, smoothies, yakult and classic brewed teas. They have a large list of toppings that can be added to any of the teas such as boba, grass jelly, red bean, taro balls, puff cream or passion fruit seeds as well.

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Lumi Snow Company

7355 N. Beach St. #141 Fort Worth

Taiwanese, Dessert, Ice Cream

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Meet Fresh

2001 Coit Rd. Plano

972-596-6088

Taiwanese, Dessert, Menu

This is an international chain was founded by "Sister and Brother Fu," according to their website. It's a Taiwanese dessert boutique that is focused on using taro balls, jellies and traditional Taiwanese ingredients.

Meet Fresh’s menu is huge. There’s almost no end to the desserts options, ranging from bubble waffles to tofu-based puddings to Asian shaved ice. With scant descriptions, the menu does little to help you out. Customers are forced to use pictures and context clues to navigate. But when there’s sugar involved, it’s hard to go wrong.

Meet Fresh is best known for their shaved ice, which is served in shareable platters meant for 3 or 4 people. Each dessert comes with a heap of shaved ice, drenched in condensed milk and different flavored syrups. The black sugar boba shaved ice ($13.25) is one of the chain’s most popular. The shaved ice base is soaked in a mixture of black sugar syrup and condensed milk.

It’s topped with black sugar tapioca balls, sweetened red beans and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The dessert makes for a unique combination of creamy, chewy and icy all at once. Other flavor combinations include the mango milk (milk and mango), the strawberry milk (milk and strawberry) and the mango berry (a delectable mixture of both).

If none of the options on the menu interest you, go for the create-your-own shaved ice, an all-inclusive option that lets you choose between some interesting toppings like almond pudding, sweet potato balls and mochi.

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Sno Tea

5930 W. Park Blvd. Plano

Taiwanese, Dessert

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Tao Rice Rolls

2001 Coit Road #166 Plano

281-803-8088

Taiwanese

Originally from Queens, New York City, Tao Rice Rolls moved further west and set up shop in two Texas locations, including the one we are lucky to have in Plano. Tao Rice Rolls serve a wide range of traditional Taiwanese breakfast items with fan tuan front and center. Fan tuan is no one-trick pony. While all are wrapped with a layer of compacted sticky rice filled with pork floss, sweet and savory tufts of fine threads of dried pork, there are fourteen combinations to choose from. If you prefer the traditional option, imagine sticky rice filled with pork floss, youtiao bits (deep-fried hollow dough sticks) and cubed pickled radish. Another favorite is the Taiwan, a mix of sweet, fatty lap Cheong (Chinese sausage), pork floss, youtiao and pickled radish. Their signature Tao roll is ground pork and shiitake mushroom mixture, braised egg, pork floss, sliced lettuce and mayonnaise. Pair your choice of fan tuan with the traditional drink, a glass of in-store made soy milk. This is soy unlike the ones from the cartons in the supermarkets; it's not muted nor masked by vanilla or other flavors, the taste of the soy shines.Or if feeling curious, try the salted option, which is more a soup than a drink, a dairy-free, creamy savory soup accentuated by the texture of crispy youtiao, chewy seaweed and scallion.

Wok Star

8041 Walnut Hill Lane Northeast Dallas

972-961-1168

Chinese, Taiwanese

Wok Star offers a range of authentic Chinese dishes and hand-pulled la mian noodles in the ambiance of Top 40 hits. The space has a bright red aesthetic with paintings of icons like David Bowie, Lady Gaga and more. Cocktails reference rock stars too; The sweet I’m Too Sexy is made with Deep Eddy lime vodka, Malibu watermelon rum, lime soda and grenadine, adorably topped with an arrangement of Sour Patch kids. A more groovy concoction is the Uptown Funk, made with rum, Cristal, blood orange liqueur, lime and pineapple. Be adventurous when ordering. Sure there are traditional dishes, but go for the la mian, which are noodles hand-pulled in-store daily. Chef Charlie Zhang may even put on a noodle slinging show for you. Overall, Wok Star is a fun place to hang out and vibe over good music and drinks.

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Wu Wei Din

2909 W. 15th St. Plano

972-985-1688

Chinese, Taiwanese, Critics' Pick, Best Of, Essentials

Wu Wei Din, a spot with Taiwanese roots, has some of the best noodles, wontons and soups in the area. Over the past few years they have expanded, adding a second location in Plano and one in Lewisville. Many of the regulars are devotees of pork chop fried rice — a decent bowl of fried rice topped with an entire deep-fried pork chop — but beef noodle soup topped with pickled mustard greens is another hit, the beef ultra-tender and the broth well-spiced. Look out for vegetable specials that might be hand-written onto the bottom of the menu; they’ll be cooked simply and flawlessly, with copious garlic. Wu Wei Din has even tweaked its recipe for soup dumplings to make better takeout, adding just a gram or 2 of dough to each dumpling so they don’t spill or fall apart on your drive home. Call in an order and you’ll be able to pick it up at a table in the parking lot.

Top pick: Pork and shrimp spicy wontons are delicious, as is golden kimchi, a milder, mellower interpretation of the Korean classic with an addicting sweet-spicy balance.

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Taiwanese in Dallas

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