Really good authentic Taiwanese food. Service with a smile. Kids friendly. Open late all…read moreweek/weekend. Always have good experience here.

Great variety of bubble teas, fast and attentive service, nothing to not love about Hulucat…read more My favorite drink is a Passion Fruit Yakult combination with mango or lychee Jelly. It is great bubble tea and hits the spot when walking around town and looking for a refreshment .

We walked by several boba shops, but I decided to get boba here. You order at the window and they…read morehand it to you. I decided to get the #1- matcha with pudding. It was VERY sweet. I had to dilute it with water when I got back to the hotel. I'm not sure if the sweetness could've been adjusted. Even though I didn't care for the drink, the cup was cute. Hulucat has several locations in Auckland.

Cute shop tucked away from the main street of downtown. The…read morestaff here was super patient and friendly while we were trying to figure out what we wanted. Pricey but love this place.

Seems to us this place is about the only place doing any decent business amongst this collection of…read moreshops within this ground level of this building. Most of them are vacant or void of business when we walk through. Anyway back to this bubble tea shop. To start the service is friendly ...so no complaints there. They have the usual milk teas and other drinks on the menu, but also have what is called a plant milk tea. Seems this kind of bubble tea must be getting popular as have just today come across one other place selling it .Must be more out there. Before the only other place we have come across these unique bubble tea is in China itself. We got a natural plant milk tea with pearls and oreo topping. Not bad! But I am not going to say it is the best I have had. The plant does not seem to add any extra flavour...But makes for a cute decoration and does break the mould of normal milk teas. All in all I would come again and try another flavour.

Yes, there are plenty of places to get bubble/boba/pearl milk tea in this city, but how many of…read morethem have banana milk tea?? I'm bananas about bananas! And when I saw that they have banana milk tea on their menu, I just had to have it. It's not bad. Tasted like banana flavor that I expect and the tea is decent enough. Per usual, you can adjust the sweetness level and the amount of ice for your drinks.

Fine enough, just a run of the mill Boba place. Nothing special and nothing bad, just a…read moretransactional place in case you get thirsty.

So I'm a NZ European, who has fallen hard for Bubble Tea. Luckily I live in Auckland, and am…read morespoiled for choice when it comes to options. I have visited 7 Bubble Tea stores in Auckland over the past year, and the best I have had so far is WUCHA Takapuna. The staff are lovely, and the drinks are superb. The milk teas I have ordered have all tasted unique, and natural! The mango and watermelon slushies were incredible, made with real fruit, and had the smoothest texture of slushie I've ever encountered. Highly recommend to anyone who loves Bubble Tea or who has never tried the bliss that Asia has brought to Auckland!

The latest bubble tea shop in Newmarket. Since they somehow chose a spot right net to an existing…read moreinternational brand, I can't help to compare the two. The space: cleaner and like a typical Auckland cafe, modern decor, a place that you would actually want to sit there and catch up with people. The drinks: somewhat smaller selection than the next door competitor, but the quality is comparable. Well cooked bubbles, like their milk cap. You can choose different sweetness and the amount of ice just like all the other places, but their stuff tend to be on the heavier side... i.e. quite filling. The food: no food. The service: Friendly and generally helpful. Overall nothing really make this place stand out... but I guess its an alternative.

I came here twice while visiting Auckland and absolutely loved it! My favorite was the Thai mango…read moredrink but unfortunately it was sold out on our second visit. The place can get busy but the wait goes by quickly. It helps that they have self checkout kiosks. Good music that isn't too loud so you can still have conversations with your friends. Highly recommend if you're in the area!

Most of my trips abroad, I generally do not worry that much about internet, however, in this trip…read moreto australia/new zealand, I maxed out my international data package and our airbnb didn't have wifi! So we were freaking out, because even though I am on vacation, I do need to check my emails from time to time, at least once a day. This place had fast and free wifi!!! We actually came here two times just for that. Also, they have delicious drinks, my wife and I always get a Black tea with milk foam and a Green tea with milk foam. We generally switch back and forth. Their milk foam is so good! make sure to mix it up.

I remember walking past this place when it first opened. The massive line that formed outside…read morepiqued my interest so I asked someone lining up what on earth was going on... to which I got a reply of "duh, Meet Fresh". Sounds like a butchery? Or a new organic, vegan food store? Fast forward a couple of months later, the queue has disappeared and I found out that Meet Fresh - with its somewhat deceiving name - is actually a popular international chain known for its Taiwanese desserts. Their specialties are their taro balls desserts, which are basically glutinous balls made out of taro served with a combination of toppings. They come either hot (drenched in a sweet red bean syrup) or cold (with shaved ice). I went for the taro ball dessert 4 (creative name, eh?), while my dining companion had the signature herbal jelly, one of the most popular menu items. After ordering, you're given a buzzer contraption that buzzes and flashes when your order is ready. The dessert items range from about $7 to $8 - pretty pricey, albeit a generous portion. Neither of us could finish our desserts. Taste-wise? Like Aimee said, the taro balls are quite bland. Overall, I personally thought there was nothing too exciting about it... odd given the long queue and its popularity overseas. It's good to see a new variety Auckland's dessert scene, but there's definitely room for improvement.

Since Meet Fresh opened a few weeks ago on Lorne Street, my Facebook feed had been flooded with…read moredessert photos. Those raving about the traditional Taiwanese desserts that they would normally have to travel on a 13 hour flight for. Or at least, a few hours to Australia. Word is, the brand Meet Fresh is not so welcomed in the home country Taiwan but the quality is actually better in overseas countries that it expanded into! I normally have to travel to Howick for my dose of Asian desserts and after posting the photo on Instagram, many locals asked me what actually is in that bowl. Nothing fancy but seeming like a deconstructed dessert, it deserves an explanation. So let's deconstruct this. Starting from my favourite: the shiny and jiggly substance is grass jelly 仙草 (xian cao) which you can normally buy in cans at your local Asian supermarket. You'll also find this on bubble tea menus as an alternative to pearls. The authentic grass jelly is made from the leaves and stalks of the mesona chineensis plant. It doesn't have a strong taste itself but is slightly sweet with a tinge of bitter aftertaste. I went through a grass jelly phrase where I slurped my way through cans of grass jelly one after the other because it isn't too sweet like regular desserts. Traditionally this would be the go-to summer dessert for cooling you down, and for the females (and males) it's also apparently beneficial to your skin and health. In this popular shaved ice combo, you can add tapioca (pearls), peanut, taro chunks, taro, and yellow sweet potato balls which are soft and springy. The Meet Fresh Signature Herbal Jelly is a simpler dessert with ingredients as mentioned above: taro and sweet potato balls, grass jelly and condensed milk that you can add yourself. Both of the desserts were served cold over shaved ice but you have a choice of having it hot with sweet syrup. When Meet Fresh first opened, lines were literally out the door and a spot at the end of the queue meant waiting for 30min before you got to the counter. Because everything is made to order, there was another long wait time before the buzzer vibrated in your hand. Authenticity: Compared to Asian dessert places in Auckland that serve this dessert like Istorm and Bubble Tea Cafe, this seems to be a winner. However there have been mixed reviews with the taro and sweet potato balls with some saying that it was fresh and bouncy while others say it was gritty. If you're missing the Asian style desserts from home - this would be the place to go once in a while, though don't expect it to be same stuff that grandma used to make back home. As inconvenient as it may seem, don't go there after dinner. Even when I went at dinner time there was a small queue. Needless to say, the buzz will soon die down. Until then, it satisfies my craving for desserts somewhere in the CBD. If the strange ingredients haven't left you feeling bizarre, I recommend going there for a culturally different dessert!