CLOSED: The Freshary

The Freshary is great. It's too bad their Julu Lu location closed as that was far more central, convenient, and pretty. Still, the food is great. I would say that the vanilla soy ice cream is definitely different than the usual Western version. The emphasis is on soy as a flavor, which is popular here. The black sesame is awesome, but I haven't had the chance to try the green tea yet. The ice cream portions are generous.

The muffins are really tasty and since they're small, you can try several different flavors. They are a bit expensive, but The Freshary has gone through the effort to certify itself as organic and environmentally friendly. Plus, it's worth it.

However, I don't think I will go as often now that this is the only location as it's quite out of the way of my normal routine.

I visited The Freshary for the first time. They now have three vegan ice cream flavors: sesame seed ice cream, and the only other options were Vanilla Soy, Black Sesame and Green Tea. As a long-time vegan, I'd had plenty of vanilla soy ice cream so was interested in one of the other flavors. They were out of Black Sesame, which was my first choice, so with some trepidation I tried the green tea. I couldn't believe how great it was. It was actually better than any vegan ice cream I had ever had before in the U.S., my home country. The portion was also generous.
Although it was my first visit, I had been sampling their mini-muffins (they spell them "minnie muffins") for a while because my wife had been bringing them home occasionally. They are likewise the best vegan muffin-type food I have ever had. They also have a large variety of them. I'm not the biggest muffin fan b/c I don't snack a lot, but may change that!
For a bakery, I would have liked to see a bit more variety, along the lines of Sticky Fingers in DC. But what they do make, they generally seem to make very well. The only exception so far is a sesame seed pretzel that I had, which seemed bland. The staff has limited English ability but seems well-trained. The food also seems a little pricey -- for example, 15 RMB just for a couple of mini-muffins? But perhaps that is the fair price for high quality.