Bubble Tea Archives - Page 4 of 5

In Bubble Tea

Bubble Waffle Cafe in Kerrisdale

April 19, 2016

Bubble Waffle Cafe has their newest location in Kerrisdale. They serve popular street food snacks such as curry fish balls, egg waffles, stinky tofu, and fish soup noodles.

I was invited by ChineseBites to check out a few items on the menu.

This location has a decent amount of seating. Most people come here to grab a bowl of noodles and some bubble tea.

Due to their location, you’ll notice the prices are slightly higher than the other locations in the Lower Mainland. Either way, it’s still quite affordable.

Cheesecake Bubble Waffle was ok, but it was a bit sweet. I would stick with the original. Can’t go wrong with the classics.

Matcha Bubble Waffle had a nice crunchy exterior with pillowy soft bubbles. I found the matcha very very subtle, barely noticeable.

Cinnamon Bubble Waffle wasn’t very good at all. It was just overpowering and people should just stick with the classic original bubble waffle.

Taiwan Sausage comes with 2 pieces on skewers. It was ok, but I didn’t find anything special about it.

Fish Sui Mai has 6 pieces in an order. The texture was bouncy and lacked much flavour. It was mostly the sauce that added the extra flavour.

Stinky Tofu isn’t for everyone due to its smell. It’s a deep fried tofu square topped with the fermented sauce.

Takoyaki comes with 6 pieces and is topped with bonito flakes. Delicious and you can’t go wrong with takoyaki. Inside you will find a little piece of octopus.

Chicken Nuggets was a good choice too. Deep fried chicken nuggets with salt and pepper is always a hit.

Fried Shrimp Ball was ok, but since it doesn’t have any sauce to go with it, I felt like something was missing.

Milk Tea is a classic item to order. I thought it was a tad sweet for regular sweetness, so next time I would do half sweet.

You can create your own bowl of noodles with any combination of soup base, noodles, and toppings.

I went with the Preserved Egg Fish soup with udon, sliced beef brisket, fish tofu, fish puff, and more preserved egg.

The udon noodles was slightly thinner, but it was good. I quite liked the broth as it was pretty unique. I have a secret obsession for preserved egg. Even though it looks weird, I really love it.

Another popular option was the laksa soup base.

Overall, I found the food to be ok. The noodle soups were good and they have a wide range of broths which is nice. The flavoured bubble waffles were totally a miss. You just can’t beat original.

We Rate Bubble Waffle Cafe:

Address:
2279 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.bubblewafflecafe.com/

In Bubble Tea

Boiling Point Surrey: Personal-Sized Hot Pot

April 15, 2016

Boiling Point opened their newest location in Surrey, BC close to Guildford Town Centre. Their specialty is Taiwanese hot pot and they have with a few locations in BC and more in the US.

They are best known for their personalized hot pots and bubble tea. I was invited by ChineseBites and tried all their hot pots with a few other foodie. I’ve been to the other locations, but it was nice to try another location to see whats new.

The interior is nice with the wooden panels on the walls with the rustic bricks. With the large windows, there is a lot of natural light that travels into the restaurant during the day,

Kimchi Tofu is a side dish you can order to go with your meal. The tofu was smooth and the added kimchi wasn’t spicy at all.

Garlic Pork Belly is another new side dish on their menu and it sure has a strong garlic punch when you first taste it. The flavours were nice, but I felt like it was a tad over cooked.

Our table got the Fresh Milk Tea and Hokkaido Milk tea. I would suggest getting half sweet or a quarter sweet for these drinks.Both types are good, but I prefer thee Fresh Milk Tea since it is made with real milk and has a bolder tea flavour.

If you don’t want bubble tea, you can just grab some complimentary tea or water.

Pomelo Hot Pot is a new flavour they are introducing in stores on May 1st. Currently it’s only available in the Southern California Boiling Point locations.

In the pot, you will also find napa cabbage, pork belly, shrimp, seaweed, fish, enoki mushroom, scallop, Korean bean thread, baby octopus, kamaboko, firm tofu, dried bonito flakes, and green onion. This was an interesting flavour and it had more of a tangy sourness at the end. I find the soup base affects most of the flavour, but I don’t think I really liked the flavour.

You can also choose various levels of spice for all hot pots:

No Spicy
Mild Spicy
Medium Spicy
Very Spicy
Flaming Spicy

They also have 3 sauces that you can mix together to dip your hot pot items into – chili bean sauce, garlic soy sauce and chili oil.

Korean Bean Paste Hot Pot replaced their Kimchi Hot Soup. Inside, you will find soybean sprouts, nira, green zucchini, kimchi, pork belly, fish tofu, kamaboko, tempura, rice cake, enoki mushroom,fish fillet, wok noodle, lobster fish ball, crown daisy, seaweed, and Korean paste. I liked this flavour as it has the right about of spice and I liked the wok noodles that were in this.

Beef Hot Pot is another solid item. It is packed with napa, vermicelli, sliced angus beef, enoki mushroom, tomato, firm tofu, tempura, corn, pork meat ball, kamaboko, fried tofu skin, imitation crab, green onion, and cilantro. flavours, the corn added a bit of sweetness to this dish.

Thai Flavour Hot Pot is a bit sour, a bit spicy. Deep in the hot bowels of this hot pot is cabbage, taro stem, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, cuttlefish ring, fish ball, clam, crab, baby octopus,maitake mushroom, shrimp, and cilantro. I never liked the sour spicy flavour combination, so this wasn’t for me. I found the shells of the crab and shrimp hard to bite into.

Lamb Hot Pot was made flaming spicy to feel the spectrum of spiciness. It was hot, but not up to my category of flaming. Others may feel it as atomic. Always best to have it mild spicy or medium spicy.

In this pot, you will find napa, vermicelli, sliced lamb, enoki mushroom, imitation crab stick, kamanoko, pork blood ricecake, maitake mushroom, clam, pickled mustard greens, firm tofu, tempura, fried tofu skin, egg, green onion, and cilantro.

This was the mild lamb hot pot, the broth looks less spicy and tame.

Japanese Miso Hot Pot was another favourite. A good balance of meat and veggie in this dish.

You will find inside the pot – cabbage, udon, sliced pork, enoki mushroom, clam, fish ball, fish fillet, maitake mushroom, crab, fried tofu skin, soft tofu, egg, and green onion.

The broth is mild and goes with the ingredients very well. Not too salty either.

Curry Fishball Hot Pot is a classic and is only sold in Canada. You won’t find this in their US locations. I like this dish and you will find sliced pork in this dish in addition to the fish balls. The curry broth is thin and very flavourful. Not too salty either.

The is Napa, Vermicelli, Slice Pork, Enoki Mushroom, Imitation Crab Stick, Fish Ball, Fried Tofu Skin, Corn, Tempura, Mountain Yam, Chinese String Bean, Egg, Green Onion.

They place the fish balls very strategically so you think they are 4 full fish balls.

Taiwanese Spicy Hot Pot comes in only flaming spicy, so you don’t have an option to make it mild.

It has cabbage, instant noodle, sliced Angus beef, tempura, enoki mushroom, clam, fish ball, cuttlefish ring, pork intestine, pork blood rice cake, fried tofu skin, maitake mushroom, frozen tofu, greenonion, and topped with cilantro.

Some may want to grab a bubble tea or old water to go with this.

Snow Cubes are a nice little treat after the meal to quell the hot heat of the hot pots. These flavours were green tea, pudding, taro and strawberry.

I went with the green tea since it’s not too sweet.

Overall, the hot pots had lot of ingredients inside, but we did find that it was mostly about the broth that enhanced the experience. Curry Fishball Hot Pot, Korean Bean Paste Hot Pot, and Japanese Miso Hot Pot were my top 3 choices. With all the dishes, we did find that the meat all lumped together and was hard to pull apart. Anything with crab is super hard to eat since you have to pick out the meat from inside the shell.

If you’re craving for some hot soupy dish on cold rainy days, definitely check it out.

We Rate Boiling Point Surrey:

Address:
102-15146 100th Avenue, Surrey

Website:
http://bpgroupusa.com/

In Bubble Tea

Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant: Taiwanese + HK Style Cafe

April 10, 2016

Duotian Fish Noodles Restaurant is a mix of Hong Kong Style Cafe and Taiwanese Cafe. They are located in the plaza on 1st Avenue where T&T is located. They specialize in fish soup noodles, rice hot pots, Western dishes and hot pot meals.

I was invited to attend as part of ChineseBites to try a variety of items off their menu.

The seats inside have large booth and smaller tables.

Complimentary tea arrives in these metal cups. The handle seems to be made of plastic since the color has rubbed off.

One of their popular options is creating your own noodle soup with all these customizable options.’

You can choose your soup base, toppings, type of noodles, drinks and any extra items on the side.

One the reverse side, you can customize your congee or rice hot pots.

Laksa with rice noodles, BBQ pork and sliced beef brisket. Not bad at all, but there are a few other places in town that do customizable laksa a lot better, but if you don’t want to travel far, this will do.

For our customizable Rice Hot Pot, we got salty fish with pork and chicken with octopus. It is topped with bok choy to give it a bit of color.

When we dug in, it was pretty good. The combination of the meat and the salty fish worked really well.

Grabbing an Iced Milk Tea or Ice Coffee Tea mix is classic for Hong Kong style cafes. Both very good! We asked them to make it with less sugar. You will need to stir it a bit more to incorporate all the ingredients.

Iced Lemon Tea is another popular choice too. You have to take your straw and spoon to crush up the lemon slices to get more flavour out of it.

The bubble tea on the other hand wasn’t as good. The pearls were hard and could have used more time cooking.

Baked Spaghetti with meat sauce is one of my go to dishes at these types of cafes. All that meat sauce and cheese covering each strand of spaghetti.

Butter Biscuit toast was ok, but I felt the topping was too sweet. I wouldn’t be able to eat an entire slice by myself. Each of us had a quarter of the toast and it was enough to quell our sweet tooth.

Deep fried fish cake was ok. It had a slight sweetness to them.

Baked pork chop on rice with tomatoes bacon sauce was delicious. You can’t go wrong with pork chops and cheesy sauce.

Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets is a classic item to order. Crisp on the outside and a good amount of salt and pepper.

Yang Chow Fried Rice was a bit bland and sub par. The rice was hard and the texture was off.

Congee with sliced beef and fish balls. We wanted the BBQ quick but it was already sold out.

The first few tastes of the congee, it tasted burnt and there really isn’t a way to mask it.

It also comes with a pan-fried green onion cake as part of the congee combo.

Overall, the dishes were definitely a hit and miss. The most basic dishes weren’t executed well like congee and fried rice. The baked Western dishes and noodle soup dishes were decent.

We Rate Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant:

Address:
#212 – 2800 E. 1st Ave.
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://duotian.ca/

In 24 hours

Duffin’s Donuts: Drunken Paradise in Vancouver

April 1, 2016

Duffin’s Donuts is an amazing place if you want cheap food 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This place never stops running. You will find fried chicken, Chinese Food, Mexican Food, breakfast, burger, and hot dogs. It’s like every drunken person’s paradise. I came here with Amy and Nat to have an all out food feast. In total, we spent about $75 here. We were sober the entire time.

We ate…a lot. We didn’t make it though the whole menu, but we made a decent sized dent.

The space is super old school and it looks like it’s stuck in the 80s.

Fritou Fried Chicken is what they sell. It comes in Spicy and regular.

You can choose from wings, breasts, drumsticks or thighs.

We grab a 4 piece and it had one of each type. The taste reminds me of a Church’s and KFC, but slightly less crisp. It didn’t come straight out of the fryer, so that probably why it wasn’t super crisp.

White meat is dry, so stick with the dark meat.

Veggie Spring Rolls and Pork Spring Rolls is served here too and its crisp on the outside. It’s ok, pretty average. Nothing notable here.

Pupusas is a traditional Salvadoran dish made of a thick, handmade corn tortilla that is usually filled with pork, beans, or cheese. At Duffin’s they serve is was salsa and a simple slaw.

Chorizo Con Huevos Torta has lettuce tomatoes, avocado, scrambled eggs, and chorizo. A decent torta but it would be better if there was more egg and chorizo.

They also have Chicken and Beef Tamales hanging out by the cash register. All wrapped up individually and then wrapped up in plastic wrap.

The tamales are made with masa, potatoes, red bell peppers, chicken/beef and then wrapped in leaves. Tasted ok as well, but nothing worth noting.

All Day Breakfast with Hashbrowns comes with 2 egg, 2 pieces of toast, bacon/sausage/ham, peanut butter and Jam. Pretty basic. I wished the hashbrowns were more crisp and golden brown, it was mostly wedges of potatoes.

Viet Mixed Ham has cold cuts and loaded with carrots, cucumber and cilantro. It would have been nice to have an option with spicy jalapenos. It was decent, but like most items here, what you pay for is what you get.

Cheese Burger was ok, but I prefer other types of burgers out there.

Chili Hot Dog is pretty good. Not gonna lie, all it’s missing is a ooey gooey fried egg and you’ll be in heaven.

Horchata, Pina Colada and Avocado Fresh Fruit Bubble Tea were 3 drinks we got to get a feel of what they can make. I was just surprised they had this spectrum of beverages.

Of course, we had to end the meal with donuts. You can’t leave here without a box.

It definitely beats Tim Horton’s Donuts any day.

Overall, most of the food is pretty average. It’s decent, cheap and always open. It definitely attracts unique crowds here. You’ll find all types of people here. What makes people come back is all the different types of comfort food in one place. Sometimes you want something sinfully greasy.

Plus, those donuts are pretty good.

We Rate Duffin’s Donuts:

Address:
1391 East 41st Avenue, Vancouver

In Bubble Tea

Chatime Surrey: Bubble Tea near Surrey Central

January 7, 2016

Chatime opened their newest location near Surrey Central a few steps away from the Skytrain. I’ve been a fan of Chatime since they first opened up a few locations in Richmond and Vancouver. It’s great that they are slowly opening up more locations in the suburbs. Finally closer to home. Woot Woot.

To me, what makes them stand out is the flavours of their drinks. When I was invited to their soft opening, I couldn’t resist trying a bunch of drinks.

The customization on the amount of sugar and ice is great since it can change the flavour of the drink significantly.

They differentiate themselves from the competition by using freshly brewed tea and natural flavouring.

I have 3 drinks that I always order:

Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly (half sweet + less ice)
Brown Rice Green Milk Tea (half sweet + less ice)
Thai Coffee Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly (slightly sweet + less ice)

My asian tastebuds just love these drinks. I don’t like my drinks too sweet, so I never get full sweetness and I don’t like my drinks getting diluted with too much ice. Plus, with less ice, that means more bbt right?

Ice Options: 0%, 80%, regular ,or 120% ice
Sugar Options: 0%, 30%, 50%, 80%, regular, or 120%

Of course they have a lot more drinks to choose from and different jellies and toppings to add inside.

Topping options:

Pearls
Grass Jelly
Pudding
Coconut Jelly
Coffee Jelly
Red Bean
Aloe Vera
Rainbow Jelly

You just need to add 50 cents for the toppings.

The drinks come in 2 sizes – large and regular. They also have hot drinks too. Who gets a regular when you can get a large for only 50 cents more.

Overall, great location and a decent number of seats. Most people do take out from what I’ve observed.

We rate Chatime Surrey:

Address:
10255 King George Boulevard, Surrey

Website: http://www.ichatime.com/

In Bakery

Fondway Cafe: Milk Tea and Cake

December 8, 2015

Fondway Cafe is the latest cafe to open up in South Burnaby right by Metrotown. It is literally a few steps away from the skytrain. They specialize in coffee, tea and asian-inspired pastries.

The space is quite nice with a lot of natural light coming in. Very hip.

They have a Chinese and English menu available. At first I grabbed their Chinese menu and had no idea what I was reading. I’m such an asian disgrace.

They have a pretty large collection of tea along one of their walls.

During peak hours, it’s pretty hard to find a seat. It’s getting quite popular.

Once you order and pay, you get a giant clip with your order number.

Milk tea with grass jelly is served in a super cute cup. The drink wasn’t too sweet, which was great. It tasted pretty awesome and it definitely rivals some of the best milk teas in town.

Cheesecake with burnt sugar on top was a dense type of cheesecake. Not too sweet which caters to the asian tastebuds.

My friends got their Okinawa milk tea and they though it was pretty good.

What more could you want? Girl talk, milk tea and cake. Best combination ever.

If you are a coffee lover, you may want to try some of their specialty coffee drinks like their cold brew on tap and their soda coffee.

Overall, I love the space and its a great place to chill with friends. You definitely have to grab a slice of cake and milk tea when you’re here.

We Rate Fondway Cafe:

Address:
4462 Beresford Street, Burnaby

Website:
http://fondway.ca/

In Bubble Tea

Chatime Burnaby: Long Lines, Incorrect Drinks

December 6, 2015

Chatime Burnaby finally opens up in the suburbs right on Kingsway and Royal Oak just steps away from Boiling Point. I’m a big fan of Chatime when they first opened a few locations around Metro Vancouver since their Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly is freaking amazing.

KoreanGirl and I came here after dinner to get our Chatime fix and the line was half way out the door. We didn’t mind since there was nothing else to do for the day.

The interior is spacious with a good amount of seats, but most people were getting their drink to go. We waited in line for 20 minutes and it was quite strange how slow it moved. Soon, the line built up so it was almost out the door. Some customers walked in and immediately walked out cause it looked like chaos.

Getting closer to the counter, you could see the bottleneck was near the cashier area with their under trained staff. The cashier was confused by most orders and there always seemed like there were 3 people around the ordering counter trying to figure out the next drink to make. Clearly large communication issues really held up the line.

Once we put in our order, it was another 10 minutes for our drinks. They almost gave us someone else’s order but we made sure it was ours before we grabbed it.

My half sweet roasted milk tea with less ice was the most disgusting bubble tea I’ve had in a long time. The staff really rushed through the orders and didn’t take much care in making them.

My drink tasted overly sweet with lots of ice. I’ve had this drink over 10 times at various Chatime locations in Richmond and Vancouver and this was the first time it tasted terrible.

I had high hopes for this location, but there seems to be more kinks they need to work out with training staff to be more efficient and improve accuracy of orders. I came a week after opening, so I thought any little kinks would be sorted. Clearly not. I would avoid this location for the next little while. I left pretty angry and it ruined my entire night. I’m usually pretty chill about everything but when the service and product both suck…theres nothing you can be happy about.

We Rate Chatime Burnaby:

Address:
5216 Kingsway, Burnaby

Website:
http://www.ichatime.com/

In Bubble Tea

Chatime: Best Bubble Tea in Richmond

September 20, 2015

Chatime is a bubble tea cafe located all over the world. I remember seeing it in Asia when I was travelling a few years ago. They differentiate themselves from competition by using fresh tea. They don’t use pre-made teas or powdered flavourings.

I came with a few friends to their Richmond location near Blundell Road.

The space is quite large compared to their downtown location. There are more tables and chairs.

Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly is my favourite drink here. I get it with less ice and slight sugar. I’ve never had a bubble tea that I went this crazy for. It has a unique flavour that isn’t like your typical milk tea.

Brown Rice Green Milk Tea is my second favourite item. It has a very subtle flavour of rice. It reminds me of those Korean rice drinks. I also got less ice and slight sugar.

Thai Milk Tea is a new flavour they introduced at the beginning of September. It has a unique flavour and I also got it less sweet since it’s made with condensed milk, which is sweeter.

They also have a Thai Coffee Milk Tea, which is highly recommended with their coffee jelly.

Overall, if I had to have their roasted milk tea and brown rice green tea everyday of the week, I’ll be one happy lady. It’s been a long time since I’ve found a place that I just adore.

We Rate Chatime Richmond:

Address:
9100 Blundell Road, Richmond

Facebook:
http://www.ichatime.com/

In Bubble Tea

Cafe Eggstatic 雷亭: Birds Nest Bubble Tea

September 15, 2015

Cafe Eggstatic opened up in Crystal Mall in South Burnaby closer to the end of Summer. They serve up bubble teas and egg waffles. What has differentiated them from some other BBT shops is their use of the birds nest topping on their Summer specialty drinks.

Birds nest is typically found in Chinese cooking especially in soup and seen as a delicacy. It’s not the nest of the bird, but the solidified saliva. It is prized in Chinese culture due to their rarity, and supposedly high nutritional value and flavour.

Honey Green Milk Tea with Pearls ($3.50 +$0.50) came out quite sweet. We should have asked for half sweet. Good flavours, but too sweet.

Birds Nest Mango Slush Infused with Aloe Vera ($5.70) the bottom with the aloe vera chunks were very good.

The birds nest sits right on top and it really tastes like nothing, but that’s just my opinion. The strawberries were a nice addition to the drink as it adds color and it has a sour taste that paired well with the mango slush.

HK Style Bubble Waffle ($3.75) comes out quite crispy with a slight chewiness in the centre.

The batter is thin, so you get a lot of hallow space in the center. Not as filling as other bubble waffles. I still enjoyed it.

Overall, it’s a good place to get bubble waffles. Great texture and I enjoy the crispiness. The birds nest topping draws a lot of people here, but depends how traditional you are.

We Rate Cafe Eggstatic:

Address:
Crystal Mall
1021 – 4500 Kingsway, Burnaby

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/cafeeggstatic

In Bubble Tea

Cattle Cafe: Milk Tea and Noodles

September 3, 2015

Cattle Cafe on Kingsway moved a few stores from their original location. They are a Hong Kong style cafe that has a comfortable fast-casual dining experience. The Kingsway location is their flagship store as they a few more items that their other locations.

Beware, it’s cash only, so make sure you go visit an ATM ahead of time.

The new location has more seats and better decor.

Ice Bath Milk Tea ( Add $2 with meal or $3.99) has been trending in Asia and has finally come to Vancouver. Having the milk tea in an ice bath keeps the milk tea from being diluted. When it arrived at the table, I wished they put more ice into the bowl as it barely did anything. It only covered the bottom bit.

Iced Milk Tea (add $1 with meal) is the version with ice in the drink. It was good too and you can’t tell too much of the difference between the two milk teas. If you aren’t hardcore about your milk tea, save a dollar and get this version.

Signature Noodle Combo ($9.79) lets you choose your Soup Base/ Sauce, toppings and type of noodle. As well as a drink. My friend chose the Malay Laksa Soup with beef brisket and fish tofu. It comes with 2 toppings, but you can choose to add more for $1.59 each.

Pork Chop in Cream Onion Bacon Demi-Glace with Rice ($10.59) was good as well. My friend loved the tenderness of the pork and it was very juicy. She was impressed since she has never seen pork so tender like this before.

Mixed meat and fish balls with flat noodle seaweed soup ($9.79) was comforting on a cold day. It was pretty good with the flat noodles. Super filling and I enjoyed the subtle taste of the seaweed soup.

Overall, the meal was quite decent and it’s priced well. The new restaurant is great and has more of a modern feel to it. The service is still pretty average as its hard to get a servers attention.

We rate Cattle Cafe:

Address:
4877 Kingsway, Burnaby

Website:
http://www.cattlecafe.ca/

In Bubble Tea

Express Bubble Tea: Smoothies at Deep Cove

June 18, 2015

I’ve gotten into hiking in the last few weeks. Vancouver is just so beautiful that I need to soak up as much sun as possible before the rain comes back in the Fall. I can’t eat out all the time. I have to balance out all the eating somehow right? Deep Cove for the Quarry Rock hike is my favourite since it’s short and there’s a great view. It’s no Grouse Grind, but it will do for now.

We wanted to grab a juice or smoothie after the hike since we were thirsty and hot. Looking at the limited options at Deep Cove, we decided to check out Express Bubble Tea.

We saw that they sell fresh fruit smoothies, so we made this our stop.

They have a loyalty program, so you can see all the stamp cards on all their walls. I thought it was also weird how they were storing the fruit in the boxes on the floor.

Pineapple Strawberry smoothie ($5.49) wasn’t exactly fresh as they advertised. They did use real strawberries, but their pineapples were canned. You know, the ones that are preserved and dunked in syrup. I could taste the canned pineapple taste. It’s quite distinct to me since I hate them on pizza.

My friend ordered a Gyros Sandwich and they just microwave the meat to get it warmed up. I had a look of disgust on my face, but I felt like they were not pass a food safety test. He didn’t get sick, but it weirded me out.

My other friend got the peach and mango smoothie and requested no sugar to be added. The person at the shop didn’t listen and put in a few pumps of liquid sugar. Also, all her fruits were canned instead of the fresh fruit as advertised.

Perhaps I’ve grown to have higher standards for smoothies? I think I was just more mad that the fruit wasn’t 100% fresh for the smoothies.

We Rate Bubble Tea Express:

Address:
4377 Gallant Avenue,
North Vancouver

In Bubble Tea

Pearl Castle: Cotton Candy Drinks and Food

June 2, 2015

Pearl Castle‘s main location is in Continental Centre in Richmond. They also have 3 other locations throughout the Lower Mainland. Pearl Castle is a Taiwanese Cafe and they have won the Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner for ‘Best Taiwanese Restaurant’ year after year between 2010 and 2013.

I usually come to Pearl Castle late in the evening to grab a quick bite with friends and chat over some drinks. Ever since Deer Garden moved out from this complex, they have really been up-ing their game to expand their menu. I was invited by ChineseBites to try a variety of food and drinks off the menu, so just be warned, this isn’t a normal dining experience.

They offer a wide variety of tea-based beverages, slushes, bubble teas, and juices. They have added a few new drinks onto their menu recently and are launching their cotton candy beverages in mid June.

The group of us managed to sample (left to right):

Pudding Milk Tea
Coconut red bean
Peach lemon green tea
Green tea red bean
Traditional black tea with jelly noodle topping
Winter melon juice with jelly noodle topping
Green lattea
Fresh taro green milk tea
Roasted rice lattea

There’s also a Ferrero Rocher chocolate milkshake too.

I had the Roasted Rice Lattea all to myself. I really enjoyed it because you can just sip away at it and it’s not too sweet. You need to drink it with a cream on top. Without it, the drink is way too bland.

Young Girl’s Dream is a new drink launching mid June 2015. It has grenadine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. It looks really fun and exciting but it is on the sweeter side.

Blue sky has blue tangerine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. Similar to the Young Girl’s Dream, its fun but quite sweet. I’m sure you’ll have blue lips after drinking and eating the cotton candy.

Wonton with chili sauce was decent. The skin of it was slightly thicker and the pork inside could have been more dense as it fell apart easily.

Deep fried fish cake was pretty good. I’ve never had deep fried fish cake like this before. I find that Pearl Castle makes deep fried things super delicious. It comes with a seafood sauce and house special sauce, so make sure you dip the fish cake into it because its delicious.

Deep fried mushroom was another great item. You should also dip this into their seafood sauce or house special sauce.

Deep fried tofu comes with a side of kimchi and sauce. I just really love their deep fried food with the spices they put on top. I didn’t like the kimchi that came with it, it wasn’t very fresh.

Taiwanese Sausages comes in nice thin slices. A good dish for sharing with a few friends.

Pineapple shrimp fried rice is a new item on their menu. Yummy and you can’t go wrong with fried rice.

Kimchi seafood fried udon was more sour in taste that I would have liked. It was decent, but not the best one I’ve had.

Three cup chicken is an award winning dish from the 2015 Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner. The dish is served with 3 side dishes, rice and some cookies. These set meals will make you quite full. Good flavours, but it was a bit dry.

Marinated chicken with rice is another new item added to their menu. You have the chicken steal with some veggies and tofu. On the side, you have some cookies. It seems like all the set meals comes with cookies. These cookies will seem familiar because I’m pretty sure you’ve had them when you were a kid.

Milk seafood & pork hot pot is pretty darn good. I would definitely come back to have this again. It tastes like a savoury creamy soup rather than milk. It has a decent amount of seafood and pork.

Curry coconut seafood & pork hot pot is a new addition to the menu and it’s similar to the hot pot above, but it has curry and coconut flavours. Another good flavour combination, but I still prefer the milk version.

Garlic sauce chicken is similar to the three cup chicken dish, but with more garlic.

Fish Nuggets with Sour Sauce comes with the 3 side dishes and rice. Red chili peppers are hot, but it balances well with the fish nuggets.

Original Taiwanese beef noodle was surprisingly good. The beef was tender and the noodles were really enjoyable with a good texture.

Spicy incense pot is a new item on the menu and it is heated underneath to keep it warm. When they say spicy, it’s pretty spicy because of the red chili peppers. Watch out.

Marinated pork with rice is another new dish and it’s similar to the marinated chicken dish. The only difference is the protein.

Vegetarian abalone mushroom with three spices comes with rice and veggies. It’s not the most exciting dish, but if you’re a vegetarian, this may be for you.

We went through a lot of dishes for one dinner, so near the end, most of the dishes started tasting similar. We don’t normally have so many dishes come at the same time, so it was a marathon to taste everything unless a lot of the dishes contain the three spice powder. My favourite items are the hot pots.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Pearl Castle’s dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.

We Rate Pearl Castle:

Address:
Continental Centre
1128-3779 Sexsmith Road, Richmond

Website:
http://pearlcastle.com/en/

In Bubble Tea

Chatime: Bubble Tea in Downtown Vancouver

May 25, 2015

Chatime is a bubble tea cafe located all over the world. I remember seeing it in Asia when I was travelling a few years ago. They currently have 3 locations in Vancouver, and a few more across Canada. They differentiate themselves from competition by using fresh tea. They don’t use pre-made teas or powdered flavourings.

I was invited by ChineseBites to try some of their top Bubble Tea flavours.

The global franchise now has just over 1200 locations in 26 countries. They were founded in Taiwan.

I came here last Sunday and this place was buzzing. It was a hot day, so you can’t take us Asians away from our Bubble Tea.

Their regular menu is quite large, but these are their top 10 drinks. We got a chance to try a bunch of their drinks to see if they are really top 10 flavours.

Pearl Milk Tea
Grass Jelly Roasted Milk Tea
Taro Pudding Milk Tea
Brown Rice Green Milk Tea
Taiwan Mango QQ
Matcha Red Bean Milk Tea
Mango Smoothie
Red Bean Pearl Milk Tea
Matcha Tea Latte
Chocolate Mousse

What I like about the drinks is that it’s easily customizable and you know they won’t forget since they write it on the cup. They have 2 sizes of bubble teas, you can choose how much ice and sugar you want.

Ways to Customize your drink:

8 toppings available: pearls, grass jelly, coconut jelly, red bean, coffee jelly, aloe vera, rainbow jelly, pudding.
Ice level: regular, less, no ice
Sugar level: extra, regular, less, half, slight, no sugar

Pearl Milk Tea is a classic and there’s no denying that it hits the spot. I would actually go with no ice for this drink so you get a bit more milk tea. Plus, ice just dilutes the drink if you consume it too slowly. Also the ice gets in the way of sucking the pearls with your straw.

Grass Jelly Roasted Milk Tea is another favourite. Try getting no ice with the grass jelly because I had a hard time slurping up all the grass jelly.

Taro Milk Tea is another fan favourite. Instead of taro powder like most places out there, they use taro paste to create the drink. It drives me crazy when other places use powder.

Brown Rice Green Milk Tea was a surprising favourite. I would definitely order this again.

Matcha Red Bean Milk Tea has the layer of red bean on the bottom and then filled with matcha milk tea. I thought it was ok, but not my favourite.

Matcha Tea Latte looks pretty cool with the 2 different densities in liquid that gives it the two different colours. You definitely need to mix this before you drink to disperse the flavours.

Superior Milk Chocolate with pearls has a very strong chocolate taste. Great if you’re a chocolate lover.

Hawaiian Fruit Tea is nice and refreshing. Good if you’re not into milk.

Strawberry Au Lait was like a strawberry milkshake. Good, but could use half sweet.

We definitely consumed a lot of Bubble Teas as a group. They have different sizes, so it’s great if you don’t want a regular size.

Overall, it was good bubble tea in the area. It kicks Bubble World’s ass. I can never go to Bubble World again. Chatime is a good addition to the Downtown area on Robson Street.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Chatime drinks with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.

We Rate Chatime:

Address:
1274 Robson Street,
Vancouver

Website:
www.ichatime.com

In Bubble Tea

Uncle Lu 安可盧萬巒豬腳: Taiwanese Cafe in Richmond

March 18, 2015

Uncle Lu is a new café that opened last year in Richmond. They are a Taiwanese bubble tea café specializing in braised pork hock, noodle soups and bubble tea.

The restaurant has high ceilings and they also have a good amount of booth seating.

I’m pretty picky when it comes to bubble tea. So when we asked if they use powder in their bubble tea, they said no. But the waitress didn’t understand our question. Definitely lost in translation. After putting in our order, we saw them take out the large powdered containers and then we knew they use powder. We inquired with another waiter and he did confirm they only use powder since there’s not a lot of fruit in season during winter.

Royal Milk Tea ($4.75) was alright. It did have quite a bit of foam at the top.

Mango Slush with pearls ($4.75) is a nice refreshing drink when it’s hot outside. Great for summer.

Deep Fried Peppery Chicken with Basil ($6.75) is a good snack. Good for sharing too. Nice crunchy exterior with juicy tender meat inside.

Braised Pork Hock is marinated in soy sauce and comes with a potent garlic sauce. Certain parts are quite fatty so we just avoided those parts.

Five Spice Beef Wrap ($5.95) comes chopped up into 5 pieces. Good flavour of the five spiced beef.

Taiwanese Style Grilled Steak ($10.95) comes on a hot skillet with noodles, veggies and egg. I found the dish quite bland even-though it comes with a peppery sauce. I prefer the skillets at Strike.

Overall, the food was ok, but I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps it was because we ordered pretty typical items that would be found at most Taiwanese Cafes.

We Rate Uncle Lu:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

In Bubble Tea

Mango Yummy: From Night Market to Store Front

December 1, 2014

Mango Yummy finally has a store front in Richmond. They may sound very familiar because they have stalls at the Richmond Night Market and the International Summer Night Market. Their store opened in October 2014 and serve up yummy asian desserts.

Of course anything with mango is super delicious. I came here with Food Queen, Dee and Nat from Gastrofork to catch up over yummy drinks.

It is located across from Richmond Center and has their own parking lot with free parking.

Their interior isn’t too large, but they have about 25 seats. We came here around 5:30pm, so it wasn’t too busy.

Mango Drinks, Red Bean Drinks, Shaved Ice, Fresh Tofu Drinks, Milk Tea, and Green Teas.

Lemonade, smoothies, fresh fruit slush, tea, ice cream floats, toast, crepes, and desserts.

They also have a variety of hot sweet soups. There’s only a handful of places in Richmond where you can find a good selection of these sweet soups. Mmmmmm Mmmmmm….

Signature Mango Sago Grapefruit ($6) is their popular drink and it has everything you need to satisfy your mango cravings.

Tofu Mango Sago and Grapefruit ($7) I got this tofu dessert and it is quite similar to the signature drink above but with a lot of tofu. I love tofu and I could drink this all day. I totally could have ordered a few more.

Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice ($7) has a bit over everything like lychee, berries, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapples, etc. It is even topped with vanilla ice cream.

Mango Slush ($5) can’t go wrong with this.

The winter is definitely getting colder, but your sweet tooth still needs to be satisfied with yummy mango desserts.

We Rate Mango Yummy:

Address:
6564 Number 3 Rd
Richmond, BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mangoyummy/

In Bubble Tea

Milk & Sugar Cafe: $2 Bubble Tea Special

October 4, 2014

Milk and Sugar Cafe is located on Kingsway near Joyce. They are best known for their $2 bubble tea specials and $3 all day breakfast. You really can’t go wrong with those prices. They usually have 3 different kinds of bubble tea on special.

When KoreanGirl and I came here, we didn’t particularly like any of the flavours, as they were cheesecake, slushes, and oreo ice cream flavours.

Avocado Mango Fresh Fruit Bubble Tea (Large $4.25) it was a strong combination but I wanted to try it for fun. I love both fruits, so I didn’t mind it at all. It was dominated by more of the avocado taste.

Lychee Green Tea with Mango Stars was what KoreanGirl ordered.

Their food menu is limited, but it’s all under $5.

Condensed Milk Toast with Ice Cream ($3.50) it took a long time for this to be made. It was a busy day and they only had 2 people working here. We didn’t mind as we had our bubble tea to occupy our time. We loved the toast but though the ice cream was a bit too much, so next time we will probably order it without ice cream.

Overall, decent place with good prices. The interior isn’t that pretty, but it will do.

We Rate Milk & Sugar Cafe:

Address:
101-3365 Kingsway
Vancouver BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/milkandsugarcafe

In Bubble Tea

Shang Noodle House 尚麵館: Snack and Ramen

June 27, 2014

Shang Noodle House is a restaurant of the Kirin Group. We actually wanted to go to Kirin in the Starlight Casino location, but sadly their last call ended for Dim Sum, so our only option was to try Shang Noodle House. They share the same kitchen as Kirin, so you will find similar quality in food. I find the food items a strange mix of Hong Kong Style Cafe and Japanese Ramen Shop.

The interior is nice and has a lot of seating. As it was around 2pm, this place was pretty empty.

Mango Calpis ($3.50) was what a few of us ordered and it comes in the big bubble tea cups.

Steamed Shanghai Pork Dumplings ($4.58) comes with 4 pieces. The quality was ok, but still isn’t as addictive as Dinesty or Din Tai Fung.

Deep Fried Crispy Tofu ($4.28) has a lot of pieces for the order. Great for sharing.

Slider of Sliced Braised Beef Shank with Pan Fried Onion ($4.28) comes with the 2 sliders. It’s deliciously crispy on the outside.

Sliced Braised Beef Shank ($6.88) has 12 pieces and another great dish to share.

Roasted Pork Belly ($6.88) is yummy! The skin is very crispy and it’s dripping with flavour.

Malaysian-style Traditional Ramen with Chicken, Prawn and Squid in Spicy Laksa Soup ($9.88) was a huge bowl, but the overall taste was nothing like ramen or laksa.

Deep Fried Chicken Fillet Japanese Ramen in Pork Broth ($9.88) was what M ordered and it was good that all the fried items came on a separate dish so it does not get soggy in the ramen.

M had similar comments with the ramen not even close to being Japanese style. It was a still a big decent bowl of noodles.

Traditional Ramen with Spicy Meat Sauce ($7.88) had large portions too.

We found all the snacks to be great value and tasted really good. When we had the noodles, it was pretty unimpressive. I would stay away from the noodles and share a bunch of snacks…kinda like dim sum style.

We Rate Shang Noodle House:

Address:
350 Gifford Street
New Westminster BC

Website:
http://www.shangnoodlehouse.com/

In Bubble Tea

Blossom Teas: Hidden in North Burnaby

May 21, 2014

There’s a new cafe in town! North Burnaby finally has another cafe that offers bubble tea and desserts. It’s right beside Mountain Shadow Pub. Years ago, this used to be a parking lots, but they have since built town homes and retail spaces.

Blossom Teas opened last year and they serve up Chinese style desserts. It’s quite unexpected here, but it’s a nice surprise because you would never expect this place to be here.

The interior is a bit small, so there really isn’t a lot of space for large groups. I did notice a lot of people were doing take out.

This is the drink menu and they have hot drinks, cold drinks, coffee, tea, etc.

Here are a few more dessert items. There’s a lot more, but I didn’t take photos of.

A cool feature is the darts area! Imagine sipping on bubble tea and watching your friend duke it out at darts.

New York style Cheesecake with a berry compote ($4.99) has the graham cracker crust with the cheesecake filling. Delicious and smooth.

Egg Pudding ($1.90) comes in a small container, but it was just the right amount.

Matcha Shake with mochi ($5.50) was quite large! The mochi on top was very soft. Pretty good matcha shake.

Large Super Mango Shaved Ice ($7.85) tasted pretty average. The mango chunks were room temperature, so it really clashed with the temperature of this dish since the shaved ice and ice cream were really cold.