rev:text
| - My first impression of the place wasn't fantastic--while the food certainly looked delicious (the cafe, in fact, was quite populated with Asians, which means the food MUST be good), the bubble tea I ordered was not. I ordered a large plum bubble tea expected the refreshing taste of fresh plum and tea like the places in Chinatown Philly make it, but the drink ended up being really sour. They make their fruit teas/bubble teas with Asian-style preserved/dried salted fruit that can be purchased at Asian grocery stores in little plastic jars. It might be good to some other people, but it's not what I expected and I don't like dried salted fruit. I've had dried salted plum (exactly what this drink tasted like) before because my mom purchases it often but it's just not my thing.
Yesterday, though, a couple of friends and I ordered $25 worth of bubble tea and food (mostly bubble tea) and to my surprise after having a bad first experience, everything was awesome. The salt & pepper chicken my friend ordered came with Shanghai Bok Choy, something you definitely don't see in Asian take-out very often (usually come with broccoli or something). We ordered a honey bubble milk tea, original bubble milk tea, mango bubble tea, matcha red bean bubble milk tea, and kumquat bubble tea (which I ordered and should have figured that it would be made with dried preserved kumquat again). The matcha red bean milk tea was my favorite--the matcha milk tea flavor is very potent and refreshing, unlike many other places that serve matcha milk tea that just tastes like straight up sugar and milk. This place will definitely be my go-to for bubble tea from now on (just not the fruit flavors) and I can't wait to try the smoothie version of the matcha red bean drink, and their taro smoothie.
Like a lot of people said, they have a $15 minimum for card. It really sucks, but luckily the first time I went and didn't have cash on me, they cashier was really nice and understanding and told me just to remember to have cash if I ever make purchases under $15.
Overall, I like this place in terms of their drinks, and $3.25-$4.25 for a bubble tea is not bad at all considering how much some other places charge for less flavorful drinks of lower quality. I'll have to try more of their food sometime.
|