Shiny Tea

March 5, 2016March 5, 2016Leave a comment

Shiny Tea opened up shortly after the new addition to Aberdeen Centre, called Aberdeen Square, finished renovations. It’s actually really close to the Canada Line skytrain connector. I heard a lot about their tiny white pearls so I finally decided to come check it out.

On a Sunday afternoon around 4pm, this place was PACKED. This is a take away only location and the lineup to order was massive. There were also tons of people waiting for their drinks when we arrived.

They have an extensive list of drinks and many choices if you enjoy tea flavours. They claim that they are authorized by the inventor of Taiwanese’s tapioca milk tea. Prices are around the same as Chatime and they offer large and medium sizes.

Panda Milk Tea

We both got the Panda Milk Tea as it features a mix of small white pearls and regular sized black pearls. You are able to customize your drink by sugar and ice level, just like Chatime. We went for 50% sugar level and found that it was barely sweet, whereas if we got 50% at Chatime, it would still be very sweet. I would suggest getting 25% less sugar then if you want your drink to still be a little sweet. We found that the small white pearls were really just sago which you find when you order mango sago desserts. Therefore, I didn’t find it that special. Plus, they are so small so I found that I swallowed them without chewing which probably isn’t very good for you… Anyways, their milk tea is quite smooth and you can smell the brew of tea all around the surroundings. Still, I think I prefer Chatime’s roasted milk tea, but Shiny Tea is pretty good if you want bubble tea and you’re near Aberdeen. Overall, we waited 10 minutes in line to order and another 20 minutes for our drinks.

Pros:
– Great choice of tea flavoured drinks
– Choice of small and big pearls
– Able to customize sugar and ice level

Cons:
– Long waits to order and receive drink

Price Range: $5/person

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 3.5 Service: 3 Ambiance: N/A Parking: 2.5 Overall: 3.5

Chatime (Surrey) – ChineseBites Media Event

January 20, 2016January 17, 2016Leave a comment

NOTE: As part of the ChineseBites media event, all beverages were free, but all opinions are based on my own personal experience.

Chatime is expanding again! For all you Surrey peeps out there, no longer do you have to make the trip to the other locations for your fix of Chatime! The newest addition is in Whalley, right next to Surrey Central in a strip mall. I was invited by ChineseBites to their soft opening and was able to try any drinks I liked.

My favourite thing about Chatime is the ability to customize. You can choose the sugar and ice level. I find that most of their drinks are on the sweeter side, so 50% or less is the best. There are also many toppings to choose from and each topping is $0.50.

I brought K along to the event since we are both fans of Chatime. Our go-to item is always the Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly, but since we were able to get our drinks comped, we decided to be adventurous and try drinks we’ve never tried. The first was the Tieguanyin Tea Latte. The drink is divided into layers when you first receive it and after shaking it, you get sort of a milk tea. It’s much thicker than their normal milk tea though. The tieguanyin tea flavour really came through and is perfect for those who enjoy the tea itself. One of our new favourites.

We were curious about what the Oriental Beauty was all about, so we gave it a try and added aloe vera. It turned out to be a tea based drink and was rather sweet due to the aloe vera. We couldn’t figure out what kind of tea it was, but it’s definitely one of those Chinese teas. Quite refreshing actually.

K really enjoyed the Oolong Tea. We added rainbow jelly in it so it was a bit odd due to the sweetness. Also, the jelly is too big to go through the straw. The tea itself is very strong though so more on the bitter side. K loves bitterness of oolong tea so it was perfect for her.

The Matcha Mousse is topped with a thick layer of cream and tastes sort of like a frappucino but without all that crushed ice. Instead, there are just ice cubes at the bottom. I thought this was average as it was quite gritty. Strong matcha flavour though.

Our last cold drink we tried was the Jasmine Green Milk Tea with Grass Jelly. This is pretty good and I would order this again to change things up. The milk tea was smooth and had a nice jasmine tea fragrance to it. It was also my first time trying their hot drinks and we got the Roasted Milk Tea with Pearls. We asked for it to be warm instead of hot so that we could drink it right away. Plus, you don’t need to worry about sucking up the pearls and burning your tongue. This was great and lived up to their cold version! I would highly recommend getting this during the winter.

Overall, Chatime at the Surrey location did not disappoint. Pearls are still on point with a nice chew and not overly sweet. Drinks come in two sizes and most start at around $4.30. This location also has a decent amount of seats for you to enjoy your drinks.

Check out my prior reviews from my visits at the Broadway location: Visit #1 and Visit #2

Strike 破店 (Richmond)

May 25, 2015Leave a comment

Beef Rolls

Strike has been around since forever, but I just never got the chance to try it. There are so many other bubble tea shops to choose from that I always forget to try Strike. Anyways, we decided to head there for an early dinner at around 5:00 pm. There were around two other tables of diners, but lots of staff already. However, the staff were all young teens and were chatting among themselves and completely ignored their customers. You really had to wave around to get the attention of them. Quite unprofessional. We started off with the Beef Rolls, which were probably one of the worst I’ve had. There was way too much dough and the dough wasn’t even crispy. The ratio to meat was also so little and there was barely any hoisin sauce.

Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets

Next up, we got S’s must order item: Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets. These were actually decent. They were crispy on the outside and moist inside. I also liked how they used the basil leaves to season the chicken. A dish I wouldn’t mind ordering again.

Taiwanese Sausage and Veggie Egg Fried Rice

Lastly, we got the Taiwanese Sausage and Veggie Egg Fried Rice. S found the rice to be a bit too moist and I didn’t really like the flavour of the Taiwanese sausage. I wouldn’t be ordering this in the future.

Overall, I was slightly disappointed with the food at Strike. Based on the items we ordered, nothing really wowed me and you could probably find the same quality of food at other restaurants.

Pros:
– Lots of seating

Cons:
– Service is lacking
– Food is just average or below average

Price Range: $10-15

1: Terrible 2: Poor 3: Average 4: Good 5: Excellent

Food: 2 Service: 2 Ambiance: 2.5 Parking: 3 Overall: 2