Final Thoughts: 3.80/5
Soft 4 star today. This was a very simple and quick dessert/boba run. We went here after our dinner on a Sunday evening. Very quick. We went in, ordered our drinks, admired the walls and decorations they had, took pics for my review, and left. Decorations were very appropriate for the season, by the way. Nice way to end our evening today.
Dessert:
Asian Herbal Dessert: 3.9/5
This was the item I got today. It comes with combo herbal, goji, dried longan, snow mushroom, dried jujube, and white jelly. My favorite is the goji berry pieces. The drink itself just tastes like syrup. Very light on flavor. The sweetness appears to come from a combination of rock sugar and granulated sugar. Hmm...my preference in sweetness is perhaps after all of the ice has melted. The initial sip was overly sweet for me. All of these toppings are very refreshing and this is definitely something that I would like on a hot summer day. The different toppings provide nice flavor combinations and textures.
Longan Jelly Delight: 3.8/5
This dessert comes with longan, grass jelly, pandan jelly, basil seeds, palm seeds, and coconut juice. The coconut juice in this drink is nostalgic because it tastes exactly like the Asian grocery store bag of coconut juice with young coconut pieces. That combined with the toppings was quite good. The toppings itself were quite simple. Appears to be just a few jelly and longan pieces. Of note, this drink just states longan, so I'm assuming it's fresh longan. My drink stated to have dried longan. Both appeared to taste and feel the same to me. No complaint because both tasted good, but just a note of that.
Drink:
The Classic: Black Milk Tea with Boba: 3.8/5
Friends drink today that I tried for review purposes. Very simple and definitely a classic drink option. The black milk tea itself is quite light in flavor. The aroma of tea is present and I get that initial waft, but the flavor of it is very subtle overall. My preference would be to have a stronger tea flavor. Even though the flavor seems light, the balance of milk and tea is quite nice. Most of the flavor and taste that I get is from the boba. I felt that boba was very chewy without any bite to it. Personally, I'm not too picky with the boba it is notably underwhelming. The flavor was there, but the texture component just slightly threw me off.
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Quality: Difficult to assess
Slightly difficult for me to assess their quality given that they items appear rehydrated or from a can. Not much of the ingredients in my dessert will be made in-house. I will say that I did enjoy my drink overall though; just difficult to assess.
Price: Depends how you look at it; $$ - $$$
They are really not messing around with the size of their drinks. For the price of $9.30, I was able to get quite the large cup. While I can't say this is inexpensive, the cup size does help me feel better about almost spending $10 for this drink. Now, if you think about the ingredients, the price does push it a little for me. Some of these items are ones that you can just get in a can or bag, which means that it leans on being less expensive. Hmm...but perhaps this is how they can make a profit here.
Service: Sweet and simple
Very short interaction with the cashier. I saw him sitting down from outside, but he stood up as soon as we entered the store, which is a nice gesture. We're an indecisive bunch and he was just waiting patiently for us to decide on our drinks. We were able to quickly order our drinks and then get them shortly after. They just call out the drink's number once they're ready.
Ambiance: Warm and very festive for the holiday season
Very quaint little shop. There are a few tables spaced out inside. I like the wall paintings they have around the walls. Seems like a very warm and cozy place, contrary to the location outside on an autumn evening. I was able to find a nice spot and background to take the pictures. Their marble tables are also quite nice for the picture aesthetics.
Location/Parking: Not the best location; spacious parking lot
This spot is located on Tully and Quimby Road. This plaza is where Party City is and is typically empty, unfortunately. Honestly, the location for this is perhaps not the best. I really think this spot might thrive in a place like Vietnam Town given their Vietnamese dessert menu items in general. For the parking, I definitely don't think that it's going to be a problem for anyone because the space is very large. There are only a row of stores around here, but there are a lot of parking spaces. Unless there's perhaps a huge event happing in this plaza, I don't see parking being a concern for most of the time. read more