Axia Restro Bar Cafe and Bubble Tease review

photo credits: www.gtarestaurantguide.com

Axia (located at Pacific Mall) has been one of the first Korean/Japanese restaurants I have ever visited (back when I was a kid). It was one of the first Korean/Japanese restaurants which opened in the Markham area.

I remember the craze everyone had when it first opened. This was the first place where I had my first bubble tea... visiting this place was cool when I was kid. (well... visiting Pacific Mall "P Mall" was fascinating to begin with :P).

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to return to this place... and seriously, it was no disappointment... I was really impressed with their bubble tea. I'm not sure if Bubble Tease took over or if it was always Bubble Tease.

I really appreciated how they had a Japanese open style kitchen so that I can see how my food was being prepared.

what I ordered and how it looks

Tempura Cheese cake - $4.99

Description:

• Tempura-ed a plain Cheese Cake
• sided with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Syrup and Strawberry Syrup

Impressions:

• hard
• tasty
• ice cream made the 

Matcha Aloe

Matcha Aloe -  $3.60 (teaser size)

Description

• Matcha milk + iced tea w/ aloe vera

Impressions:

• very good Matcha combo
• lots of Aloe Vera bits

I really like Matcha... but sometimes, I feel that bubble tea shops either overdo or under-do the flavour... so I was a bit skeptical when I ordered this drink. To my surprised... It was really good! The Matcha was very smooth and texture was perfect! Absolutely love this drink!

Tropical Dream

Tropical Dream - $5.10 (teaser size)

Description:

• Coconut ceylon slush w/ starmango jelly

Impressions:

• has a very strong coconut slush
• not a very strong Ceylon taste
• slightly too sweet
• lots of starmango jelly

I got this second bubble tea because the server told me that if I ordered a second one the one with lower price will be 50% off... since the first one tasted so good, I decided to get a second one.

Since the Matcha was so good, I had high hopes for this drink. The find the coconut taste to be very strong, in fact, too strong that I could not taste the Ceylon tea at all!... There was a lot of star mango jelly to enhance the taste... but... I found this drink to be a bit too sweet... 

Environment:

The servers were also very attentive and nice, they were also very helpful. I really liked the environment, the way the tables were set up, I felt like I had enough privacy.

Score: 9.5/10

Website: no website

日出茶太 Chatime review

Brewed Oolong Milk Tea with Pudding

Chatime... Global Brand with Local Flavour

Recently, the talk of town is "Chatime"!
Whenever it's after dinner... "let's go Chatime"
or After a movie "let's go to Chatime"
or to talk "let's talk at Chatime"

How can I ignore such a significant place? I have learned that they have already opened 2 tearooms in Toronto and from what I heard, there will be more coming.

Upon arriving to the store, you will notice that there is a line... there is always a line, I passed by this place at least 5 times already and every time there is a line... the line moves quite quick, so don't be scared. Once you enter the shop, you will be invited by their sweet milk tea flavor scent. The atmosphere is very casual I would not recommend coming to this place if you are a party of more than 5, as there aren't a lot of seats. This place is not designed for you to stay for more than one hour, it is a drink and go place. (wait time is not too bad)

photo credits: http://www.yelp.ca/biz_photos/chatime-toronto#HsBHP3qunw96PhFP4spueA


Their drinks are more on the pricey side (approximately $5/bubble tea), it is worth it, but still considered pricey (especially when you aren't served, you just get a take out cup, and there is  but they can be quite pricey due to the uniqueness of their drinks menu. You can click here for their updated drink's menu. Quality is also a factor in their pricing, they do put powder in their drinks but you can taste a difference between their drinks compared to other places who fully rely on powder and other chemicals. The drinks here taste much more "natural" and "real"

I find it interesting how they have unusual additives to their drinks such as: Red Bean, Coffee Jelly, Grass Jelly, Aloe Vera and Pudding.  I was interested in the pudding and coffee Jelly... I chose pudding in the end.

Another very interesting feature of this place is that you can choose how much "Sugar", "Ice" and "Topping" you would like to add to your drink. There is a range for example:

100% - normal sugar dose
70% - less sugar dose
0%  -  no sugar at all

(the same applies to their ice and topping)

I assume because it is located in downtown, they only service "take out" so you can only get your drinks in a take away/out cup.

Additional information:
if you would like to access their free WiFi, the password is their phone number

Overall, I like this place, not so much the atmosphere (it is too loud and not "comfortable" enough, since they call themselves a tearoom I would expect a more "tearoom" environment (unless of course there is a lost in translation? I'll give them the benefit of the doubt)). I like their unique drinks and quality so I guess I will be coming here again.

rating: 4.5/5

website: http://www.ichatime.com.tw/index.php

Green Grotto Tea Room at McNicoll - hot tea edition review

To see the review of this cafe in general please click here. 

After my good experiences at Green Grotto at McNicoll, I have became a frequent visitor of this place. At this particular visit, I was going to stay a bit longer than usual because I had some translation work to do with a friend, we both agreed that getting hot teas was a better choice on a cold Spring day, and we wanted something that was healthier. We ended up getting two pots of hot teas. What was good is that they also offered us complimentary popcorn (I guess you can tell I am a big fan of popcorn).

So for a little recap, Green Grotto is a relaxing tea room which offers a variety of drinks and some snacks. Similar to "traditional" cafes they have Asian magazines and their space is the perfect environment to sit, chat, complimentary wifi. You can just go there to chill after a long days work.

Due to bad experiences at other bubble tea places, I tend to avoid getting "hot" drinks because even with the unlimited refills they offer, the tea is not worth it, as they put so little "dry leaves/flowers" so the tea doesn't even have taste after the 3rd refill. HOWEVER, I was almost shocked and am so glad it is not the case for Green Grotto, they literally load up your teapot filter with the dry stuff... so after filling up my teapot for the 5th time, my tea still tasted as rich as the first cup. I highly recommend you getting teas which are mixed with different things rather than just one basic thing. My friend got Longan + Osmanthus and I got plain Osmanthus. I was actually quite happy with my tea till I tried my friend's, since it was much tastier and sweeter.

As you can imagine, we were there for quite a while (when you translate stuff, time literally flies). So after staying there for almost 5 hours, we were hungry! We ordered a Sesame filled pancake (at first we thought it would be like crepes or PANCAKES but turns out it was the Chinese dessert "pancake" type). It was quite tasty, and the filling was good!

If you are looking for a place to do some "simple work" (don't abuse it by staying there for 10 hours cramming for an exam ;P, just kidding), I highly recommend this place, the people there are friendly, the customers are polite and aren't distracting.

EDIT
my friend asked me about hours of this place, so I thought I would post them here (forgot to ask them about opening time... I think it is around 1PM each day):
closing time:
Sunday - Thursday: 12:00AM
Friday - Saturday: 1:00AM

Green Grotto at McNicoll review - cold drinks edition

I have always been a fan of bubble tea cafes because you can enjoy various types of drinks (which range from green teas, black teas, red teas, coffee, fruit juices, etc) and like most "traditional" cafes they usually provide magazines and a perfect environment to sit, chat, surf web (most places provide free wifi) and just relax.

I have recently been acquainted to Green Grotto which is located at McNicoll and Midland Road. Like most Green Grotto's I have been to, the place is small and cozy. But unlike most Green Grotto's I have been to (and thank goodness!) it is not packed, so it is a lovely environment to hang out with friends and chat and relax.

One thing I like about Green Grotto is that they provide complementary free popcorn, it's nice to chew on something light while you are at a bubble tea place. Usually I am a fan of popcorn chicken, but sometimes, that can be too heavy if you just want to chill-ax with some friends after a heavy meal.

Overall, I think Green Grotto's drinks are well made, at this particular visit, I ordered Fuji Apple Yogurt while my friend ordered Green Apple Yogurt (a frequent visitor of this place recommended their yogurt drinks so we decided to order that). It tasted quite good, it wasn't too sweet or sour just easy to drink.

If you are looking for a place to go for your next friend reunion or simply just a place to sit down and chat, this is the place for you!

To see the review for "hot tea drinks" at Green Grotto please click here

EDIT
my friend asked me about hours of this place, so I thought I would post them here (forgot to ask them about opening time... I think it is around 1PM each day):
closing time:
Sunday - Thursday: 12:00AM
Friday - Saturday: 1:00AM

Go For Tea Tea Room Review

Make a wish! There are stars in the sky! No, they are actually light bulbs hanging from the ceiling of Go For Tea at the Scarborough location. But seriously, it is pretty... and it is huge, it is located at the center of the cafe (with the size of this place, calling it a cafe is a bit of an understatement). The place can seem like a maze for those who are visiting the place for the first time because 1. it is dim inside (I think you get the picture... from this picture... XD) and 2. whenever you turn a corner you can expect to barge into one of their larger tables (in rooms).

Go For Tea has earned a reputation for having better choices and prices than other bubble tea places, with it's decorations and interior design, it certainly attracts a lot of bubble tea-ers (and people who just want to look for an environment to chill)

As a frequent goer to this place, I enjoy it's popcorn chicken, I think it is one of the best I have ever had.

One of my friends once said that if you want a better deal, you should pay the extra $1 to make your drink large, because their large sizes is almost double the size of their regular size drinks.

However, the downside of this place, due to its popularity, you would have to wait to get seats even on weeknights.