True’s Tea

I don’t understand how half of their employees who serve customers DONT SPEAK ENGLISH!!! how in the world do you expect to get customers orders. NOT EVERYONE SPEAKS CHINESE in an ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY. Food is completely overpriced for a completely crappy service and employees. And are employees really incapable of being able to see if cutlery or plate is dirty or clean before giving customers a new set after telling them their original one is dirty??? Unbelievable. I’ve been here many times thinking this place has changed but not one bit.

My friend ordered a drink that was made way below par. When sent back as a complaint, we saw that everyone in the back tried it! The waitress also tried to return the same drink (the one that everyone tried) back to us saying that was how the drink was supposed to taste like. I don’t believe that we asked for our drink with a side of attitude. Would not be recommending to anyone.

It’s pretty surprising that I haven’t reviewed about True’s Tea, especially when I tried their food more than 20 times. I’m pretty sure I get their delivery service at least twice a month. Maybe because we always order the same dishes over and over again, I wasn’t eager to blog about this place. Anyways, I decided to write a review about this place since we got some NEW dishes today (other than chicken nuggets and pork dishes…)
Shredded Pork with Bamboo Shoots ($ 12.95) wasn’t my favourite but J’s favourite. It was a pretty light dish with a hint of spice. I liked that bamboo shoots didn’t have a strong flavour.
Sorry for a blurry picture. We already waited for 1.5 hour so I just wanted to take a picture very quickly and eat… Anyways. back to food, as the name indicates, Sweet Chicken ($ 12.95 for Medium) was pretty sweet. I loved its unique sweetness which was blended well with a hint of anise basil. It had a good amount of meat and lots of garlic inside.
Green Onion Pan Cake with Egg ($ 5.95) was alright, but could be better. Green onion pan cakes are rolled with a thin layer of cooked egg.
I also had a Chocolate Slush ($ 4.95), and it actually tasted better than the Oreo Slush and Japanese Green Tea w/​Red Bean Slush that I used to get.
I don’t have all the pictures I’ve tried so far but here are some information:
Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets ($ 6.95): Has been always good. Can’t be wrong when chicken is deep-​fried to be honest.
Marinated Pork Intestine ($ 5.95): Way too smelly. Bad quality. The first time I tried about a year ago was alright, but since after that this typical dish is getting worse. We don’t get it anymore.
Fried Pork Intestine ($ 5.25): Better than marinated ones.
Assorted Marinated ($ 10.95): Can be good for drinking snacks. I kinda liked it.
Pork Chop in Black Pepper Sauce ($ 12.95): I always get this one for dinner. This dish is very oily so you definitely need some rice and spicy side dish. If you order Pork Chop in Black Pepper Sauce w/​Rice under Special Combo Rice section it only costs you $ 9.95.
Chocolate with Condensed Milk Toast ($ 4.50): Worst dessert ever.
Club Sandwich ($ 8.50): Came with some fries. Wasn’t a good idea for delivery food as the bread got all soggy.
Beef with Stir Fried Rice Noodle ($ 9.95): 2.5÷5.0. This dish was lacking some meat and flavours.
Overall, True’s Tea’s food is not toooo bad, but I wouldn’t say it’s good. It’s funny that we keep ordering food from them regardless of how bad their service has been in the past. It’s because they have a late-​night delivery service with lots of food choices. Delivery hours sometimes get really really bad, as like today it took more than 1.5 hour to get our food — any notifications received from the restaurant regarding delays. If you are really hungry, it’d be not the best option to order delivery food from True’s Tea, as you get your food way faster if you go out and eat.
PROS
+ Free delivery service (minimum order $ 20)
+ Opens until late
+ Lots of food options (desserts, bubble tea, sandwich, Chinese snacks, rice, noodles etc)
CONS
— Service is consistently bad
— Takes at least 1.2 hours to get your food (delivery)
— Food is average but sometimes it gets really bad
RATING
Food 2.5÷5.0
Ambience 2.5÷5.0
Service 1.0÷5.0
Price $
Address: #180−8400 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC
Phone Number: 604−207−8469
Hours of Operation:
Sunday to Thursday 11:30am-2am
Friday & Saturday 11:30am-3am
**Delivery service 5:30pm-12:30am

This is the one time I wish that I had an Iphone so that I could look up reviews in real time. I came here ’cause they were open late, however, that doesn’t mean that they’re the best option in town per se. I couldn’t even stomach what I ate. Customer service was terrible. I waited 45 minutes for my dish. I tried to work on my zine but I got no wifi signal. Complete waste of time. Be careful at the machine ’cause they try and add the tip. The lady seemed offended when I asked her to make it $ 0. I explained to here why it was $ 0.

*BE AWARE* No service, Mediocre food and much too sweet drinks. They will ask you for tips !! (default 15% on card machines)
We went there to eat while play darts there. We each ordered an item to meet the minimum order per person. When we were paying for the bill, we left the change on the bill plate. There was no service at all. I had to go to the counter to ask for ice water, (they put it on the counter, didn’t even bring it to the table) The «Manager» asked us after he saw the changes: «did you leave these for tips? if so, take it back, we don’t need this kind of tip» … HOW DARE YOU ask for tips when you provide NO service, NO value, and giving your customer attitude like this and expect to get tips??? NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN!

Service was terrible, I have to state that first. My friends and I were there past midnight and the mood was slow, the worker was quite nice at first telling us our order would be quick since there weren’t many people. We waited for half an hour and the order still didn’t come, we called the waitress that took our order but she ignored us, we asked the other waitress and she said the chefs were only just starting to make the order! After another half an hour we called the waitress over again, we waved at her and she ignored us, what kind of service is that? We had to call both the waitresses a few times so we can cancel the order, one of the waitress’s said, «sorry, the chef didn’t see the order» and the other after 1 minute brought out the food and it still wasn’t completely ready! It also took them 25 minutes to get our bill ready, I strongly suggest people who want to go here to pick another place.

Well I admit the initial impression this restaurant gives is quite intimidating. However, I was only there for take-​out bubble tea so I didn’t experience any of the service issues other Unilocalers have. Overall I thought the drinks were alright. I got the coffee milk tea and a red bean flavoured bubble tea. Both were a little too sweet for my liking, and took quite awhile to make. But then again, it was rush hour when I went, so guess I can’t really blame them. Their menu looks like any other taiwanese restaurant in Richmond, so I guess it’s just a place I would go to if I’m in the area.

Stay away!!! Worst service, slow, bubble tea is small and taste terrible. Honestly we were there for the darts… stay away. They have the decency to charge us 15% tip when half of the drinks didn’t even show up or get made…

I arrived a little before 230am on Saturday. and once I walked in, the server said sorry we are closed… I thought they close at 3am on Saturday’s… Turn off the open sign and change your open hours if you want to close early… The waiter was really rude …

It took about 30 minutes for the server to come after we were seated. Drinks and food were decent (so they get 2 stars for that). After we got our food the server never came by again to check on us. About an hour passed and we had to flag down another server to get the bill. He told us to go to the front desk where we had to line-​up for another 20 minutes just to pay for our bill. They really need to find a way to speed up their service…

Takes about 100,000 years for a server to come and do their job. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ drinks though.

So it looks like they cranked the prices for almost all items by $ 1 – 2. Stickers over all of the older prices. Add this to their mediocre-​to-​not-​so-​good food quality, and I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon.

I’m half-​Taiwanese and having been to Taiwan a handful of times I have a good barometer for what is considered good and bad Taiwanese food. Without a doubt, this place qualifies as bad. From when you enter, you’re greeted by a server who is Mainland Chinese, which isn’t to say is not allowed, but sure isn’t helping the Taiwanese-​cred of the place. The service is slow considering we (2) were the only people in the gigantic place. The drinks were alright, acceptable. The yan su ji (salty peppery chicken) was pretty good, but really, how can you possiblly screw up deep frying chicken? The dishes we got were the hong shao niu lan dan bao fan (braised beef rice omelette) for a whopping $ 10.95 and the pai gu mian (pork chop with noodle soup) for $ 8.95. The taste of the rice dish was nowhere near it’s supposed to be. I dont think i can really describe what «hong shao» tastes like but this dish tasted very tomato-​y and not at all accurate. The beef looked as if it was boiled in water rather than stewed in sauce. The rice was stirfried in ketchup… whatever, not even going to go there. Onto the noodles. The zha zhu pai (pork chop) was fine, but again, how do you screw that up? The soup tasted like it was straight out of a packet of instant noodles. and although the noodles were in fact authentic Taiwanese styled yang chun mian (type of thin noodles), they were cooked to a mush. The few pieces of shang hai bai cai did what they could. So overall, the bill came to about $ 45 after tax and tip. I even had a groupon that knocked off $ 15. So not worth it. I usually stay away from Taiwanese food outside of Taiwan but I thought, «hey, for this price.(groupon) you can’t really go wrong». How wrong I was.
If you must go for Taiwanese food in Vancouver, do yourself a favour and AVOID True’s Tea at all costs. Instead, go to Pearl Castle at either location (Richmond Centre or Continental Plaza). Their service is better and drinks and food are of higher quality.

Tried the hotpot, yummy… Like the Asian modern style, cute girls and cool boys hanging around. Busy place, Heard it’s super popular in Richmond.
Slush is good, bbt a little sweet for me but still good.
Recommend to hang out with friends.

Bubble tea is good. Usually denser and less watery than many places in Richmond. Not as good as Bubble Queen, though.
Food however, can’t speak too highly of it. I usually get a fried rice or noodle dish… always find it rather bland and theres never any meat, just a lot of carbohydrates! Cozy restaurant that’s always filled with card players, internet surfers and the «chillers».
They have plenty of food, appetizers and drinks. You can never run out of options, seriously.
Service is ok, a bit on the lack-​luster side… but then again my Chinese is limited so more often than not I use English.

We were driving down «eat street» in search of dessert late on a Sunday night and happened across True’s Tea. A server showed up pretty quickly to seat us when we pressed the bell for service, but that was the fastest service we would get all night.
After being seated for a long time, nobody came to take our order, so we had to flag someone down. There were at least three servers milling around the bar area, and they all seemed to be chatting.
When a server finally showed up for our order, he told us he didn’t speak English. Shock. Their menu is in Chinese and English, by the way. Thankfully, we all had a proficient grasp of Mandarin to place a food and drink order.
Our drinks were not quick on arriving and the server practically ran away after muttering the drink names. The food was a bit slower still on arriving and the extra scrambled egg we added to our omelette + rice dish was almost non-​existent. There was also a curious mix of vegetables in the rice and an exorbitant amount of ketchup on top. Overall, the prices seemed pretty standard for these types of late night bubble tea establishments, but the quality was only so-​so.
Again, it required a bit of effort to get anyone’s attention for the bill, and the whole process of packing our food, taking our money, and giving us our change, took way longer than what is acceptable.
Bottom line: only go to True’s Tea if you don’t mind excruciatingly slow service and/​or have all the time in the world to waste.

What once used to be ESTEA is now TRUE’STEA. Hmm. The meme «I see what you did there» would be appropriate for the owners. Do you see ESTEA in truE’STEA? Having said that, the windows still say Estea, and so do their plates. Menu is still the same as well (in terms of food). They spiced up their interior a bit — it’s more of a Hong Kong feel with a few private rooms complete with an MJ set. There’s also a stage for any people wanting to spontaneously, and is brave enough, to serenade other diners AKA karaōke. The atmosphere is still as loud as ever, but somehow it feels more homey than Estea. They still have the Korean style service bells stuck on the tables so you don’t have to spend eons of time attempting to flag down a waitress.
Wonton in Chili Sauce — $ 6.95 (⁵⁄₇)
For those of you who can handle spice — this isn’t really THAT spicy, but if you don’t do spice — beware. Okay, it’s not THAT bad (for you non spice eaters), but the spice does linger and you will eventually need to drown out the spice with your bubble tea, so be sure to get a milk based drink! The sauce in general is just meh. We’ve had better, but then again, you can’t go wrong with wonton’s.
Fried Fish Cake — $ 5.50 (⁵⁄₇)
This was bland. Very bland. It’s a good thing it came with some chili sauce. The spiciness burnt our mouths/​tongues but it was worth it. For you bland food lovers, this is the dish for you.
Fried Chicken Cartilage — $ 6.25 (⁷⁄₇)
This was absolutely delicious! Fried perfectly, it wasn’t oily at all. Infused with the scents of garlic and onion, it was the perfect combination. A friend of ours doesn’t normally like garlic or onions, but she devoured this dish! Garlic and onion bits included. Be careful of the diced peppers though, they’re dangerously spicy and enough to numb your taste buds for the night. This was our favourite dish of the three and we would definitely order this again! Highly recommended!
Pudding Milk Tea — $ 4.45 (⁴⁄₇)
This is one of the must-​get items at a bubble tea restaurant, to determine if they’re any good or not. One of them items where it is hard to mess up. They messed it up. Actually, not really mess up, per se, it just wasn’t up to par. As with all bubble tea places, they have an extensive list of drinks to get. This should probably be avoided at this restaurant.
Sesame Milk Tea — $ 4.45 (⁴⁄₇)
Again, this is a pass. As shown in the picture, the sesame all anchored down to the bottom, so if you didn’t stir it, it’d be like drinking a milk tea with lots of black sand. If you held the straw mid way up the cup and drank it without sipping any of the sesame, it’d be like drinking a regular milk tea but less sweet. Perhaps this is how sesame milk tea is always made? Regardless, there are other delicious ways to get your black sesame fix, and this is not one of them. This will be a pass.
Will we come back? Sure, to try other items. We wouldn’t say this restaurant is a total fail. They’re getting somewhere. slowly, but surely. They deserve a few more chances, and with their overwhelming options for food, we’re bound to find a few favourites, with the fried chicken cartilage being one. With so many other bubble tea places in and around Richmond, this would definitely not be up top with the others, however, if you’re looking for a new place to try, this wouldn’t be a bad choice. Free parking in the plaza is ample, and if the lot fills up, there’s always paid parking.
Ratings:
Food: ⁵⁄₇
Value: ⁵⁄₇
Service: ⁶⁄₇

ZERO STARS.
For below average bubble tea in Richmond, I don’t think anyone should put up with:
1. Poor Service — the waitresses really hate their jobs, it says so on their faces
2. Long wait time — there’s no hostess, you have to ring a bell even if the store is empty
The only reason anyone should come here is to use their private Mah Jong rooms, with automatic shuffling tables. There were a few tables playing poker and other board games, with occupants seated there for hours.
Would not return.

Food-​wise, it’s like any other bbt, as i’m no expert here but can say it’s always a fun vibe here, lots of eye candy from HK, Taiwan, and mainlanders, rarely have to wait as it’s just humungous here…
cool little electronic gadgets to wave down a server…
and a private room for MJ…
Highly recommended dish is the fish hotpot, quite yummy and pleasantly surprising for a bbt…

As Edward L. pointed out, this place used to be where Estea was, I think it’s pretty much the same stuff besides from the «Tru» added to the name — not to mention the windows and take-​out menus still say Estea on it.
Upon entering this restaurant on a Saturday night, we were greeted with the thump of a DJ playing hip-​hop, which then provoked the loud chatter of laughing, talking people. I really dislike loud places, but we were able to sit in a both near the entrance, which was semi-​barricaded from all the noise and people.
Besides from the cover, the menu is the same as Estea in it’s generalized taiwanese food with rice, noodle, hot pot, sandwich, and fried snack choices. The drink menu is pretty extensive with choices of green, oolong, and milk tea, calpis, and soy drinks with additions of boba, coconut and grass jelly, pudding, etc…
I already ate so I decided to just have a bubble tea. As my usual venture to new bubble tea places, I must try their version of the Honey Milk Tea ($ 4.45) with pearls ($ 0.50). The milk tea was light yet had enough taste to be pleasant. I generally don’t like the overwhelming taste of honey, so this was perfect for me. The pearls were one of the best I had — super chewy and had a sweet taste to it. YUM!
My boyfriend ordered the Kung Pao Chicken ($ 7.95). His order even came faster than my bubble tea! Which had me thinking some of this stuff must have been pre-​made already. Regardless, his chicken was warm and tender, with enough spice to make him happy (which is a lot). The chicken was mixed with tiny hot peppers, green onions, and peanuts. The rice and side dishes (spicy cabbage and spicy preserved veggies) were decent too.
Overall it was a good meal, which was only possible due to the service button attached to the table. Estea was known for very bad service, so this button is a SAVIOR to slow, poor service. Our male server was nice and quick.
Note: If you have the old Estea VIP card, it still works here! And I agree with Edward L. again, it says Free Wifi is available, but the entire night I was unable to connect to it.