Soho Tea Room

This review is based on party trays we ordered and not on dining at the actual restaurant. We recently ordered food from Soho for my sister’s baby shower. We ordered a the party trays of baked spaghetti with meat sauce, Thai style chicken fried rice, Singapore fried vermicelli, and salt and pepper chicken. Food was excellent! The chicken was absolutely delicious. It was the first dish to be emptied on the table! It comes with a sweet chili dipping sauce that pairs really nicely. All the dishes had great flavours. I’ll have to go back soon and try other dishes in the restaurant!

One of the few places that have late night hours but their toast boxes are regrettably dissatisfying. As we walked in, there was a sign that announced they finally allowed split bills and debit machines. Good pace of keeping up with other establishment services I guess… As for our dish, there was no crunchy texture, no honey glazed sweetness, and overall did not feel like a dessert to me. A loaf of bread and a scoop of ice cream topped with an ¹⁄₈ of a banana, ½ a wafer, and 3 fruit loops is what came to our table — the Banoffee Honey Toast Box. Supposedly drizzled with toffee milk with banana pudding, we still just tasted bread and vanilla ice cream. The reference photo shows our midway endeavour into this dish they called a dessert.

Great Food Tried the Kimchi, Seafood hot pot so good!!! Bubble Tea is awesome :)

Three things that stood out for me about this place: 1. They’re opened till pretty late. 2. They have unique drinks. 3. They serve alcohol at a BBT place.
One more thing: Be sure to check out their website for their daily deals. They are usually pretty good, but make sure to read the tiny print and take note of the restrictions.
I tried their salmon wellington and it was pretty bad, not something I would get again. The pastry not a bit soggy and the salmon was not impressive. However, I’m giving it a 3-​stars because the other food on the menu makes up for this one bad dish.
I’ve also had their popcorn chicken, baked seafood rice, and potstickers, and thank goodness those were not a disappointment. I also like that their menu is so big and they have a lot of varieties, including DIY fish soup noodles.

The menu here is so huge and all over the map. You can get lost in the pasta Asian western style choices. Stick with the Asian and you’ll have a good time. Fun drinks, bubble teas and stir fries and soups. The fried bun w condensed milk is yum. Go crazy with a toast box. Stay far away from some of the Italian inspired dishes. Waite staff was helpful and it’s a fun place for all ages.
Interac and cash only. Great value. Lots of cheap eat choices.

They have a creative variety of bubble tea which is entertaining and tasty. Their food is a medley of western and Taiwanese food, but does neither with distinction. Their service is not great as food orders have a tendency to be mistaken and arrive at different times (you don’t all get to eat at the same time). They also don’t take credit, which may hinder payment. I always come back for the bubble tea and salt and proper chicken, despite all that.

The Garlic Chicken rice set combo was an amazing deal. Lots of nicely marinated chicken thigh drenched in a sweet garlic sauce. Only cost about $ 8.
The Seafood Hot Pot, on the other hand, was NOT worth the $ 11. We only received 3 small shrimp, 2 small scallops and 2 squid pieces. There was supposed to be fish too, but we could not find any. Perhaps we mistook it for one of the many pieces of Tofu which was used as filler. The soup base was supposed to be hot and spicy, but was actually very mild.
Tea was never refilled despite there being 3 servers and only 3 groups of customers.
I would go again for the set combos but not for the hot pot or service.

Standard Asian bbt fare with an extensive selection of Asian /​Asian-​inspired western dishes, bubble teas, and toast box sets.
They are open late (till 1 or 2 am usually) so it’s a great place to grab a bite when most other food places in the area are closed.
I like the Singapore vermicelli noodles here. Portion size is just right, not too big or small. The set meals come with a hot drink of your choice (coffee, tea, Horlicks, etc) & you can upgrade to a cold drink for extra.
The chicken nuggets here are a great snack to share! Bite-​sized chunks to nibble on while waiting for your main dishes to arrive.
Service is generally good even when they are busy.

I *only” like this place is because the food is decent, it’s nearby and open late. But the customer service is terrible. One time, I went here with my family for dinner and they completely forgot my order. I addressed the problem and I didn’t get an apology. I know that servers are probably paid minimum wage but you can’t treat your customers like they’re nothing. I’m not asking for much. I’ve been here for late night snacks a few times and 2 out of 3 times, the service is non-​existent. It’s so hard to get any service or attention to order or to ask for anything even the bill. I think they are short staffed because I see the staffs run around like headless chickens. They should be trained to look around in case customers need something. I like how they serve beer, wine and spiked bbt but I just wish the service is a little better then I will come here more often.

One of the good thing about Soho is they open til late. If you want a late night snack or drink or just wanna chill with friends, this may be a good hip spot to check out. Their specials menu offer a good range of different choices from western to Asian dishes. They are pretty good deals which includes an entrée or snack plus a drink. Their drinks menu is extensive and also includes alcohol (but I probably wouldn’t order alcohol at a bbt place). Their quality and presentation is pretty good for the price you pay for. Location wise is also convenient with lots of street parking.

Where do I even begin with this disastrous visit? It started off okay. We had a reservation and we got seated fairly quickly after we arrived. Orders were placed and then things just started going down hill.
I had ordered a mango slush with pearl to go. A mango slush came to the table but it wasn’t to go and it was missing pearls. We told them that the order wasn’t right. No idea what they did to it, but what I suspect is that they let it sit behind the counter for a good 20 minutes and then brought it back out again with no changes made. We told them again and finally they tried to fix it, except not really. It was clear that the slush part of the drink had completely melted and it was essentially just juice. They didn’t even manage to put the pearls in the drink properly. They were all at the top?! Oh, and apparently they charge you 25 cents for the cup which I think is kind of ridiculous. At this point I was so fed up with issues over my drink I just let it slide. It still tasted okay and not diluted.
Then it was issues with food. Sure, we were a fairly large group, but other restaurants have no issues handling groups. Food came out sporadically and at different times. Items that should have been made easily and fairly quickly (eg. fried noodles) came last to the table while items that should have taken longer (eg. anything baked) were one of the first things on the table! Makes no sense. You know you have a problem in the kitchen when you’re clearing empty dishes before others have even gotten their food. One girl’s food didn’t arrive for the longest time so we just ended up cancelling it (which they then brought out to her after the fact. Sigh).
I got the seafood fried udon which was just kind of meh. Nothing spectacular. It did the job. Between the terrible service and the mediocre food, I won’t be back.

This place isn’t that great for quantity, however the quality is pretty good, at least good enough for 4 stars.
10 of us had dinner here yesterday, I ordered a spaghetti bolognese, someone else had a crispy chow mein, and another had sliced beef pan friend noodle, all these portions were incredibly small. Sizes you would expect from a mini meal menu, however they were not on the mini meal menu. With that said tho, some others ordered dishes and they were huge… so no real consistency in size which is odd, guess you should probably ask how large the order is when you place it to be sure unless you’ve ordered it before and know.
Also ordered a mango slush, slightly watered down however had small chunks of mango in it so was definitely real fruit, very tasty despite being watered down.
I’d go back here again, might order something else that’s larger portion tho :)

They have a pretty garbage baked porkchop on rice.
But they have fun bubble tea specials and toast boxes and everything is pretty darn cheap so… I’d come back. I just would be careful what I order for food. Or maybe don’t order food at all.

Still love this place and last week, we had the pleasure of trying their spiked bubble tea. Omg so delicious and worth it. With a regular lychee green tea with pearls, we added a double shot of gin. It was only $ 9.50 with the addition of pearls. I have been to many new restaurants and their drinks are always between $ 11-​$ 13. And I never like the taste of gin but it really complimented the lychee green tea. The double gin was a light taste combined with the wonderful fruity taste of lychee. I loved it! I tried to pack-​up this drink because I couldn’t finish it, but forgot that alcohol isn’t allowed to be packed up. The server politely told me and I then realized… haha oops!
Also had the salt and pepper chicken which always hits the spot for me. My new favorite is the lobster bisque with puff pastry. Heaven in a bowl!

Late night BB Tea runs are the best, and this place will satisfy that, and some more! This place can add a shot of alcohol into your Bubble Tea, and the abundance of sweets they have on the menu just make me die in heaven of sugar! I can not give half stars, but this place is solid 3.5 stars.
I ordered the sweetest item on the menu, and I was in heaven that night. Yes, you can tell I love sweets. The desert toast was delicious, and it was topped off in so much sugar that I was having a huge sugar crash when I arrived home, I just fell down onto the bed *BAM*. But really, I shouldn’t be having so much sugar anyways, but it was just too good… :3
Also, the BBTea is just sub-​par though. I enjoy their deserts more though, but having a choice to put alcohol in your drink really changes my options in the future. If I was younger, and here with other friends who drove me, I would have been drinking a lot here… :P
Will be coming back when I am not driving, and will be enjoying TONS and TONS more sweets. *nom nom nom*

This place is a rare find around these parts. I starting coming here because it’s close to VGH and my weekly craving for pot stickers. Which so far are the best I have ever had!
We started off with Potstickers and chow mein with crispy noodles. Second round consists of Set Menu’s sweet and sour pork and a Belgian Waffle with ice-​cream for dessert. Great service, great smiles, and great food. Their take out menu is also just as good and pretty much everything you see on their dine in menu, you can also have for take out. (which I have had about 3 times since discovering about 3 months ago.)
Not only was it delicious it also only came to $ 30.00…shhhh let’s keep this place a secret!

The food is decent here and the specials can be had for a good deal. Check the chalk board for specials. There are a few dinner options you might want to avoid if your especially picky about your western food. The grill mix and the Asian food is not too bad. Lots of combo options to choose from.
But you’re really here for the bubble tea and drinks and the Taiwanese snacks.
If you’re familiar with the HK Café and the Taiwanese café format of restaurants, them this places as good as those others out there. You can’t really improve on it unless you decide to make things from the freshest ingredients. If you want something made from fresh ingredients and not frozen, then order the Chinese dishes.
Interestingly one of my dinner companions isn’t quite used to this kind of food. I wouldn’t classify him as a foodie. He strikes me more as a meat and potatoes kind of guy and something like chicken chow mein would be borderline adventurous on his list of things to eat.
Yes the many and varied items in the menu would put Gordon Ramsey in a cardiac fit. Yes that’s how it’s done. It’s hard to explain this concept of food to those who’ve never tried it. You just have to come and try it out. Then again, if you’re already a self proclaimed #Vancouverasianfoodie then you have no worries. Just order something and enjoy the drink and conversation.
This place takes debit cards. Glad it’s not one of those cheesy «cash only» places.
Bonus for the vegetarian options!

— Staff friendly
— Too many disclaimers on the menus of things that will take 20 – 30 minutes to make. Just take them off.
— Toast box was dry, could use more condensed milk (or syrup of your choice)
— Bubble tea ok, dragon ball tea house on oak is still my best friend.
— Clean bathrooms
— Clean restaurant
— Fair prices.
Probably wouldn’t come back, but nice place.

Finally tried the alcoholic bubble tea here. It delivers. You can get either single or double shots for a few bucks on top of the regular drink.
The drinks are really great, and if you pick the right combo, you can’t even tell the alcohol is there. Great for getting your alcohol-​averse friends slightly messed. Did I say that out loud?

Malibu with that Bubble Tea?
When it comes to HK cafes in Vancouver, there aren’t too many that serve a good bubble tea. On the flip side, the food at many better bbt cafes isn’t super great. Soho tries to do both — and reasonably well I might add.
There’s a fairly extensive menu including everything from steak and lobster to chow mein and sweet and sour pork. There’s even a page for DIY noodle bowls (similar to Deer Garden) where you can customize everything that goes in the bowl. Most of my dinner companions ended up getting the mini meals which tasted just Okay — nothing to write home about.
The bubble tea quality and selection was very good. I had a strawberry banana slush which was excellent. There was even an option to add a shot of your favorite liquor to it.
Where this place really shines is in the décor and ambience. It’s just a great place to hang out with friends. The wait staff was super friendly and attentive and didn’t pressure us to leave even though it was getting busy. I see this place more like a solid bubble tea café with decent food. Worth checking out.

Good food