April 1, 2023. This past weekend, it was Ben and my 1 year anniversary. Because I am the type of person to plan it all, I made a reservation back in February for Glowbal. I was thinking about what type of food we have not had yet that can be a nice change. From there I realized, after all this time of going out with my friends and family for brunch, I had never gone with Ben. Of course, I looked at the menu and saw Eggs Benny’s so I was all good to go to book it. On top of that, I wanted to find a restaurant that didn’t break the bank at all, and although some items were on the pricey side there were other reasonable options.

When we arrived at Glowbal, the entire restaurant looked spectacular. They asked us if we wanted to sit inside or outside and because it was a beautiful day I said inside. Once you sat down, you could see so many beautiful purple flowers hanging from the ceiling and beside us, there were little balls with flowers surrounding them too. The whole patio looked like a garden I would say. There was even a nice little fluffy pillow behind me and heaters all around so I was comfy and we were warmed up.

Soon after we had sat down, our waiter brought us each some type of strawberry yogurt smoothie in a shot glass as well as mini donuts to start us off. Knowing Ben very very well, I had a feeling he wouldn’t be full after our breakfast, so I gave him a protein bar I had to fill him up for some time before our food arrived. For the actual food, I had looked ahead and knew that I already wanted eggs benedict. I had ordered the “Farm-House Eggs Benedict” with a side of fresh fruit and Ben ordered the “Breakfast “FRY-UP””. 

When I made the reservation, there was this option that said something like the reason for coming and I had put anniversary because, well, it was our anniversary. So not knowing what would happen, they brought us two complementary drinks with a sparkler in them.

Overall, the service was great, Benjamin and I were both full, and the extra things made our experience special. I would give Glowbal a 5/5 and would definitely want to try their lunch and dinner menu as well. Also, their cocktails look so cool so I will for sure be coming there in a couple months after my 19th birthday!

Unfortunately, this week, I did not eat out. Yes, this means less money spent and saving money, BUT I like going and eating out. The whole vibe and aroma of the restaurant, and then the company you have as well can make everything seem perfect. But, as I said, no eating out . Because of this, I have thought of the idea to create my TOP 3 BUBBLE TEA RESTAURANTS!!!

I admit it. Hi, my name is Tara, and I am a bubble tea addict. Maybe addict is not even enough. I am a connoisseur, a world-class taste tester, an expert, or maybe just a girl who loves her sugar. Also, quick fact, I recently (in the past year and a half) found out that I am lactose intolerant. Does this stop me from drinking my amazing “Original Milk Tea with Pearls”? No, of course not, why would it?

Now, we are going to go backwards from third to the ultimate first choice. And then, at the end, we are going to talk a little about what places I didn’t necessarily like.

3. Chase Tea

I had Chase Tea for the first time 3 years ago. Of course, I ordered my milk tea with pearls, and when I drank it I was filled with this unexpected taste. The tea tasted creamy and strong, I’m not sure if that makes sense but the specific taste of the drink is forever ingrained in my tastebuds. While some people don’t like it, I would say the uniqueness of the drink is excellent enough to have it on my top 3 list.

2. Bubble Queen

I remembered the day I was told about Bubble Queen, my parents had just come back from a night out and waited in line for this bubble tea drink at Bubble Queen. They had talked about how amazing it tasted and how it had with real mango chunks on top of it. They wanted to bring us there, so the four of us went. I, of course even then, got a milk tea with pearls while my parents got the “Fresh Mango Cubed slush” and Aidan had an “Oreo Slush”. The milk tea wasn’t that special, the flavour of the tea is very strong and less milky and the pearls are harder but of course, it’s still good. What puts Bubble Queen as number 2 on my list is their mango drinks. As I had mentioned before, they put real chunks of mango at the top of their drink which emphasizes not only the sweetness & presentation but also its uniqueness. If anyone is wanting to try new and original bubble tea, go to Bubble Queen.

1. CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice

My number one choice is CoCo. Everything is right, the taste of the tea and the freshness of the pearls (sometimes). The most defining factor for all bubble teas is how the tea actually tastes. You don’t want it to be too watery or the tea to taste too strong or even be too milky, but rather an equal balance of all. Unlike what most may think, I’m not too adventurous with my bubble tea flavours, but luckily when I did try something new, I did it with CoCo. I usually order the “Pearl Milk Tea with 70% sugar and less ice” but my second favourite drink is a “Mango Green Tea with pearls and 70% sugar less ice”. If I were to recommend anyone to have bubble tea for the first time somewhere, it would be CoCo.

As I mentioned, I’ll talk quickly about what places I don’t necessarily LOVE.

• Chatime → Milk tea is too watery BUT their “Red Pocket” discounts last longer than CoCo’s
• Xing Fu Tang → Only have brown sugar, too much sugar for me
• Ben Gong’s Tea → Only have brown sugar, too much sugar for me
• Milksha → Pearls are different, not tapioca which takes it away from my list
• Fair Bee → Used to be great, but their tea is too watery (cheapest from what I can remember)

Of course, there are more places but I cannot go on forever otherwise this post will never end!

It’s currently 2:00 AM right now and I can’t fall asleep for the life of me. My brain is running and I have to be up at 7:00 AM to head back to SFU right now, so I am going to write my content post for this week. From my room, I can hear the planes overhead. The sounds of them passing by my window start to scare me and I don’t know if it’s because maybe I haven’t heard it in a while or because the plane sounds awfully close to us here on the ground. I can also hear the sirens of police cars or ambulances from my window. That I find more than normal because back on the mountain, fire alarms are pulled nightly and the norm is for about 2 fire trucks or ambulances to pass by my window.

This weekend has been hectic let me tell you that. It started with Friday being St. Patricks Day. I don’t usually celebrate it, my family doesn’t usually celebrate it, but it is a holiday and something to celebrate for some people so a group of my friends got together. Full of laughter and definitely not alcohol because we are good children, the night ended pretty late resulting in me walking back home at 3:30 AM. As one would assume, the next morning, at around 8:00 AM, my dad tried to wake me up as we had to go renew my passport all the way in Burnaby. That plan did not follow through as the partying from the night before took me out, and by that I mean I was throwing up every 30 min for 4 hours. Because of that unfortunate circumstance, all our plans went awry and my parents went off to renew my passport without me, and the plans of food after that went out the window.

This all eventually leads us to today, where we decided to make up for the previous day’s distressing events. After some insightful arguing, the four of us landed on dim sum and went to our usual place Sun Sui Wah. As I have mentioned THOUSANDS of times, my dad and I are very similar, so as soon as we had sat down I grabbed the paper and started ticking off how much of what we wanted. Then, I passed it over to my dad who then checked over our list, and within 5 minutes we were done ordering and ready to eat. To be honest, I would like to admit I think my head was bigger than my stomach because we ended up with 3 takeout boxes to bring back home.

Whenever we go for dim sum, our family always goes to Sun Sui Wah. We’ve taken cousins who have visited from London and friends that flew all the way from Japan over, and everyone has loved it. The food always comes fast and tastes hot. I’ve got to say, every time we have come I have tried something new and thankfully the menu here is so vast, there is plenty of ways I have got to go before I can say I have expanded my palate. The only thing I would say is that they changed their recipes. I don’t like coconut and because of that, my taste buds arise and can tell when something tastes like it or has it. Recently, within the past 2 years, they changed their egg tart recipe to include coconut milk or at least something that tastes like coconut. However, even with this slight change, I buck it up and still have it because I have got to stay true to my routine. Because of all these factors, I give Sun Sui Wah a solid ⅘.

* Also a little PSA, this is not all the food we had. I just forgot to take photos which is why some look partly eaten…because they were… *