Mochi Bubble Tea Cafe

This place feels like being in Asia. from the way the restaurant, café, whatever you want to call it was designed, to the food that they serve.
The food and the BBT. are bad. Compared to Bubble Queen or Pearl Castle? Doesn’t even stack up. It feels watered down, and sugared up! I’m not a calorie counter, but when I came here I really did question whether or not I was going to get diabetes…
Food was the worst part… we ordered a chicken appetizer to share, and a fried rice. Everything was salty salty salty! The sugary BBT didn’t help at all. The food was also a bit… old? Didn’t taste very fresh… the chicken was watery and seemed like it was going bad. The seasoning was terrible… a bunch of flour and a whole lot of salt. There was so little chicken, it was all coating!
Service was ok, pretty typical — sit down, take order, pay, leave. Nothing special at all. It was though, the only reason this place has a two star.

I knew this place from KLIP Magazine and it offered a coupon/​discount few months ago. However, I have no intention to go there.
This location has been changed to different restaurant/​café several times.
On Sunday noon, we heading to Richmond for lunch and saw it opened. I thought just tried it out…
When we walked in, we only saw 1 staff on floor. Hmmm… that’s not right. Should we turn around n go somewhere else? Urr… never mind.
We ordered few dishes to share and foods were average.
Stir fried beef with flat rice noodles — the noodles were a bit soaky.
Deep fried pork chop with omelette rice — the rice was so blend and pork chop just a bit dry.
Red curry chicken with rice — Good and tasty, but, only few piece of chicken in the pot.
We were so disappointed for our drinks! I ordered HOT black sesame milk tea with red bean milk tea, it was too sweet and not HOT at all. My friend had a coffee which was instant coffee (3-​in-​1) for $ 4.50???
I would go somewhere else for better food and drink.

This will be now my go-​to place for bbt, yes, I can be a snoot but when it comes to nice interiors, yet still reminds guests it’s not a lounge but can serve some good, Taiwanese-​fusion comfort food.
The deep fried chicken has been recommended since they also have this at their Rmd nite market booth, but after a nice workout, decided to order a man’s meal, the famous baked tomato, chose over cream to watch those calories, and seafood over spaghetti (or rice), w/​plenty to toss around:
–3 shrimp
–2 musels
–2 pieces of some fish,
–1 squid
…and i’m just halfway!
For bubble tea, went for the coffee cold milk tea, with a distinct taste, unlike the typical Hk style… seemed to have a dose of honey or something, a bit more healthier for the intestines…
and passed on the pearls ;)
Highly recommended b/​c of the cleanliness, bright lights, awesome booths, esp. by the window, great to see the night lights from 2^nd floor, facing McKim & Garden City.
Sure, a better place to take a date here over Trues’tea, Well Tea, etc. — just a bit too noisy if wanting some serious convo.
another bonus is free wifi…
fast service

I’ve been to this café once when it was a themed café where girls dressed up in different costumes every day. The food back then was medicore, so I was a tad reluctant to revisit this place again.
I felt a sense of dejavu when I entered the restaurant since it hadn’t changed much since I last visited it, but boy did it change when I ordered from the menu. We ordered the fried chicken pieces rice set, the spicy egg plant rice set, hot taro bubble tea and a chocolate coconut frapp.
The rice sets came with a chinese sweet and sour soup, nothing to brag about — it was a little cold and it didn’t taste fresh. However, the rice and the main food plates themselves were amazing. The portion was huge (bang for your buck I’ll say since I had to pack half of mine up) and the flavours and textures are great. The fried chicken bits were not as salty and peppery as Corner 23 and were crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. Amazing! The spicy egg plant dish is also better than alot of other taiwanese/​chinese café style places I’ve visited.
The taro bubble tea was too sweet in my opinion but the HUGE chocolate coconut slush was just amazing. I tasted both the chocolate and coconut in the frapp and I think its better than starbucks frapp.
The prices are reasonable. Rice dishes were under $ 10 each and drinks were under $ 5 each.
I would definitely come back again.
P. S. there is free wifi at this place so I saw alot of ppl coming in with their ipads.

After several ownership changes, another BBT place opens up in the same spot. My friend and I decided to check this place out on a Friday night, as there’s always ample parking around here and the place is spacious.
Upon entry, all the décor is essentially the same as its previous tenant, Magnetic Café. Even the menus remind me of the last place. it’s your typical BBT café fare– fried rice, noodle soups, hot pots, assorted deep fried snacks.
They do have an extensive selection of slushes and frappes with unqiue flavours. I, being safe, stuck to a red bean and matcha slush while my friend got a passionfruit frappé.
When these arrived, we were surprised at the size of these! They reminded me of the slushes at The One on Kingsway. As for the flavour, these were spot on. Not too sugary, not too watery, but with enough flavour.
The service here is also surprisingly good, and everyone that works here speaks fluent English, which is a plus.
When choosing a place for BBT in Richmond, I would recommend trying this place out!