Rose Tea Cafe

The food is below average and tea is also not that great. What’s even worse is service from this particular lady who is rude. I asked «can you make hot tea as hot as possible?» And cashier lady got pissed off saying «it’s already hot. How can i make it hotter?»
I asked this because last couple of times the «hot» tea was lukewarm. They use stove to heat it up and i simply wanted them to make it hotter.
I guess it’s too much to ask for hot tea to be hot.

This place is very convenient for having a quick dinner or lunch! I love their noodles, but one disadvantage of this place is that they do not have lots of vegetables for most dishes :-/​the bubble tea is not good as that in Rose tea café in squirrel hill. It’s not easy to find a seat here also.

I’m pretty sure I wrote this once before, but somehow the review got removed. Anyway, given that I’m adamantly against this place, here we go again.
Like many of the other reviewers have said, the middle aged guy behind the counter is pretty rude. The older lady that works at Rose Tea is also really rude — seems like she lives with a constant chip on her shoulder. I remember that during the first time I came to Rose Tea, the older lady basically *told* us we need to tip them. Excuse me?
I only come here when there’s nothing else around for lunch. Normally I get the eggplant in garlic sauce, but the most recent time I got that dish it tasted absolutely disgusting. The eggplant was only barely cooked, meaning it wasn’t at the right mushy texture. I had to stir fry it again for dinner in order for it to taste somewhat decent.
I used to come here for bubble tea, but ever since Fuku Tea opened down the street near Pitt campus I’ve basically avoided Rose Tea at all costs. Fuku Tea has the best bubble tea, and the service is much better. Also, they take credit cards with no minimums. Why risk raising your cortisol levels by going to Rose Tea at Craig when you can have better food and service somewhere else? A silly question, if you ask me.

The food is decent, I would strongly recommend the fried chicken, fried pork chop or eggplants. However, as other reviewers have mentioned, the service is quite rude.

Bubble tea is good enough, but the service is definitely a weakness. The guy on the counter was so rude with me and other customers.

I only come here when I’m closer to this one than the other Rose Tea Café in Squirrel Hill. If it was not for the location, I would never come here.
The service is awful even when there are barely any other customers. The main owner, a middle aged man who is always there during the day, will take his sweet time to wash dishes when there is a line of people waiting to go. I understand you need to get to the dishes and other tasks but where are your priorities? I’ve worked in the food and retail industry before and if I saw a customer waiting, I would take off my gloves and go help her. The owner even had the audacity to snatch the money out of my hand and throw my change on the counter. Oh, did I mention he will obviously glare at you if you ask one of his servers to help you since he’s taking freaking forever! This isn’t the first time it has happened. I’ve been here three times and on all occasions the same guy had the nastiest attitude.
Second, we ran into a couple of my boyfriend’s colleagues at this café and they were not allowed to dine in because the only table available was a three-​seater not a two-​seater even though it was super tiny. The owner was planning on squeezing three people at that tiny table? how? I’m petite and I even felt uncomfortable thinking about how cramped I would be with two other people. After some haggling, they were able to sit down. How cheap and transparent can they be?
The only good thing about this place is the boba/​pearl drinks are consistent with their other location.

Bubble tea tastes absolutely terrible. If the restaurant is crowded, they kick you out the moment you have finished your meal. Don’t ever eat in. Only upside to this is that ordering their chicken option gives you two massive drumsticks, an egg, and a small side of vegetables, which I feel is pretty value for money.

The last time I went there they had a minimum order for occupying their seats, which meant that we had to find somewhere else to drink the bubble tea. Not too wild about that. In fact, that’s why it’s also the ‘last’ time I’ll go there. I can get the same thing at their Squirrel Hill location, which is better in every conceivable way.

Much smaller than the Rose Tea Café in Squirrel Hill, this place has a much more limited menu. There’s a small selection of appetizers and entrees (mostly rice and noodle soups).
This place is more of a drink counter to order bubble teas, green or black teas, smoothies or milk shakes.
The passionfruit green tea was good. Just sweet enough.

I have basically been living here for the past week. Its a convenient place to go when I have to stay on campus late and its close.
I am a vegan and I absolutely love their eggplant dishes. They’re simple, filling, and good. They also give you a lot of food for the price. Yes they do have a limited menu and its not like the one in squirrel hill, but I still really enjoy the food.
They also have great bubble tea, much better than lulus. The only aspect that I dislike is their sauces. They overwhelm the dishes with sauce, drench it even.
Overall, in a pinch I would come here for the best eggplant in Pittsburgh!

I love rose tea café in squirrel hill so I had high expectations when this place opened up. However, considering how limited the space and menu is, I find this one to be disappointing.
I do like their salty crispy chicken, but the quality is not consistent: sometimes it’s great but sometimes it’s dry and not very flavorful. Their bubble tea is not as good as I Tea Café’s. As for entries, the fried chick thigh with rice and another noodle dish were decent. Oh and their egg rolls are good.
But that’s really about it. It’s a place for you to grab some quick bites. If you wanna enjoy some well-​prepared dish my suggestion is to go to the one in squirrel hill (that one doesn’t have salty crispy chicken tho).

This is a smaller version of the restaurant in Squirrel Hill; its menu is consolidated and consists mostly of appetizers and lunch combo-​type items (as in, meat over rice dishes). They also sell some Chinese bakery items at the counter. There are about five tables that seat two or four people and a counter seating area, and the shop is bright and cutesy – cartoon tapioca pearls are painted on the wall, and your check is delivered in a little pail. The owner is brusque, which doesn’t really match the décor, but the waiter is nice.
I usually only get black milk bubble tea here; it’s the best I’ve found in the Oakland area. It has the perfect amount of sugar – not overwhelmingly sweetened – so there’s actually tea flavor, and the bubbles have a good texture. They also offer it both cold and hot, though the hot costs a little extra.
I’ve also tried the taro cake (芋頭糕). It wasn’t bad – nicely pan-​fried – but the taro flavor wasn’t strong.
I plan on trying some of the entrees sometime. Bubble tea is discounted with the purchase of an entrée!

Been here couple of times based on recommendations given by Taiwanese friends. I especially love their iced teas. Usually end up getting the Taiwanese chunk chicken or the hot pot. Service is usually fast and appropriate. Stopped there one day for lunch, but they got really few items on that menu. Good place to go for a dinner where you want to have complete entrees.

Very good bubble milk tea. I would like to see Thai ice tea and sesame bubble milk added to the menu, but still VERY good!

This place is actually underrated. The food here is actually quite decent and authentic. Too bad they don’t take credit card though.

Just not the same taste as the Rose Tea in Squirrel Hill. We always get the fried pork chop rice, but the one on Craig st is less crispy and the seasoning is a bit lacking. The rice is different too (sort of like a friend rice but not really), and instead of pickled cabbage and carrots, you get a mix of frozen/​canned corn and peas or something.
Will stick with the one in Squirrel Hill.

CASH ONLY.
Didn’t like the place. The service is either rude or friendly depending on your server. The food costs too much for mediocre quality; the real Rose Tea Café in Squirrel Hill is much better.
I had the marinated pork over rice; it is essentially chopped pork, rice, and a boiled egg. The meal was far too salty and I didn’t like it very much.
The server recommended the Taro bubble tea, which was «very very popular.» They are supposed to have a rich, creamy texture but the one I had was very watery and not sweet. I’ll regard this as a anomaly, but overall the experience wasn’t worth the cost.

My boyfriend and I were both very impressed with the meat entrees we ordered. I had the fried chicken which was perfectly crispy and flavorful and my boyfriend said the same about his porkchops. The service was great and I loved my Jasmine bubble tea!
My one disappointment is the sides that are served with the meals. The mixed vegetables they serve are clearly either frozen or from a can. The rice was ok, but again, nothing special. If this place stepped up their sides, it would make such a difference!

It’s been months since this extension of Rose Tea in Squirrel Hill has opened – and still there has been no update or improvement to this place whatsoever. The 2 stars are for the few items that are worth eating on the menu, and maybe the overpriced bubble teas, but not much else is worth praising.
Their food in general tastes better than the likes of OE and definitely Lulu’s, but the amount of selection is abysmal. If you’re looking for a meal, you only have a choice from around 10 rice dishes or noodle dishes; and of course the fried chicken leg and pork chop are greasy and accompanied by a tiny bit of vegetables in their attempt to recreate an authentic Taiwanese rice dish. It appears as though they are catering more to American tastes, though to their credit the dishes also come with a tea egg.
At least you get quantity over quality. One of the better choices is the zhajiangmian (Peking sauce noodles). While this is actually quite different from the Beijing version of the noodles (their name has nothing to do with the Beijing version of the noodles), their Taiwanese version is not too bad and also comes with a decent amount of vegetables on the sauce and noodles.
Their milk tea is of the same quality as the Rose Tea in Squirrel Hill, pretty decent but pricey as compared to Taiwanese enclaves on the west and east coasts (and hence not really worth it imho). You get a discount on them if you order them with a meal.
My last gripe is that they don’t accept card. It was understandable when they first opened, but after half a year now it’s just annoying. When every single place around you accepts card in place of cash, you’re not going to attract a lot of people if you demand that they carry cash with them.

Wow — the mediocrity here is impressive! I got the marinated pork on rice. This is not a pork chop, rather, its chopped pork — bummer. Also, so, so much MSG and oil, I’m drinking a lot of water with this one. Feeling huge. The food left a lot to be desired.
Here’s the thing — Rose Tea, since you are what, the 4^th Asian restaurant within 100m (Little Asia,. Lulu, Oriental Express), you need to do things different and better. I’ve heard the boba is good — awesome there. But why would I decide to go there for a meal? I’ll probably try the chicken, which my friends like, but other than that, I don’t have a compelling reason to return.