The Alley — Restaurant in Markham

Their headline summarizes it pretty well imo: “iconic in beverage aesthetics,” not beverages themselves.

That’s not to say the tea is bad - in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Their Jasmine Green Milk Tea is probably the best version of Jasmine Green Milk Tea I’ve tasted, and I now regularly order the Assam tea latte. Unfortunately, most drinks are not quite as appealing to the tastebuds as they look. Apple of my eye tended to be too sour (although I suppose if you like very sour drinks it’s actually quite decent and refreshing), and garden milk tea made me want to never go back again.

But the Jasmine Green Milk Tea. Oh my. That thing is absolutely delicious at 30% sugar with tapioca or coffee jelly. Confusingly, they discontinued their coffee jelly, which had a great balance between coffee and sweetness. The tea itself was thick but not overcooked, milk was silky but not too creamy. It is nearly perfect in balance, and IMO even better than Gongcha.

Assam tea latte, on the other hand, is what I would consider the traditional milk tea (despite a rather confusing name). From what I understand, tea lattes are the only drinks that have actual milk instead of milk powder. The tea is not too thick, not over cooked, and with fresh milk + little sugar is a very delicious cup of milk tea. I wish there was an even less sugar option than little sugar, but they unfortunately do not offer anything between little sugar and no sugar.

Again, however, I am not a fan of most drinks, even the Royal No. 9, which seems to be their “headliner” if you will. It has a very weirdly airy sorta minty taste to it. Deerioca (brown sugar milk tea) is too sweet compared to brown sugar milk tea offerings from other places, even Cha Time.

Their tapioca is cooked expertly, not saggy and not hard, chewy and not too sweet.

Would recommend for Jasmine Green Milk Tea with Tapioca, hard to recommend...

I had a fly in my tapioca. I'm trying to stay calm as I'm typing this. I came here on a friday night with some friends since we were visiting someone in the area. The plaza was the closest to us. I knew I should of went to Coco instead (in the same plaza), when I saw a bunch of people hovering at the store front. But against my own judgement I decided to go to the alley since I haven't for a while. Now I remember why I stopped going. The service was slow and it was rowdy inside. The other customers were also very loud. The parking lot had a lot of loud cars that eventually became obnoxious. I got my drink and drove home. I was half done with my drink when I felt a weird "ball" in my mouth. Not a ball. Let the pictures do the explaining. IF THE STAFF WEREN'T SO FOCUS ON THESE OTHER CUSTOMERS MAYBE THEY WOULD OF NOTICED! OR DID A QUALITY CHECK ON THEIR TAPIOCAS. If they just let the door closed instead of letting these people walk in and out with the door wide open MAYBE this wouldn't happen. It's disgusting and now I have a fear of adding tapioca into any drink. NEVER...

I’ve been going to this Alley since it opened and never had a problem until recently. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s this same staff making my drinks, but they’re young and rude. I don’t expect much, but when someone asks me what drink I’m ordering, don’t interrupt me before I finish and ask sugar level. Then the same for ice level. Then the same for how I’m paying. They cut me off every time and didn’t ask for my points, so they had to punch that in after I asked. The worst part is the drinks were absolute garbage. I ordered 3 drinks and all 3 immediately went down the drain and in the garbage when I got home. They all tasted watered down. I’m not sure what’s happening at this Alley, but the owner needs to hire better staff. You can tell who’s experienced there and it’s not fair they work 100% of the time just to save customers from these horrible experiences. I’ll be going to the Main St. Unionville Alley moving forward even though it’s an extra 10min of driving for me. It really sucks because I’m walking distance to this Alley and it was so...