TRU TEA｜初茶 — Restaurant in Mississauga

Went there at around 12 30 AM on October 21, since it was the only place open that late. I ordered a strawberry creme cake drink and added tapioca, and also bought a creme brulee dessert. The "strawberries" syrup they use tastes extremely artificial, like those liquid cold meds you take as a child. Even though there were real strawberry chunks in it, the flavour was still so bad. And the tapioca was waterlogged. It had obviously been sitting in water for too long, had no flavour, and was a disappointing texture.

But the worst crime of all was the "creme brulee." tell me, why did they hand me over a foil wrapped bowl with a separate sugar packet that I had to BAKE MYSELF??! What the hell. I had to take that thing home and COOK IT MYSELF?! What was advertised on their poster was one that was ready to eat, but those girls handed me an uncooked dessert and like it was totally normal. I had to Google the instructions on how to caramelize the sugar, and since I don't have that fancy flame thing I had to bake the creme brulee in the oven. The custard ended up getting hot, and the sugar which I sprinkled on top did not get crispy. I just can't believe the service at tru tea. It wasn't even busy since I went at 12:30 AM, we were the only ones there and there were two girls serving us. My friend and I were originally intending to share the creme brulee, and oddly enough they gave us two spoons, but how could we when I had to take it home to cook?

Included in the photo is the creme brulee in my mini oven because I HAD TO...

I was so excited to try this place, but it turned out to be such a disappointment! My family and I ordered a number of drinks- the Strawberry Peach Tea, the Dragonfruit Lychee tea, the Taro Milk Tea with Sweet Rice, and the Oreo Creme Drink. All I can say is, this place has invested in great photography to lure you in, but that’s about it. When we got there, they had no tapioca or Mango Volcano drink left despite it being well before closing. The person taking our order was short and seemed ready to close the store. Despite ordering drinks with no tapioca, it still took well over 15 minutes to prepare our drinks. The ambiance of the place was not great, dim white lighting, no where to sit - total motel vibes. It also didn’t smell great (no alluring smell of milk tea, that’s for sure!) We waited outside because it was more pleasant that standing in that store.

The drinks were also a disappointment. The oreo creme drink was actually disgusting, tasted like milk with stale oreo crumbs. We threw that drink out! The dragonfruit lychee and taro drinks were both tasteless. The strawberry passionfruit tea was the only decent tea - it had fruit pieces in the drink which were good and it tasted refreshing like a starbucks drink. Everything else absolutely sucked. I love bubble tea and try a new spot whenever I can, but I can definitely say this isn’t the place to go if you’re looking for good quality bubble tea or a nice cafe/vibe. It’s hard to park there too, only street parking! A 2/5 is a gracious rating...

If I could give it lower than 1 star, I would.

Drinks: not as described, leaves you thinking "something is weird but you can't put a finger on it"

Food: literally resold Costco dessert

Service: bare minimum

Price: expensive considering it's not even good

Atomsphere: next to no seating, next to no decor. Feels like they use the store front for storage.

Details: I've visited this store twice and it's been a disappointment both times. They have late night hours which is the main reason why we visited but not worth it. Most recently I got a golden mango green tea, which tasted like an old passionfruit candy and hardly like mango at all. The tapioca was textureless, as if it was sitting for hours in water with no chewy starch in its formulation. The staff stare at you blankly while you order and struggled to hear when we asked questions. This is to note we were the only customers. They seemed to be in a rush for us to leave even though it was hours before closing. We also bought a creme brulee which looked good in the photo. They gave us a Costco creme brulee with a pack of sugar separately. For anyone such as myself who bought these before, you need to bake the sugar which means they gave us it in a state that could not be eaten yet! They also had tiramisu and lemon meringue which upon further inspection... Are the other two Costco desserts. I don't recommend this to anyone......