ETEA cafe — Restaurant in Vancouver

A good spot to have some lunch and a refreshing drink when you’re in the area! After remodeling and renovating, E.Tea offers a large, relatively affordable and reasonable menu, featuring Taiwanese/Hong Kong/Chinese-style rice bowls, noodle soup, hotpot, popcorn chicken, sandwiches, light snacks, and an assortment of drinks with tons of topping options! Seriously- the menu is so large, it’d truly be shocking if not one thing catches your eye or appeals to you!

As of my last visit, it seems like they’ve switched to scannable QR codes on the edges of the table to access the menu and order from, which is certainly convenient but does not provide much detail on the food items specifically. My boyfriend encountered some issue with choosing what to order, as while the menu is expansive, you’ll probably have to ask about what each dish includes or entails if you aren’t already familiar. It was only at the end of our visit when I noticed physical copies of the menu on a wall close to the exit- not sure if you can just freely take them, but I’ll definitely ask next time!

Food is well-seasoned and tasty- I especially love the Ham and Egg Sandwich with Fries, which is priced at $13.8! In my opinion, that’s a great price in a pricy city like Vancouver. I’m also fond of the Peach Fruit Tea with Pearls. My boyfriend ordered the Popcorn Chicken with Meat Sauce Rice (?) (sorry, I don’t quite remember the specific name of the dish, but it’s something along those lines!), and the Pro Strawberry Slush- he said the chicken was tasty, and the slush was quite good!

You don’t really interact with service that much especially since the QR code menu has been added, but service is pretty relaxed and seems overall good. There was one time when I came with several friends and a worker ignored my friend multiple times and seemed to not like her, even though my friend was never rude and only had one reasonable request which was asking for another menu for one of us, but perhaps it was just an off day- I haven’t had any similar treatment from service since, so I’ll chalk it up to maybe just a one-time incident 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ll continue to visit here whenever I get the chance! Glad to see that they’re...

I went up to order my drinks and was met with a dull and emotionless cashier, who asked, "what do you want?" as if they didn't want to be there and my business was not wanted. I ordered a lavender green milk tea and a honey oolong milk tea. She then slowly reached for the mouse and was just browsing through the drinks and then after a good 15 seconds she tells me 8.50. Zzzzz much, does it take that long to enter in 2 drinks? I took my two drinks home and tried the lavender milk tea first. As soon as it entered my mouth I cringed. There was definitely a hint of lavender but other than that it tasted like water. I thought maybe it was just me and I asked my girlfriend to try it and saw her cringe after trying it. Well, I bought 2 hopefully one of them would be okay, but nope. First thing that hit my taste buds was honey, sugar, honey, and sugar. So I call the restaurant to complain and guess who answered? Miss. Idunwannaf*ingbehere. First thing I asked was are you open? (was 12:15am) I was met with a prompt "no". I look up their hours on yelp, 11am-1am. Obviously she doesn't want to work there. I then tell her about my drinks and perhaps maybe she put the sugar into the honey oolong tea instead of the lavender green milk tea and then she angrily replies, "THERE IS NO SUGAR IN THE HONEY OOLONG MILK TEA". Customer service = 0. At least a simple sorry would suffice. I had to combine the two milk teas for them to be edible. I will not be returning for bubble...

It’s been many years I’ve went back to Etea since they shut down as the property was being rebuilt. I was so happy to find out that the restaurant was going to come back and as soon as it opened and I passed by, I dropped by with my partner to reminisce the past.

The food is just as good as before, I’d say the Thai fried rice was pretty much similar to what it was before but a little bit less seasoned compared to before. It could just be a hit or miss but I’d say that was a 9/10. I’ve always come to Etea just to order Thai fried rice.

The second order was popcorn chicken nuggets, a little saltier than expected but the seasoning was really good. The portion could be bigger for $10.80 since it was a small plate but the quality is good and technically there are other restaurants that do charge it for more expensive.

The Taro slush with pearls was really good, the portion size was not as large as I thought it would be but the price for the bubble tea was standard, not as expensive as other bubble tea shops and they made it well. I found it pretty interesting that there was a bear on top (it’s ice) as part of the decoration. Presentation was really good, but because the cup was smaller than usual when I ordered a size large, I would say the bear takes away the portion size. Overall I would order again and their idea of putting the bear on top overall is a creative idea.

Would definitely come back again, was a regular before and will be a regular...