Redstraw — Restaurant in Irvine

Although in its soft opening phase, Red Straw excels at service and has shown their skills at creating tasty and visually appealing teatails. The shop is bright, minimalistic and clean with a few small tables to accommodate a longer stay if you wish to catch up or do some work.

Upon entrance, the menu is to your left separated into three sections: Milk Tea, Refreshing Tea, Custom Tea. All tea selections are brewed using loose leaf selections and ingredients are organically sourced like their raw cane sugar, fresh fruits and vegetables/herbs. Interesting concept and the refreshing teas drew me in.

On my first visit, I wanted to try their Watermelon Rose Mojito, but they currently only serve items with a pink diamond notated on menu. So second choice was the Coffee Mojito. Dark roast coffee with house made Mojito mix, which had a very very light mint taste and was sweetened with cane sugar. No adjustments on sweetness here, which was more sweet than I would have liked, but it was enjoyable with boba too.

On the next visit, boyfriend tried the Red Straw milk tea and I got the Rose Garden with lychee jelly - jasmine green tea with rose and lychee. I got it at half sweetness and it was perfect. The last time I went, I tried the Organic Honey Oolong Milk Tea and it left me disappointed. Overall, it was light in flavor and didn't have the strong oolong tea taste when I think of milk teas. It actually tasted watered down, even with the sea salt cream. However, the sea salt cream was quite good and dense, but felt the portion was small.

I feel like I won't be back until after their grand opening when they serve the full menu. They have a lot of interesting stuff on there! As of right now, it's a "nice-to-try" when you're in the area, but not an absolute must-try....

Despite it being the grand opening, Red Straw wasn’t really as busy as I anticipated.

The location is found in Cypress Village shopping center right next to Pho Vinai and the recently opened Cauldron. Upon viewing the menu, I have to say that these are relatively expensive drinks compared to what’s around the area but I wanted to try something new so I decided to give them a shot.

THAI TEA SALTED CREAM ($4.50) — first off, the fact that the beverage was given to me with the cream already coming apart was beyond disappointing. Part of what makes a boba shop so successful is it’s ability to not only provide excellent taste but also excellent aesthetic. This drink was not that at all.... One thing to note is that because the salted cream goes on top of the drink, you cannot adjust the sweetness level as it will literally just be Thai tea.

COFFEE SEA SALT CREAM ($5.75) — just like the Thai tea, the cream was coming apart and mixing itself within the drink. This led to a very sad photo that made me question if they had received proper training prior to the grand opening.

SERVICE The cashier was sweet but otherwise I was disappointed at this aspect as well. I had to ask if I could spin the wheel on their grand opening and I had fortunately gotten 50% off which made this visit worth it. Other than that, the two cashiers were talking to each other and decided to finish their conversation before helping me...

SPEED Because it wasn’t particularly busy, the speed was average. I got my drinks around the estimated wait time.

Overall, I would not make a special trip to come out here for a second visit due to price, value, and service. One thing I did like, however, is the fact that they have...

Went at 12:30pm on a Monday. Parking was plentiful, but it is inside of a shopping plaza so there's plenty of space. The store itself is a little hidden in the corner of the plaza, near Starbucks. Inside it was really spacious, with cute decor and furniture. I really like the aesthetic of the store. The employee I interacted with was a male, and he seemed knowledgeable about the teas. I didn't ask very many questions as I was in a bit of a rush. I chose the Grapefruit Punch drink, and was surprised to find pieces of actual grapefruit inside. It's a mix of grapefruit juice and oolong tea. It didn't take very long for my drink to come out, but the store itself was not very crowded, probably only 3-4 other customers waiting. The drink was very refreshing, but if you don't like grapefruit I wouldn't recommend it. The best part of the drink was that it wasn't overly sweet, and tasted very natural and of high quality. Next time I'm going to try the Rose Garden drink, it seemed to be very popular here! The menu is a decent size, with lots of refreshing drinks that aren't normally on tea menus. Overall, the experience I had was enjoyable, and I would definitely bring some...