Odd One Out Tea Sawtelle — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Currently, there are about 4 milk tea shops and none has managed to leave a lasting impression on me. The milk teas that each of these stores make are either too sweet or taste too artificial. I have been craving milk tea that is made with real tea leaves, not cheap, artificially flavored powders. Odd One Out checked all the boxes! More people should know about this shop because it's not as straightforward finding this shop just by walking around the Sawtelle area! Servers are friendly and your drinks get served pretty quickly and the place is clean as well!

Now, I have tasted about 6 flavors on their menu and they are all delicious and refreshing, some are better than others but they are all worth a try👌!

The drinks: [SEASONAL] Pistachio Matcha (9/10): This one was great! The matcha in this drink is thick and the blend between pistachio and matcha was perfect! I just wished that we got more pistachio in the drink (it felt like there was 65% matcha and 35% pistachio).

Iron Buddha MT (8/10): The tea smelled and tasted amazing! I had ordered this drink with (25% sugar) and the sweetness level was perfect as I could still enjoy the tea flavor. It smelled better than it tasted (perhaps Iron Buddha plain tea would have been a better choice).

[SEASONAL] Black Rose MT (9/10): This was better than I'd expected and definitely worth a try.

Osmanthus Yuzu (10/10): This is different from the rest because it’s more of a fruit tea than milk tea! I recommend 50% or even 25% sugar for this one because you want to enjoy the freshness and having too much sugar would overshadow this drink's strength.

Cousin Earl Grey (9/10): This is not bad at all! It's what you would expect Earl Grey to taste like!

Champion Milk Tea (10/10): Saved the best for the last! I have no word for it! Every drink I have mentioned before is amazing, but nothing beats the champion milk tea. This stands out from all the other flavors I have tasted.

Overall, I would totally recommend any tea lovers to try Odd One Out. Once you try their drinks, you would only come here for your milk tea cravings!

P.S.: If you love toppings in your drinks, then I would HIGHLY recommend the...

[ 5/17 UPDATE ]: The rating has been amended to reflect how everything was handled and the fact that I do think their drinks are great (esp their silk boba).

The manager, Ron, reached out to me and was very transparent and understanding about my experience. He provided me with a drink voucher and invited me to return to give it another chance which I'm glad I did. I coincidentally went into the store when he was handling drink orders. He was very friendly/professional and when he found out it was me, he was genuinely apologetic and even gave me a cute dog keychain. Looking back, I believe what I experienced was a one-time thing as my other visits were always pleasant. With this recent visit, I feel comfortable and happy to continuously return for my tea needs.

[ Original review (for context) ]:

I was finally warming up to making this shop my new regular boba stop, but today has me rethinking my decision. I left feeling guilty and bad for what could've been an honest mistake (if even??).

I had intended to order 2 different milk teas, and when I saw my finished order, I noticed that one of the drinks didn't have the milk component. I let the cashier/barista know in what I felt was a very courteous and normal way.

She proceeded to play a game of he-said-she-said and said she had "specifically asked if I wanted a plain or milk tea and I clear as day said plain".

I didn't want to challenge her because she seemed peeved and I said "Oh, if so that was my bad, I meant milk. Can I pay the difference so I can have milk added?"

She said it was fine, but proceeded to baristasplain the difference between plain teas and milk teas. 💀

I drink tea/boba on the regular and I am Taiwanese, so I am well aware. Her attitude was very patronizing. I'll probably avoid ordering from here if I notice her on shift. There's plenty of other places within 2 blocks that would be happy to...

Went for their soft opening on 8/26.

The line to order was about ~20-25 minutes, and since they make drinks to order in small batches, we waited an additional 20 minutes. However, the wait was totally worth it!

It's been a while since I've had drinks in this level of quality. A lot of the shops nowadays have a similar taste and vibe, including a rinse-and-repeat of the same teas. There's a section after you order where you can watch the team making drinks, and it's pretty cool to see how they make each batch of tea. The fragrance of tea in the shop is really nice as well.

We order the Champion Milk Teas The first one is just with regular milk, and I added the silk boba topping (recommend it!) The silk boba is literally like some kind of blend in textures of grass jelly and the QQ of boba. Second one has oat milk and the coconut sugar boba. I'm not too into coconut, so there is a strong taste of coconut with this particular topping. In terms of the Red Oolong, I liked it a lot! It's a bit tamer in taste than Iron Buddha (Tie Guanyin), and has a pretty sweet like aftertaste.

The service was great -- from straight to ordering, and making sure our drinks were tasty for us (they remake if you don't like it) They are still setting up the interior, but from the looks of it, it'll be a nice place to chill for a bit before walking around the rest of Sawtelle. Parking is (as usual), a bit of a pain, so make sure to keep an eye on that.

Only thing is the price... 🥹 It's pretty steep, so I'd only come back once in a while, haha. Still, compared to the usual shops in LA and the SGV, the ambiance, the quality, and simply the taste of the tea itself, is worth a visit...