Sencha Tea Bar - Uptown — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I’ve been coming here since before it was Sencha. There are things I appreciate about the new ownership/brand and things I wish were improved. Overall, I think this is a great boba tea shop.

What I love: The new renovations done a few years back when the company was sold and “Sencha” was born. Having worked there for a year when it was the Tea Garden, the new improvements definitely would have made a huge difference for staff (which means better, faster product for customers). It also just looks way better! I like the contemporary chair seating in the front of house, and love the cushioned benches (they also have cushions on the standard table chairs). I like the expanded flavor selection and product line (variety enamel pins, keychains, tea products, etc.). I also like that this place has become quite the study hot-spot.

What I’d like to see improved: They went down from two restrooms to only one public restroom. This poses a huge problem when the shop is busy. Today (Sunday, December 3, 2023) there are no restrooms available to the public (even though have a staff-only restroom available)! Apparently, this is all because someone stole the key to the public restroom. Obviously, this is a business which sells liquid product for consumption, and the need for a restroom goes without saying. Additionally, the bathrooms could use a renovation and maybe get to the bottom of why they always smell faintly bad (old pipes). Some of the benches show ware and are in need of repair. Likewise, some tables are not level. The heat seems to be broken and multiple customers have complained to each other and staff of it being very hot in here today. I’ve also experienced this before. (I had to remove a star due to these concerns.)

The drink menu, recipes, and ingredients seem to be much the same as ever. Unfortunately, however, lattes are no longer blended (think traditional blender). I have, on more than one occasion, found clumps of unmixed powder in my drinks. Trust me, blended is better.

When I worked at Tea Garden, we always had two to three (sometimes four) people working, especially on weekends when we had frequent rushes. Not having enough people on staff means drinks take longer to order (waiting in line) and to receive (one person takes orders from a rush of people and then makes them). And as for the hours, like most establishments post-pandemic, this shop has yet to restore its previously wide operating hours. It closes at 10 PM, and just one extra hour later on weekends. (Tea Garden stayed open until 1 AM.)

Outside of the shop, I wish they would fix the front door problem (always sags and gets stuck open on the concrete) and clean up the eye sore of a back alley area they have. The sign designating parking spaces still reads “Tea Garden and Design Collective parking only” and one of them is badly rusted and bent. It’s bent in such as way that one cannot see when they get too close. (In my case, I now have a big chip in the paint on my front bumper!) There has been a piece of plywood on one of the windows of the building in the back, and the back door is rusty/in need of paint. This doesn’t seem like much, it’s an alley after all. It’s just that it is unsightly and kinda kills the mood/excitement of getting my favorite bubble tea. Plus, it doesn’t do the beautiful adjacent Prince mural any justice. (A Prince deserves better, y’all.)

It took a while to find the outlets. The customer service is as best as it can be when they only have one person on duty. While I like the seasonal decorations, however, sometimes (in addition to adverts everywhere) there’s just too much going on. The environment could benefit from a refined minimalism. After all, it is a tea shop.

It would take a lot for me to stop coming here, which says something for the overall value that Sencha offers. It’s a staple of the Twin Cities (they have a Saint Paul location too). Would love to see this special place given the TLC...

I came here originally in May of 2011 simply to redeem a Groupon... and I have been coming back religiously since. Every time I'm remotely in the Uptown area, I tell folks I'm with that, "OMG Tea Garden is like right across the street!" My friends usually have to sit me down, put a hand on my shoulder, and break the news, that Tea Garden is actually, like, 15 blocks away and 15 mins to get to in traffic. To which I respond, "Yes, that's so close!" when in reality my condo is closer to get to. But, I go anyway. Now that I live in San Francisco, it's a bit further... but anytime I am in Minneapolis... it's close enough.

There's something nostalgic about the place (for us bubble tea loving Asians), and really, the drinks are just simply delicious.

The staff is always helpful - full of knowledge and recommendations (Do the Taro go better with the black tea or green tea? Would you get the almond coconut in a chai or shake)?

The Tea Garden of course serves straight up tea, but that's not what I get. However, they do have canisters of a variety of teas, including one called Ambrosia that is scented with apple, chocolate vanilla mango, and rooibos. If you have time, go and sniff through all the tea leaves - each are distinct and rich.

Here's a list of some of the combination drinks I've tried and my rankings.

Hot Drinks:

Chai tea with almond and tapioca pearls - 5/5. Delicious, warm, sweet. Lavender vanilla latte with tapioca - 5/5 Green tea with honey and lemon - 2/5. Very tart. Coconut and coffee black tea - 3/5. Coconut was great but the coffee flavor was so-so. Red Bean green tea 4/5. Creamy and smooth; not too sweet. Vanilla black tea latte - 3/5 Almond Taro Tea Latte - 4/5

Cold Drinks:

Iced green tea with guava shot and lychee jellies - 4/5. Clean, simply, sweet. Cherry green apple shake - 2/5. Too cold, and ice watered flavor. Kiwi peach yogurt shake with strawberry jelly - 3/5. Banana almond shake with tapioca - 3/5 Green apple yogurt with grape jelly - 3/5. Coconut shake with...

Stopped here on our last night in Minnesota as we were there for a wedding, and boba options seemed slim in the Minneapolis area (we're used to lots of options in Phoenix). It was between Sencha, Niko Niko, or Tiger Milk as far as review scores went, since we're willing to drive 10-20 miles for good boba.

Decided on Sencha as the reviews were generally more favorable. We ordered a Royal Milk Tea, a Taro milk tea, and a Midnight milk tea (wintermelon), and unfortutely all three of them were very, very bland. The Midnight had the most flavor by far, but the brown sugar milk tea and the taro tasted like 90% water. I've had probably thousands of milk teas all over the country, and I've actually never had a Brown Sugar Milk Tea that tasted like this or was this bland, to the extent that I honestly doubted if there was even any milk or brown sugar in it? It just tasted like watered down black tea with maybe a splash of milk in it, and thank god I ordered boba in it, because that was literally the only sweetness in the drink. I understand some places make them sweeter or less sweet than other businesses, but many places offer a sliding scale for sweetness. 50% sweetness, 75% sweetness, full sweet. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that their drinks normally actually taste like milktea, because this was pretty terrible.

The staff were very nice to be clear, and the place has a cozy, cute atmosphere that would fit in perfectly with all of the 5 star places we frequent in Arizona. It's a shame, because this is really our one and only impression of Sencha.

Hopefully they can dial-in their recipes a bit more and do some quality control, and I feel like it can easily become a 5-star...