JIN — Restaurant in West Covina

I, unfortunately, had a horrible time today. We got to the Tea House around 8:15, 11th Jan, 2025 and I've just got back home now feeling pretty upset to tell the truth. We spent about 65 dollars for 3 drinks (8-10 each) a beef/egg/salad rice bowl (forget the exact name) and a small bowl of empanadas.

My daughter and I had a great time here about two/three weeks ago when we were with some other family members, so I decided to take her again with some of the only time I get to spend with her alone, and it was awful. I kept a brave face, so to speak, so she didn't feel as uncomfortable as me and she seemed to have a nice time.

For me? I felt really uncomfortable. My discomfort started when we were asked if we'd like to substitute the honey boba, as they have ran out, and I asked for Mango jelly. All is fine still... The table next to us leaves as we make thr change from honey boba to mango jelly, the hostesses clear their table right after and talk in a language I don't understand, softly spoken, until they mention "mango jelly" at first they continued speaking softly, but eventually they deepened their voices almost mimicking me, repeating "mango jelly". That I didn't care about at first. I'm used to it here, my accent isn't American when speaking English and some find it amusing. It is what it is

The second thing the food arrived and the eggs I got were burnt, black and scrambled, different to the picture entirely which was a sunny side up egg. Again, could just all be in my head, I'm anxious often. But burnt eggs? They're easily redone. Takes a few mins to make an egg. The dish was around 18 dollars in total for what was a rice bowl, at that price why is my egg blackened? (We enjoyed the rice and beef though, to be completely fair)

Our drinks came and my tea had what looked like frozen raspberries added, but I got some beat up mushed raspberries with discoloration on them. I buy frozen raspberries. Sometimes you get bad ones. Why did I get them in my drink tho? These minor things just add up in my anxious mind. I felt uncomfortable.

The next part is my mistake. We brought a tub of ramen from a food truck, outside food, and I misunderstood that it wasn't allowed. We were asked to put it away. That's fine, my mistake. But then I felt watched as the hostess fixed a decorative piece right next to our table. When we arrived our table wasn't clean and had cake bits on it but this flower decorative piece was important? I felt like inwas obviously being watched, it was uncomfortable. Just more things adding up in my mind and to make it worse I ate a piece of apple from my tea, and I did not like it, it was a fresh green apple slice which tasted bad, i like green apple, this was bad though. I didn't want to spit it out into a napkin while being watched. I kept inspecting my drink to make sure nothing else was bad... it's a 8-10 dollar drink?? Shouldn't happen... (they're usually beautiful drinks, with lots of customisation and cute cups, so mine being bad felt strange and unusual)

Everyone else in the Tea House was having a great time, the hostesses were very courteous to everyone else, I just felt I did not get the same courtesy (worse I felt like they just didn't like me, and I was silent, only spoke when spoken to, never called for any help, nothing).

I did not want to make a fuss with the short time I get with my daughter so I left feeling very upset, and it's a shame, cos I really loved it the last time. The interior is adorable, the food was great (last time) and the drinks were good too, but I won't go back now. We just packed out table up neatly and left, my daughter unaware of my upset.

I would like to say this was all in my head and anxiety fueled, but it really didn't seem that way. I felt judged. I wasted my Saturday evening upset and that's time with my child I can't get back, which really matters to me. I wish i had a different experience cos id havenloved to have taken my wife here on her birthday for lunch. Genuinely would feel stupid ever...

Had afternoon tea for two with a friend here on a Sunday afternoon. Overall, great experience (probably bc of the company) and I would come back in spite of some downsides.

🩷 likes: -beautiful ambiance. If you like pictures, you'll be able to take pretty pictures to your heart's content here. -food/drink presentation is also A+. The afternoon tea platter was plated beautifully, the tea cups are gorgeous and iridescent, and the snack carousel is really cute. -we ordered lemon lavender oolong tea. It was the bomb!! so flavorful 💛 -the desserts were also exquisite! I especially liked the ones on the bottom tray of the afternoon tea platter. The strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cupcakes had me ascending to heaven upon tasting them 🤤 -I like that there's a large variety on their menu. Due to the food/drink quality, I will be back to try other items! -I highly recommend their popcorn shrimp & fried tofu! the tofu was especially addictive, it's so crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside!

💔 dislikes: -slow, rude service. When my friend & I arrived, we were the only two people there, but our food took quite a while (15-20 min) to come out. The afternoon tea platter also came out around 20 minutes after the snacks & tea had been delivered. I don't know if that was intentional, but I expected everything to come out all at once, or at least in closer succession to one another. The staff were also very brusque and seemed annoyed any time we asked for anything. When we asked them to refill our teapot, they did so without saying a word, as in they didn't ask us if we were enjoying the food/drink, if they could get us anything else, etc. The server also spilled water onto the table while doing the refill and she didn't apologize or clean it up, she just walked away afterward 🤷‍♀️ It was weird and off-putting but not so bad that we would never go back again. -Someone started watering the windows outside while we were there and that was weird since we were sitting next to the windows. The watering also lasted for maybe an hour and we were surprised they were still at it for so long. -If you sit by the table with the book decorations, there's a funny (unpleasant) smell! -while the snack carousel is cute, I have to say we were in fear for our snacks the whole time! it's designed to stay in one set position, so if you try to rotate it, it will spin back to the original position, which can make getting the food you want tricky. You need to hold onto it with one hand to balance it while getting your food otherwise it will probably fall onto the table. so while it looks nice, it's very impractical. -I don't recommend the chicken satay. It was basically all fat 😭 Unless you want to eat a skewer of fat, pass on it. -the mozzarella sticks were also meh. the cheese wasn't melty so it was kinda dry. Popcorn chicken was also meh, I've had better. -snacks are very salty & drinks are very sweet. We got the tea with 25% sugar and it was still really sweet for both of us. Next time we will go...

I really wanted this place to be really good however I was very disappointed when I walked in and had to scan a QR code to place my order they did however accept cash we sat down and waited for about 20 minutes before our pot of tea arrived then an hour goes by before they brought out our food other tables around us had their food and we were waiting for an hour The finger sandwiches were egg salad and if you want to call it egg salad it was more like watered down Mayo with maybe a egg mashed in at some point I had to send those back she was not very nice about it she brought me these weird puffy strawberry sandwiches with the crust on it's a high tea for god sakes cut off the crust The dessert treats were frozen inside and yeah I feel like I was treated so poorly I asked for another plate cuz the egg salad was all runny and gross and I didn't want it on my dessert so I asked for a new plate she went into the kitchen then came back out 5 minutes later I got my plate I will not be going back and I do not recommend anybody go there for tea maybe they're Taiwanese food is good or their drinks but don't go for high tea it's not a tea shop it's it as terrible. I also had to ask for them to light the candle that the lady when she brought the teapot out tried to light lidded and then walked away as she saw it blow itself out never came back to check on it or me I had to call...