A Xing Fu Tang recently opened up in North Burnaby! Replacing 820 Sweets, Xing Fu Tang is located across from Gilmore Station.

One thing I do not like about Xing Fu Tang is how small and limited the menu is. I also found their drinks to be on the expensive side, and smaller than other bubble tea places.

Brown sugar pearl milk: This is probably their most popular drink. They are known for their brown sugar pearls, which you can see behind the glass pane.

The drink was delicious! The brown sugar pearls gave it a bit of caramel flavour. It was really smooth and easy to drink.

Bunny jelly mango smoothie: My options were quite limited because I didn’t want to have a milk drink to myself, and it was also too late for caffeine. I settled on this drink but it was quite disappointing.

The main reason was because I didn’t feel this drink was worth $7! It was just a blended mango smoothie and I don’t think it was even made with real mango.

The bunny jelly was a cute touch but still didn’t make it worth the price. It had a light, evaporated milk flavour to it, similar to those Chinese goldfish jello desserts during Chinese New Year.

Strawberry pearl milk: I found this to be overpriced and meh for what it was. Their pink pearls were no where as good as the brown sugar ones.

Grapefruit green tea: I didn’t try this, but it was a better value than the mango smoothie and strawberry pearl milk. We saw the staff freshly squeezing the grapefruit, and it came with some fresh grapefruit slices.

All in all, I would only recommend this place for their brown sugar pearl drinks. The other drinks did not seem worth the price and were meh. The cup sizes here are also smaller.

It would also be nice to have some soy milk option because there are a great number of Asians who are lactose intolerant! I’m glad to see other places are starting to have soy or almond milk options, and I hope Xing Fu Tang will follow soon.

Last year, I remember complaining to the fiance that there weren’t many bubble tea places in this area. Then, they opened Ding Tea earlier this year… and now, they also have a Gong Cha in this area that opened a few weeks ago which I will be writing about today!

Last week, I also saw a ShareTea sign opening up soon just a block from Ding Tea as well! My bubble tea prayers have been answered and I will have three options to choose from in this area!

Gong Cha has been on the back burner for me in terms of bubble tea. I’ve been a couple times to the Robson Street and Kingsway Street locations. The drinks were decent, but I don’t live close to either location nor do they offer delivery so I don’t have Gong Cha as often as ShareTea or YiFang.

However, I found that this new Gong Cha has been the best Gong Cha to date. Also, since this location is a lot more convenient for me (not the reason why I found it to be the best Gong Cha to date btw), I’m sure that we will be back again.

This location is directly across from Renfrew Skytrain beside Tim Hortons. It is spacious, and suitable for studying or catching up.

Wintermelon juice: I went with my usual wintermelon juice. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t adjust the sweetness level because that meant it wasn’t made to order like other drinks. So far, the only place where I can adjust wintermelon juice is ShareTea.

With that said, I still enjoyed my wintermelon juice. It was light and refreshing, with a good amount of sweetness.

My favourite part however, were the pearls. These were some of the best pearls I’ve had! They were so fresh and chewy. I’d come back just for the pearls. The fiance also noted that the pearls were really good quality here.

Milk tea: The fiance ordered a milk tea with grass jelly. The milk tea was fragrant and strong. He also really enjoyed the grass jelly, which had a strong herbal taste to it so you know that it’s quite pure and not made with a lot of sweetener.

Overall, we enjoyed our drinks at Gong Cha and will definitely be back.

There are so many Yi Fangs opening up in Metro Vancouver, and for good reason! Based on my previous visits at other locations, you can really tell the quality of their drinks. You can read my review here on the Cambie Street location in Vancouver.

This time, I went to a Yi Fang in Richmond on Gilbert Road. Located in the same apartment complex as Milkcow and Dinesty, this location is connected to Dinesty so you can order their drinks if you eat there!

This Yi Fang was not as busy, and more spacious than other locations I’ve been to. There was also free parking underground for the apartment complex which was easy to navigate (I say this because Richmond parking can be a nightmare).

Starfruit juice: Instead of my usual wintermelon juice, I tried this despite a warning from one of the staff saying it wasn’t that good. I appreciated that honesty, but I was in the mood to try something different!

The drink reminded me of ‘wah mui’ or sour salted plum snacks, that I used to eat at my grandma’s when I was a kid. In that sense, it was nostalgic so I enjoyed it.

However, wah mui isn’t something you would binge eat normally…. A few pieces would be enough. That was the case for the starfruit juice too. The sour and saltiness was nice the first few sips but it wore off and became strange.

It wasn’t terrible, just not my cup of tea after awhile. Good thing I wasn’t thirsty because this isn’t the type of drink too chug either! The saltiness prevents you from doing that. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it unless you are a huge fan of salted plum.

Original fruit tea: Scallop went with her go to, the original fruit tea. One thing that sets Yi Fang apart is how much fresh fruit they include in the tea! She had no complaints about her drink.

I would love to come back to this location – parking is easy, not super busy, and spacious. I’d also like to go to the Dinesty next door so I can order some Yi Fang to go with my food. It’s not everyday that two different shops combine!