After a night out in Richmond, my friends and I were looking for a late night cafe to go to apart from our usual Well Tea. The past two times we went, they were sold out of pearls and/or something else that I forgot, so we wanted to try someplace new and get to know Richmond a bit better. By the way, if you’re reading this and have a good recommendation for late night cafes in Richmond, please let me know! I texted one of my friends, who suggested we go to Strike because they had cheap bubble tea.
After winding around and getting a bit lost in the plazas that surrounded the neighbourhood, we finally found Strike. We got there around 12am, and it was a full house! Very loud music and many loud conversations among the different tables. There was a very lively atmosphere inside 🙂
After taking our names down, we decided to grab the menu while we waited. We were quite confused with the menu as they all looked like they were falling apart, stained, standard non laminated pages stapled together, crumpled and a bit frayed at the edges from the usage. To be honest, the menus looked quite gross to touch. They did say that this was a temporary menu, for their soft opening. We didn’t even know this place was new, but figured that’s why they had so many of those big plants with ribbons outside (Asian tradition).
To make up for the non-aesthetically pleasing menu, there was a really nice mural on one of the walls that I really liked. It took its part from the busy streets of Japanese cities, and reminded me of a documentary that I watched on Tokyo’s dense population and how restaurants managed (I am in love with Japanese culture if you haven’t figured it out already hehe).
They were having a half price special on tea drinks, but since I don’t fare well with caffeine that late I opted for the taro slush. The taro slush wasn’t on the menu, and the server had to double check if they had it. They were also out of pearls (Why do restaurants always run out of pearls?! I’m cursed!) so I got the coconut jelly instead. The taro slush was oddly bland. I say “oddly” because when you first drink it, you can taste the taro but the taste goes away instantly. It felt like I was just drinking ice slush, lightly flavoured with taro. I don’t think I would order this again.
My friends decided to split the Taiwanese chicken nuggets, large size. The chicken nuggets were cooked perfectly, very flavourful with the 5 spice powder (I think that’s what it’s called?) and tasted like what ideal Taiwanese style nuggets should be like. A restaurant that also serves their nuggets with fried basil is a plus in my books as well!
I didn’t take a picture of all my friend’s drinks, but here are two of them. The one in the middle was the honey lemon green tea with grass jelly bubble tea. My friend didn’t really like it because it was a bit bland, but for the special offer they had, they couldn’t really complain. The boyfriend ordered the milk tea with grass jelly and pudding in the back. He said that the milk tea was good, but he had a really hard time getting to the pudding because they were all in big cubes that didn’t agree with the straw. He ended up pulling apart the top of the bubble tea container and scooped it out with his spoon. 😛
All in all, Strike was average. The good thing about Strike is their late hours and their bubble tea special, but other than that, it’s meh. I can get the same tasting chicken nuggets at other Taiwanese places, but perhaps we can try their other dishes if we decide to come back. My slush was very bland, so was my friend’s honey milk tea. In the words of my friend, “I would come back here if I wanted cheap bubble tea”. Yes, cheap bubble tea indeed, but the taste and flavour was definitely sacrificed.
-Carmen
