Saturday, March 6, 2010

Dragon Ball Tea House


Restaurant: Dragon Ball Tea House

Cuisine: Bubble Tea/Chinese

Last visited: February 21, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Shaughnessy)

1007 W King Edward Ave
Range: $10 or less


1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!


Drinks: 6

Service: 3 (well it’s pay at cashier and they go as fast as they can)

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

  • Located at major intersection, but neighborhood area
  • Famous for bubble tea
  • One of the most popular places for bubble tea
  • Attracts locals everywhere
  • Family owned and operated
  • Small operation
  • Stamp card available
  • Line-ups during peak hours (late night/after dinner)
  • Fresh fruit flavours
  • Seats 15 or so (very limited)
  • About 4 hot rice dishes available (with fried egg style)
  • Pay at cashier
  • Great price
  • Very casual/hole in the wall-ish
  • Some small snack available: Pocky, instant noodles
  • Open late
  • Couple parking spaces in the back
  • Pre-order/pick-up service available
  • Opens daily at 1:30pm

**Recommendation: Japanese Green Tea Ice Cream, Supreme Milk Tea, and any of their fresh fruit series – I like blueberry


Next to Pearl Castle Bubble Tea and Peanuts this is also one of the most popular places for locals to get their bubble tea. Everyone loves Dragon Ball Tea House and it has been here for ages! At least 8 years I’d say…maybe even 10? It JUST got a make-over and it used to look even more hole-in-the wall-ish. It’s has very limited seating and it’s super casual and unpretentious. I’d even call it more of a to-go place. I’ve been coming here fore years and it’s my top bubble tea choice in the Vancouver area…although Capstone Tea & Fondue is good too.

Unlike many other bubble tea places, Dragon Ball Tea House really focuses on just bubble tea. They do offer maybe 3-4 hot dishes (which I’ve never seen anyone order) but they really focus on just bubble tea. They do a great job and they have steady traffic and pretty long lines and waits during busy hours…which is usually late at night or after dinner hours.

I’ve tried a lot of flavours here, but I always go back to the recommendations above. You can get drinks sweet/half-sweet/non-sweet/hot/slush/combination of flavours/mixed fruit etc. Almost everything can be customized, but they just don’t advertise it. Everything tastes like it’s made with ice cream here. The fresh fruit flavours are like smoothies. I haven’t had one bad drink. Even the tapioca pearls are great. Besides tapioca pearls they have coconut jelly, grass jelly and I think maybe mango stars as options.


On the table:

Pudding Slush Bubble Tea 4/6

  • $4.00 + $.50 with tapioca pearls - $4.50
  • This was my first time ordering pudding slush. Again it was like ice cream, they do a good job, however the best pudding slush bubble tea is still at Tri-ty.
  • This was very good, but I wasn’t a fan of the pudding pieces at the bottom. That’s how it’s supposed to be served though, but I just didn’t like them that much. They’re jello like and not that flavourful for me…so I found it more distracting.
  • The drink part is a sweeter drink and it tastes like vanilla pudding, but in slushy form.
  • The pearls are great. Nice and chewy and cooked perfectly. They give you lots too!
  • The drinks are pretty big and filling, but they’re delicious!

Dragon Ball Tea House on Urbanspoon

6 comments:

  1. By far my favorite bbl tea place. I'll drive across town just to come here. I'm looking to try new combinations...any recommendations? If you like grass jelly here's my recent favorite: Fresh longan+lycee green tea, no slush,no milk, no sugar w/ grass jelly. Really refreshing!

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  2. Dragon Ball and Peanuts offer some of the best bubble tea in town.

    I always get a fresh fruit slush with half mango, half strawberry, no milk, and half pearls/coconut jelly.

    The stamp card is awesome since once you reach that magical "free", you can just get the craziest drink for free!

    One time there was a massive line up to order. I decided to call in our order while standing in line, and we beat the 10 people ahead of us! LOL

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  3. Whoa you get creative!! You're inspiring me! I should get recommendations from YOU!!! That drink sounds amazing!!! I'm surprised they can do that!!!

    Pina Colada with fresh pineapple and lychee slush! Like a dessert!

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  4. Hi Gary!

    SMART! Calling in lol...that's awesome! I'm going to do that if there's a long line-up next time..I literally Lol'd.

    Yes I agree with your bubble tea choics...however Peanuts I find their pearls are getting too soft.

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  5. The funny thing is I couldn't stop giggling like a little school girl when I was placing my order--because the dude was literally less than 2 metres away while I was ordering. I am pretty sure he heard an "echo" since I was so close while placing my order!

    Next time I'm going to give the pudding flavour a try. Never knew what it looked like until now.

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