Flo Tea Room -- Free Toast!

7994 Granville Street, Vancouver

Food: Small meal, so individual items are rated below.
Service: 3
Price: Moderate

With a black storefront and a dimly lit interior sits an unassuming restaurant in the heart of the Marpole strip of Vancouver's South Granville district. It's called Flo Tea Room, and yes, it serves a lot of tea--51 variations if I counted right. But don't let the name fool you, it's not just a tea joint. It's actually a popular Taiwanese cafe with an extensive menu that attracts the young, the old, and

groups from small to large.
I've come here a couple of times before, but haven't had much time to come back since. A chance situation wherein my sister and I had to wait an hour in the area gave me another chance to eat here again.

What to expect:

·    around 50 variations of teas, plus additional drinks such as coffees, Calpis drinks, slush drinks, juice, pop, and the restaurants own specialty drinks

·    no extra charge for pearls, coconut jelly, or mango stars for tea drinks, but $0.50 extra charge for grass jelly and red bean additions

·    an overwhelming menu of soups, salads, sandwiches, toasts, hot pots, panfried meat and vegetable combinations, pasta, noodle soups, fried frice, chow mein, baked entrees, and favourite Hong Kong cafe snacks

·    no glass of complementary tea to start your sitting (or at least we didn’t get any)

·    nice, but not terribly attentive service

The interior of the restaurant has changed since the last time I was here a year ago. Instead of an open restaurant arrangement, with long tables clustered in the middle, it now is partitioned  off down its centre, making for a more contemporary restaurant look. Glowing lights and artwork also help make it a comfortable interior.

We arrived at the restaurant around 5pm, just in time for the restaurant's Free Toast deal that ran from 2pm to 530pm. The deal was you could have one of 5 toast varieties for free if you ordered either a bubble tea drink or Italian soda alongside it. The price of the deal would reflect the price of the drink. The cheapest drink we could order was $3.50. The toast varieties included butter thick toast, French toast, condensed milk & butter on thick toast, condensed milk & peanut butter on thick toast, and milk thick toast. We arrived with small appetites, so toast seemed about right for the moment.

Initially I didn't want the deal. My appetite was seriously small, and all I wanted was the condensed milk & peanut butter toast, but when I read the menu, the price of a single milk & peanut butter toast was $4.75! Since there were drinks cheaper than that, of course I was going to get the deal. Asians like me die for a good deal any day.

I ordered Cold Black Milk Tea ($4.00) and the Condensed Milk and Peanut Butter on Thick Toast. 

Black Milk Tea with Pearls -- 3.5 / 5

·    quite nice black tea, with enough milk so that it wasn’t too thin

·    pearls were beyond the sweetness of other good bubbles teas I’ve had in the past

Condensed Milk & Peanut Butter on Thick Toast -- 3 / 5

·    talk about thick toast: it was about an inch high!...and really, this snack was pretty much all toast

·    crispy on the outside

·    broken apart, it was soft and steaming in the middle

·    peanut butter and condensed milk were present as a mixed spread on top of the toast, but the restaurant wasn’t very generous in the amount of it

·    spread was mostly peanut butter

·    at times I could taste drops of condensed milk at the edges of the spread

Chocolate Mint Smoothie -- 4 / 5

My sister ordered the same toast too, but chose to order a Chocolate Mint Smoothie ($4.50).

·    thick smoothie, with no big chunks of ice

·    neither the chocolate nor the mint flavours overpowered the other

·    recommendable drink if you plan to go to Flo

The Chocolate Mint Smoothie was so sugary it sparkled on top!

In the late afternoon, Flo Tea Room is a nice place for a comfortable snack if you are particular to quiet settings. This is no indication of its business because I've seen it much busier during other occasions. I can say that I am glad that I chose to opt for the free toast deal because frankly, the condensed milk & peanut butter on thick toast was not worth its regular price at $4.75. On the other hand, the drinks were large, decent, and very filling. I couldn't even finish my bubble tea before we had to leave, neither could my sister finish her smoothie. In general, this was a hit and miss snack. So if you happen to be here during a lazy afternoon hour and are inexperienced with its menu, I'd recommend resorting to a snack deal because you never know if you can snatch an overpriced item for free.