Welcome! You have found mmm-yoso!!! a blog. A food blog. Kirk usually writes here, but he's busy with his job. ed(from Yuma) sometimes writes here, but he's busy with vacationing. Today, Cathy is writing here because she isn't that busy.
Hi. I blogged about Tea Station, in the middle of another post in 2007, when I had just become aware of Tea/boba type snack houses. Since then, The Mister and I try to take the time to stop for small meals and/or snacks when we are out and about. For the record, I still think of boba as being large snots and just don't order those large chewy masses of tapioca...
A few weeks ago, we went to Tea Station and noticed it had expanded into the next store front.
So we sat in the new area. It looked like it can seat about 50 people, plus the area out front can have more tables. The beverage bar is a few steps down, in its original location and the seating there is the same (about ten four person tables).
Tea Stations are franchised, all the locations seem have the same inventory and menu. The beverages to choose from include, hot and cold, tea- regular, fruit. flavored and milk, coffees, milk drinks, snow ices, jelly ices and healthy drinks. This time, we decided to try a small pot of the Rose tea ($4) . It came with two cups.
The tea both smelled and tasted of roses, yet had a deep strong undertone of black tea. Different and very good. It was perfectly brewed before being brought to the table.
The menu is divided into Snacks, Meals and Noodles. We decided to try a 'New!' item from the snack menu- fried squid balls ($5.25). These were quite substantial, meaty/chewy in a good way, had a light breading, were lightly fried, not greasy and enough spice to make them just right. I hope they remain on the menu.
We also decided to try the Tea flavored mushroom pork ($8.25). This came with rice and three side dishes (which vary daily). There are small mushroom pieces in the shredded pork and gravy, which has a mild tea flavor, but you can taste the meat flavor. The gravy was thick and tea/mushroom flavored. This day two of the side dishes had meat in it ground pork (or chicken) mixed with stir fried bok choy, the other with shredded pork and various vegetables and the third was room temperature pickled vegetables. Each side had its own flavor and in a larger serving, each could have been a meal with rice. Very refreshing and complimentary to the main dish.
Even though the plate seemed to be expensive, it came not only with those delightful side dish additions, but also a beverage choice of: hot or cold, black or green and with or without milk tea. This is a cold green tea milk and it tasted very nicely strong of green tea as well as milk.
All in all, a very nice relaxing light snack/lunch.
Tea Station 7315 Clairmont Mesa Boulevard San Diego 92111 (858) 268-8198 Open 7 days 11:30 a.m.-12:00 Sun-Th, until 1:00 a.m. on Fri and Sat Website
The tea flavored mushroom pork looks delicious!
Posted by: Nate | Wednesday, 27 July 2011 at 05:38 PM
hi cathy - i would totally eat those squid ballz! and not just because they are named 'squid balls' either! they really do look good!
Posted by: caninecologne | Wednesday, 27 July 2011 at 06:26 PM
The rice that was shaped to match the plate made all the flavors come together, Nate.
You know I *had* to order something with that name, cc. The menu has them listed as "tea flavored fried squid balls" but I didn't taste any tea/tannins in it. They were really good.
Posted by: Cathy | Thursday, 28 July 2011 at 11:36 AM
Oh I had no idea they expanded. It's been so long since I've been there. That's good though since they are always so crowded. Have you ever had the brick toast? I love getting that for snack/dessert there.
Posted by: Kirbie | Thursday, 28 July 2011 at 12:42 PM
One of my fav snack place :)
Posted by: Yummieyummy | Thursday, 28 July 2011 at 07:59 PM
Hi Kirbie. I have had the plain butter toast, when I was just snacking, but my friend ordered the peanut butter toast last time and it was really good.
This is a great place, Yy. A little more 'upscale' than other boba places.
Posted by: Cathy | Saturday, 30 July 2011 at 08:41 AM
This is one of the worst restaurant ever. Everything is so expensive. Boba teas are usually below $4 but they charge over $5. A plate of dish is usually $6, they charge almost $9. We found a dead roach in our beef soup. We told our waiter about it but he didn't do anything. So, we told the manager. She came over and told us sorry and walked off. She didn't offer a free dish nor a discount. After we asked for the boss, they just ignored us. After waiting for 20 mins, we decided not to leave any tip and left.
It was a horrible experience. We will never go back.
Posted by: David | Monday, 11 June 2012 at 07:51 PM