HouCaiLei Tea House
HouCaiLei is an artistic tea house perfect for hipsters. The interior is very beautifully done. Everything from this tea house are beautifully done. It’s a perfect place to spend an entire afternoon, but I hope there are more seats. It cost about $6 per person. The drinks are a bit on the sweet side, but they can be customized.
Houcailei Tea House Brown Sugar Jelly Milk $5.50
If you have asked your friend where is the most poetic bubble tea shop in Vancouver, then you probably have already heard about HouCaiLei. This tea house only has 1 store until recently. Their Richmond location just had their soft opening last month. HouCaiLei is located near TerraCotta Boyz in the Old Orchard Shopping Centre on the NorthWest corner of Willingdon Avenue and Kingsway, Burnaby.
Strength: The most poetic tea house in Metro Vancouver
Weakness: Drinks are powder made.
Other Bubble Tea Locations
- Yi Fang (4.5 Stars)
- Prime’s Thai Tea (4.5 Stars)
- Xing Fu Tang (4.5 Stars)
Ample parking in front
HouCaiLei is located within the Old Orchard Shopping Centre so there are lots of parking in front. They have a modest storefront, so it might be a little hard to locate if you have not been here before. You can start to sense the artsy atmosphere from outside.
Comfortable sofa at foyer area
As soon as we enter, we see the sofa area to the right. Customers can chill on the sofa and enjoy the view of the parking lot. There is a interesting pattern wood divider between this area and the cashier to provide visual separation.
Wood divider to enclose the counter
From this picture we can see the different use of design elements. There is rustic wood floor at the foyer, transitioning to linoleum flooring. The marble counter and the color used give the space an industrial artistic atmosphere.
Bold use of design elements
The interior of HouCaiLei has limited seating of 18. You can see many customer come here to use their laptop.
Drinks are highly customizable
The drinks at HouCaiLei are highly customizable. You can change it to fresh organic milk, or heat up your drink by steam. Also, you can make any drinks into slush. You can customize your ice and sugar level like every other tea house. HouCaiLei has 9 types of toppings for your drink.
The front line staff are all friendly young girls. They are very fast at making the drinks.
Art as decoration
Interior space has many elements. They come together seamlessly. It is actually quite poetic. There is even tasteful music from the early 90s playing in the background.
Lomography style cups
The lid has pictures that tell a story. You see Lomography style art around the cup. It gives customers a calming feeling when holding this cup.
Brown Sugar Jelly Milk
My brown sugar jelly milk tea tastes pretty sweet. The grass jelly is firm and thinly sliced. When I drink it, I can fee the top stale skin of the grass jelly. This is not a very pleasant texture. It’s very hard to chew.
Caramel Pearl Milk Tea
I opt’d in for the fresh organic milk for my caramel pearl milk tea. I even got half ice and half sugar. I think 50% sugar made this caramel drink quite boring. The pearls are smaller than usual, and they are quite good.
604 Food Critic Assessment
HouCaiLei is an artistic tea house perfect for hipsters. The interior is very beautifully done. Everything from this tea house are beautifully done. It’s a perfect place to spend an entire afternoon, but I hope there are more seats. It cost about $6 per person. The drinks are a bit on the sweet side, but they can be customized.
Menu
How to get in touch
- Phone: (604) 559-9688
- Address: #6 – 4429 Kingsway, Burnaby
- Hours: 12:00 am – 11:00 pm
