My #1 activity with friends is getting food and bubble tea together, because obviously we always deserve a break from studying. Here are some of my favourites from my first year in Toronto! (I had planned to write this blog post a lot earlier, whoops…)

I use Beli to keep track of my restaurant & café rankings!

category I: food, because we need to eat

A Szechuan Restaurant 一家川菜馆 (Google Maps, Instagram)

AMAZING — can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. I especially love the 花蛤 (clams) here and this restaurant is very much parent-approved.

A bit pricey for each indiviudal dish, but the portion sizes are really really big, so once you count how many meals you can eat with the leftovers, it’s a good deal.

Bao House (Google Maps: Dundas / Yonge & Wellesley, Website, Instagram)

Very good price for comfort foods. My faves: pork & cabbage pan-fried dumplings, braised beef noodle soup, and any 小笼包 (xiaolongbao / soup dumplings).

The Dundas location is bigger and has more drink options — the jasmine milk tea was quite good and only ~$3!

Grandma Kitchen 阿婆私房菜 (Google Maps, Website)

Came here multiple times (with friends’ parents too, who had apparently heard about this from 小红书, so this is many-parent-approved). I like the fried rice, 干煸四季豆 (Sichuan dry-fried green beans), and eggplant!

Mom’s Pan-Fried Bun 老娘水煎包 (Google Maps, Website)

Super good prices!! I liked the mango sago a lot and the 凉皮 (Shaanxi cold noodles) especially.

Fudao Noodle House 福稻过桥米线 (Google Maps, Website)

Huuuuge portion sizes for a good price. Nice for takeout since it’s individually portioned (not family-style). I got the braised pork and this was also the first time I actually enjoyed fatty meat.

category II: bubble tea, because we enjoy being happy

Molly Tea (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Insanely fresh tea flavour — come here for milk teas, not toppings, except the snowy whipped cream (yummm). I swear the thin straws do something. Also, my favourite and absolutely underrated drink: osmanthus green milk tea (桂花龙井).

Hero Tea (Google Maps, Instagram)

Similar fresh milk tea style to Molly Tea but a bit more pricey, and I would say just a tiny bit weaker tea flavour. Still the best milk tea available in Ottawa. My favourite (as expected): snow-topped osmanthus blossom (I love that it comes with the whipped cream).

Chatime (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Came here WAY too many times, but Chatime rewards are actually pretty decent. It’s definitely a lower-tier kind of brand than the first two I mentioned, but the tea taste is still quite strong. Importantly for me, Chatime tapioca pearls are always good (surprisingly harder to find than I thought). I also bought too many of the plushie keychain blind boxes (and got really unlucky) because I had friends who wanted them lol…

Heytea (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

The new Crisp Grape Boom drink that we tried was really good, although I guess it wouldn’t really fall under the category of tea?

Baroness (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Local business with a super cute mural and nice atmosphere! :D I like their menu — it has a lot of cool drinks, and the peach oolong tea was decent. They have some really good deals on certain days.

category III: matcha, because we love drinking grass

I’m tracking prices in this category…

Lost in Tokyo Café & Bar (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Strawberry matcha latte: $7.90 before tax (but you get $1 off if you bring your own cup!). The best matcha that I’ve had in Toronto — very strong matcha taste, fresh strawberry jam, and not too sweet.

They have amazing-looking desserts here, so I’m definitely coming back sometime.

10 DEAN (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Strawberry matcha latte: $8.00 before tax. Amazing strawberry and matcha flavour — they use syrup and not jam here, so I liked that none of the strawberry bits could get stuck in my straw. It was VERY sweet though, so I wish the syrup could just be a bit less sweet.

Getting a drink comes with 2 hours of studying time there, and the decorations are BEAUTIFUL. Very nice study spot to take a break from UofT libraries.

ICHA TEA (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Strawberry mango matcha latte: $7.20 before tax. Very good matcha, I honestly didn’t like the mango that much though? There were too many fruit bits that were hard to drink with a straw. Nice atmosphere and I want to try the tea bar!

Their specialty is more in Chinese teas, so I am definitely going back to try more. I did try the snowy rose jasmine milk tea, and it was okay, but I think tapioca pearls/toppings aren’t their strongest selling point.

Bloom Cafe (Google Maps, Website, Instagram)

Kinako matcha latte: somehow the price is not available online, and I had it a while ago. :( It was very nicely not-too-sweet and had a pretty strong matcha taste. I’d like to go back and try their desserts!

Conclusion: matcha is really expensive… and let’s not worry about how much money I spent on food this year…