Review - Ninja Bubble Tea Robson

       I have wandered the streets of downtown Vancouver for many years, looking for a nice place to chill after 10 pm.  As a person who doesn't enjoy nightclub and pub scenes that much, I find that there is not much to do after dinnertime if I'm stuck in downtown. The bubble tea places that I come across close at 10 pm, which is a bummer.  After dinner tonight, my friends and I strolled Robson to walk off our food baby and enjoy the light-strung trees that line the sidewalk. Then this guy caught my eye:

Located just next to Santouka Ramen (favourite ramen joint), a new bubble tea place opened up (which closes one hour later than the rest but hey, I'll take it)!  Apparently the first day of operation was a week ago, so it's fairly new.  We peered in and saw that there was a darts [?] machine and board games, and decided to try it out.

Our group of four ordered:

• Bubble waffle with Nutella & vanilla ice cream $4.99 - This took about 5-10 minutes as they make it on the spot.   For those who are not familiar with bubble waffles (鷄蛋仔), they are basically a sweet eggy batter heated and cooked into oval-shapes, popular snacks in Hong Kong.  Usually they are eaten plain, but lately I've noticed many places incorporate other flavours into them like Oreo bits, mochi, chocolate/strawberry etc. Anyway, they weren't bad, but they weren't special either.  The batter tasted like it was supposed to.  Nutella and ice cream always make things better though!

• Calamansi lemonade slushie $4.99 - The first time I had calamansi anything was during my first trip to the Philippines with my boyfriend.  It is the country's main citrus fruit, I'd say.  The taste is like a more refreshing lemon and orange mixed together.  People wash their hands with it, squeeze it on their fruit salad (LOVE!), and of course, juice it for a lovely summer drink, which is basically everyday in the Philippines.  Back in Canada, calamansi fruits are rare to come by (I've seen some at Granville Island), so I'm glad to find that this place has it.  It would be a great drink especially when it gets warmer.  Tastes so good.

• Oreo Whacha-Matcha! $5.99 - This is essentially an Oreo matcha slush drink.  Need I to explain why this was a good choice?  Cookie goodness <3 

While having our food and drinks, we played some of the board games available there, and we pretty much spent an hour there laughing and enjoying ourselves.  One of the staff came around to ask how things were.  I've never had that experience at a bubble tea place before.  Awesome.

The washrooms are a bit sketchy though; you have to go through a series of hallways, and upon returning, all the doors look the same. My best advice is to remember which door you came out of ;) One of the doors connect to Santouka, FYI (so THAT's where their mens' washroom is...).

I will definitely return to try the other drink flavours and poutine.  Mmmm who doesn't love potataes (yes, potataes) ^_^

Bubble waffle with Nutella + ice cream

Oreo whacha-matcha & matcha bbt (+extra small cups half-filled because, I guess, they made too much)

Fun times