Tri-ty Café
Categories: Restaurants Taiwanese Food Coffee & Tea Taiwanese, Coffee & Tea [Edit]
8100 Ackroyd RoadSuite 130
Richmond, BC V6X 3K2
(604) 231-8997
- Price Range:
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$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Late Night
- Alcohol:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
14 reviews for Tri-ty Café
14 reviews in English
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Review from Sachi M.
First visit:
I thought I read "matcha" and red bean milky tea, but neither the flavour nor colour looked matcha enough. More like regular green tea. It was good, though, not overly sweet. The lady thought to ask me if I wanted hot or cold, which was nice, since I don't do bubble tea enough to remember that there is a hot option. The coconut jelly came on the side. I guessed that I'm supposed to put it in the tea little by little, so that they don't all melt.
Second visit:
Taro Milk tea (cold, no pearls or coconut jelly) was good! I wasn't as impressed with the meal, though. The "om-rice" (I forget what they called it here, but fried rice inside a omelet), was OK, but the curry sauce was not. The first few slices of the fried chicken was good, but it got greasy very quickly. I think my favourite things were the pickly side dishes. Not a good sign.
The service is slow, as most reviewers have mentioned. I ended up walking to the counter to pay, though I'm not sure if that's their plan, or they would bring you the cheque if they notice. On the other hand, maybe you can get away with studying there for a long time.
Hotel-class decor, fast food-class maintenance. This is noticeable in the actual holes-in-the-walls that haven't been fixed, and especially in the washroom, where the edges of the floors are black from amateur mopping.
CASH ONLY. -
Review from Nancy W.
5/16/2012 1 Check-in Here
Sometimes I beat myself for repeating certain places that are not very good. Take Tri-Ty Cafe for example, their food is very mediocre and the drinks are not very consistent. The prices are not very fair for the quality received. The place is run down - there are holes on the walls, paint chips, and slow service. Yet above all that, when other tried and true places are either too busy, closed or not conveniently located because of hunger pains or pure laziness ... we return to Tri-Ty.
Their menu has been updated and it appears there are more selection. But I find there is a sly/sneakiness aspect to the presentation. There are no prices listed anywhere on the menu. They entice you with pictures first (smart move on their part) then you check the order slip where the prices are listed.
Deeply saddened by what was presented.
Fried Rice Omelette with Deep Fried Chicken Cutlet (tomato / curry sauce)
Mediocre rice with an egg wrap fried rice. The curry sauce on the side was cold and gloopy. I wish they'd at least nuked the sauce a little.
The chicken stripes were alright, nothing special tho.
Oyster Omelette
This is not what a traditional oyster omelette would look or taste like. It is dry and very blend. There again was a cold somewhat spicy tomato paste for spreading? Dipping?
Three Spiced Chicken with Rice
Salty. Beyond the saltiness I could not taste the spices used to "marinate" the chicken.
Shaved Ice with your choices or items (red bean, taro, tapioca, mocha, etc).
Ice plate with toppings. The warmth of the red bean will melt your ice turning it into a soup like mixture shortly.
Slush
Pineapple - tasteless. It was not very sweet and I guess pineapples or pineapple juices are not a high priced commodity.
Passionfruit
I see that they had chocolate cookies and Godiva chocolate slushes also. They looked pretty good on the menu. I wonder how they taste like in real life... Anyone care to let me know please?
At the end of the day, I've been here multiple times spread over the years and I think it's just been getting worse. Believe they've changed owners too... but nothing really has changed. I strongly believe you will be better served at Leisure, Pearl Castle, Well Tea. -
Review from Rick C.
Updated - 12/12/2011 5 photos
It had been a long time since my frequent trips to Tri-ty for bubble tea and Taiwanese food.
To drink, I got the mocha ice cream slush, and luckily, it's coldness offset the tasty spiciness from the Taiwanese beef noodles. The noodles were quite good and tasty, filling us up.
The tomato fried rice baked inside an omelette with fried chicken cutlet is my usually go to dish and seems to always do the trick for late night hunger pangs.
I can't remember the last time I showed up to Tri-ty before 10pm. It always fills me up and satisfies my urges for Chinese food and bubble tea.Listed in: Brunch Om Nom Nom
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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9/17/2010
Tri-ty has great bubble tea. Their selection is wide and serve any tastes. All the milk teas from… Read more »
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Review from S L.
Coquitlam, BC
5/22/2012 5 photos
Place is a bit run down. Food is mediocre. Okie for just a quick bite. There are a few unique dishes that other Taiwanese restaurants don't offer. Like marinated rice cake (most of other places fried it). Tri-Ty special pork leg is okie if u like fatty meat. Their beef noodle is better then average but not consider as the best around town. Parking is easy to find and it's free. I guess that's a bonus in this area.
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Review from Fritz S.
7/28/2011
Ok lets face it. this place isn't gonna win any awards for appearance or decoration believe me!! Damn!! the walls are all beat up! the floor is filthy. and don't get me started on the sticky chairs!!! whatever, i didn't come here to rant on the look.... well.... ok mabey a little.. then i thought to myself "man, I hope the food is better than the building"..
To my surprise, the food is pretty snazzy! I ordered the:
Yam Fries which came with kechup and powdered cinnamon sugar... u know like the ones u get at the PNE. so good!!!
Fried rice with chicken cutlet- Chicken was juicy with the right amount of salt- not bad at all, sir!
deep fried tofu with honey garlic sauce!- a little rubbery. not my favorite item :(
Last but not least Strawberry slush!- i have to say, they got me with the slush!.. very flavorful and huge! and for only 4.95!
just a fare warning they. only accept cash so go to the bank first! -
Review from Katie M.
7/27/2011
This place is average, but in a city where there are a million other restaurants just like it, it just doesn't measure up. Service is slow and the wait for food is long, even for take-out. Oh, and everything is severely overpriced.
I've had the Chili Pig Intestine & Pig Blood Hot Pot, Condensed Milk Thick Toast, Taiwanese Fried Chicken, and a lot of their drinks - everything was pretty good, but you can honestly get the same quality for a cheaper price somewhere else. Why is this place so highly rated? Is it because it's conveniently located next to Save-On-Foods/on No. 3 Road?
One good memory from here, though, was discovering that Mango Bubble Tea and Lychee Calpis Slush taste funky together. -
Review from Kin L.
Burnaby, BC
I am a fan of Taiwanese beef noodles -- a big fan. When I had the chance to try out another Taiwanese cafe / bistro with a claim to their "house special" beef noodle, I could not refuse. My first surprise came when I ordered their red bean slush drink. I thought I was ordering a glass of shaved ice with some red bean and milk / ice cream. What I received was a gigantic dish with a mountain of shaved ice about 8 inches tall. Don't get me wrong, this "dish" tasted great with fresh tasting red bean and just the right sweetness. But this dish, at a price lower than their bubble teas, could have fed 3-4 people! I was not sure whether to be happy or embarrassed about this dish.
When my house special beef noodle came, which took almost 10 minutes, I had mostly filled myself up with the monster red bean slush. Perhaps it was a good thing that the beef noodle took much longer than what I was used to -- usually in the range of 3-5 minutes -- as I needed that time to work on the slush a bit. My first reaction to the beef noodle was that the soup base was quite sweet. Maybe the slush had already numbed my taste a bit, which should have reduced my sweet taste sense. Then the noodles disappointed as they lacked body being quite limp. The pickled vegetable garnish did not help as the generous portion simply confused the taste more by making the soup even sweeter yet not adding any strong contrasting flavour like some of the pickled vegetabled I've had at other Taiwanese restaurants. Even the beef brisket chunks themselves, which are suppose to be the main feature of this noodle dish, seem to just get drowned amidst of the bland yet overly sweet flavour of the soup.
Compared to some of my favourite Taiwanese locations like Pearl House, The One, and Pearl Castle, the beef noodle dish at Tri-Ty simply cannot compare due to the lack of character. I think their redemption is in their great slush which everyone should try -- just bring a friend or two or three! -
Review from Marc D.
Vancouver, BC
4/1/2009
This Taiwanese cafe is tucked away in the Save-on parking lot and easily missed if you aren't looking for it. Even though it is in a non-descript parking lot it has a modern decor with nice lighting touches and odd sound effects in the washroom (birds chirping - WTF?).
They serve a wide variety of Taiwanese dishes and also have a large selection of slushies, shakes, and teas.
Some of their offerings include:
- Taiwanese fried chicken
- Curry pork chop
- Taiwanese sausage
- Pickled hakka salty pork
- Chili pig intestine and pig blood hot pot
- Pickled cabbage hot pot
- Marinated tripe
- Marinated omasum
- Marinated tendon
- Marinated gizzard
- Fried squid tentacles
- Fried oysters
- Condensed milk thick toast
- Etc., etc., etc.
Very wide selection.
I sampled their marinated tendon, Taiwanese fried chicken, and jasmine green milk tea.
The marinated tendon was a large plate, nicely presented with a side of lightly pickled cabbage. Both the tendon and the cabbage were nicely flavoured without being overly salty as they sometimes can be. There was a combination of sweetness and spiciness to the tendon, and it had a hint of sesame oil to round out the flavour. A nicely balanced dish.
The Taiwanese fried chicken was a generous cutlet perfectly fried so that it was crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. It had the typical Taiwanese breading which has a hint of 5 spice mixed in. I think the coating is made with sweet potato starch to give its distinctive texture. It was served with a nicely plated plate of 4 side dishes including marinated pressed tofu, broccoli, marinated squid tentacles, and a small Japanese style omelet quarter. The pressed tofu was delicious, the broccoli was broccoli, the marinated squid was extremely chewy - as if it had over marinated or been overcooked prior to marination, the omelet was fluffy and well seasoned. Nothing was too salty. It all came with a bowl of rice that was nicely presented with black sesame seeds on top.
The jasmine milk tea arrived in what looked like an old fashioned glass milk container. I couldn't believe the size of it! The tea was perfectly frothy with a nice overtone of jasmine. Very pleasant overall.
They also throw in a complimentary egg custard dessert. This was similar to the type you get in a cup from the market. Nothing special. But a nice gesture overall.
The service was really REALLY friendly rounding out the overall offering.
I will definitely return to sample more of the menu and to enjoy (?!@?!?!) the sounds of nature in the washroom. -
Review from J K.
I'll start off by saying that the food wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. There are much better restaurants in the area though.
We tried to alter a menu item slightly and the waiter became flustered and said it wasn't possible. We just wanted chicken and fried rice instead of chicken and regular rice. How hard could that have been? We were willing to pay extra for it. And when we asked for drinks the waiter said, "We don't have that" and then nervously wandered off.
There were nicks and divots in all of the walls. The decor made it seem like they were moving out -- there were several empty hooks on the walls.
The bathroom was awful. And sometimes I gauge the kitchen cleanliness by the bathroom cleanliness. It makes sense: if they neglect the bathroom (which is seen by many customers) think about how bad the kitchen is (since no customers see the kitchen). Very dirty bathroom. Filthy, even though the log on the door said the bathroom had been serviced recently. The toilet wasn't secured to the floor. No toilet paper and no spare paper. No paper towels either -- not even a paper towel dispenser. The garbage can was in front of the sink. Let me repeat that: the garbage can was in front of the sink.
Ick. -
Review from Crystal H.
Vancouver, BC
8/13/2009 4 photos
I was ready to give it 2 stars: modernish, minimal decor with huge gouges in all of the walls, down to the drywall, eyes in the sky, cashola only, inattentive staff (but not unexpected), big menu, but nothing was really catching my fancy...except for maybe those advertisements on the small screens set up at each table.
But then the food and my drink came...and I was conformed
Let me firstly say that my red bean tea was a meal in itself, without the pearls (I suggest getting two straws and reenacting an old milkshake commercial from the 1950s).
And onto the food. I have never loved an egg over easy more than I did in my pork udon. The broth was perfection. Almost the way my mom used to make it! I couldn't get enough. Presentation was gorgeous - it came in a hot pot lowered into a wooden box.
The Teriyaki chicken on fried rice was also good. After seeing that much yummy food, my lunch date and I both thought we could've just got one dish and split it!
Lots of flavour, lots of value. Don't let the somewhat bland descriptions of the dishes stop you from ordering up. Next time I'm coming with a crew! -
Review from Guislen M.
Vancouver, BC
7/15/2010
Tri-ty is the go-to place for me and my friends when we're hanging around Richmond. Close to two Canada Line stops, it's super easy for those who are coming from Vancouver to get to.
There is a huge list of drinks. And if you have your bubble tea to stay, they pour it in neat, humongous glasses. It's definitely not your typical Bubble World, either. It's a good place to eat in, and chat with good friends. I am a huge fan of their taiwanese-style popcorn chicken, and their Belgian Chocolate Slush is really, really good. In any case, I would highly recommend sharing the drink because they are quite large and filling, especially if you're having a meal.
A really great place with good company. Be wary because they only take cash. In the event that somebody is only carrying a debit, there is an atm at the save-ons and a vancity half a block away. -
Review from Natasha L.
Updated - 2/21/2010
Tried their waffle and was baffled.
Slightly burned and too crispy. The green tea ice cream that came with just looked too green but lacking in matcha flavor.
Maybe should have stick with their drinks and grass jelly.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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2/10/2010
A month into the grass jelly quest...The grass jelly is this Tri-ty is one of the best I've tasted… Read more »
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Review from Aaron S.
12/29/2009
Good milk tea, pretty interior, service ok.
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Review from Scott C.
8/6/2010
Go for the shaved ice. The prices look a bit steep when you see the menu, but the portions are huge. Definitely share because the shaved ice is a small bucket of ice and toppings. We did a build you own and it was quite good. The key is that they flavored the ice with a light and sweet sauce. They may have used flavored water to make the ice. The peanuts, rice balls, red bean and condensed milk were really balanced well with the ice. There is also fresh fruit when in season. The dish was quite refreshing. The drink that we had was very average. The portion was huge though. It came out in a milk bottle, so sharing a drink is a good idea as well. We had the longan ice tea which ended up tasting like Snapple . Could not pick up any longan flavor. So I would give this place four stars for the shaved ice, two stars for the drinks and three stars for décor and service. The place was certainly a good and fun hang out place. Overall three stars.
