Bubble Tea: Bubbling with good food

Bubble Tea is a refreshingly new restaurant concept cooked up by couple Reagan and Aileen Tan, along with their good friend Derrick Chan. More than an ultra-hip place, Bubble Tea has been creating a lot of bubbles since it opened in Greenhills. Think milk teas and shakes as well as freshly cooked Japanese comfort food.

Not until I took my first sip of bubble tea did I understand why the place had a kilometric queue that early morning it opened in Greenhills. My green milk tea was just excellent, slightly sweet with an earthy tone because of the premium green tea that was infused in it. The straws were vibrant and huge, allowing for gourmet tapioca pearls or bubbles to pass through. And if these bubbles are not enough to make your drink really fancy, you can ask them to add some creamy egg pudding to your drink.

Tea-licious: Matcha milk tea and takoyaki fried balls — filled with grilled octopus and topped with some Japanese mayonnaise, sweet soy sauce, and katsuobushi — make a perfect match.

From the menu, you’d see everything delectably Japanese. For starters, enjoy a deliciously addictive plate of takoyaki, deep- fried balls filled with grilled octopus and topped with some Japanese mayonnaise, sweet soy sauce, and katsuobushi (smoked tuna). There’s also the all-seafood katsu stick, skewered deep-fried chunks of salmon, fish fillet, and more. And then there’s my ultimate favorite: Bubble Tea’s spicy tuna salad — the freshest chunks of tuna tossed together with some very fresh crisp greens, topped with some tempura crumbs, and finished off with some spicy mayonnaise dressing.

There’s also a superb maki selection. Among them is the Vancouver maki, shrimp tempura rolled into some sushi rice and topped with salmon. Creating an explosion in the taste buds is the Dynamite maki, featuring chunks of fresh spicy tuna rolled inside with sushi rice and topped with slices of unagi (eel).

For the main event, have some gindara foil yaki, the freshest piece of gindara fillet simply steamed to perfection.

Rib it up: Bubble Tea’s Osaka BBQ ribs, fall-off-the-bone tender ribs in hickory barbecue sauce with coleslaw on the side

Without a trace of guilt, we also order the salmon foil yaki, chili jumbo ebi, and ebi chi-zu ninniku yaki, a plate of jumbo prawns oozing with melted garlic mozzarella cheese. As far as the heartier entrées go, I can’t get enough of Bubble Tea’s Osaka BBQ ribs, fall-off-the-bone tender ribs in the restaurant’s very own hickory barbecue sauce, served with some mean coleslaw on the side. And if all this ain’t enough and you’re still hungry (oh my, what a big appetite you have), Bubble Tea has a good selection of rice dishes, donburi, noodles, and more.

Cap your Bubble Tea dining experience with its signature pastries created by one of Bubble Tea’s owners Aileen Tan. Topping the list is the best-selling matcha cappuccino cake, a creamy marriage of green tea icing enveloping layers of coffee cake. Neither too sweet nor too rich, it’s a perfect ending to a perfect meal. Then, there’s Bubble Tea’s own take on the tiramisu and the oh-so-fudgy choco classic cake.

You’ll surely walk out of Bubble Tea all content and bubbly!

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Bubble Tea has outlets at SM Megamall, SM North Edsa, and Wilson Street in Greenhills.