Verde Tea Cafe for Lunch

While lucky Cathy was in Taiwan having fun, I stayed at home representing USA.  As much as I love my country, I really wish I could have gone with her!  We would have totally taken over with our big mouths and large stomachs.  I swear, our stomachs have the ability to just keep expanding.  We always have room for more!

Well anyways, Verde Tea Cafe is popular for their cheap "frothy" boba milk teas and their crazy pint size cups.  Last time I came here I got that pint size milk tea because I wanted to be adventurous and oh man, that cup lasted me a good few days.  But I became super curious about their food because there's always a lot of people eating inside Verde.  So I gathered my friends to make a trip over there for lunch! 

Our hoard of drinks

Well, they are popular for their drinks so we all had to get a cup.  I have to say though, other than their pricing, their milk tea is just alright.  There's not enough of a tea taste for my liking.

So this time I decided to try something different on their menu and went with the grapefruit green tea with added aloe:

Grapefruit green tea with aloe

PRETTY DARN GOOD!  They use fresh grapefruit juice (I'm pretty sure, look at all that pulp!) and it's so refreshing!  Aloe pairs perfect with fruit juices, they're a bit sweet and have a nice texture that's fun to chew on.  But the grapefruit was so pungent and I couldn't taste the green tea...but the grapefruit was good!

And finally, the food!  I'll be honest, I don't remember the exact names of the dishes because I was so busy catching up with my friends I forgot to jot them down!  But they're all around the ball-park. You should be able to identify them on their menu if you wanted to try it.

BBQ salmon salad

I was pleasantly surprised just how good the salad was!  Most cafes don't really focus on their food, so the food is always at best mediocre.  The dressing was savory and packed with flavor which married the grilled salmon.  The salmon was cooked nicely as well.

Seafood Thai noodles

OH, THE BEST DISH!  The noodles are served cold and tasted like WAH-BANG!  It was spicy, tangy, and savory all at the same time.  Triple threat, baby.  And they were pretty generous with the seafood.  The dish had an assortment of tempura/deep fried squid, shrimp, and clam. 

Chicken in gravy on a sizzling plate

The last dish was, well, cafe standard: mediocre.  The gravy was simply salt and the consistency was much too thick.  It was smothering the chicken!  SAVE THE CHICKEN!!

By the end, all my friends were full but I can't finish a meal without dessert!  So I took the initiative and ordered a mango shaved ice for us all to share.  I knew in their hearts they secretly wanted it haha

Mango shave ice

I guess it wasn't mango season...the mango was kind of premature.  But the Mango shaved ice is a Verde Summer Special!  Oh, how confusing life can be.  The mango sat on top of shaved ice mixed with condensed milk.  A cafe standard dessert. 

But everyone ate the Mango shaved ice despite how stuffed they said they were and we finished it without breaking a sweat!  I'm influencing them with my awesome eating powers

One nice thing about eating at Verde Tea Cafe is they don't pressure you to leave.  In fact, they won't give you your check until you ask for it.  So we just sat there for hours chatting away.  (Hopefully that wasn't just a fluke, like they forgot about us).

 

Verde Tea Cafe

19620 Stevens Creek Blvd

Cupertino, CA 95014

(408) 873-2868

www.verdeteacafe.com