Ki Tea House Café

Funnily enough, this is right next door to Camellia Tea & Coffee. It's smaller, has cheaper cakes, and none of the off-putting posted-clearly admonitions. In fact, their sidewalk sign encourages "study and socialize", and they have extension cords to ensure easy access for laptops, which were plentiful when we dropped in right after checking out Camellia Tea & Coffee.

TIP: They even claim to be "pet friendly"!

Price for portion on cakes is very good, even better than Camellia Tea & Coffee, which is already better than Breka Bakery -- $3.25 for a decently sized wedge of gluten-free chocolate ganache that was not very dense but pretty tasty. In a restaurant it would probably have been around $8 dollars.
Selection in the small fridge counter is small but includes beautiful cakes, interesting items (like their one-bite "Elegant Baskets"), fresh fruit, and a selection of drinks. For a tight space they've made good use of it to try to present a little something for everyone.
Go now in case prices start to creep up a few months after opening.

Ambiance is very nice with interesting decor of toys. A manga library (which I am assuming is free since I didn't see any pricing) is available -- compared to some downtown manga libraries that charge by time, a Japanese / Korean staple. Communal tables of generous width help students camp out to study. Even so, we didn't have any trouble getting seating, nor was there any sort of line-up per se on the late Saturday afternoon we dropped in.

Order-at-the-counter service. Loyalty punch card for each item ordered. Some kind of discount for showing them a Facebook "like" (which I totally forgot to use).

Counter staff friendly enough. Nice ambiance + great prices and tasty food add up to high marks. They'd score higher if they had a greater selection of cakes.

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Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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