Fall in love with bubble tea at Nos Thés

Sit down and order some Taiwanese food or take a bubble tea to go at Nos Thés. Picture by Marie-Pierre Savard.

The Taiwanese restaurant and tea room is the perfect way to kill your long breaks at SGW

Add a little bubble to your day by going to Nos Thés, a tea room and Taiwanese restaurant. There are a few Nos Thés in Montreal, but the one on Ste. Catherine Street and the corner of Guy is the closest for students at Concordia’s downtown campus.

Sit down and order some Taiwanese food or take a bubble tea to go at Nos Thés. Picture by Marie-Pierre Savard.
Sit down and order some Taiwanese food or take a bubble tea to go at Nos Thés. Picture by Marie-Pierre Savard.

The restaurant itself is very aesthetically pleasing. The decor is modern, with white walls and yellow and grey accents. There is also something rustic about the ambience. Mason jars are used as decorations and light fixtures hang down from the ceiling while soft music plays in the background.

Most of the entrees on the menu are served on either a bed of rice or noodles. I ordered the tempura noodles that had deep fried shrimp, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin and vegetables over homemade noodles. My noodles were a little firm, just the way I like them, and the batter of the deep fried vegetables was light and airy. The restaurant also has a variety of soups and dumplings. Although it’s marketed as a Taiwanese restaurant, they also have some Japanese dishes, such as curry tonkatsu, Japanese-style fried pork chops and oyakodon, chicken and egg simmered in broth.

Photo by Marie-Pierre Savard.
Photo by Marie-Pierre Savard.

Nos Thés has a huge variety of flavours for their bubble teas. You can choose to sit at a table and order but I noticed that most young people walking in ordered a bubble tea at the counter to go. It’s a great alternative to just getting a coffee. If you have a long break, you could sit down and enjoy a full meal.

For those who are unfamiliar with bubble tea, it mixes practically any flavour of tea with small, flavourful tapioca balls that sit at the bottom of the cup. They have a full three pages dedicated to the different flavours of tea on their menu. What’s cool is that their creamy teas are lactose free.

I was never a fan of bubble tea before Nos Thés. I hadn’t found my flavour. My taste in tea is very plain and I’m not interested in fruity or overly-sweet flavours. I’m more of a green tea type of girl. With this in mind, I asked my waiter for suggestions. He pointed me to the Moroccan Mint Iced Tea which is one of their classic flavours. Getting an iced bubble tea, in my opinion, is the way to go.

The Moroccan Mint Iced Tea was just what I wanted. It was sweet—but not too sweet—and there was a faint taste of maple. It was delicious and perfect.

The meals and drinks are cheap. A standard main dish is between $8 to $10 and the portions are large. As for the teas, the sizes available are small and large. Prices for bubble teas start at $3.60 for a small and adding the tapioca balls is an extra 50 cents. They also have a wide variety of hot teas at a cheaper price.

Photo by Marie-Pierre Savard.
Photo by Marie-Pierre Savard.

I did ask a few of the staff members for their vegetarian dish recommendations and some tea favourites. Nos Thés has a lot of vegetarian options. The yasai noodles plate is basically the equivalent of what I ordered, minus the shrimp. Another popular vegetarian dish is the Three Mushroom Rice, with shiitake, enoki and king oyster mushrooms and vegetables over rice.

As for bubble teas, I was told that the best thing to do is look at the “Staff Favourites” list hanging on the wall behind the cash register. The cashier told me that most people come in and order right off of that menu.

Nos Thés is located at 1609 Ste. Catherine Street W. Visit their website at nosthescafes.com.

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