Tea Shop 168 (Hamilton Location)

For a late night snack here in Hamilton my friends and I usually like to go to a bubbletea shop for a small snack and a sweet, refreshing beverage. I have never been to Tea Shop 168 before even though it has been open for at least a year now here in downtown Hamilton. However, I have had bubble tea from the GTA locations before and my friend had told me that they carry funnel cake! As soon as we walked in we were promptly greeted by a friendly lady behind the counter who sat us at a table of our choice. At a first glance of the store, the decor was a lot more modern compared to the other tea shops here in Hamilton and seems much more clean even though menu prices were comparable to the other places. As mentioned above, the reason why I decided to give the restaurant a try was due to the funnel cake which comes with a scoop of ice cream including the flavours of vanilla, chocolate, or green tea. The plain Funnel Cake was $7 and the additional topping prices varied; I added seasonal fruits and brownies for a total cost of $4.50. My boyfriend ordered a drink as usual and tonight he decided to order from the "real fruit" menu. Usually, he orders mango-pineapple but unfortunately the shop is "unable" to do so so he went with the Mango Smoothie as well as Popcorn Chicken. After approximately fifteen minutes, our food finally came.  The funnel cake was beautifully presented and piled high whereas the chicken was a smaller portion and did not taste as good compared to the other bubble tea stores. My dessert was delicious! The green tea ice cream was served generously and the funnel cake was fried to perfection topped with strawberry, banana, and kiwi. My boyfriend and I both didn't particularly enjoy the popcorn chicken since it tasted like pre-packaged frozen food but it wasn't horrible. Another downside was that the drink took fairly longer after the food arrived and didn't even come with the lychee jellies as ordered. I'm not too sure if I would return for a bubble tea but I would definitely come back for the funnel cake instead of going to Demetres in Burlington! 

$ 8 (+ $4.50)