Rose Tea Cafe

Massive, massive portions for less than $10. Look at this meal: 2 huge, tender and crispy fried pork chops, a bowl of rice and veggies, all for 9.75! Tea is brewed well. Boba is nice and chewy, perfectly done. Overall they always have delicious flavoring and it is always well cooked (crispy when you want it to be, soft when it should be, etc). I don't know what I'd do without Rose Tea. A 4.1 overall rating is wild to me because this is one of my favorite haunts in the city.

Had the marinated pork over rice with tea egg and the fried fish fillets with sweet and sour sauce over rice. Take out only, no dine in allowed even when they have benches and tables inside. The food was not bad, but the marinated pork was quite dry and the sweet and sour sauce was a little off. It looks like this place is a popular takeout place amongst the students.

Recently moved to Pitt for school and kept walking by this cafe, looked interesting and had a lot of my favorite Taiwanese dishes, so I thought I'd give it a try. I got the fried pork chop over rice, eggplant w/ basil, and sauteed green beans. Wow... the comfort that Taiwanese food brings me? This hit the spot! And I found a surprise when I started eating my pork chop rice, it came w/ a small serving of braise pork underneath and a tea egg, which basically was the bowtie on top of a fantastic meal! Portions are fairly big too, I have enough leftovers for a meal or two~ Will definitely be going back to try more dishes!

A favorite place to eat on Craig. This is not a sit down restaurant. But the food is really good. The portions are generous and the spices are just right. We had the beef and broccoli, the fired pork chops and pork with eggplant. All were delicious. The eggplant was perfectly cooked, as were the pork chops. I took my whole family there, and we went down to the museum courtyard to eat. Its now a family favorite. Spring rolls were also spot on. Its a new family favorite.

One of my favourite places to get lunch near CMU :)) affordable prices, good portions, friendly uncle, very yummy food (especially recommend the eggplant + meat dish, 小椒鸡饭, broccoli + meat dish, fried fish fillet rice, kung Pao chicken, jasmine green tea boba & 🥟) 10/10

Rose tea is great value for the price, especially for a college student. There’s usually a 10 min wait if you order at the counter so I suggest ordering ahead of time. The fried chicken over rice is great. It comes with 2 large pieces of chicken, a soy sauce egg, ground meat, mixed vegetables and rice.

We ordered the beef curry, pork chop with rice, fried chicken with rice, and the sausage with rice (pictured). Everything tasted great but we all agreed that the sausage dish was the best. Service was quick and friendly. The bubble teas were good, too.

Solid takeout option for students, with a wide variety of dishes and fair prices. I always get the salt and pepper chicken. I tried the braised chicken over rice too, but wasn’t a fan and haven’t tried any other dishes over rice. There is no seating, so the expectation is to order your food and eat somewhere else. I also prefer their boba to the other place down the street.

The steamed dumplings were really good. I was working nearby one day and walked over and placed the order in person. My order was ready fairly quickly. I think there were 6 small dumpling's and a small container of sauce in the order. Tasted fresh and good. The guy at the counter was not friendly. Kinda made me feel like he didn't want to wait on me . Oh well - I may or may not go back depending if I'm already in the area and really want the dumplings again! Plus, don't they have air conditioning? You don't eat there but just waiting for the order it felt like a sauna in there.

I'm familiar with the Rose Tea Cafe in Squirrel Hill, but ready to explore this much smaller version in Oakland. First, this place is fast! I was walking out the door with my Mango Milkshake within a free minutes. The Tapioca is the best in Pittsburgh. Just the right texture and flavor. I thought the shake was a little watery, and it was 1/3 ice. But the flavor was perfect and very refreshing.

The eggplant with garlic sauce was a little oily but overall pretty good. It's a great spot for lunch. I placed an order over phone and picked it up with it 12 minutes. The prices are decent as well; $8-$14 typically. This is probably the closest good Asian place to CMU. Would recommend!

Living in Regent Square and so close to Rose Tea could be dangerous at times lol. Dangerous because the food is so freaking delicious and we'd order from them at least once a week. The peanut black tea is so yummy. Strawberry milk tea and black sugar milk tea are also super good. I highly recommend the scallion pancake and egg as well as the dumplings.

Food is absolutely delicious, and I have no problems with that. However at times, customer service needs to get a grip. I don't care how many regrettable life choices you have made, but that's not my problem. First time: customer service was super bad. Vibe was: "omg I have no time for you" Second time (different lady): was super nice, one of the best lady I've ever met. She was patient and she Even when we couldn't find our credit card, she told us to take our time and no rush.

I got the fried chicken over rice and hot black milk tea for delivery. It took about 45 min from when they accepted my order to when it was delivered. My milk tea was still hot! There were actually two fried chicken legs in there. The food quality was as good as dining in. I would get it again. My only complaint is the milk tea was taped over on the lid to avoid spillage, and the delivery guy held the cup. I wish they had a separate cup carrier to minimize contact during this pandemic season.

Went here today. Its pouring outside and the staff was sooooo rude. Bubble tea was a 5/10 but the experience was a negative 10. They don't even deserve the one star. Mediocre food for and terrible service. Not worth it. Don't go

Absolutely horrific service. I was in line with a very large order for work. I watched the young female manager be incredibly rude to a customer ahead of me. Turned around and walked straight out. No excuse for terrible customer service when there are literally dozens of other tea places within walking distance. I walked a few doors down to fuku and gave them my large order with a large tip and they were great. Should have read the reviews before even wasting my time going here. Not sure why their service is always so poor but I definitely won't be back ever.

WOW this place has some quality boba. Although the prices are super cheap and the store seems unassuming, the boba here is amazing. As someone who LOVES boba and has tried countless places (mostly in the Bay Area of California), this place is pretty darn good. The pearls are chewy and soft and you can taste the tapioca flavor. It was also 90°F when I ordered boba from here, so it was a refreshing treat. Stuff I got: * lychee green tea with jelly: I love when I can taste the TEA in fruit teas. This has a strong tea flavor with a sweet refreshing lychee taste. * passion fruit smoothie: real passion fruit blended with ice. Sweet, tangy, cooling and refreshing. * milk tea with pudding: milk tea doesn't taste like it's from powder * peach green tea: not as good as the lychee green tea, but also good tea flavoring with sweet fruity tastes. The prices are also very cheap but the quality exceeds the prices. The orders were also very fast!

I have conflicting feelings on Rose Tea Cafe. On on hand I've come here SO OFTEN the past few years. The tea isn't bad and I really enjoy their fried chicken, but there's just so much about this place that is just objectively not good. The good: fried chicken, taro cake, tea (kind of. I think the branch in squirrel hill is maybe better in terms of tea quality), close to CMU campus The bad: a bit watery tea, marinated meat rice can be too salty, waiting area can be a bit congested, all the vegetables are just frozen mixed veggies, and things here are cash only for things less than $5. Plus, now that Night Market Gourmet is open, you can get much of the same dishes for much higher quality and the same price (including said fried chicken over rice. The Night Market Gourmet version even comes with actual vegetable sides!!) The ugly: THIS WAS IN THE SQUIRREL HILL BRANCH BUT once I ordered a curry thing and the vegetables in it tasted spoiled. Vaguely sour and bad.

The bubble tea is more like bubble water. The tea has no flavor whatsoever, except for maybe a slightly infused water taste. We tried the food and each dish was 60% mushy rice. The curry is really watery and has almost no ingredients except for chicken and a few slices of onion.

It was a crazy hot day and we were walking from CMU to the Natural History museum and spotted this bubble tea shop around the corner. Bubble tea sounded really good so we decided to stop in. We didn't really look at reviews pior but now that I see it, I understand why the ratings were so low. The lady behind the counter was impatient for us to order and wasn't very friendly while we tried to decide what we wanted. She was quick making our order after it was placed though. The bubble tea came out pretty diluted and a bit on the bland side - I wish they used a stronger tea and maybe less milk?! The boba was good, though not the best I've ever had. They were maybe slightly overcooked. The only thing I liked was that the bubble tea wasn't overly sweet - but this is probably more due to the fact that it was diluted and not because they deliberately made it less sweet. They do not have an option to adjust/choose your sweetness level. Maybe they are better in their slushy/food options, because there is a dine-in area in the small cafe. But I don't think I'll drop in again anytime soon.

The food is good here, best Asian place that is very close to campus. Haven't had the drinks in a while but they're alright.

I was in search of some Asian food while walking around the campus. So I saw an Asian walking towards me with a bento box and a boba tea... So I thought to myself; "I think there must be some Taiwanese food straight ahead." Short moment later, I saw another one in the same attire. That confirmed my intuition that I must be in the right path towards some Asian food. As I continue to walk; two more Asian with boba tea! That confirmed there must be some Taiwanese/Asian food close by. Surely enough, I found the restaurant! I ordered black pepper beef with noodles. For $10.00... I'm not sure it's exactly worth the money. There's literally 6 pieces of meat and one piece of green onion tossed with spaghetti in a pre made black pepper sauce. Come on... If you're going to claim yourself as Taiwanese food; at least toss it with Taiwanese type of noodles. The bowl surely fills your tummy, but can probably get better food elsewhere for the same price

** MORE LIKE 2.5 ** Definitely NOT great. More like a take out sort of deal. We decided to eat in and got charged 18% tip. How Asian. If it was a fancier/nicer/anything but Rose Tea Cafe, okay MAYBE 18%. But it's a run-down joint with a bar of 5 seats and two/three tables of 4 - why are you charging 18% ?? Also, the food is eh. Their fried chicken is literally fried chicken - nothing Asian about it at all and doesn't seem like they're trying very hard to emulate true Taiwanese food. In any other city, I dare say this place would have closed already. But it seems to be hanging on just fine, so keep doing you, Rose Tea. Clearly my expectations were too high.

Happy place, always trying something new and delicious to eat, from century eggs and steamed & stir fried dumplings to eggplant with pork...

I ordered the Broccoli and Chicken over rice, and it's tastes awesome!! great value because it's such a cheap lunch for the taste and it is so filling. also the Taro Milk Tea tastes great and is so refreshing. This place is a must try!!

Found this place by a happy accident walking down the street in Pittsburgh while visiting a friend of mine for the weekend. I just stopped in for a bubble tea as I had already eaten lunch but it was pretty good! I ordered a matcha bubble tea & it was not too sweet, which was perfect for me. The service was speedy & the employees were polite. Cute establishment right by Carnegie Melon & The University of Pittsburgh.

Great place to have a simple meal! Expect a 30 min waiting for take outs (no phone orders) during dinner time. I strongly recommend marinated pork over rice and fried chicken over rice. Taiwanese sausage over rice (Also has marinated pork in this), Eggplant with garlic sauce over rice and Peking style meet sauce noodle are also good, but not as good as the first two. But their bubble tea is bad. I can taste the power in the drink.

Amazing bubble tea! I got the strawberry milk tea and my little sister got the honeydew. Both tasted fantastic. The lady who helped us was super quick with preparing and was super kind when we asked questions. Cute place too!

I still love this place! The cashier is always super nice -- one time I got stood up for a lunch date and she talked with me for about fifteen minutes since traffic was slow, and it made it easier to laugh it off! Their salted pepper chicken is BOMB, and a perfect snack for studying, in my opinion. I've had their eggplant now, their beef and broccoli, and their braised chicken, and Curry Over Rice is still my personal fave! Their bubble tea is also really good, I'm not a huge fan of their boba, so I tend to get it without, but it's always made right in front of you!

One of our go-to places. We love the fried dumplings, broccoli with garlic sauce and curry dishes. A good value that's tasty and plentiful. Service is fast and friendly.

Terrible place to eat. Since I ate meat sauced noodle, I never go there. Noodle taste like plain flour, sauce does not have any flavor in it. It tasted like sheer flour and salt combined. Terrible experience. I've been to Taiwan, and not all lf Taiwanese food is like this.

So cute! I love the tea-shaker machine. I also appreciate the veggie options. They also have a wide variety of bubble tea flavors. Yay!

Pretty average food across the board (haven't had the drinks), I honestly can't think of anything that really stands out. It's decently cheap as well so not a bad place to eat here and then. Rice was a little dry at times.

Coming here for a quick ketchup flavored pork is actually good. I love ketchup but doesn't deviate much from the flavor. I personally enjoy it because it is quick and I dont have to cook but I wouldnt say it's above and beyond amazing

Much smaller than the Rose Tea Cafe in Squirrel Hill, this place has a much more limited menu. There's a small selection of appetizers and entrees (mostly rice and noodle soups). This place is more of a drink counter to order bubble teas, green or black teas, smoothies or milk shakes. The passionfruit green tea was good. Just sweet enough.

Good milk tea and dumplings. Not the best I have ever had but it's still pretty good. Would eat there again. Price was better than I thought for the drinks.

We stopped in quickly to get some bubble tea, and it's a cute little shop with a few tables, but probably not somewhere you'd stay too long. More like a place to get a quick bite and go. I did see what some people were eating, and it looked and smelled pretty good. On to our bubble tea, though - I ordered a black tea and coffee milk bubble tea, hot. It was really good; maybe not to the level that they serve up at those special places in HK, but I thought it was pretty tasty. My wife ordered taro tea, and it had pretty good taro flavor without being too sweet, but there was hardly any tea flavor to it. It basically just tasted like taro powder, so she didn't end up finishing it. Overall OK, I might try another flavor if I'm in the area again

Hidden gem for milk tea! I was walking by and was really thirsty for something to drink. I got the triplet milk tea and it was very tasty!

Great portion of food. Awesome food, cheap price. You should give a try. The bubble teas are also good.

Let me preface this by saying that the Rose Tea location in Squirrel Hill is one of my favorite restaurants in Pittsburgh and is consistently good. Although I was excited when Rose Tea Express opened on Craig Street, I have not been nearly as impressed as with the other location. The food quality seems lower - I may be imagining things, but dishes have seemed greasy and have come with too much sauce. Additionally, the menu is a small subset of the menu at the other location, and is unfortunately missing most of my favorite dishes. I hold out hope that this will improve, but for now the small menu and subpar food as compared with the other location makes this a solid meh.

I've had nearly everything on their menu. I don't find their food that great, nevertheless I've been here hundreds of times because it's close to my workplace and they serve food fast. Their bubble teas are nice. They have fairly big portions, but the good is greasy. I end up getting their braised chicken over rice, which comes with two large pieces of chicken, and egg, and some rice. Their fish fillet over rice is also among the nicer dishes. I try to avoid their pork dishes since I don't think they are of very good quality. I ended up having tummy issues after eating those twice. They have some of the rudest service I have ever seen. I have seen their cashiers and servers change over time, but the one things that hasn't changed is their attitude.

You don't have to tip to take it away. It's a better value. Chicken leg rice has two large chicken legs that you can eat for two meals for only $8

I have basically been living here for the past week. Its a convenient place to go when I have to stay on campus late and its close. I am a vegan and I absolutely love their eggplant dishes. They're simple, filling, and good. They also give you a lot of food for the price. Yes they do have a limited menu and its not like the one in squirrel hill, but I still really enjoy the food. They also have great bubble tea, much better than lulus. The only aspect that I dislike is their sauces. They overwhelm the dishes with sauce, drench it even. Overall, in a pinch I would come here for the best eggplant in Pittsburgh!

The food is good but I would give it 0 star if I could. The guy cashier who I believe owns the restaurant gives me an attitude EVERY SINGLE TIME I visit and he works everyday so if you ever visit this place you will meet him. I have never heard a thank you from his mouth; the way he takes money from customers is rude, he doesn't look at you into your eyes(matter of fact he doesn't even look at you); when giving back my card he just puts/throws it on the table and I have to pick it up; and he pushes the receipt that I need to sign to me on the table without saying a word (nope he didn't say anything like "please sign ur name").

As someone who had been to the Squirrel Hill location of the same name a few times I was excited to hear one closer to my campus was opening up. They have a much smaller menu than the other location though, and seem to be more catered towards selling bubble tea. I have come here to eat a few times. The service is like your average Chinese restaurant, they take your order, bring you your food, and bring the bill and nothing extra, but personally I have never cared much about anything beyond the basics of service. The food here is pretty good, although options are rather limited. I have had the noodles with a pork chop and noodles with chicken and they were both decent. My favorite dish here is the salt and pepper chicken. It's more expensive for the amount you get than the nearby Orient Express but is slightly better in quality. You have to pay extra for the rice to eat it with. I've also had the scallion pancake with egg which is also decent but probably not enough for a meal, but good to get if you come with friends and aren't that hungry. Not the best option for Taiwanese food around, but decent and reasonably priced.

I'm pretty sure I wrote this once before, but somehow the review got removed. Anyway, given that I'm adamantly against this place, here we go again. Like many of the other reviewers have said, the middle aged guy behind the counter is pretty rude. The older lady that works at Rose Tea is also really rude - seems like she lives with a constant chip on her shoulder. I remember that during the first time I came to Rose Tea, the older lady basically *told* us we need to tip them. Excuse me? I only come here when there's nothing else around for lunch. Normally I get the eggplant in garlic sauce, but the most recent time I got that dish it tasted absolutely disgusting. The eggplant was only barely cooked, meaning it wasn't at the right mushy texture. I had to stir fry it again for dinner in order for it to taste somewhat decent. I used to come here for bubble tea, but ever since Fuku Tea opened down the street near Pitt campus I've basically avoided Rose Tea at all costs. Fuku Tea has the best bubble tea, and the service is much better. Also, they take credit cards with no minimums. Why risk raising your cortisol levels by going to Rose Tea at Craig when you can have better food and service somewhere else? A silly question, if you ask me.

Good value for authentic Taiwanese food - braised pork over rice was very delicious and balanced with veggies.

It might be a good place if you're down to grab bubble tea but definitely not a good choice for lunch/dinner. The whole place is always super congested and not very clean.

Authentic Taiwanese cuisine. Fast. One of the best Bubble tea places in town (and I should know). I get the same drink every time. We have a lot of friends that go for the tea as well. They have many different flavors.

A small hole-in-the-wall vibey place with quick, relatively cheap Taiwanese food. I've had the fried chicken, which comes with some veggies and a ton of rice. Really well cooked and I could not even finish since the portion was massive. This was enough to share with a friend or save for a second meal. The bubble tea is not bad and there are a ton of options. In my opinion, this is the best lunch option I've had so far on that block of Craig street and seems really popular with CMU students. I'm definitely down to come back and try more items on the menu.

My friend and I went to the restaurant tonight. It was going to be a fantastic farewell dinner. The food was good and the servers were more than adequate in their service to us. However, the treatment I received from the cashier/owner just spoiled the entire dinner. My friend and I were scrambling for change and turned out neither of us had more change to spare. We paused for a bit- but right at that moment, the cashier just demanded adamantly, "You have to tip for service!" Tips are voluntary and based on QUALITY of service. It is courteous. But tipping is NOT an obligation but a privilege to the customer. And the customer alone to decide if the service is subpar. Of course, for the sake of the other staff, I tipped out of politeness. I refused to be rude as rudely as I was treated. But the truth must be voiced and unfortunately, the treatment I received from management at this restaurant (not just this one occurrence) has put a bitter taste in my mouth. It is not much as it is expected protocol as it much as it says what the leadership at this restaurant is condoning- to demand for more money for a lesser service. That is greedy and corrupt. I felt robbed.

Can't complain about the food taste. Like fried chicken soup noodles. Hope the restaurant can expand the menu.

I like this place as a fast lunch option, but the lady at the cashier is SO MEAN. She gets FRUSTRATED FOR NO REASON every time I order. If she's not happy about this job, she should go do something else rather than ruining people's day.

This joke of a place should be shut down. Can never get my orders right and takes too long. Gave my order away to internationals even though i ordered the same thing first. Trash restaurant.

Rose Tea Cafe, I had really high hopes for you. After the mediocre (nicely putting it) service in the Squirrel Hill location, I was really hoping you'd become more people friendly so costumers would actually want to go to your restaurant. I rarely give out one stars, but the service was so poor that I feel obligated to. When me and my friend went into Rose Tea, there was a huge clump of people at the door waiting for their food. There were also no seats available. With no clear signs stating that there was a difference between the takeout section, and the sitdown section, when the person serving asked us hurriedly if we were ready to order, we did. When we tried to sit down, we got yelled at by the waitress. She accused us of trying to cheat them out of tips by ordering take-out and sitting down to eat it. She also told us "not to speak Chinese" when we tried to clarify. Excuse me? If you guys had clearly marked what costumers were supposed to do, or if the waiter had even asked if we wanted to sit down, or order out instead of expecting us to know what to do, we would've been more than happy to accommodate. Needless to say, this whole experience left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the greasy food couldn't chase that down either. This restaurant is definitely entering my list of never-to-return places.

Pathetic, to say the very least. I wish I could give this restaurant 0 stars. The food was horrible. For $8, I was given absolute scum. My "curry chicken with rice" consisted of semi-frozen chicken with curry powder frozen on top. The service was even worse - my friend wanted to eat with me but she got a falafel from Ali Baba's. A server came up to us and told us to leave if she's eating food from outside because "we have our own food and don't want other inferior restaurants' food coming here". Please do not visit this shitty restaurant. There are better places you can spend your money.

It's been months since this extension of Rose Tea in Squirrel Hill has opened--and still there has been no update or improvement to this place whatsoever. The 2 stars are for the few items that are worth eating on the menu, and maybe the overpriced bubble teas, but not much else is worth praising. Their food in general tastes better than the likes of OE and definitely Lulu's, but the amount of selection is abysmal. If you're looking for a meal, you only have a choice from around 10 rice dishes or noodle dishes; and of course the fried chicken leg and pork chop are greasy and accompanied by a tiny bit of vegetables in their attempt to recreate an authentic Taiwanese rice dish. It appears as though they are catering more to American tastes, though to their credit the dishes also come with a tea egg. At least you get quantity over quality. One of the better choices is the zhajiangmian (Peking sauce noodles). While this is actually quite different from the Beijing version of the noodles (their name has nothing to do with the Beijing version of the noodles), their Taiwanese version is not too bad and also comes with a decent amount of vegetables on the sauce and noodles. Their milk tea is of the same quality as the Rose Tea in Squirrel Hill, pretty decent but pricey as compared to Taiwanese enclaves on the west and east coasts (and hence not really worth it imho). You get a discount on them if you order them with a meal. My last gripe is that they don't accept card. It was understandable when they first opened, but after half a year now it's just annoying. When every single place around you accepts card in place of cash, you're not going to attract a lot of people if you demand that they carry cash with them.