Ten Ren's Tea Time Edit

This Ten Ren’s is completely different from the one in New York’s Chinatown. First of all, since it’s by UMD, parking is incredibly scarce, and you need to monitor your meter to the second. We were at Ten Ren’s and our meter ran out by about 3 minutes, and we received a parking citation for $25!

Here, it’s best to order what a Taiwanese snack joint does best, which is bubble tea. They offer boba, jelly, and pudding add-ons. For food, I would recommend the chicken nuggets. This is the ubiquitous Taiwanese “popcorn chicken” snack that is lightly battered and fried, with a dusting of cayenne pepper and basil. When prepared correctly, it’s incredibly delicious and addicting. It doesn’t taste greasy and there’s a bit of heat. This dish, as well as toast with condensed milk (which is no longer offered on their menu), and black milk tea are the litmus test of any Taiwainese snack joint that I frequent. That being said, I have been here several times and while the bubble tea is decent, the service and food are mediocre. It tastes forever to settle the bill—and that’s how we received our parking ticket. (However, they make it easy to pay the ticket online.) I would recommend Jumbo Jumbo Cafe in Rockville if you’re in the mood for bubble tea.

This is in a college town, so be aware that the crowd that comes in are generally there for the bubble tea. The atmosphere is very laid back, and there’s a nice selection of bagged and loose tea – not as much as you’d find in another tea shop, but enough to make it worth the trip. The prices are pretty good, too, and much lower than other tea shops in the DC area.

The food is mediocre, but also cheap. I heard their bao are amazing but I’ve never been in when the bao chef was in so I can’t speak to that personally.

I do really enjoy their bubble teas; they aren’t easy to find around here and Ten Ren does them the best that I’ve found in the area (which isn’t saying MUCH, but hey, it says something). People I’ve been with have said that they’re overly sweet, but I like my bubble tea really sweet, so it’s fine with me.

The rest of their teas are fairly mediocre, and their food is pretty horrid. Don’t bother eating here.