Half & Half, SGV
You don’t usually find guys at a tea house on a weekday afternoon. With my flexible schedule, I was able to invade this oasis usually reserved for the estrogen genders. There’s actually a lot of cute girls that frequent this place. This is the typical afternoon tea meeting spot for girls in the area. The earthy tones give it sort of a non-commercialized homey feel, unlike tea station, ten ren, and other boba shops.
Their extensive menu has the regular teas, coffee, and juices. On the flip side, they also offer some typical Taiwanese cafe dishes. On the suggestion of a friend, Mr. B, I ordered the Boiled Water Dumplings – with pork and shrimp filling. I don’t usually like shrimp in my dumplings, but Mr. B’s insistence forced me … along with my growling stomach. Not expecting all that much from a tea house, I scanned the offering quickly, and dipped & popped one in my mouth. I had almost burned my tongue with that first bite, when I realized that this sucker was pretty darn tasty. I like it! I like water dumpling more than the fried or steamed ones. I think they are less greasy and is hard to mess up. I know Ding Tai Fung’s steamed dumplings are good though, and the Mandarin Noodle House’s fried ones are decent, too. Anyways…I just think you can’t go wrong with water dumplings.
Half & Half has a minimum order policy of 4 bucks per person, which is the price of one tea or coffee. I am not a starbucks drinker but I am a tea one, but I wasn’t sure what to order. Their menu has all sorts of different flavored teas. On the suggestion of the waitress, I ordered their popular Almond Milk Tea, sans Boba. On a side note, if you have balls, you don’t need balls in your drink… just my humble opinion. The Almond Milk Tea was really good – and since then I have only ordered it on my return visits. It isn’t too sweet and their crushed ice gives it a nice mouthy texture feel. I’d recommend it to anyone.
Anyways … bottom line, Half & Half is a nice little place for chicks and to people watch. They have free wifi and their drinks & food is not that bad.
What to Order: Boiled Water Dumplings, Almond Milk Tea What not to Order: Anything with boba (unless you are female … guys shouldn’t have drinks with boba)
