The city has joked for months that Alfa Tea is just a MACU Tea dupe.
Well, they’re shedding that image by showing they are much more.
Alfa Tea grand opened its first Tea and Patisserie concept shop on North Road on September 5, in the Hanin Village plaza wrapped around H Mart, after a quiet soft opening in late August.
It took over the unit Bono Cafe left behind, which closed at the end of May, and the kitchen is now turning out Alfa’s cakes.
I went with a friend on a weekday to check out this new version of Alfa.
The previous minimal white room has now changed to an equally minimal cream and wood-themed room that has a calm feel to it.
A wave of wood slats runs across the ceiling, a wood lattice frames the counter, and there are proper tables instead of a pickup ledge.
Boxes of mangoes are stacked in the front window, which is the most Alfa thing about the place.
As you’d expect, every usual Alfa drink is on the board, so the mango series and the cheefoam lineup came along with the brand.
Unlike other Alfa Tea locations, the main difference here is the cakes.
During our visit, the display case was filled with slices of mango, strawberry, grape, and chocolate strawberry cake.
We got a slice of the mango cake and the OG mango drink.
The cake was not too sweet, which is the highest compliment an Asian bakery can get. The sponge was moist and fine-crumbed, and the cream was light enough that the mango did the talking.
Here is the part we laughed about.
The cut face shows mango layered between the sponge, but the fruit only runs through part of the slice, so a few forkfuls in you hit plain cream and cake.
It is a good slice with a small illusion built in, and ACTUALLY kind of funny once you notice.
Alfa Tea Concept took over three former MACU Tea units earlier this year, at Union Square in Richmond, in Burnaby, and on Robson downtown, and its near-identical mango menu earned it the MACU dupe nickname within weeks.
The team has spent the months since trying to shed that.
The branding is its own, there is merch, and the Robson shop flips into a bar with a night-time menu after the tea counter’s day shift.
North Road is the biggest swing yet.
It is the first Alfa built from scratch rather than inherited from MACU, and the only one with a kitchen and a cake case.
It is also a block from the MACU that opened on the Burnaby side of North Road this summer, so the original and the dupe now sit on the same strip.
Both have their fans, so this is another case of a BBT battle.
Alfa Tea joins other recently opened food spots in Metro Vancouver like Honest to Pete Downtown, Duchess Cafe, and Matsuzushi.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Address: 420-329 North Road, Coquitlam, BC
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