The Boba Files: Teanado (Sunnyvale, CA)
9:00:00 AM
FILE #006: BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUIRED
TEANADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SUNNYVALE CA
900 AM PST THU NOV 13 2014
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SUNNYVALE HAS ISSUED A
TEANADO WARNING FOR…
… Excessive milk tea showers and hailing tapioca.
Evacuate your hamsters and grab a large straw for cover.
So antics aside, Teanado is a milk tea shop that opened earlier this summer to replace the beloved Better Bento (awesome place. I miss it. They were the closest thing to the bento kiosks you’ll find in Japan.) that use to occupy the same area. It’s a super small café on an equally small street surrounded by businesses. There’s only one other restaurant in this plaza and it’s a Sichuan restaurant that seems to cater primarily to the lunch crowd. All the other shops are a mix-match of computer repair shops, limousine driving/rental and other miscellaneous shops.
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| They also changed their logo stickers not long after the opening. |
During the month of their grand opening, they ran a BOGO deal for a few of their drinks and during that time I had a chance to try out the jasmine milk tea and the black milk tea. Out of the two, I liked the black tea more because it was more robust than the jasmine, which felt a little weak in taste for me.
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| Jade Green Milk Tea |
Since then, I’ve tried a number of their drinks, thanks to their extensive drinks menu. There are some hits and misses, but most of them were misses for me. I don’t think I was super adventurous with my choices, but the Jade Green Milk Tea I ordered tasted more like Vitasoy than it did tea. Perhaps they use soymilk as their milk rather than powder, but it tasted a little odd.
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| Honey Green Tea, I believe. |
I’ve also tried their honey milk tea, and it’s alright. They use real honey so your cup may have some residue stuck on the bottom. The boba itself also tastes alright, but I don’t think they soak it in any sort of sugar or honey syrup, so it might be bland for some people. Otherwise, there aren’t any memorable drinks. I drop by for a drink every now and then when I’m craving milk tea and don’t feel like driving to Rivermark for Fantasia.
Besides milk tea, coffee and juice, they also serve alcohol.
That’s unheard of in most milk tea establishments, so if you want a beer to go with your bento, you can do that here! They also have an assortment of Taiwanese snacks as well as bentos you could order as well. I haven’t tried anything besides their drinks, so I can’t provide an opinion on that. Though there was one time when I visited and a customer was asking about purchasing the sausages they used in their bento.
I don’t know, but that sounds like they make a mean sausage bento.
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| They accept credit cards, but read the fine print. |
As for everything else, they have a stamp card where if you get ten stamps, you can get a free drink. The business looks to be managed by a family, with the exceptions of some part-time workers. They have a small dining area in the back of the restaurant. You basically go down the hallway and there are a few tables set up for anybody who wants to sit there and eat. However, I would not linger for too long because ventilation has always been a problem at that location. It most likely has to do with the fact that the space isn’t ideally built for a restaurant. So you walk out smelling like food.
Their mascot is a cute little hamster that reminds me of Hamtaro.
Have you visited Teanado before? What do you think? Or have you visited its predecessor, Better Bento? What are your thoughts on them? I really liked their Curry Chicken Katsu and their bentos whenever I could get my hands on one. Usually they were sold out by the time I went around 1 PM. 
Teanado
550 Lakeside Dr.
Ste. 1
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
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