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Hydration (Teahouse cuisine)  $

 9
JaT Rating

310 South 3rd Street, San Jose, 95112  (Directions)


408.298.9968


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Tea house near SJSU offering wide selection of tea, coffee, & foods


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 9/30/2005
Rating: 9
My photo gallery 		A couple of the users on jatboard mentioned visiting a tea house which leads me to Hydration. A Victorian house transformed into a tea house walking distance to SJSU. An ideal place for students to study, snack on food, or just lounge around with the friends. College life...oh the memories...I miss the good life. Just a word to students who find this review, 2 words of advice 'MILK IT'. There's no rush to start working, you have the rest of your life to do that. With all the years I put in, I should be a doctor right now but had to settle for a computer job.

I went with the tea suggestion of Iced Avocado Milk with black pearls. It was $3 and didnt know it was going to fill me up and I had a chicken bento box on the way! Now the tea doesnt taste like guacamole or anything...its a subtile avocado flavor thats lightly sweetened. Its sooo good and I think Im hooked now. Im not an expert at tea but I enjoyed it as much as ice cream.

Did I mention Im sitting outside and its sunny? Sitting sipping my tea, reading the paper, waiting for my chicken bento box, and eavesdropping on college students. Damm those college students....I have to be back in work in 40 minutes and here they are wondering how much beer they are going to drink tonight.

Food has finally arrived. Served in a plastic tray, you get salad, tofu, 1/2 a tea egg, fried chicken, scoop of rice, and a slice of orange. The meal had everything I needed and it was only $5. The batter on the chicken was amazing! It was super crispy and chicken tasted like it had been marinated in some soy based sauce. I think you guys are on to something here, what about selling your batter recipe to the Colonel?

I loved everything about Hydration from their cheap prices, crispy chicken , addicting tea, and the late hours. The good news is, its only 10 minutes away from work, the bad news is its 40 mins from my house. What about opening one up in San Mateo or Millbrae?
 


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 724
Reviewed: 11/11/2005
Rating: 9
My photo gallery 		One day I'm gonna compile a list.

A list of the best things in the bay area. Top of that list would be things like Gregoire's Potato Puffs. AND an Avocado milk tea at Hydration.

Yeah, avocado. Jason had to pull my leg pretty hard to get me to try the Avocado. And I almost didn't order it. Eventually I relented. I figured I would take a few sips and then get something else. Avocado is ok as guacomole, but I would never drink that crap.

Forget everything you know about avocado. Even if you hate it, you don't know what an avocado milk tea tastes like. TRUST ME.

I am prepared to give this place a 9.5 but I am holding off until I sample other Avocado milk teas. This was my first. And doors were opened believe me. I don't know if its just Hydration avocado that is so mind blowing. I will report back after more Avocado milk tea experience.

So we know the avocado milk tea kicks ass. What about the rest of the place? Well the interior is nearly identical to the nearby (round the corner) La Victoria Taqueria. Nice and quaint. The menu of non-tea items is kinda small but some good veggie options. I went with the fried tofu bento box.

WOW, this is good stuff. The teriyaki sauce they spinkle over it was a good compliment to the tofu. The rice was standard. The salad was standard. Overall, it was high quality stuff (if a bit temperature hot). It reminded me a lot of Lucys. Whereas Lucys was more relaxing and fall asleep enjoyable, Hydration is more in-your-face pumped up college student atmosphere enjoyable.

Decent prices, tasty fresh food, good atmosphere, and those damn good avocado milk teas will keep me returning for sure.
 
8
Agent Rating


Reviewer: pyunnyhana
Total Reviews: 44
Reviewed: 8/3/2006
Rating: 8
My photo gallery		 I've been here about 4 times and only bought their drinks. I usually get either the taro, jasmine, peach, or passionfruit milkteas whenever I'm at a teahouse and the ones at Hydration are good. I used to have pearls in my tea when it was included in the price, but nowadays, the teahouses charge an extra 25 or 50cents for them, so it's been a while since I've had them.

Today I had finished a chem lab exam and treated myself to Hydration and -gasp- ordered with pearls. Hydration's were warm, soft and chewy. Maybe because I haven't had pearls in a while, but they seemed to have a pleasant honey flavor in it. Their jasmine milktea was smooth and cooling in the hot weather.

For the past couple times I've been here, I didn't quite like the proportion of the ice and actual drink. Today was good because there was a decent amount of ice that didn't take up half the cup. This is a small complaint but I don't quite like the separate caps on the cups. I usually like my milktea sealed with plastic on top so I can poke my sharp straw through it.

I like the environment of Hydration. It's nice, clean, cozy, and you can hook your laptop up to wireless internet. I would like to try their bento boxes the next time I go. Out of all the teahouses I've been to, the milkteas at Hydration is on my top 3 list.
 
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