Tsujiri Richmond

I went for their high tea menu (matcha and sakura) and it was lovely! This is probably one of the more affordable places to get high tea, and the portion and quality was great. I like the balance between sweetness and savoury (leaning more towards sweetness though) and the variety of textures and types of food was pleasant. I honestly didn't think I would be super full but was stuff by the time we were done. Great presentation.

If you wish to go, you have to make a reservation, which is easy to do via open table!!

Came here for a to-go on a Saturday afternoon since I didn't have a reservation. Around 4pm, all the tables were occupied and there was a wait. I was happy to see the variety of selections they offered.
I got the houjicha shaved ice and it was refreshing and delicious for the hot summer.
The staff was friendly.
The ambiance was cute and nice. I will come here next time for dining in!
Parking was not too difficult as there was a parking lot for the plaza.

There aren't many places with a $40 High Tea/ Afternoon tea menu nowadays. The cheaper ones are usually in Surrey. We have heard pretty mixed reviews for Tsujiri's new $40 menu but we still want to try it out.

My first impression was whether we will be full but after finishing the set I was very full. I like the savoury options a lot but some of the dessert items are not to my liking. The canele looking pink dessert which I believe is sakura frozen yogurt. We didn't know at that time so the exterior was melting with the interior still frozen. The flavor reminded me of cherry cough syrup. However, I love the dang with kinako powder and the kinako panna cotta.

Overall, I think the set is worth it at that price point. The service is not the same as traditional afternoon tea place. Once our food came, our hot water thermos was refilled once and no one asked us if we wanted the bill or not. We were quite confused and walk to the front of the store to pay instead.

If you want to try this tea set, remember to make reservations. There are only 3 tables in the tatami room in the back. The tatami room is very good for kids. My son loved walking around while we were having our meal.

Came to Tsujiri for their high tea, which was AWESOME. I think it's my favorite high tea experience especially because of the seasonality and variety of the ingredients. For summer 2024, their menu had a lot of yuzu and mango - we had a yuzu hojicha tea which was great. My favorite of the dishes was the dango at the end, it was a nice mix of salty and sweet. I was really full by the end, surprisingly, probably because of the parfait and the mousse. I would highly recommend coming for the high tea experience (great value for the price, too).

no complaints about the drinks i tried a tsujiri! loved their o-matcha latte, the matcha was a nice, vibrant green. it had a great, earthy flavor with a slight bitter aftertaste. the yuzu matcha was surprisingly refreshing and is great for those who are less inclined to drink matcha.

Tsujiri is one of few Japanese dessert establishments in the area specializing in matcha. The staff are nice but during my visit there was only a couple workers, so the place can get busy quickly with large groups. The restaurant's atmosphere is nice and has posters demonstrating the history of the establishment. On this visit, I tried several drinks and snacks. Each item had the subtle matcha flavor I was looking for. I would recommend Tsujiri if you're looking for high quality matcha!

Only got take out for a Kinako Kuromitsu latte with oat milk and it came out real quick! Small place but seems like plenty of seating and there's other pastries to go. The order process was simple and quick would need to come back to sit in and dine but the server prepared my drink fairly quickly so no complaints

I really wanted to like this place but there is room for improvement.

There is a certain aesthetic with their tatami room space and I liked how the tables were not crowded together. A friend of mine booked a month in advance to secure a table for 4 in their tatami space for high tea. At $35 it can't be beat and I left full (a rarity for high tea in the Vancouver area) so kudos to them for being able to achieve that.

What challenged me was a few things including their food and service.

Food: looked really great - the presentation had been thought through and everything came out all at once except for an opening soup. One of my friends made a good call to ask them to bring the soft serve later as it would melt and put you on a timer to finish everything else. Macaron feet was too big and as expected the texture was off making for a chewy experience. The green tea pudding was definitely the star of the entire experience. Overall the food was fairly decent which was at a 4* level.

Service: it was OK - food came out fairly quickly once we all assembled, and they obliged with our request to return with the soft serve later. They did check in on us for a bit and then at the tail end - nothing. We had to go to the front as their regular service area was jammed full of customers on the other side of the partition. It was probably a brief oversight. Splitting the bill was no problem and the auto-gratuity started at 15% which is standard for sit down service. They do not take AMEX. Based on this no stars were gained nor lost.

Things to note:
At one point before we started our meal I used the single restroom (which is not really accessible as it had lots of things jammed in that same hallway). I noticed that just outside the door was a baking sheet precariously balanced on a blue bin with some high tea components on top (the cake/cookie at the bottom of the chestnut dessert) - this isn't particularly food safe and I wasn't sure why this item was outside the core food prep area. There were also a number of fruit flies through the service at our table.

When we initially sat down our table had not been wiped down with sauce and crumbs visible - as our reservation was at store open it is likely that the table hadn't been cleaned up from the service the night before. They were quick to correct this and wipe it down but it was odd.

Based on the items above a star was lost for sanitation.

They were generous with Hojicha tea refills and came by several times to make sure it was topped up - this was great!

The parking nearest to this restaurant is only 90 minutes long as a member of our party found out - our service time was about 2 hours long so please be mindful of this and consider parking in the parkade. There are signs but they are essentially a wall of text and hard to read.

I know the staff are keen and work hard so they can definitely improve. I look forward to coming back and checking it out again.

$8 for an iced matcha latte and it was not worth it. My drink came with 3 ice cubes which not keep it very cold. Matcha was also very lumpy and unblended in the drink. Taste was average.

Inside was busy and service was good no issues.

Matcha cheesecake tasted like regular cheesecake I couldn't taste much matcha flavor. Crust was very crispy and flavorful.

A local foodie posted an update on the new tea set at Tsujiri and I had to come back and give myself a 2nd chance. Hagan Daaz green tea has gone down hill even the Japanese imported version from TnT.

We got the last seating of the day which was at 6pm. There were distinctly 3 groups and we were in the middle of the tatami seating area.
First group got there before me and wore Japanese anime and had a full on photoshoot before during and after the tea.
To my left were a group who clearly wasn't into dessert, but one dessert lover. My neighbours were super fun.

My table got served last, a good 30 minutes plus after the first table despite I was there before the last group.

Very quick intro to the items, I feel bad as the servers were leaning over every time placing the items on the table (poor back). They didn't want to step on the tatami. Management: Take note, you don't want your servers straining their back.

My favourites were: Matcha pudding, hand rolls, mochi balls, the dash soup had great flavour but it was barely warm and the crunchy bites were soggy by the time we were served.

Misses: inari (the salted plum is too overwhelming for what's going on), macaroon (flavourless and lack of almond flour), Hojicha ice cream was flavourless, chestnut cake (too mild), matcha cake (the icing is so greasy and no flavour) this one was the worst as it looked great and tasted like an artificial Japanese Twinkie.

Value wise is great. Unfortunately there wasn't a flow to mild to strong flavour, or enough savoury items to balance out the lack of sweetness of the items. When sweets aren't mildly sweet, it becomes just whipped fat/ stabilisers.

Hope they continue to tweak their set as I do see great potential.