Kite’s Kitchen Express review: April Ooi visits Como cafe for classic Taiwanese comfort food and bubble tea

Recently, my friends and I have been reminiscing about the days when bubble tea was simple. All we had was an overly sugary Utopia, or a shoddy make-it-at-home situation — but we were happy. These days, bubble tea has gone boutique. Menus read like novellas, toppings are extravagant, and prices creep into double-digit territory. But sometimes you just want to strip it all right back. Enter Kite’s Kitchen Express in Como. It’s a small takeaway shop specialising in Taiwanese comfort food and fried snacks. But what really took us by surprise was the simple bubble tea menu: just a few milk tea options and fruit tea flavours, and tea prices like those you would have seen in the 2000s. The braised pork belly with rice ($17.99) is a Taiwanese classic. It arrived glossy and deeply savoury, the pork rendered soft enough to collapse at the nudge of a spoon, its richness soaking into the rice below. The lemon chicken rice ($17.99) is not for everyone. A sweet, sour, sticky glaze covers a heavily battered fried chicken. It leans closer to the Australian-Chinese takeaway staple than strictly Taiwanese, but it delivers exactly what it promises. Where Kite’s Kitchen Express really makes a statement is their old-school bubble tea. I loved the simple taro pearl milk tea ($6.80). It’s definitely the cheapest bubble tea I’ve seen in Perth in a long while. The tapioca pearls were also extra chewy and satisfying. I took the strawberry green tea with grass jelly ($7.60) home for my brother, and he was also pleasantly surprised. Tea taste was actually quite strong, and the strawberry flavour wasn’t artificial or sickly sweet at all. Just as we would in Taipei, we got a few fried snacks for the road. The fried tofu ($6.50), fried fish cake ($7) and French fries ($5) were all put in the same yellow “Hot Chips” takeaway box. All the fried goodies were covered in a salty five-spice mixture. It was all very good, I only wish we had ordered more as the portions weren’t the biggest. When competitors are chasing novelty, there’s something deeply refreshing about a place that resists it. Kite’s Kitchen Express doesn’t try to outdo the competition with spectacle. Instead, it focuses on comfort, flavour and simplicity. Kite’s Kitchen Express 1a/262 Canning Highway, Como OPEN Monday-Saturday 11am-10pm, Sunday 5pm-10pm CONTACT 0401 520 172, kiteskitchenexpress.square.site BOOKINGS No THE VERDICT A great place for affordable bubble tea and a solid selection of Taiwanese food. 14/20