Sum Tea House (8501 Olive Boulevard, University City; 314-222-1540) has the best crab Rangoon in the St. Louis area. Admittedly, this is an odd place to start when discussing a boba shop that specializes in a kaleidoscope of teas, juices and milks. However, Sum Tea House's version is so outstanding, it's the one thing I haven't been able to stop thinking about a full week after stopping into this magical little space on the western edge of University City's unofficial Chinatown district. Expertly fried to the point where they get a little darker brown — and by extension, crispier — than the usual suspects, the triangle-shaped pillows are filled with a deeply savory and rich imitation crab and cream cheese concoction. As smooth as custard, the filling spills out when its wrapper is pierced, forming a delectable pool you scoop up with the wonton's outside edges — or scoop off from the bottom of the container with your fingers so you can make sure you get every last drop. There's no such thing as dignity when faced with something this magical.
While crab Rangoon might not be the first thing you'd think of ordering at a boba tea shop, there was no way owner Elaine Truong could have gotten away without serving the Chinese restaurant staple. Since she was a little girl, Truong's parents have owned a Chinese restaurant in Granite City, Illinois, and crab Rangoon was one of their specialties. Some of Truong's earliest memories are of her mother scooping out cream cheese into the wonton's dough, then folding up its edges while simultaneously talking on the phone with her friends and watching soap operas. Once Truong was old enough to make them herself, she'd settle into the table across from her mom, getting into the rhythm as if mastering an
instrument.
Though the restaurant business coursed through her veins, Truong never thought she'd own one herself. Instead, taking a cue from her older cousin, DD Mau owner Julie Truong, she headed out to Los Angeles after graduating high school to pursue studies in fashion. There, she successfully completed her program and landed a job in the industry, only to understand over time that her career was conflicting with her desire for work-life balance. Missing her family — and again inspired by her cousin who had recently come back to St. Louis to open a restaurant — Truong decided to return home to pursue the hospitality business on her own terms.
A boba tea shop made sense to Troung for a few reasons. First, she is emphatic that she cannot cook. The idea of running a dedicated food operation, she believed, would be comical at best and disastrous at worst. What she is good at, however, is customer service, something she realized she had a knack for while working several different retail jobs in Los Angeles. That, coupled with her love for boba, made Truong see that there were opportunities for her in the service industry outside of running a restaurant, so she returned to town in 2021 determined to bring with her the customizable concoctions that defined the Southern California bubble tea scene.
Sum Tea House's signature drink, Brown Sugar Milk Tea, has a subtle black tea undertone wrapped in rich notes of tobacco, raisin and brown sugar. The shop's Taro Milk Tea is equally enjoyable thanks to its subtly sweet, earthy vanilla flavor, and a Strawberry Matcha Latte offers the same dessert-like decadence of a strawberry shortcake without being overwhelmingly sugary.
Of all Sum Tea House's stunningly beautiful drinks, the Starry Night might be the prettiest. Made from floral butterfly pea tea, the drink turns from deep blue to purple when you stir in a side of lemon juice. Not only does it make for visual fireworks, the juice adds brightness to the otherwise perfumy taste; the star-shaped mango boba that float in the bottom of the cup add to the ethereal aesthetic.
Sum Tea House offers outrageously refreshing snow teas that are basically boba slushies. The tropical lemonade, accented with heart-shaped passion fruit boba and passionfruit jelly in the bottom, should be declared the official taste of summer. However, a drink whose name evokes cooler temperatures, the Wintermelon Strawberry Milk Tea, is craveable in any season. A puree of wintermelon, a gourd that has a distinctly caramel taste when cooked, serves as the base of this outrageously delicious drink. Truong tops it with strawberry milk tea, then recommends a dollop of salted cheese foam to cap the concoction. It's strawberry cheesecake in liquid form.
Drinks like these are meals unto themselves, but Sum Tea House's food offerings make a compelling case to save room for the snacks. As with the crab Rangoon, Truong leans on her family's Chinese restaurant recipes to deliver outstanding pot stickers that are overstuffed with juicy pork. The homemade sauce is sweeter than the typical pot sticker condiment; a healthy sprinkle of sugar tones down the soy-vinegar pungency. Veggie egg rolls, too, are filled to the brim with julienne vegetables and served with a housemade sweet and sour sauce; the bright taste and delicate texture are a wonderful departure from the mass-produced, sticky sauce often served with the appetizer. And even though you'd be tempted to order another tea for dessert, the housemade waffles are a wonderful way to end the meal — especially when accented with vanilla ice cream, caramel and a generous spoonful of that magnificent salted cheese foam.
Truong jokes that her staff has fallen in love with the salted cheese foam and suggests her customers put it on everything. Dipping the crab Rangoon in it is probably a step too far, though by the time you are finished with a visit to Sum Tea House, you are so delirious with sugar and joy that you'd be willing to try anything — not that anything can make those cream-cheese-filled beauties any more perfect.
Sum Tea House is open Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. noon-8 p.m.
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