Airoma Cafe

There’s no “right” answer as to whether a well-liked cafe should stick with its original formula or evolve with the times, but Airoma Cafe is firmly in the first camp: This highly focused Vietnamese coffee and tea shop has been serving very good drinks since it opened in 2020, and remains consistent in menu, service, and quality five years later.

Across two locations in Garden Grove – the original in the heart of Little Saigon near Vientiane Lao Thai, and a 2025-vintage space at the intersection of Garden Grove’s Koreatown, Westminster, and Stanton near Rodeo 39 – Airoma has set itself apart from neighbors with modern and minimalist yet comfortable cafe spaces that use posters to pay tribute to its Vietnamese cultural roots. TV-based menu boards spotlight the intentionally limited coffee and tea choices, which are all between $5.50 and $7, with three add-ons (crystal boba, lychee jelly, and grass jelly) at 75 cents each. The highlights here are based either on strong Vietnamese coffee or Japanese matcha, with the option to add additional flavored cream toppings (banana, pandan, ube, egg, einspanner milk), or instead go with a couple of non-dairy green teas (strawberry or mango), or one regular milk tea (phoenix oolong).

Notably absent from the Airoma Cafe menu are snacks – there are no baked goods or other food items of any sort here – and there’s very little here in the way of trend chasing. A Thai tea that was once seasonally on the menu years ago doesn’t appear to have re-emerged, and Airoma doesn’t aggressively hype itself on social media with new drinks or trendjacking posts. Its biggest announcements have focused on new locations, including the second Garden Grove spot and one in Las Vegas, so it’s less likely than some coffee and tea shops to randomly pop up on your radar.