Gong Cha Southport — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

I’ve moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast and this is the only gong cha place on the Gold Coast. I have 3 local gong cha stores in my area where I’m from in Sydney. Gong Cha is my favorite bubble tea franchise and all their drinks are amazing, I’m a bubble tea fanatic so I surely do know my milk tea. My 3 local gong cha places in sydney (the liverpool, cabramatta and canley vale) all get a 5/5 for their drinks and service because they’re able to make every drink in under a minute even when they are packed with customers. I’ve been to gong cha at southport at over 10 times now, and every time I come the wait is horrendous. Even when I’m the only order it takes around 5 minutes for my drinks. I came tonight and I was told I had to wait over 15 minutes. All the staff here needs proper training and time management skills. If there was another gong cha place nearby, I would’ve gone there already. The staff needs to learn how to make a drink around 1-2 minute like every other gong cha place in sydney because it is ridiculous that I have to wait 5-20minutes every time I come here. Not only this, the first time I came here my drink and 2 other customer’s drinks were sitting on the bench for 5 minutes before it was called. And the workers kept doing other things like getting out more straws from under the counter when it wasn’t necessary because there were still straw available on the counter. If she needed to fill up on the straws, she should call out my drink first that has been sitting there for 5 minutes and fill up the straws afterwards. I know for every other time I come that if my drink is sitting there on the bench and she won’t call it out , I will just grab it myself.

I love gong cha and their menu but southport gong cha needs to really train their...

The drinks are decent enough, however a friend and I went tonight and ordered the chocolate egg waffles, the store was quite busy and had cups stacking up along their counter yet the staff continued to serve everyone who came up to order. It was busy so we sat down expecting at most a 15 minute wait, but then 45 minutes had past and there was no sign of our order, yet the staff were still taking orders. Another individual went up to the counter clearly frustrated and left without their order or even a refund, I don't know how long they had been waiting but they were already sat before we had ordered our so I'm guessing over an hour. We let another five minutes go by before going to the counter now frustrated that it had taken almost an hour for a one item order. It was only then that staff explained that the waffle machine wasn't working and that they had tried three times to get it to work. I do not know why we weren't told after the first attempt that the machine wasn't working or even that it would take longer than normal, but we weren't and it had now been an hour with no communication from the staff at all and unfulfilled orders still stacked on the table. This was incredibly disappointing as the drinks from there are great and service is usually quick and we'll organised, but it was clear that they were understaffed and overwhelmed, only adding to customers frustrations and wait times. I got a refund thankfully, but that doesn't give back the lost hour I had sat out the front of the place wondering what was taking so long. Communication is key and there wasn't any at all. Won't be back for a long time...

I ordered a ginger milk tea (which is a hot beverage). Once my order was ready I grabbed it and walked about 20m before noticing they gave me a ice cold ginger tea. So I returned and notified the same girl that it was meant to be a ginger milk tea not a ginger tea. She asked me if I wanted to pay for another one as she claimed I said a ginger tea. I reiterated that I said ginger milk tea and she said "no you said ginger tea" but said she would speak to her manager. Whilst I was a little offended about that accusation as I knew what I said as I order this regularly. I patatiently waited whilst I saw the girl and manager in plain sight reviewing the camera footage and giggling whilst I stood there. 10 minutes passed before the manager returned and informed me that they could not hear the footage clearly and would be giving me the correct drink and issued an apology for the wait. I expressed my disappointment with the treatment of me whilst I waited 10 minutes watching them giggle in front of me reviewing the footage only to try prove me wrong. The manager once again apologised however the girl who served me did not and I left explaining that how they treated me and embarrassed me was wrong and not the way to conduct business. I explained that I was a regular customer who shops here and orders once a week, but to vilify me over a $5 order; whether I said ginger milk tea or ginger tea was bad for business as I'd never shop here again. I couldn't care about the misunderstanding of the drink being wrong but to be treated like that was disgusting. Order 60...