CoCo Bubble Tea （Royal palace） — Restaurant in Khan Daun Penh

My first ever visit was quite a surprise! 😂

A couple of days ago, I found out that CoCo is now available in Cambodia 🤩, and the very first store had just opened near the Royal Palace. I missed the drink so much. The first time I tried it was outside Cambodia, and it instantly became my favorite flavor.

So, I headed to the store at 10:30 AM on my bike and parked right in front of the store, just like most Cambodians do when visiting any store. But then I was stunned — the lights were still off, and the place wasn’t even properly arranged yet. I started wondering: Is the market here not good? Did they already close down?

Then a Chinese guy wearing a CoCo Tea uniform came out and, with a strong Chinese accent, said, “No, no, no… no parking here.” I was a bit shocked and told him I came for the tea. But if I couldn’t park here, where was I supposed to park? Before I could finish, he interrupted, “No open, no open.” Right after, a security guard came over and explained in Khmer that the store actually opens at 11 AM.

I was really surprised — like, What the heck? This is Cambodia, and you open a tea shop at 11 AM? Other competitors like Gong Cha, Chatime, KOI, and Dayung’s open as early as 7 or 8 AM. And if the store wasn’t open yet, they could’ve at least asked if I was there to buy tea and kindly informed me about the opening time, rather than just giving me an unfriendly warning like that. Honestly, it felt ridiculously unacceptable.

As for the store’s decoration — it looks modern, but it gives me the impression that it’s more focused on Chinese customers rather than locals. (Of course, this is just my personal feeling, since other big brands usually try to blend in better with the local vibe when they launch here.)

Now I’m debating whether I should go back and give the drinks a try, but honestly, I feel like I’ve already lost my appetite for this...

When I was ordering, I asked if my drink will take long because it looked like there were a few people waiting for their orders. The staffs reassured me it will only take a second.

I waited 25 minutes for ONE drink and the staffs did nothing to notify me of that. After 20 minutes of silence I had to go down and ask them about my drink, THEN they started to make my drink. It was just an unpleasant experience.

If the owner is reading this, why invest so much money to build a decent place just for the terrible staffs to ruin the business? I really recommend your staffs to get more service training, or get smarter staffs. No customer wants to spend money to...

The drinks were just okay, pretty standard, but I really liked the Lemon King—super sour, just the way I like it! I’d come back for that alone. The view here is also nice, making it a great...