Boba Boy — Restaurant in Edmonton

I am leaving a 1 star review because of two reasons: the drinks were not good and the hostility/lack of accountability on the owner's end.

I went to Boba Boy on May 30, 2025 at around 8:00-8:15pm with my friend Seo Young Kim. She ordered the strawberry milk tea with tapioca (half sweet), and I ordered the regular milk tea with tapioca. We were taken aback when we received the drinks because clearly the strawberry drink we received did not match the picture advertised in the image on the menu on the wall. Generally, when strawberry drinks are made with fresh/real strawberries, it is red like strawberries with bits of fruit/seeds in the drink. The strawberry drink we received was clearly made with strawberry-flavored powder.

To preface this, there is nothing wrong with using artificial-flavored powders to create drinks. However, it definitely is an issue when we order one thing and receive another.

The drink I received (milk tea with tapioca) did not have any 'milk tea' flavor. It just tasted like a sweet milky drink with no flavor. The tapioca was clearly overcooked.

When biting into tapioca, there should be a small bounce back, getting more resistant when reaching the center of the pearls. The tapioca we received were mushy and broke apart just by pressing them together with the lips.

Onto to hostility/lack of accountability piece. Seo Young left a review and received the following response from the owner:

"Thanks for the fake review! We didn't not receive any order today for the strawberry milk, so let's be genuine and don't give fake reviews. If you are associated to a different bubble brand then tell them to make their recipes better rather than giving us a fake review. We sell what we have on the menu and with proper recipes. So if you want to play this game then let's play fair. Thanks! Bobaboy"

I'm not really sure why the owner, knowing this is a public space/forum, would post such a hostile response right off the bat. Normally, a business owner would say something along the lines of "sorry for your negative experience. Please come by again sometime, we will make your drink right" - something to try and win back customers. This would also provide good optics for the business owner in a public space, which the owner of Boba Boy has failed to meet in this circumstance.

My friend posted this review on the day we visited - May 30, 2025. After receiving the response from the owner, my friend updated their review and also included a screen shot of her receipt in the review. I'm not sure why the owner would not do their due diligence to review timelines and make such hostile accusations.

Needless to say, I will not be returning to Boba Boy. The drinks were simply not good, and the response from the owner was icing on the cake. A lot of boba tea shops have opened in the city, so I would recommend everyone to check out any other place instead of Boba Boy.

Note to the owner: I am not an affiliate to any other boba tea shops/chains. I am just a regular customer who...

I really wanted to like this place since it’s so close to where I live—literally only a 3-minute drive. But unfortunately, I don’t recommend coming here. The bubble tea had a very artificial, almost chemical-like taste that was hard to ignore. It didn’t taste fresh or balanced at all, and the sweetness was overwhelming in a way that felt like it was covering up the lack of real tea flavor.

The tapioca pearls were also a letdown—chewy in a way that made me wonder how long they’d been sitting out, rather than the soft, bouncy texture you’d expect from a good boba shop. I’ve given this place more than one chance, hoping maybe I just came on an off day, but the experience has been consistently disappointing.

What’s worse is that the drinks are priced similarly to well-established chains like The Alley or Coco, but the quality doesn’t come close. I’d honestly rather take the extra 10 minutes to drive out to Windermere for something that actually tastes like it was made with care and decent ingredients.

Service was also pretty indifferent—staff didn’t seem particularly friendly or helpful, which only added to the overall underwhelming experience.

Save your time and money. There are much better...

We were SO excited a bubble tea place was opening up in our neighbourhood as we usually go to Windermere for bubble tea. That excitement was short lived however... Like many of the other reviewers said, the drinks took forever. We waited about 30 min for 3 drinks and there were only about 3 people waiting. I can totally forgive the long wait for the drinks as they are new, but they tasted absolutely disgusting. We unfortunately ended up throwing them out after a couple sips. So sad because I really wanted to love this place!!! Might give them another shot in a couple months to see if it’s any better, but if things don’t improve I don’t think they will be...