Chatime — Restaurant in Halifax

I don’t usually write reviews, let alone negative ones, but our drinks were bad enough that I have to make an exception.

We ordered four drinks: passionfruit slush with tapioca pearls, taro milk tea with tapioca pearls, honeydew slush with rainbow jelly and Hawaiian fruit green tea with nothing added.

First, they were out of honeydew and passionfruit. That’s fine but kinda annoying as it’s happened three times now. But I get that sometimes these supplies are difficult to get. We replaced them with mango and peach respectively.

Second, I feel sorry for the guy behind the counter as he was the only staff member and despite it being right when the place opened on a Sunday, there was a huge line up. Our drinks took about 25 minutes to make. That’s a long time and not his fault but rather poor planning by the store or just a freakishly busy day.

If everything was fine after this, I would have still considered this a successful and satisfying trip to Chatime. It was not.

The tapioca pearls looked nice and plentiful in the two drinks that had them. But it turns out it was more like pearl-singular. They had congealed and hardened into a large tapioca lump in both drinks. It was a chewy, impenetrable mass in the drinks and completely inedible. Basically it amounts to two drinks with no tapioca (which we paid for but could not enjoy at all) and technically a bit less drink, due to the space the pearls took up.

The Hawaiian fruit green tea, despite only being a fruit tea with nothing fancy, still managed to be missing an ingredient: tea. The drink was a bit oranger than normal, which should have been a red flag (orange flag?) but sometimes the colours can be darker or lighter. Started to drink it and it was really, really sweet. I ordered 50% sugar but it was like 100% and very fruity, like a gross, syrupy fruit juice. Nasty.

The mango slush with rainbow jelly was good though, so I guess that accounts for one star!

In conclusion: what a waste of like a million dollars...

Updated after saw owner's reply: I have been a Chatime's loyal customer since the first store opened on Spring Garden. I had also waited in line during the busiest time in both DT and Shopping center, in person or via mobile phone. None of those stores needed at least 45mins for preparing 4 cups drinks for picking up not deliverying, and messed up twice. If you have access to see my past orders through platform, you will be able to find out I had already ordered 10 cups of salted caramel MT in this year from ONE platform(not included in person and another platform), so I know how it tasted like. Staff made the flavor right the first time but in Hot which I ordered Cold, and the second time for cold roasted MT but not salted caramel. This is my favourite flavor in this year and I recommoned to all my friends. So I am just an UNHAPPY CUSTOMER who couldn't have her favourite drink and felt sorry for her friend that had to stand there quiet and patient 30mins for nothing!!! Not a Lier who rushed the staff in very limited time and blamed store with my misunderstanding of taste!!!

Original Extremely slow for mobile order. Placed order on 7:31pm, friend walked in store for picking up at 7:45pm and waited until 8:15pm, still not ready yet? Checked with staff at 8:18pm, seemed like they almost forgot our order because items hadn't been prepared yet! Started to prepare after I asked, then handed out the wrong stuff! The correct order should be 2 cups of salted caramel roasted MT, both with no ice, grass jelly, and no sugar. What we got were two hot ones, so had to remake again. Is this done? NO!!!!!! By the end we got two regular roasted MT with grass jelly, where was my salted caramel??? Were they expecting us to DIY? As I already drove 15mins and wasted 45mins in store, I won't waste any extra money on gas to wait them remaking other incorrect items. But this horrible experience needs to be recorded, $32.89 paid...

Good tea, terrible service. Imagine having to wait 40 minutes for 1 drink. This location is by far the slowest service. Last time i went there it took us 30 minutes to get our drink. There were a few people there so i was not too mad about it. Today, i ordered online before i left so i don't have to wait but guess what, when i got there the casher literally goes “please wait over there, i’m confused and i’ll call you when your order is ready”. So i wait, 15 minutes pass by and everyone who came in after me to place order getting their orders(i ordered way before that and the app said your order is ready before i went in). Then i go to her again to ask and surprise my order was sitting on a side completely forgotten. 38 minutes for me to get my order. I love bubble tea but this location makes me not want to go...