CoCo Bubble Tea (Kingsway) — Restaurant in Vancouver

Long rant over literally nothing. TLDR: employee forgot something in our order and rubbed us the wrong way.

We are regulars here and order 4-5 drinks every week. Nice drinks and good experiences until today.

We ordered drinks to take back with us today as usual, no ice (because after we get back home it would have melted and diluted the drink; we fridge it and save it for the evening). The guy taking the order repeated it back to me when I said no ice. However they did not enter it. I should have checked the screen but I had trusted when I heard him and was fumbling with my card.

The person before us also asked for no ice and got ice in his drink. They got their drink remade.

When they put our first drink on the counter, we noticed there was ice in it. I checked the receipt; sure enough! I didn't see the note on it. We tried to flag down someone before they finished making the rest of the drinks but everyone was busy. When they called our order, I explained I had asked for no ice.

While I understand it was going to be a hassle or they might just say that they can't, the response I got was "I didn't hear you", and after talking to another worker, she explained that it was our fault for not confirming the order, and we even tried to reaffirm that after we noticed the error! They said they couldn't remake it (probably too many drinks to remake, I understand) and didn't offer a refund. All of this is understandable. I think there was an apology at least?

The only thing that soured the entire experience today was that the blame seemed to be pinned on us when we both heard him repeat the order correctly. Mistakes happen (on our end too) and we would have been fine with it if they hadn't given us the excuse that they did.

Edit: told the story to my parents (since I order drinks for them too regularly). They apparently went to order drinks and told them what happened, and they asked to speak to me. Whoever was on the phone offered 10% off or a free drink as compensation for my parents' order. While it was still implied the error was 100% on our end (no apology, explained we left the store with our drinks, etc, they did offer compensation, even when I insisted it was okay, and I didn't want anything). I accepted the free drink, though I still have to deal with grumpy people who have a very different impression now of one of their go-to local bubble tea stores.

Adding another star back. I am still unsure if I'd order again with the same employees...

UPDATE SEP 2, 2024: Favourites (5⭐️s only for these drinks):

• 2 Ladies (milk tea with pudding and pearls) • Bubble Gaga (passionfruit green tea with peals and coconut jelly) • Mango Sago Pomelo • Roasted milk tea (I haven't seen the roasted oolong version since my last review)

Note: Pearls and pudding almost always tastes good at this store. Must get pudding with milk teas and not with fruit teas. It tastes bad with fruit teas.

ORIGINAL COMMENTS from approx. 2018: I have specific places I like to order certain BBT flavours.

The first time I tried their milk tea (i think it was a jasmine milk tea? not memorable) I was very disappointed because it tasted very watered down.

However, sometime a lot later I decided to give them another chance and I tried their Roasted Oolong milk tea with pudding and pearls during the promo period and that was the best decision of my life. It was some amazing BBT!! I kept buying it after trying it the first time. Too bad its not a regular item.

The regular roasted milk tea is still pretty good though. I love the pudding to go with it.

I also tried the black sugar pearl latte as part of their Oct promo. I enjoyed the pearls but the liquid just tasted like milk and black sugar. It didn't wow me. I prefer my tea flavours.

A less important factor is the customer service. The cashier is always so cheerful. I like that about this store as good service is somewhat rare with BBT places. Most important factor still needs to be the quality of...

Never experienced worse service at a bubble tea shop/cafe. The drinks here are quite enjoyable and on par with the better shops you'll find in Vancouver.

After several months of coming here and ordering a few standard drinks, they ended up making a very small mistake. It was a simple mistake that could have been rectified and it was fixed for the order ahead of ours. We had ordered no ice in our drinks and the cashier had repeated the whole order to us. The person ahead of ours had a drink that was remade because of the same issue.

When we told the employee that ours was no ice, he went and retrieved a manager who proceeded to tell us that they cannot remake the drinks. Without any reason stated, it was left up to us to guess what their logic here was, but it was an incredibly unprofessional, lazy, and disappointing way to treat any customer. McDonald's has better customer service than this shop.

Bottom line: Have a drink, you might like it. Just hope they do not make any mistakes because it will be a gamble if you need it fixed.

Would not recommend any more. Have a walk down to Milk & Sugar or drive down to...