Boba Paw (Polo Park) — Restaurant in Winnipeg

I assume the glowing reviews are from people who haven't been to as many bubble tea places, from people who most value cost, from people who most value the range of add-ins, from people who most value friendly service? Unfortunately I most value the actual taste and quality of bubble tea I received...

I ordered a green tea with popping bubbles, my friend ordered a basic milk coffee latte with no pearls. An easy order. The staff were friendly and fast, easy to understand as they gave us our first huge red flag that disappointment was on the way: they can't do "a quarter sweet", only regular, 75% and 50% (one pump). We normally ask for 25 or 30% but a partial push of the sugar syrup is out of the question here. It's a whole pump or no pump.

I paid an extra $1 for the tiny amount of popping bubbles I got, which I would have only reduced the rating one star for had they not been contaminated (see picture) with unknown bits of other toppings.

Everything is made with drink powders except maybe, maybe the green tea. My drink tasted artificial and medicinal. I drank it even though I was very unimpressed to find more strange bits of not popping Boba but jelly and whatever else periodically in the blend. My friend, however, drank half of her coffee before she couldn't any more and then felt sick for the rest of the night. I tasted it and it was really the worst coffee I've ever had, worse than a 7-11 iced coffee latte for double the price. I would have given a slightly higher rating due to the friendly service from lovely workers only I can't after my friend got actually sick from and couldn't drink her bubble tea, and I found unknown bits of whatever in my bubble tea. The rating truly baffles me. I expected better than this. We've had tea that's overly sweetened before without her getting sick to her stomach. There's very little quality control going on in the production line so I can only assume a little bit of something got in there that wasn't coffee milk latte.

Picture of the most obviously contaminating bubble in my tea included.

I haven't been to Happy Lemon across the street, but I can only assume it's not worse. My current top choice, Yi Fang, has less selection of bubble types but uses real fruit. Nothing in Boba Paw is real except for their excellent employees and the cut up bits of fruit you can get as an add-in. If you like real fruit tea and less sweet tea, this is an easy one to avoid.

You might like it if you want a huge variety of add-in Pearl styles, they have the most I've ever seen at the cost of everything else. If you are okay with powder crystal artificial drinks you might like it.

I was unimpressed and then actively unhappy, and my friend implored me to share her story, so, I thought I'd let you know. I think you can do better in most arenas, Boba Paw. Your staff were lovely so don't yell at them for what's clearly the policy of the owner to not allow minuscule sweetener in the already sickly sweet drinks. That is not enough. The entire cross contamination standards as well as offering a modest sweetener level and a real fruit blended offering to the menu is what must be improved for me to ever...

Worst service from who ever was managing when I came in around 530pm.

First time going here and I ordered 2 FRESH avocado bubble tea for pick up for my mom and I. On the phone, the lady offered me M or L which then I said M and said I’d be there ASAP. 15 minutes after I came in the drinks were not made until I was doing payment and then I realized after finishing the payment in cash that they were adding green powder to the drinks which then I clarified if they were fresh avocado and she said “no they’re slush” because I had ordered the M and the real smoothies only come in the large size???

My mom and I absolutely do not like powdered avocado bubble tea and I tried to express that to her before the drinks were even blended but all she could do was tell me that it was “already made and paid for”. She then went back to discuss with whom I assume was the supervisor and came back to say the same thing and who ever at the back did not once come up to address the issue. As I was on a time crunch and the reason why I made a pick up order I wanted to get the fresh avocado bubble tea which they then charged me $18 for. The only reason I paid was because the lady who I spoke to on the phone said it was her fault and offered to cover the bill from her pockets which is absurd because this is an issue that could have easily been dealt with coming from someone that has worked in hospitality for 5 years.

I had to pay $35 for 2 bubble teas that ended up not being good as it tasted like ice with no milk base. I will take the L for thinking they had good fresh bbt but I want my money back for the other bubble teas I didn’t even leave with. I never write reviews but I highly do not...

Update 2023/02: They have fried chicken now. Incredibly tasty the ugly mayo one is top notch. Do not bother with the sides they are small and not worth it just get the bucket of chicken and a drink and youre set.

Update 2022/08: Tried the Oreo Cheesecake and omg was it sooooo good. Like dessert in a cup. Raised it up a star, def coming back.

Tried the taro milk tea (large size, light ice), pretty similar to anywhere else I've tried. Can't find any faults, other than even though I asked for light ice to me it seemed more ice than other places do when I request light ice. The large size is a tall but skinny cup, I would say it might be slightly smaller than what you would be expecting for a large so keep that in mind. It's nice having more options on this side of the city, and overall satisfied my...