Nomi - Botany — Restaurant in Howick

Disclaimer: Part of the free drink soft launch

Had a Plum & Lemon Jasmine Tea, staff recommended kanton jelly as the topping. Was quite delicious, had at least 4 real lemon slices and 3 dried plums inside!

Decor is cosy for a new bubble tea store. It's quite narrow, so good for 2-3 people to sit together, but not suitable for bigger groups. Its a perfect cosy date spot!

The specialty is the New Experience teas, apparently made from real brewed tea leaves! I tried my friend's Bai Yaqilan Fresh Milk drink, and it's delicious and mellow tasting. But if you're not a super keen tea drinker, you might not be able to tell the difference between the special-teas, especially as the milk would mellow out the taste further. But if you've never tried specialty chinese tea leaf teas before (like, ever in your lifetime), then these New Experience teas are an easy place to start.

The taste of the New teas are most likely subtle, quite mellow, but definitely with a hint of the aroma of roasted leaves. You must be able to appreciate the subtleties of the tea taste itself, before writing off Nomi as just another bubble tea store.

They have an upcoming dessert menu with shaved ice, ice cream, and other desserts. I'm most excited to try the Wintermelon Shaved Ice, because I've never seen that before!

A great experience lining up in the cold for a free drink, but Nomi is a bubble tea & dessert place to keep an eye on! Their branding is cute, fun and minimalist, and they're looking to do something different for the NZ bubble tea...

I really wanted to like this place, but my experience has been disappointing both times I've visited. The first time, when they just opened, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but it took over an hour just to get our drinks—and they were awful. It wasn’t worth the long wait.

Fast forward to today, 1/2/2025, and I thought things would have improved by now. Unfortunately, it was more of the same. We waited an hour for two scoops of ice cream when we originally ordered four. The two scoops we received was horrid. They contained chunks of cream and was not 'smooth' as advertised. They didn’t even follow up on the order until we had to check in, only to be told an hour later that they ran out of ice cream. No compensation was offered just a refund and a waste of time.

It wasn’t just us, either. I saw others waiting around for ages for drinks. The staff were really nice, but it seemed like they were severely understaffed, which just made the whole process even more frustrating. The whole operation feels inefficient and disorganized.

While the store has great potential with its marketing and promotions, it’s really hard to overlook the poor timing and lack of customer care. Until they can fix these issues, I do...

It’s my first time to try bingsu and this place gave me a really good first impression of it. I ordered the biscoff bingsu, which is their special and it was sooo good. For $24 you can share it with another person. Not bad for the price tbh. The biscoff biscuit crunch was a nice touch. The boba was cooked so perfectly and tasted so nice, one of the best boba pearls I’ve ever had. I am obsessed. I am quite surprised how the dessert isn’t as sweet as I thought it would be. I’m not really a sweet tooth, this is the perfect level of sweetness for me - not overwhelming. I also had a taste of ther mango bingsu and it tasted like mango! It did not disappoint, as other mango desserts barely taste like mango ifykyk.

The lady who served us was really cool. She explained and suggested the desserts they offer. We didn’t have to wait long for our dessert to arrive. There’s not much tables for a relatively busy shop. I will come back to try their drinks. The place has a nice cozy feeling. They also sell their cushions which...