Gong cha (Sylvia Park) — Restaurant in Maungakiekie-Tāmaki

I was stoked to have a fun day at sylvia park, until i came across Tim.This man set the tone for my day which may I add was far from fun. I had been craving some delectable bubble tea and it was far from that. You see, I had asked for 100% sugar, and 30% ice which Timothy behind the counter had read back to me with nothing but pure confidence. So i obliged. I stood there, eager for that milky brown sugar taste to come into my mouth. My order came and I set eyes on the drink. My friend had ordered the same thing and i instantly noticed the sheer difference in the colour. And that’s when I knew… this anime victorian ghost looking man named timothy has shunned me. Dare I say finessed, I tasted it and it was far from the delectable tea I had imagined. So there I am, debating on whether or not to speak up about my order being so greatly displaced. But I bite the bullet and decide to speak up. Thinking my order would be replaced and everything would be fine , I show up to the counter and express my concerns. Timothy had the audacity to tell me it was my fault for not listening when he read back the order. I stood there in disgust as they basically take my bubble tea dreams as crush them under their crusty toes right before my eyes. Timothy, if you are reading this, you best know to count your days as they are now numbered. You may not believe in any god but you certainly will after you feel my wrath, this is only...

Gong Cha (貢茶) is a Taiwan-style drink shop franchise with tea sourced from Taiwanese tea estate & 貢茶 literally means the act of offering tea as tribute to the Emperor in ancient China. You can tell its huge success in NZ by looking at the queue in Sylvia Park, there were up to 20 ppl waiting at one point😹❗️

In addition to your usual Milk Tea drinks, I’m glad it has tapped into the growing trend for health-related products – ordered Longan Red Date from the Healthy Series & it was so thirst-quenching ah-mazing❣️Their Milk Foam drinks have also rightly gained a dedicated following✨- milk foam is a slightly salted cream topping above freshly brewed tea - if you haven’t tried before, the idea may not be very appealing, but you may be pleasantly surprised after taking your first creamy and satisfying mouthful of the milk foam accentuated by the more complex flavours of the fresh tea underneath👏🤤👏. I have to say, it is a little hypnotic watching the staff making completely beautiful drinks in front of you...

FYI - it turns out Gong Cha is owned in NZ by the ST Group which also manages Papparich and Hokkaido Baked...

There website clearly states that they will be open at 9am on Thursdays yet when I got there at 9:05 the lady told me that she was was not ready to serve me yet which I understood and left. However I came back around 9:20, and the lady told me she still was not ready to serve me. This was very inconvenient for me as I had a meeting to be at and came there especially for the gong cha under the impression that they would be open and be able to serve me from 9. Oh and on top of that this lady had a very rude and unbothered tone when I showed her that the website said you open at 9. This is very unprofessional from there side and should consider coming around 8:30 to open the shop and get it ready to serve. And the people normally serving are rude or completely ignore you and serve you after 5 minutes of you just waiting for them to take your order. I get y'all are tired but it feels like we are bothering you by asking you to get us drink when you are literally working there for that...