Xing Fu Tang - Cresta Shopping Centre — Restaurant in Gauteng

Honestly one of the most disappointing Boba tea's I've ever had. Firstly, let's talk about price. For R65, I expected at least something double the size of what I got, as my regular place does double the size at almost half the price.

Secondly, let's talk about the actual drinking experience of the Boba Tea. Generally, the most pleasant experience when drinking Boba, is a couple balls of tapioca, and a decent amount of tea. From the preperation of the drink, I could already tell this would not be a pleasant experience in the slightest. More than half of my cup consisted of Tapioca. I did not order extra Tapioca. Why did I receive so much Tapioca? As a result, after an hour of spending most of my time struggling with Tapioca, I'm sitting here writing this review, with a jaw that feels like I've literally gone several rounds with a boxer. And then let's talk about the tea.... WHAT TEA?! All I got was sugars from the Mango Sorbet? NANI?

Let's not even mention the service either. Cashier was absolutely fine. However, there were other servers sitting on bar stools watching videos/tiktoks/instagram stories(who knows these days) on their phones at max volume. As someone who's worked in the retail industry, I know how that is a massive no no. Secondly, I am a person with a bladder issue, and required the rest room. There is one literally one just next to the shop. I say that I'm quickly going to run to the restroom, and I'll be back in a minute or two. To which I'm told I must just wait as it'll just be another two minutes. My order seemed to then be rushed, and I was shown a bad attitude after mentioning my need to use the rest room.

All in all, unfortunately, I will not be returning to the shop. I was thoroughly looking forward to it, as it was my first time getting Boba after covid lockdowns, but alas, there is but one shop. I would rather fork out the extra money on petrol and have an indescribable time, than pay exorbatent prices for far below pat products...

I had such high hopes for this place as the IG posts looked so scrumpdillyicious. As a huge fan of boba/bubble tea, I thought that there's no way that XFT would let me down. I was wrong. Arrived at the pop up a day after launch day and as we got to the counter, we were told to wait as they needed to complete a few orders before they could help us. No biggie, they were swamped with orders. We left before getting our order taken and gave it another shot four weeks later and...eish. The Mango smoothie tasted like a generic mango slushie and the strawberry bobas were HUGE. Usually not a complaint but it took both my lungs and an extra bit of faith to get the bobas through the straw. Even after the effort, the bobas had no taste. Nada. It was refreshing but nothing special in terms of flavour. The brown sugar boba milk tea however...wasn't any different. After stirring 18 times as instructed, it didn't summon any flavor whatsoever. Bobas were a decent amount and had a tasty chew to them but the drink tasted like milk. Just milk. One redeeming option is the Biscoff Brown Sugar Milk Tea. The Biscoff spread that is in the drink gave the flavour that the other drinks were lacking. If not for that, it would have tasted identical to the Brown Sugar Milk Tea. Don't be fooled by the amazing presentation because what matters most is the taste and flavour, which it did not deliver. I cannot speak for the other drinks on the menu though, I had only tried the 3 drinks mentioned above. I really hope that the drinks improve in terms of flavour because at the moment, the price tag is...

I was really excited to go but ended up disappointed unfortunately. I ordered four drinks in total which I felt in the end of the day was a waste. Firstly I ordered the Strawberry pearl milk, which tasted just like milk. I also ordered the pannacotta Mango smoothie. Again the same problem. Smoothie was on the blander side and the pannacotta was completely frozen. I had the soda with the jelly balls. Soda taste like sprite and the jelly balls were completely frozen. Had to wait an hour for the balls to unfreeze just for them to taste like nothing. The last drink was the honeycomb tea. The tea itself tasted almost of nothing and it had the tiniest piece of honeycomb. It was honestly a disappointing experience. The place looked amazing and the drinks too, but it does not help if there is barely any flavour. I paid over R200 for my drinks which is a bit expensive. At first I didn't mind because it's something new, but unfortunately it lacked the wow factor - making the price...