heytea (Bellevue Bravern) — Restaurant in Bellevue

Not an incentivized review. I don’t care for free magnets but I find the practice deceptive to anyone looking at a superficially inflated review score. I’ve seen other places do similar asking for “a review”-which is fine if it’s honest and organic-but here they specifically want a “five star review”.

Regardless, I do like the drinks here. If you go to their app, the drink ingredients, nutrition facts, and modification options are laid out clearly. The tea is freshly brewed (no powder) and you can see the many tea leaves displayed at the desk. I have a dairy sensitivity and something I find weird is that the coconut mango boom contains dairy when it’s unclear where it originates from in the ingredient list. I’m guessing the coconut milk (as the mango boom is dairy free and the coconut milk is the differentiator)- but what kind of coconut milk adds dairy?! It’s not usually a dairy product.

I came on one of the first three BOGO days and one of the next get one 50% off days. I’m a fan of the mango coconut boom. The grape boom was good too, it was more of a grape slushie and appreciate the real sliced grapes and authentic flavor mixed with tea. It was very cold and refreshing, great to get in summer. In both drinks the jelly does not fit through the straw and often causes blockages. The paper straw gets soggy after a while and was unappetizing to use.

Looking forward to whenever crowds die down some more and advance app ordering is enabled. The current state of the line is not welcoming to those with disabilities and can’t stand for hours at a time. If you’re at the corner of the stairs, the wait time to get to the cashier is about 30 minutes. The staff do things to make the line move faster like taking orders on paper menus that you give to the cashier. From there the wait time for drinks is 5-10 minutes. They were still servicing the existing line after their stated closing time of 9pm which...

Staff that aggressively shouts at customers is what you will get with your bubble tea. I’ve been here several times without issue. Customers standing around with receipts waiting for their number to show up on the screen to pick up their orders. Sometimes they wait outside since the restaurant is so small. Today it was the same, although this time I left and came back to pick up my order 30 minutes later. Customers standing around with receipts in a crowd out the door. Today, I walk in past the crowd and there is no one waiting at the counter. A lady just ordered at the register and walked out. I walk up to the counter (not the register) and show my receipt and the gentleman there starts bagging up my drinks. A woman immediately begins shouting in my ear and waving her hands in my face, for me to get in the “pickup line” and tells the man at the counter to ignore me. At first I thought she was an angry customer who thought I was cutting a non-existent line since there was no one at the counter or the register. Then I notice a credit card reader in her hand. She continues yelling aggressively in my face for me to get in the “pickup line” and to go stand outside with other customers who were still waiting for their orders to be made. I tell her first to backup and give space since I am pregnant and next to give me a refund or my order. The man promptly packages my order and hands it to me. Not a way to treat any customer or create a scene. I was mortified and confused by her anger. I’m confident she would not have singled me out or spoken to me like that if I didn’t stand out from the other Asian customers. I have no issues with Asian people, however, if you are a non-Asian minority, I do not recommend supporting this business if you respect yourself or your money. You will be tolerated at the least and ridiculed...

It looks, smells, feels like HeyTea but does not taste like the real deal.

I’ve had many of these drinks abroad, primarily in Singapore, and most recently in Vancouver. Heytea Bellevue was very disappointing.

(Slight tangent : Do not trust majority of the five star reviews. It’s quite unethical to incentivize customers to write five stars for a benefit, a free magnet, BEFORE a product is consumed. Granted the teas are handed out. However, it is visibly obvious that many of the customers barely tasted the drinks, let alone finished the product. So take them with a grain of salt!)

I had Grape Boom and Strawberry/mulberry boom. There’s really not much to say other than it felt like there was water with some natural juice, plenty of ice very few grape. It’s quite bland and I’m wondering if the slushie blended poorly? I’m also curious if they took out a lot of the puree and grape pieces and filled it with water or diluted tea? The picture attached is so strange compared to what you’d see from other HeyTea. (I remembered it when it was called very grape crystal drink so what happened to the quality??)

I highly suggest staff to try travel up north and research what made HeyTea the superstar brand that it is in other countries.

I’m a huge fan of HeyTea and waited 1.5 hour because I thought it’d be worth it, but I was very let down by the subpar quality. The parking validation is...