U Cha — Restaurant in Berkeley

This place is the one regular boba go-to for my partner and me. The drinks are good and there are some interesting combinations they offer. However, we've noticed recently that on certain days the quality of the drinks, especially those that are tea-based, experiences a huge decline, so it's kind of a gamble whether or not to order a regular favorite only to be considerably disappointed. Not sure what's been going on. Also, we once ordered fries and waited probably over twenty minutes, the whole time with the cashier telling us it would just be five more minutes, and they came out kind of dry and tasting like stale oil. So we've been wary of ordering their appetizers again since. Last complaint is that it's more often than not crowded and noisy and a little chaotic inside the shop. Okay but the...

U Cha is, without a doubt, my favorite boba place in downtown Berkeley. The space is on the small side, but doesn’t feel cramped, and I’m usually able to find an empty seat. I really like that the menu isn’t overly complicated, yet still has a variety of options. Similarly to many other boba places, you can choose the level of sweetness and ice in your drink. I typically go with 50% sugar, as it’s just enough for a touch of sweetness, but not so much that it feels like you’ll go into a diabetic coma. When there is a line, it always moves pretty quickly, and the service is pretty good (I usually only have to wait a couple of minutes for my drink). Overall, I highly recommend it if you’re looking for good...

I can only speak for the shave ice, but it's pretty good. Unfortunately the service hasn't always been the best. The last time I went the person at the counter spent some time talking to their co-worker about something unimportant and unrelated to business while I waited. Eventually I made my order and then went to sit down. A couple minutes later, the person working the counter came up to me and said they were out of what I ordered. This would have been fine if it was super busy, but there was nobody in line behind me, or in front of me. The shave ice itself was good, but the service wasn't the greatest. Of course, it's hard to judge the service based on just one experience, so it...