Happy Lemon Jamaica Plain — Restaurant in Boston

I stopped in for my first visit to Happy Lemon 🍋 in Jamaica Plain and was pleasantly surprised! Jason, the owner, was at the front counter and took time to learn what our preferences were for tea or fruit flavors. He’s very personable and explained the top favorites for milk teas which is what we wanted. We decided on Milk Tea with Oreo, “puff” cream and boba. What a creation! 🧋

We sampled puff cream first- it’s thick similar to pudding but salty more than sweet. Jason describes it as “tasty”. Having lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years, I found this to be a sweet spot! I felt like I was back in Tokyo. Jason explained that he originally got the idea in Taiwan where he experienced Happy Lemon for his first time. He decided that Boston needed Happy Lemon and the rest is history.

Congratulations to him as he has already opened up his second location, which is the one we visited.

The waffle smell was incredible so we ordered a vanilla bubble waffle to share, and that was the most fun one can have as each “bubble” tears off easily and...

Good boba!

I tried the brown sugar boba milk tea and was impressed with the flavor. The boba was a bit softer than I would’ve liked, but still enjoyable. The bubble waffles also smelled amazing.

The interior is nice, clean, and open, though there’s no public bathroom available. It’s a decent spot to study, but be aware that there are no available outlets.

Regarding the service: my experience was mixed. The young woman who initially took my order seemed a bit dismissive. When I asked how leaving a Google review would work, she informed me that I would need to leave the review at the register before even receiving my drink, which felt a bit off. However, another employee, a male worker, stepped in and was much more understanding. He said he trusted me to leave the review and kindly gave me the discount. I later observed him having great interactions with other customers, where he was both friendly and nice.

Overall, this is one of the only boba places in this area of Boston, and I can see myself coming back...

I was really excited to see a boba place in the area, and went to try it out last week around 715pm. Unfortunately, one of the two employees was really unfriendly (though the other was really sweet). When I asked questions, she begrudgingly answered them (e.g. what is puff cream?). They were out of taro flavor that day, as well as the brown sugar boba. They also don’t sell a matcha milk tea. I got a traditional milk boba tea with 50% sugar and ice, and it didn’t have much flavor, and was more expensive than I usually pay. I didn’t really enjoy it at all. Around 745pm she said they were closing, though it says they close at 8pm. They do have darts though which is fun. I hope they can make improvements to their customer service and begin to offer more flavorful...