Tea Monks Carlsbad — Restaurant in Carlsbad

After a long day at LEGOLAND, my partner was craving a smoothie, and I was craving boba. We found this spot down the road. Since it was close and the only spot open, we decided to try it out.

Tip: Make sure you check in on Yelp for 1 free topping!

Parking: This shop is located in an outdoor outlet. Free parking in their lot. We visited on a Saturday, and it was very busy. Parking can be difficult.

Ambiance/Environment: They’re located along side the outlet; on the outside. It’s a small spot. No indoor seating, but they have limited outdoor seating.

Service: Our cashier was nice, but not efficient. I checked in on Yelp for the 1 free topping. I ordered a drink with boba. I noticed it didn’t reflect on the iPad while checking out. She said it won’t show on the screen, but they’ll add the boba. This was not the case. They forgot to add the boba. Partly my fault for not noticing and trusting the cashier’s words. It wasn’t until after I grabbed my drink, took a quick photo, and left - that I noticed they forgot to add the boba. At that point I was already in my car, so I accepted the L.

Drinks:

1. I ordered the S’mores Milk Tea with boba (did not get boba) and easy ice. I felt the milk tea was more chocolatey. Unsure what part actually made it “s’mores.” Despite no boba and lack of taste, it wasn’t too sweet and decent.

2. My partner ordered the Muscle Up Choco Smoothie, no toppings - I didn’t get to try his drink because he downed it, but he said he really liked it.

Pricing: It’s average $$ price for boba. They do have some fun drinks that sound interesting. I’d come back to try their other drinks. I’ll make sure it’s...

My family will never be going back. My daughters love the drinks but every single time we are there, the service is horrendous. Not to mention the constant “CASH ONLY” paper sign because their systems are down. This has happened 4/5 times I’ve been there. They tell you the atm is around the corner when it’s actually a long walk and when you come back there is no one that cares or has an apologetic reaction THAT YOU ACTUALLY CAME BACK after walking practically the entire outlet to get cash. With this much consistent issue of CASH ONLY and making your customers go walk across the mall to grab cash and you don’t care to be thankful and do something a little extra to say thank you….Customer service is AWFUL. They all seem so miserable working there. We also asked for extra boba for my daughters drink and it’s not even a cm off the bottom? Last time she asked for extra boba it was 1/4 of the way filled with boba. And the girl working gave attitude when I asked her if they forgot to add extra and then decided to show me what two scoops looks like in one scooper. That’s not two scoops. I’ve worked in the food and service industry for 10 years and this expensive waste of time doesn’t care about their customers. You can purchase your own boba online and lemonade/chai/anything to make at home. Don’t waste...

Sorry to say it, but this place is all hype and not at all the great boba shop that other reviewers led me to believe.

I will give them a half star for the location within the outlets, but could imagine that being a bad thing when the outlets are super busy.

Another half star for their decent boba. It wasn’t mushy or too sweet like it can be at other places. Boba held together and had a nice chew to it, but nothing spectacular.

Tried their Black Milk Tea. It literally tasted like if you added a lot of ice to chocolate milk (not sure why you’d do that), let the ice completely melt, forget if you added ice so you add more, then pour that into the cup over decent boba.

I had the Taro Milk Tea which is definitely a powder or syrup as there was no hint of actual taro in it. Tasted more like the milk left after eating a bowl of fruity cereal, colored purple, for effect.

Kids had the S’Mores Milk Tea. Tasted nothing like a S’More. No marshmallow or graham cracker flavor or anything like that. Basically just chocolate milk. If I could rename it based off the flavor, I’d call it S’Less because definitely didn’t want any S’More.

Don’t believe me? See picture for proof, but go ahead and try it for yourself. Not gonna name any other places to go instead, but I will not be...