Quickly Bubble Tea — Restaurant in Chapel Hill

Let’s talk about Quickly Bubble Tea, shall we? It has potential, and by that, I mean it could one day become a solid spot for a quick snack and a sip if it ever decides to get its act together. But as of now, it’s more of a “maybe I’ll go back, maybe I’ll just keep driving” kind of place.

First off, let’s talk about timing, or the lack of it. You could order ahead online and still have to wait 20 minutes once you arrive in person. It’s almost like they’re waiting for your presence to validate their desire to start making your order. “Oh, you’ve already paid? Pfft, why rush? It’s not like you have other places to be.” And don't even think about getting your food quickly if you decide to order in person. Whether you’re in the store or not, expect a waiting game. Oh, and don’t get me started on portion sizes. It’s like the portions were designed for a dollhouse, but priced for a small family.

Now, the real tragedy: the food. If you’re craving fried tofu or fried calamari, Quickly is not the place to fulfill that craving. These dishes taste like they were mass-produced at Costco, just waiting to be dunked into a fryer. It’s the kind of food that leaves you wondering if they got the recipe from a frozen food aisle rather than an authentic Taiwanese kitchen. So much for authenticity, right? The spices are off, and you can feel the lack of care and technique that should go into these dishes.

The fried tofu? More like fried regret. The fried calamari? More like “Who needs squid when you’ve got rubbery, bland batter?” There’s no soul in these dishes, just a sad reminder that they’re trying to cut corners without understanding why those corners exist in the first place.

The only reason Quickly gets a solid 3 stars instead of a bitter 2 is because their popcorn chicken is, well... passable. It’s not great, it’s not life-changing, but it's something you can eat without having a moment of deep existential dread. However, the minute you take a bite, you realize that the people who are cooking this are likely Chinese, not Taiwanese, and that’s the exact moment the authenticity of the dish starts to slip away. It’s like getting a lukewarm, watered-down version of what you could have had, had they nailed the Taiwanese fried chicken magic.

And then there's the bubble tea. Sigh. It’s fine. It’s acceptable. Nothing to write home about, but also nothing to make you want to throw your drink out of the window. A little overpriced for what you’re getting, but I guess that’s the norm these days.

In conclusion, Quickly Bubble Tea has potential, but it's currently operating in the land of “meh.” If they spent more time focusing on the food and customer service and less on churning out mediocre bubble tea and unauthentic food , we might actually have something worth returning to. Until then, I’ll stick with the places that get the...

I hate to detract from previous reviews of this place but here goes. I will preface this with that I am sure the owner is nice, the employees are nice, etc. It's not personal. But the food here was absolutely the worst thing I have eaten (or in this case not eaten) in years. I ordered the popcorn chicken. The meat was unidentifiable. I have attached pictures here (Note, I will upload pictures from mobile, they won't attach here). It was maybe chicken. But not any parts of the chicken I've ever had. The meat was dark and a lot of it red. It can't have been just undercooked because it was deep fried. Something else. It was also chewy like jerky. I ripped apart and tried several pieces too. All were similar in nature. We also ordered fries. They were crinkle cut fries exactly like you would get from the freezer at Food Lion. Then for some reason they dusted them with finely ground black pepper as small as dust. These are also in the pictures (to be uploaded). Even though they were hot they were soggy and grease filled. I'm not even sure how that's possible. The tea we got my daughter wanted the Boba beads and I'm not familiar with them, but asked for them. I guess they are certain flavors? They didn't ask what kind (She wanted ones which were fruity) and by default rather than asking they put in some chewy beads (maybe honey?) into the Mango Slushie so they were inedible. We spat them out. The total bill was $14 and we threw everything away in the trash practically untouched and got dinner elsewhere. That chicken was unlike anything I've ever seen. Finally, and I get that this is a bit hard to control, but not impossible, the station they were playing was uncensored and Freaky Friday by Lil Dicky came on. This song is a gratuitous plethora of every swear word in the book, including (but not limited to): The N word, F&K, S^%T, A$$, P&^Y; B*(^CH, C%$T, and V%^&NA. So I am trying to distract my child while non stop swear words inappropriate for ANY place, ANY time, ANY situation are blaring over the speakers in the place.

Please understand "Quickly", it's not personal. But I will never step foot into there again and would caution anyone else, especially with...

Some stuff is great, but snows are hit or miss. Often they’re not blended enough and they’re more like a hail than a snow. The tea is good. Customer service is good tho, never had any bad experiences with that. I think the staff really need to pay attention to quality control on snows tho, make sure they’re blended well enough and if they’re still icey, blend them more. Snows should be smooth with no chunks of ice - make sure you visually confirm this before handing a drink to a customer who just plunked down $5. I had a snow today that was super chunky with tons of unblended ice and it was terrible. Sometimes they’re good but the one today wasn’t. I’ll still give the place three stars overall tho because of all the other good experiences...