UMe Tea — Restaurant in Chicago

Typically I would give this place 5 stars across the board. The location in Chinatown has never let me down even when they first opened and I’d wait hours for drinks and food. I’ve always had fun experiences and great service. I was there for their grand opening and waited 5 hours, wrote one of their first reviews, came back the following morning for more. I love UmeTea, so it is unfortunate I am writing this review on the Jackson st location.

If it was not for this instance happening two times, maybe I wouldn’t be too upset;

On 09/18 I placed an order for my colleagues. One brown sugar oolong, an Oreo crème brûlée, and a yumberry. All bunny surprise cups. On display they had all these cute bunny plush and a really cute monkey plush. While I waited, I noticed I had enough points for a free snack and I ordered the chili bbq popcorn chicken.

When I got back to the office, my coworker immediately opened their bunny surprise and out came the monkey. I was jealous because I love monkeys. After my other coworker and I finished our drinks we opened our surprises, and out came two more monkey plush. I brushed it off as I was happy I got a monkey.

This past Sunday (9/22), I wanted boba so I placed a mobile order for my friend to pick up. I ordered 3 popcorn chickens, one regular, one pepper, and lastly the chili bbq. Absolutely love their popcorn chicken. 10/10 every time which is part of the reason for 2 stars. Of course the other reason is due to their drinks being great. I highly recommend the yumberry!!!

For our boba drinks, we ordered the lychee watermelon, yumberry slush, passion fruit green tea, and a brown sugar oolong. For each drink I ordered the cup size bunny surprise. Unfortunately it was far from a surprise as each of us opened up our cups to the same bear plush.

Come to find out, the bear I pulled out, our other office last Thursday pulled out the exact same bears in all three of their surprise cups.

This is just laziness on the staff’s part. Whoever the guy is working the front, he does not even seem like he wants to be there. There’s no warm welcome, or even a thank you and goodbye. At least when I’ve gone in he seems moody. The lack of engagement does not speak to the service chinatowns staff gives.

Whenever I have gone to the Chinatown location and ordered multiple drinks for my coworkers, friends or family none of us have ever received the same plush. It makes it fun and enjoyable, with a tinge of jealousy if someone gets something cute than the rest. The staff is also so fun and friendly. The atmosphere just radiates happiness, while the Jackson store seems like it’s happily depressed. And this is sad.

Maybe things might change, idk, but I think I’ll stick to going to the Chinatown location instead even though it is much further out of my way. I’d rather deal with terrible parking as opposed to the convenience of the Jackson location being a walkable...

Very cute, super pink boba shop with tasty snacks and friendly staff. I got popcorn chicken with my milk tea and was pleased with both. (The popcorn chicken runs a little spicy, so the milk tea was necessary :) ) They are currently doing a lot of promotion for their new location and have some really good deals; I highly recommend going there soon to get little coupons for free toppings, several dollars off, etc., which they are just handing out. Only downside was that it was slightly difficult to figure out what the menu was; there's no one place where they list all their toppings, sweetness options, etc. However, I was able to customize my drink without issue by just asking the guy at the cashier.

Update: Not sure what happened, but the service is now terrible. Opening time is 12 but they always run super late (even 45 min late). The door to the store gets locked automatically; when I asked the lady at the counter about it she said, "Oh yeah it does that." No one could enter their shop and she didn't even care! I went ahead and propped it open with something so they would have customers :/ I also received some cream topping that had clearly gone bad and was...

Sometime in the last month or two, the Jackson location added lime slices to the pre-made boba and lychee container, used by drink makers. This means whenever you order a drink that comes with Boba & Lychee Jelly, lime slices are also added automatically.

The added lime is not disclosed anywhere. Pictures and descriptions of impacted drinks has not been updated to include this change.

Although I like limes. The added lime taste completely overpowers and ruins drinks such as the Passionfruit and Green Tea Boba and Lychee Jelly.

The unsolicited drink addition is getting really annoying. This is the 5th time it's happened in less than a month. I shouldn't have to add a note when I order, requesting for random things not to be added to my order. I shouldn't have to ask the drink maker to remove lime from drink and re-sealed.

The unsolicated lime addition has occurred on the following dates: Friday (6/6/2025), Thursday (6/26/2025), and Thursday (7/3/2025).

Luckily when I've gone two times after I've noticed added lime and had drink maker remove...