Uni Uni Boba — Restaurant in Chicago

So I actually work at another bubble tea location and my sister and I have always been bubble tea addicts. I have visited several different franchises and within the Uni Uni franchise I've visited about 3 or 4 different locations throughout Chicago including this one which I've gone to the most simply due to its proximity. While Uni Uni has always had good drinks and good food wherever I've gone, this location has the worst atmosphere and customer service, especially when the manager(s) are away. My sister is friends with one of the managers who works at this location and this particular manager always made sure that things ran smoothly at this location, but today this manager wasn't there and my sister and I wanted to just get ice cream during our break. When we went in, it was packed and there are no tables or seating areas other than a skinny wooden bench that is usually occupied by bigger groups of people that have been waiting longer.

There are 4 kiosks (card-only order stations) lined up along the windows (at the store that I work at there is only 1, we value conversation and connecting with our customers! Most stores in the area have 2 kiosks max!). Nobody in the store knew that they could order in person, but since I had cash on me I wanted to order at the counter. The workers were very busy and probably stressed, but whenever I tried to get their attention to order at the register I was told to wait. A young child came up to the counter with his parents and his parents asked one of the workers where the simple milk tea the child ordered had gone, they ordered it and had been waiting for nearly HALF AN HOUR!? Where I work a milk tea takes only a minute to make, maybe 2 MAX. That kid had to wait EVEN LONGER for them to get his drink, BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T EVEN PRINT OUT HIS ORDER.

I finally got a worker's attention, this young girl with very long hair and a cap on, and I asked if I could order at the counter. She tried to redirect me to one of the kiosks and was very dismissive, but I made it clear that I was paying with cash. She took my order then and we waited about 5-10 minutes for our ice cream. When the ice cream was ready, she called us over and we approached the counter, but she shoved the cups to push them toward us and then threw the spoons on the counter, not even caring that she gave an extra spoon. I was really disappointed with her, as someone who works at a busy bubble tea store as well, and I don't think her behavior should be expected even when the store gets busy.

The store was playing very slow music (which, from my experience, slow music=slow workers) and I doubt any managers were present during the rush hour because if there were none of this should have happened. I hope that this location gets some major improvements because Uni Uni as a franchise deserves better representation and this location is one of the disgraces of the bubble tea community. If they're going to charge at the price that they do then if their product is not handled with care, I don't want it. There are plenty of other bubble tea shops that do better for...

5/2024 Update: I am disappointed to say that the service and quality of drinks has decreased greatly and that my original review below is no longer applicable. I came here multiple times throughout the year and the boba is extremely mushy, to the point where the starch leaks into the tea and makes it have a weird slimy texture and the drinks are not fragrant. On top of that, the new staff is very rude (female) which is not what I want to deal with. I will choose another boba shop when I come to Chinatown, unfortunately. BEST boba I've ever had and I've tried nearly all the places in Chinatown. Uni Uni hits all of the boba criteria: The tea is so fragrant and deep-bodied while the milk is extremely rich but not overpowering, which compliments the drink perfectly. The boba is soft yet chewy and stays that way even after 5 hours of ordering. And most importantly, "it's not too sweet" which is the best compliment I can give. I highly highly recommend the Uni Signature Milk Tea if you love strong tea flavors and the Lovebirds (my personal favorite) flavor if you love rich coffee like Vietnamese or Turkish coffee. The drinks are delicious on their own even without the tapioca, so if you aren't a fan of bubbles I would still recommend...

Normally love this place but after my last visit, I’ll rethink to come back. If you’re ordering from their google page under “order pickup” you won’t be able to get your punch card stamped if you have one. According to the cashier it’s because it’s a third party ordering site called chowbus. Why offer this option on your google page when you can just click their website and order through there instead??? I have ordered through both ways consistently and have never had an issue til now. For some reason both pages do not show the same or all menu items hence that is why I would switch up occasionally and order through whichever one had the drink I wanted. I guess for this reason they are super busy since you can order through uber eats and whatever other actual third party apps that they pay for that are meant for delivering customers their orders but I don’t get the issue considering I’m the one picking up my order in store. And I get this is not a huge issue but the customer service just makes you not want to come back. As it is I’ve already recommended this place to a family member and the one day they actually go, they walk out because the cashier was being rude to the customer before them. So I guess that...