Bapu Teahouse Durham — Restaurant in Durham

| Overview

Brown Sugar Ice Milk is deliciously creamy Boba texture is perfect Decent milk tea size in a cute cup with "ears" Good selection of fruit teas, smoothies & iced coffee drinks Cool ambiance Fast customer service Boba cost extra for Brown Sugar Ice Milk Taro milk tea here is made of powder / other ingredients look artificial Various toppings in the open - are they clean? Menu is purely drinks; no desserts or snacks

| Full Review

Located in a corner of the Hope Valley Commons shopping area, Bapu Teahouse Durham looks inviting from the outside with its cool boba milk tea structure by the cafe's front door, showing Bapu's simple logo outside. Bapu's ambiance inside looks artsy, with cute aesthetics and cool atmosphere.

What stood out to me was the assortment of toppings displayed. The good thing: they look pretty colorful and fresh; the not-so-good thing: they're uncovered, so I'm not sure if they're clean. Nonetheless, it's convenient to see the different topping options you can add to your milk tea. I noticed Bapu uses the artificial purple taro powder for its milk tea instead of taro paste, so I eliminated that choice from my milk tea selection process.

There was only one young employee who took orders and also made the milk teas when I went, but his customer service was good as he made fine recommendations and served my order fast. Unlike Boba Baba's eye-aching menu screens, Bapu Teahouse's menu overhead looks clear with photos, highlighting its special drinks. There are no kiosks here, so you'd have to order face-to-face.

As the server recommended, I ordered the Brown Sugar Ice Milk (75% sweetness, light ice). It doesn't look as Instagram-worthy as Tiger Sugar's brown sugar milk teas, but it looks yummy enough, with brown sugar syrup clearly visible in Bapu's cute & translucent cup with ears. Bapu only serves 1 size for its drinks.

When I ordered this, the server asked if I wanted boba. Most decent milk tea cafes I go to automatically already have the basic tapioca pearls or boba by default in their brown sugar milk tea drinks but Bapu charges extra for that. Brown Sugar Ice Milk is listed as $6. With the boba topping, I ended up paying a total of $7.76, which is slightly higher than average price of brown sugar boba milk teas in cafes I've been to. Compare that to Feng Cha in Morrisville, which offers Dirty Boba (brown sugar milk tea for only $6.25 with the boba already included, so Bapu's pricing here sounds like a joke.

To be fair, the size of the cup is large enough, with its cute top that reminds me of Doraemon or Hello Kitty. The material of it doesn't look cheap and it feels fun to hold.

The sweetness of the brown sugar flavor was just right. It might have been too sweet if it was set to 100% sweetness level, and it's still probably slightly sweet at 50% but my usual preference of 75% for any brown sugar milk tea was perfect here. The milk was deliciously-creamy with the fresh & chewy boba - perfect texture. Server did a good job blending with just the right amount of ice, good amount of brown sugar syrup & boba. It's not on the same level as Boba Baba's Brown Sugar Boba or Tiger Sugar's brown sugar drinks but it's better than many mediocre brown sugar milk teas I've tried in other cafes.

Bapu Teahouse's menu is purely drinks, with a nice variety of milk teas, fruit teas, smoothies & iced coffee. Sadly, there are no snack or non-drink dessert options here that you can pair with your milk tea. It's not a big deal if you're only craving for a drink, and it looks like Bapu has a good selection of toppings to customize your order. Just prepare to pay extra for those.

| Overall Score: 3.4/5

| Recommended Alternative: Sharetea...

Maybe I went on an off day, maybe I'm just irritated today, but I had a strange and not good experience.

The good: the place appears clean and has an easy to read menu.

The bad: I waited about 10 minutes to place an order as the barista made drinks for the two boys ahead of me, so I sat down while I was waiting, no big deal. After they left, I was working on getting my 5 month pregnant self up from the bizarrely low chairs when two women walked in, past me, and began placing their order. The barista knew I was there and that I had been waiting, but she allowed them to order ahead of me. They were told that the tapioca pearls were cooking for another 8 minutes. Given how the previous order took 10 minutes, I figured I'd be waiting for at least another 25 minutes and left. For a store that opened an hour ago and didnt seem that busy, already running out of an item suggests to me that maybe there needs to be a second person working to help with demand/stocking?

The neutral-but-weird: the boys who were ahead of me were loudly talking about their strategies for stealing stuff after they got their drinks. There was screamo or death metal playing as the shop's background music, which is fine but not the vibe i think of when i think of shops like this. And again, the chairs that were clearly not selected for people with physical disabilities or anyone over the age of 30. I'm sad that I didn't get to try the actual drinks. I'm sure they are good but I also didn't want to spend half an hour waiting for the 4 orders ahead of me. I recommend Salt and Cocoa (same plaza) or Milklab (3 minute drive away) for boba tea. They are both amazing and also...

Ordered a smoothie and an Oreo drink online. Live right up the street and arrived within 5 minutes of receiving a text it was ready. The manager on duty had an attitude from the beginning when I just entered the store. I asked where the smoothie was and she said it was refunded cause their machine is broken... ok could have lead with that knowing my order I was coming for was not complete.. I left and got groceries at Harris teeter. My daughter couldn't even drink the Oreo drink because it was tasteless and gross. I returned to the store WITH A FULL GROSS DRINK and was told they would not refund it or allow me to change to a drink my daughter would enjoy. They would only remake the drink that she didn't like. I was willing to wait for the remade drink but when the nicer associate asked if maybe it had sat for awhile and that mean manager piped up to LIE and say "it sat for 20 to 30 minutes" blaming me for the gross drink I had enough and just left. I will tell everyone I know about this and to avoid that store with the manager who apparently prefers to stick up for her poorly made drinks over providing customer service. Sorry she hates her job but she should find somewhere else to work where she can spread less of her...