Gong Cha Hayward — Restaurant in Hayward

UPDATE: As of a week or so ago, they no longer offer their afternoon BOGO here! :'(

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Tasty and delicious drinks at a bit of a premium price usually. Come from 1:30-3pm Mon-Thurs for BOGO happy hour, though!

It's a popular place so the wait can sometimes be a couple of minutes with just 2-3 workers behind the counter.

My go-tos are the Panda Milk Tea (I love my pleasantly chewy jellies and boba pearls!) and/or the Star Jelly Grapefruit Green Tea. I like to get everything with half sugar and half ice. :) I've never tried their creme brulee waffles before, but it smells absolutely heavenly whenever someone else orders one, haha.

Chairs and tables have been well-used now and a bit dented and stained. More of a take-to-go place for sure!

Luckily, there's plenty of free parking in this spacious...

Gong Cha is always a staple of mine whenever I am looking for boba and they happened to have a convenient location near shopping and some good restaurants.

Note: Gong Cha locations use a non-dairy creamer but beware, these almost always still contain whey which is a dairy derivative. It's a common misnomer so always ask for non-dairy milk if you are vegan like myself or adverse to dairy products/have an allergy.

In order to get a non-dairy drink, I was told to order from the Fresh Milk Menu. I did so with my Brown Sugar Milk Tea with Oat Milk and it was satisfying overall. It is indeed quite sweet even with 50% sugar so I'd advise to go even less if you aren't wanting a completely sweet drink.

Staff were friendly...

I went to this place, that services is horrible. I brought my sister in this place. We forgot to tell the cashier not Ice in the drink, because my sister has a Cold. So we remember after we played the order, I asked nicely to the cashier if she can just remove the ice from the drink. There was Jessica, she was really rude. She said she can’t remove the ice from that drink because it will be less drink. She was forced my sister to drink it cold because she doesn’t want to just remove the ice. I feel offended because she gave attitude in front of my sister. I brought my sister there because she is visiting me. It was terrible experience. I pay $7.50 just for the half of my...