Chicha San Chen — Restaurant in Houston

Two weeks after grand opening, the lines are visibly shorter and the front door can properly close without lines extending into the public pathway. I only had to wait less than five minutes before my turn to order, but the wait to receive your drink is another story. Since this was my second time at Chicha (first time was in different location), I immediately went to the Dong Ding Oolong Tea Latte with added bubble topping given my great experience with it my first time, and added a new tasting for Taro Bubble Milk Tea. All orders were made with 50% sugar and light ice. One thing I'll mention about the drinks here is that since the tea is freshly brewed, the aroma and taste is very strong, so 50% sugar still doesn't taste like much and you will still have a strong tea flavor. If you prefer your drinks more balanced, this is the one place that I'd recommend going for 75% or 100% sugar.

Pro tip: if you plan to visit during the next few weeks while the place is still under grand opening hype, maybe consider ordering in store then go shop at neighboring Hmart or elsewhere for half hour and return after to grab your drinks.

Pro tip #2: if you order the taro bubble milk tea, they give you two options for black tea or green tea. According to the cashier, black tea aftertaste is stronger and green tea is more refreshing. Take that as you will. I don't think I've ever tried taro milk with tea anywhere else, so this can be your experimental drink if you're aiming to try something new.

Pro tip #3: the store tends to cycle through a few different specialty drinks. The custom drink this weekend was osmanthus mango, and from what I hear, it's pretty good. If you jot down the order name for the specialty drinks, you can still order it in future weeks even if it's no longer featured.

Overall, the staff here are well trained, professional, and very friendly. The setup also accommodates good seating arrangements that is unbothered from the lines. The drinks are deserving of all the praise and recognition; it's a premium that...

Let’s start off with, the drink that I ordered was actually gosh darn good… which is unfortunate because it’s the only positive thing I can say.

The young lady at cashier didn’t know what the cream was made out of when we asked, which is concerning because half of the items on your menu contains it. Maybe you should know what you’re selling?

When you’re checking out, the tipping options are basically forced, which is a kinda scummy and classless way of modern tip shaming- the only option to not tip is entering it manually on a different screen and taking probably 10+ seconds to do.

When I went to pick up my drink order, the young guys working behind the counter were loudly cursing and bantering with each other, which is completely fine, but to do it so blatantly and carelessly in front of customers was unprofessional. The same young girl that checked us out was on her phone the entire time while there were other customers looking at the menu and getting ready to order. Sadly, while the drinks are good, service was terrible. And for a nice tea house, that’s the representation and face of your business. This review isn’t to call anyone out but maybe the owners should be aware of the staff that they’ve hired because at the end of the day, that’s what’s affecting your business. And yea, we always leave tip, but we shouldn’t have to be forced to for staffs that don’t care enough, even if you didn’t know the ingredient used for the cream, maybe you should take 2 seconds out of your busy day being on your phone to figure it out, as that seems like a reasonable part of your job. There are lots of people with dietary restrictions and working in food/beverage hospitality, the bare minimum standards for service...

If you understand and like high quality tea, this place will be the best boba tea place you'll ever go to. And you will also understand that you need patience for quality.

The robust flavor of the tea is outstanding. I appreciate that they take the time for each drink ordered to maintain their standards even when it is incredibly busy. I love that their 'perfect' sweet level is 70% and it truly is perfect. They know what they're doing. Their ingredients are top notch which I believe the average boba consumer is not used to. They do not use artificial powders for flavor and I absolutely love that. It's hard to come by these days, that's why there are so many fast casual boba shops popping up everywhere and has made people used to poor quality, high sugar boba.

I've been twice in one week. My current favorite is: 🍵Green Tea with Cream, add Boba. Leave at their perfect sweet level. 🧋The Taro bubble is also really good and has real taro!

After you order, 🫖Head to the back to the scales and while you wait you can request a complimentary tea tasting of their pure high quality tea! This takes about 10 minutes and you learn a lot about their quality of tea. We had the honor of having Tommy as our tea specialist both times and he is amazing! The tea is amazing and I bought some which he beautifully packaged for us.

I'm pretty shocked with the poor reviews for this place. People have no patience or sympathy anymore. When places go viral at the start of opening a business, the employees are working so hard to keep up with demand and maintain quality.

With all this being said. I really think Montrose would be a great 2nd Houston location 😊. We know quality and have patience for art...