Cha For Tea - University Center — Restaurant in Irvine

Since I was teenager, I always dreamed about my wedding. But it's not what you think most would dream about. Most would dream about the florals, the dress, the man ;) But my dream was having milk tea at my wedding. And this dream came true with the help of Cha and Calvin Siy.

For over 10 years, I've been going to Cha. I am milk tea obsessed but Cha definitely is my favorite place to get my fix. I enjoy this place so much I knew I wanted to serve Cha's milk tea at my wedding. And it was perfect!

I contacted Calvin pretty early on when planning my wedding. He was very accommodating and communicative during the entire process. Any time I had questions or changes to the order, he was very resourceful and responsive, making sure I was completely taken care of at all times. You could tell his attention to detail and his loyalty to Cha customers was strong. He provided all the options for me and even drew out some potential design plans for a milk tea station at my wedding. He allowed me to sample some drinks and gave me suggestions on the best drinks and add ons that would appeal to my husband and I, as well as my guests--most of which have never tried milk tea/boba or even heard of it. He even started to save certain colored straws to go with my color scheme.

As we got closer to the wedding, we noticed an issue. The location of our wedding was out of the vicinity for their delivery service. For a little, I thought I would have to scrap the entire idea but Calvin made it a point to make it work for me and my husband. He even said to us that we have been such loyal customers for so long, he was going to make sure he made it happen for us. After a lot of his effort, he found us an outside vendor to help delivery our drinks to our venue. So we were set!

At the wedding, we decided on Mango Green Tea and Jasmine Green Milk Tea with Boba and Fruit Jelly as our add ons. The drinks and add ons arrived on time in perfect condition. It was a hit! The drinks were going so quickly that my wedding planner had to steal several cups for my husband and I to enjoy and by the end of cocktail hour, it was all done! Everyone loved it and thought it was a nice way to incorporate my Taiwanese heritage.

One of the best decisions I've ever made. I can't believe that after so many years of saying I was going to have milk tea at my wedding that I actually was able to make that happen. Thank you Cha and Calvin! It was such a pleasure working with you to make this happen. You know you will always have a loyal customer in me...

This was my first time coming here and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I am a college student in this area, and this place is known as the go-to boba shop for most people because of the discounted coupons. I personally think this place is a bit overpriced for what it is. The coupon that they handed out to people that day was a $1 off boba drink 24 ounces. Many people who haven't tried this place, like me, probably didn't pay attention to the 24 ounces because when boba places offer a discount, they don't really specify a particular size. When we went in, it was actually pretty nice. The interior was clean and there were free samples for people to try. Out of the samples, the mango green tea was my favorite so I decided to try that out. I went to the cashier and they asked me to follow them on Instagram before using the coupon. This was no big deal because many other places also do this procedure. Then they say the coupon is cash only. Then I think to myself that there seem to be a lot of inconveniences with using this coupon. I mean make our experience better by giving us the convenience of using whatever payment method we want even if we use a coupon. It seems the discount is being offered as long as they aren't getting charged by credit card fees. Then I noticed the unusually large price. I believe it was around $4.50. I ask if the discount has been applied and they say that it has and that we have to get the largest one for the coupon to be applied. So many restrictions and in the end the taste wasn't even worth it. My mango green tea was so much sweeter than the sample that I just couldn't drink it. I was going to be late for class so I couldn't ask for an adjustment, but c'mon at least make the sample the same as the product coming out. Popcorn chicken here is meh. It's too jerky. Looks like I'm still on the hunt for a...

Cha for tea. Why? I really hate the fact that I had hope this place might be okay. Most of the time I do not rely on yelp to find new restaurants. I only rely on referrals. I read the reviews from my friends on yelp and still thought I would give this place a chance. I was in Newport Beach studying when a boba craving hit me. I could have gone to class 302 but I didn't have cash which is a lame excuse because there is a Wells Fargo ATM nearby that place. So instead I gave Cha for tea try.

I had nothing but low expectations for this place. I just wanted decent. Well it was a epic fail! The popcorn chicken was a joke. I can find better quality in the frozen section of Trader Joes. The size was smaller than the picture. Even on an iPhone small screen looks like there is more chicken than actually came in the order. The beef soup was crap. Taste like some can soup mixed with some beef items. They didn't have spicy beef soup. What the heck is this even Taiwanese food?

I am being very realistic in this review. Do not go here. Do not go here. Do not go here. No it is not a mistake I did write it 3 times. Only if you are so desperate and there is no food left in the world then you may eat here. There were Asian customers but you have to look hard for the Asian servers. At least have some cute Asian girls maybe I will give you a half star. I feel cheated and that I threw my money away. My friend was questioning my judgment as a reviewer. I was embarrassed that I went here. I am done with this review because thinking about my experience just makes me more pissed off. Consider...