SOMA Tea & Mocktail - Irvine — Restaurant in Irvine

Edit: 5 months into coming to my used-to-be favorite spot, this boba shop has transitioned into what I can describe as nothing less than your less than average beverage shop. Three times in a row, they’ve consistently managed to give me such horrible boba tea, it amazes me how quickly a shop can dip from being the best, to probably the worst in the area.

They’ll charge you for pearls, even if they run out, will substitute your milk tea with oat milk without telling you because they ran out of regular half n half, or they’ll just give you all mooshy and disgusting pearls.

Just to say, I will be taking my wallet to TP tea. Read my initial review below, and you’ll see how much I really enjoyed this place before.

Original: Soma is hands down my favorite boba shop in Socal! I love how refreshing their tea base is (you can tell that they use good tea), boba is super soft and chewy, and every drink is reasonably priced. I’ve been to the SOMA stores in Taiwan, and the quality you get here is on par with the stores in Taiwan! Definitely try SOMA out if you’re looking for an authentic Taiwanese boba tea.😍

Love their High Mountain Tea collection (Grapefruit, Passion Fruit, Lychee all taste amazing), Tropical Utopia, Signature Milk Tea, and...

Honestly this went from an A tier boba shop to a solid D tier. The teas and milk teas are not the same. They are super watered down and have no taste. The mocktails have also gotten worse and have gotten extremely sweet. Also if you get a large size, they don’t really fill it up. They leave it at 85% full. It’s mildly irritating that I have to pay $6 for a drink that doesn’t fill the cup.

In terms of shop atmosphere, it’s modern, but interior is also showing age. The seats have some pretty visible stains, and some of the woodwork is coming apart.

If you asked me if I recommended this place for tea before, I would given a wholehearted yes. I have been visiting Soma since they opened up their first shop in Artesia since 2018. But sometime early 2022 their quality started a decline. I have continuously come back (even after the Artesia location closed) to see if it had gotten better again, but I’ve only become more disappointed with every visit. It’s fallen so far from its original taste, I would hard pass for the time being. I really hope they improve their quality control and taste to how it once was. Because if you are a tea lover, Soma was once a must go-to...

I ordered a drink through mobile ordering at night, and the payment was successfully charged. However, when I arrived, the store was already closed even though it didn’t say so on the app, it turns out they only open until 5 PM since system was updating. The next morning, I went to the store in person to ask for help, but the staff was very cold and unhelpful. They only took my name and phone number, saying the owner would process the refund.

I waited the whole day but didn’t receive any response. That evening, I called the store, and the staff firmly said that if someone else picked up my drink, they couldn’t refund or remake it. They also said the owner would call me the next day, but I never received any call or update. Very disappointing service and poor...