Cafe Monster (Previously Ding Tea Lakewood) — Restaurant in Lakewood

My favorite boba milk tea spot

Social Distancing review

It seems every time you blink, there's a new boba tea store that's popped up, sometimes within feet from one another. I'm a bit persnickety when it comes to boba - the price, the chewiness of the boba, the quality of ingredients. I can say with confidence Ding Tea Lakewood checks all the boxes for what I want.

Ding Tea's golden boba is always the right consistency. Not too chewy, not too soft. The boba's always been in the Goldilocks zone - just right. Even in the refrigerator for a day, the boba doesn't harden up like a rock. In regards to the drinks, I've had many of the milk teas - signature, oolong, jasmine, taro, matcha, brown sugar, wintermelon, Thai, Hokkaido black & oolong. I've even had the monster boba latte, which my insides regretted, later (lactose intolerance). They've all hit the spot, w/ taro & the Hokkaido drinks standing out amongst the rest. Prices are reasonably competitive, and accumulating points via Fivestars quickly unlocks free drinks.

Service has been great. Drinks are doled out in a timely manner, and the employees have been friendly & hospitable. Everything's to-go, with no dining in due to current events. Ding Tea Lakewood is located in the Grocery Outlet shopping center, on the right of a nail salon.

Typing this review makes me want to stop by & order a drink. Ding Tea Lakewood always satisfies. My only complaint is not having an all you can drink option on the menu. Wishful thinking on my part. Bottom line - this place is...

Pretty disappointed in service. Got a large coffee milk tea with coffee jelly and left with an overpriced drink. The cashier Angela Kim charged me $5.97 for a drink that should have been around $5 not pretty much $6.

Confirmed this by using Doordash service and sure enough the drink I got was $5.25. Tried to explain this to her after I realized I was charged extra. Her response was the prices are higher and the prices have changed? Because Doordash isn’t up to to date?

Makes absolutely No sense for a service like Doordash that even charges a small fee to be less than ordering in person. I asked for a receipt because funny enough I didn’t receive one and she altered the price to reflect what I was charged, which still didn’t make sense, 0.63 cents extra for a large and 0.62 cents extra for coffee jelly, which clearly says 0.55 on the menu?

Please Beware This isn’t about almost getting charged closer to $1 extra, but the fact that other people could be getting...

Ding tea has the best taro milk tea I’ve ever tasted. That’s why the food gets a 3 star because although it was pretty chalky, the flavor is still delicious. I usually go to the Ding Tea in Anaheim hills and the folks there are always so welcoming and kind. I went to the Ding Tea in Lakewood, Saturday, September 7th I went in 9:05 PM, they close at 9:30 PM. The young man was not happy to see me. He obviously wanted to close so bad. The staff was very unprofessional messing around. 9:15 the young man was already stacking chairs while a gentleman was waiting for his drink. A group of ladies left because the young man was already stacking chairs at 9:15. Big downgrade from the Ding Tea in Anaheim hills. Quite unfortunate. Oh, they also ran...