TSAOCHA Bubble Tea & Fried Chicken — Restaurant in Lexington

My family and I feel deeply disappointed by how Tsaocha treated us on our recent visit. The drinks the attendants prepared were all severely botched and we were blatantly charged for extras we did not receive.

All three shop attendants working on the order did not follow the orders we placed in their electronic kiosk, and they all went along with the screw-up - they slipped us seriously messed-up handiwork and hoped we wouldn't notice.

The least they could have done would be to tell us they could not honor our orders and just cancel them. Nope - we got a full charge for "wait, what drinks are these, and why are they all so dreadfully bad?"

With our botched drinks regrettably in hand, and feeling sadness about the loss of the team's scruples, we now hope to not return if this is Tsaocha's standard of service.

This frustrating experience with Tsaocha is a significant departure from our first visit in 2023, when our orders were always prepared correctly and the drinks were chock full of toppings - we used to get what we paid for, and we used to see and taste the quality.

But, today, this is not the same Tsaocha. Don't let them take advantage of you. Disappointment and grift are their products.

The shop also felt more grimy than we remember, and has far less seating. It also now has several intrusive, crowded shelves and display cases lining the walls, each crammed with miniature figurines and trinkets for sale. This junky interior feel, plus the cold demeanor of the attendants, made for an unwelcoming space. We wanted to get out, fast.

Here were the issues with our drinks:

All bursting boba in all three drinks were already popped when the drinks were given to us.

One guava milk tea drink was incorrectly given strawberry bursting boba when there should have only been tapioca boba. (The drinker strongly dislikes strawberry bursting boba, so we paid for a drink we never wanted.)

One lemon milk tea drink was incorrectly given gobs of foam when we ordered no foam, thereby reducing the actual beverage in the cup by half. (We got half the drink, so we paid double.)

One other lemon milk tea drink was incorrectly given 2x boba when we had ordered 6x boba, but we were charged for the non-existent 4x boba. (We paid a premium for those bobas we never received.)

This review has been...

The hype is real. Outstanding customer service. The young lady at the counter was very friendly and helpful. She took her time to explain the menu to a first time customer. Don’t know if she knew that or not.

Tried the Jasmine Milk Tea with boba.

If I remember correctly, the young lady at the counter explained that they only use honey as a sweetener. Awesome.

They have both ice and sweetness level options.

I chose “less ice” and “70% sweet”

Take my advice, go for “100%” sweet. If I had more ice, my drink would have been domed.

Atmosphere is bright and ornate, with a considerable feminine touch.

I mean, there was a golden rimmed globe chair, a floral unicorn tabletop decoration, artificial white leafed trees, pastel teal wall paint, and other various placed pieces of art and delicate ornaments resting on shelves. All this bright bling is magnified by ample natural light that floods this small bubble tea store.

Overall a good experience, and we’ll worth...

Not sure how I feel about this experience, but it was weird, maybe I'm just getting old. I love this place but prefer to place my order at the counter rather than using one of their kiosks, which seems to be an unspoken faux pas. Today when I stopped by I was the only customer in the building and it seemed like staff was cleaning behind the scenes so I happily waited for service, and waited, and waited. I did the whole polite "hello, anyone home" thing at one point and continued to wait.

Needless to say I left without ordering because no one came to the register which was unfortunate since it's a bit of a special trip for me. Not sure I'll be back for a while. They have great drinks and if you use the kiosk I'm sure it's a fine experience, but I left disappointed.

If you would like customers to order exclusively using the kiosks there should be a signs...