Ding Tea McKinney — Restaurant in McKinney

This was my second time. My hubby and I wanted a place to hang out and play card games and spent about 1.5 hours here. We brought our own deck bc they didn't have cards. The decor is nice but a very strong smell of cleaning chemicals hit us when we first walked in and I had a coughing fit for a bit trying to adjust to the intense smell. If you are sensitive to smells, be forewarned. In fact, we tolerated it bc it is so close to our house and we only had a short amount of time for a little date, but when I went home and got ready for a shower, I smelled the cleaning chemicals on my bra as I removed it. That's how deep the smell penetrated. That's so unhealthy to be breathing in. I hope management reads this and is willing to change to nontoxic fragrance-free chemicals to clean with.

3 stars instead of 2 is bc the milk tea tasted good. They said the taro milk tea did not have caffeine and they use dairy free milk, but I did get diarrhea a couple hours after which is weird because I have had Boba milk teas for decades (and I have not eaten new foods for a few days). The last time I was here back in July, I actually had food poisoning a few hours after trying a Boba drink here for the first time, but was hoping it was an anomaly. But maybe I should just avoid this place. It has good reviews so I trusted them... But I figured I'd leave this to balance them out for others that might feel similarly or in case this helps...

I ordered a boba drink through DoorDash and was really disappointed. The DoorDash photo clearly showed toppings like boba pearls already in the drink, so I assumed they were included. Nowhere in the description did it say toppings were extra. When my order arrived, it had no toppings at all, and by then it was too late to fix it. It felt misleading, especially for a boba place with such a large menu. They really need to update their pictures or at least make the descriptions much clearer so customers know what they’re actually getting. Even the banner inside the store says in the name of the drink that it is “brown sugar milk tea PEARL”.

And before the store replies saying that selecting toppings is available on the DoorDash app and it’s obvious I should have selected them—let me say this: all other boba places also have a section for adding extra toppings, and it’s clear that those are additional. But the base drink always comes with the toppings shown in the picture, not as something you have to add yourself just to get the basic version of...

I’m a fruit tea drinker, not so much of a milk tea drinker. I tend to stay on the less sweeter side (Feng Cha at 25% sugar).

I’ve been to the Richardson location and loved the Artichoke tea, but this one didn’t have it.

So far, I’ve tried the Top Fruit Tea (could only set at 100% sweetness), Kumquat Lemon Iced Tea (I asked for 30% sugar, but I think they mistakenly put 70% on the label), and Guava Green Tea (asked for 30% again, but I think they put 70%).

All three drinks were way too sweet... The Guava tasted like pure sugar lol. The only tolerable one was the Kumquat. Even then, I’d probably enjoy it the best at 30%.

I may have been able to ask for an exchange, but I take my drinks home first and open them there due to covid!

Otherwise, customer service is pretty good and the golden boba is like boba but chewier. If I’m craving milk tea, I may come...