One Zo Monterey Park — Restaurant in Monterey Park

One Zo is a good boba shop; however, it does have some flaws.

One Zo opened up in the Monterey Times Square plaza recently (as of this posting) and has attracted a massive number of people due to a video which illustrates the creation of its in-house boba. I bypassed One Zo before this video, and each time that I passed by, it had zero customers, or it had two customers. After the video, there are lines out of the door and stretching past the nearby beauty store.

I decided to try One Zo with three other friends to see whether or not it met the hype. In totality, it was good; however, under the current circumstances, I wouldn't go again.

I started waiting in line around 2 PM and didn't reach the inside of the store until about 25-30 minutes had passed. At this moment, I looked inside and noticed that it was a smaller, cozy store with about ten tables and predominantly white decor. I looked around for any signs of a menu, and I didn't immediately see one. I then headed to the front of the line and found it lying on the table for us to grab. After another 10-15 minutes, I reached the register and ordered the drinks: Uji Matcha Latte with crystal boba 25% sweet, One Zo Milk Tea with their triple boba (honey, taro, and caramel) 25% sweet, and Bamboo Charcoal Latte with black sesame boba 25% sweet.

At this point, we were looking for a place to sit down and were lucky since a 4-person table just vacated. We waited another 10 minutes until they employees called our number. In totality, I spent about an hour waiting for the drinks.

When we tried the drinks, the only one that stood out was the Bamboo Charcoal Latte. The other two drinks weren't anything special. The Uji Matcha Latte didn't taste very strongly of matcha. If anything, it was a light taste of matcha and the rest was a milky taste. As for the One Zo Milk Tea, it had hints of a roasted tea flavor and was also sweet for 25% sugar. The Bamboo Charcoal Latte reminded us of a black sesame flavor, and it paired well with the boba itself. For a drink that costs $6 for a 24-oz, I thought it was a bit on the pricey side especially with the tea quality. The boba was appealing to have it made in-house as it tasted softer than the pre-packed variants, but we noticed that the boba started hardening within the 25 minutes we stayed inside of the store. Also, I wasn't able to taste the difference in the three boba varieties when I was drinking the One Zo Boba Milk Tea. If they were isolated individually, it might have been better, but I couldn't taste it immediately.

Overall, the wait time and the price of the drinks for the quality paid didn't meet my expectations. The, almost, 1-hour wait for the drinks and the fact that two of the three bobas weren't good disappointed me. Once the hype dies down and the store stabilizes, I think I might revisit One Zo; however, I don't think I will be going back anytime soon until that happens as there are other boba shops with a better price point.

Edit: I also dislike how they responded to practically all of the reviews with a...

Past by One Zo when having lunch in the same plaza and seeing them doing a fundraiser for Red Cross. Half of their sales goes directly toward Red Cross. I like how they put a sign out to attract me to go in. Maybe because of the event, I waited long enough but it was worth my wait.

Drink: I tried their New drinks which called "Tiger Tea", which is a Brown Sugar Series. I tried the Brown Sugar Black Tea Latte. The drink itself is very standard but what brought me a good day is their boba. Their boba is very soft that the inside of boba is not hard. I remember that the ones I tried at other places are hard inside.

Menu: Very beloved menu, simple, clear, and also cute most importantly! The pictures are taken very professional that I could not really make a decision on what to get. They all look so good that it took me a while to decide. Even they don't have as many choices as other places but I do like their way of selling the best of the best!

Service: Among of all, I would say their service is good. I think they can speed up the line by changing a system like Starbucks or others that print a sticker and stick on the cup so the people who make drinks won't make mistakes.

Interior: cute bunny to take picture with, the place is not big enough to be hanging around. I definitely recommending everyone to come try their boba. Very chewy....

Depending on the time and day you go. The people who work there provides inconsistent customer service. I had a brown sugar boba and the milk tea and boba tasted pretty good. Not too sweet and the tea was good. Boba tasted fresh and soft/chewy.

I visited the place recently on a Saturday night close to 8pm, there were 5-6 orders in front of me, plus possible online orders.

The associate did not say a word to anyone who entered and was mikding her work on boba. She looked pretty annoyed. The wait was about 20 minutes. During the wait, she had to ask someone from the back to help take someone's order. The guy was in normal clothes and looked unfamiliar with the POS system, not sure if he was an employee.

The girl who was making boba drinks literally yelled at him when he asked a question. She was very unprofessional the whole time. She had glasses and dyed / bleached kpop color hair.

5 min into the order, i got a text while inside the shop saying mine is ready, so i approached and asked. She just said no and continued.

I visited the place again 2 weeks after on a quiet weekday night. The place was empty this time and had 2 people working in the front. They greeted our party as soon as we walked in. The vibe was completely different and much...