heytea (NYU) — Restaurant in New York

Ok, so the tea was good. I'll give it that. I got a Supreme brown sugar boba, and it tasted great. No problem on that front. I will, however, have to complain about the wait time. Never have I ever had to wait close to 30 minutes for a boba in nyc! I understand that the establishment professes its quality and ingredients, which I respect, but not to the point I deem it worth waiting 30 minutes for! Maybe if there was better seating space? Some proper food to nosh on, perhaps? Whatever system they have in place just doesn't appear to be really effective. Me and a bundle of other people were waiting for our drinks while a bunch of unclaimed drinks sat at the pick-up aisle (a majority of which did not appear to belong to anyone there). I sympathize with the workers since it felt like they were severely understaffed at an otherwise busy time slot. Other people in these reviews seem to have been complaining about the system for months, but there doesn't appear to be any effective change based on my observation. I don't understand why they haven't moved to a simpler system, since plenty of other boba businesses in the city don't appear to have this problem. I hope they work something out eventually. The tea was good, I just don't feel the service...

TLDR: drinks are mid, wait is comically long, and staff is brain dead. Helltea is a purgatory for the thirsty. I walked in excited for boba but by the time I left, I had rewatched the entire LOTR extended edition in my head and also had time to leave, go to school, and graduate with a law degree.

The staff somehow decided to only make one drink from over a dozen orders and refused to give anyone the completed drinks on the order. The end result was a huge pileup of angry customers AND you got to watch as your slushie slowly melted into overpriced grape juice. Nice.

If you’re into extreme sports like waiting for the sweet release of death or solving impossible mysteries (like why order keeps appearing and disappearing from the status screen), Heytea’s the place for you. Otherwise, just walk

Staff are friendly but service is very slow. The “supreme brown sugar bobo milk” tea was mediocre and very warm - despite me ordering it iced. Also, the establishment itself is extremely hot (temperature) and felt like I was being cooked slowly by the heat while I ever so patiently waited for my drink.

Also, they don’t seal the drinks like other places which I find weird. I get trying to set yourself apart but part of drinking boba is shaking/swirling it and popping a straw through the plastic film.

For the price (a little over 8$ for my drink), you can certainly get better in the area. However, if you’re looking to try something “new” go for it. I’m not sure if I’ll go back, but others might feel...