Xing Fu Tang St Marks — Restaurant in New York

Their mooncakes are a total scam! Went in the store and saw a sign by the register about boba mooncakes, and was super excited to get a box of 4-pack. Price was a bit steep at $50, but I told myself I’ve never had boba mooncakes and it’ll be worth it. Plus they might very well sell out when it’s mid-autumn festival in a few weeks. Before opening the box I was dreaming about an assortment of mooncakes - boba with pineapple, boba with yolk, boba with lotus paste, etc… What a total letdown and burst of my “boba” when I opened the box! Size: they’re all very small, which is cute I guess? Content: ate the first one and it was just plain red bean paste inside… hmm where are the bobas? Maybe they’re all blended in the red bean paste? I highly doubt it bc bobas have a distinct flavor and texture. I told myself - the first one may be plain but the rest will be filled with bobas and other exciting stuff! Finished the second, the third, and the last one… they were all the same plain red bean paste mooncakes! I went from excited, to skeptical, to disappointed and at last, angry. Why did I pay $50 for 4 small, plain red bean paste mooncakes, advertised as boba mooncakes but with no bobas at all?

Please do yourself a favor, do NOT buy these mooncakes as I already paid the hefty price to...

11/10 it’s never gonna get better than this, peak boba has been reached we can all go home

This is the best boba I’ve ever had, hands down. The really special part are the pearls. They’re completely fresh (you can watch a dude rolling them by hand in the corner) so the texture is velvety perfection, not at all rubbery like some rehydrated pearls. Almost all boba places buy dried pearls and boil them and there’s nothing wrong with that, most places can’t support the labor of making their own, but good god freshly made are glorious. They’ve perfected…everything. The pearls are enrobed in a dark brown syrup, topped with rich whole milk, thick cream and finally brown sugar that’s torched to crisp perfection in front of you. The contrast of the milk and syrup around the boba and the caramelized top is completely flawless, just make sure to give it a stiff stir with the straw, à la churning butter, the syrup is sticky stuff. Also love me a blowtorch. 10/10 flavor, 10/10 pearls, 10/10 presentation, I’m going to become a menace at this location. And it’s on Saint Mark’s so you can go buy a nice spiked collar on your way home. Two birds...

4 stars for taste, 5 stars for ambience, double 1 star. for customer friendliness - I’m just used to places who say “if you don’t like it we’ll make it right”.. these guys just gave me a hard no - For context, we got the Tarot Boba which everywhere else is a purple milk tea with tapioca. These guys use real tarot at the bottom instead of tapioca. We didn’t like the tarot at the bottom at all and instead of throwing away an $8 drink I thought I can explain the situation and ask them very nicely if we can change it to any other drink with tapioca in it instead. They gave me a hard no - I gave them my drink back and they threw it out 🥸In terms of being a business, this makes sense but in terms of trying to keep the customer happy, it’s the same as saying “we don’t give a shit”. I just don’t consider this customer friendly and will not be back. Just make sure you know what you are ordering - even if it has the same name as in every other boba establishment it might be done completely different here (some might say these guys do it the right way) so...