TAICHI BOBA TEA, Poke, Sushi and Ramen — Restaurant in Provo

I was excited to try this place out when I saw the amazing reviews it had (4.8 stars with 580 reviews at the time of this post). That is no easy feat to accomplish so I was expecting some delicious poke and boba that was on another level. Unfortunately that is not what happened.

I will start with the pros: kind service and fun atmosphere! I can see it being a place you and a date or a group of friends might go out to. The staff was really kind and helpful, and when they messed up our order, they fixed it (or tried to… they still didn’t get it right). I really don’t like leaving poor reviews on businesses, but I really feel like their 4.8 stars is highly misleading and inaccurate with the food you get. There were so many things wrong with our first impression of this place.

FIRST: You can create your own sushi burrito and poke bowl, and that’s exactly what we chose to do. Sadly, they mixed up our orders and everything in my poke bowl was meant for my wife’s sushi burrito and she got everything I wanted. We went to them to correct it, they were kind enough to do it but only after asking, “Is it alright if we just add the missing toppings in your poke bowl?” I get it, it would have saved them money and not be so wasteful, but also I wanted the bowl I created. My wife also got shrimp and I am not a shrimp fan. After my hesitation and pause, the lady up front gave up and said, “It’s ok I’ll just remake it” and tossed both of the messed up orders in the trash in front of us. I believe other businesses would have just offered the mistakes to us to keep while remaking new ones or would have tossed it privately it in the back. Even if the food was not what we wanted, we could have given it to family instead of wasting it. When we got our corrected order, my poke bowl was still missing a few things that I originally wanted. My wife’s sushi burrito was bland and also falling apart, because it was not wrapped at the ends. It was more like a “sushi taco.”

SECOND: My wife ordered a honeydew milk tea, and she didn’t like it. We both tasted it and it had the flavor of pepto bismal. Fortunately they were ok with making a different drink, and so my wife got a strawberry coconut boba and liked that better. However, both her’s and my taro vanilla boba had both fully cooked and undercooked boba in them. Our drinks were fine in flavor, but not fun to drink when you have to periodically spit out undercooked boba.

THIRD: The lady up front was kind and came to offer us two chocolate chip cookies on the house due to the mistakes with the food. Very nice of them to do that, but then we discovered that one of them was already opened. When she came to check up on us, we mentioned it and she profusely apologized for the third time in our visit for the open cookie. She brought us a new one.

Again, I really don’t like leaving poor reviews, but Taichi Bubble Tea did not meet the expectations that I would have with 4.8 stars. I am not sure how they achieved that, especially with over 500 reviews. The food was decent for me, but I have had much better poke at other places. My wife did not like her sushi burrito at all though. As for the boba, I would not come here for that. Uninspiring flavors and poorly executed...

This is No Ordinary boba establishment. I've become somewhat of an expert, having visited every single boba place in Provo and Orem (with the reciepts to prove it 😅 💸)

Boba places come down to TWO things. Actual Boba drink/good flavor. And, Environment (literal, staff courtesy, and feel).

1. The Boba. Incredible options and flavors. Everything to suit the hesitant newbie to the 'I was basically a part of the boba tea movement in the U.S. and I'll take a redhead flavor ANYday', type ^^

1.5 ) This place doubles as a REALTURANT/ eatery. They serve a variety of delicious 'not your college student's top ramen', Ramen, rice bowls made with fresher ingredients than your average.. place, and salads with a rainbow of vegetables and choices of protein.

1.99) I really appreciated the little brown lists and available pens they had to make your order clear and more specific (type of broth,protein, rice,etc.),they also help you identify what you want faster.

The Atmosphere is fun (boba tea flavor and panda plushes, and even different shapedneck pillows for sale 😄) AND it feels very open, friendly, and relaxing with the way it literally looks. It's, almost subtly, covered in decorative plants.

And, of course, the really cool, and down to earth staff are a breath of fresh, friendly air.

Can there be anything more? YES.

There Is a GIANT figure of a boba tea outside the street entrance. I Mean Massive. So, of course, this was happiness that resulted in embarrassing, but no Regrets, photos.

I RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO THE...

Update: I originally gave them 4 stars, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the jasmine smoothie I had so I decided they deserve 5 stars. My mom and sister couldn’t stop thinking about their drinks either. I had to go back a few days later to try another drink. The girl that served me gave the best service too even though she was super busy. I asked lots of questions about the drinks but she was very patient. I ended up picking Hokkaido milk. She told me I could just try it and let her know if I liked it. I ended up not loving it and she was kind enough to make me the jasmine smoothie instead and let me keep both drinks. I will definitely be a regular customer!

Tried their jasmine smoothie with the cheese foam topping. I think the flavor was excellent! Probably won’t get the cheese foam again since it was a bit pricey which was an extra $1.20 (although tasted good). Their boba was a bit mushy and overcooked. My sister got the peach rose milk which also tasted really good. The strawberry smoothie that I got for my daughter was more like a slush and not creamy and also wasn’t made of fresh strawberries so I didn’t love that one. My mom got a jasmine milk tea and liked it. Also pricing on their wall menu needs to be updated since we were charged more than the pricing on the wall menu. I will definitely be back to try some of their other drinks since they have so...