Gong Cha — Restaurant in Ridgewood

The quality of service and product has deteriorated over the months since it opened. My family visit this place every week. We order the same thing every time.

A few weeks ago, when I ordered “light ice… or very little ice”…. I ended up with a couple half full of ice.

Then two weeks ago, I ordered and paid for bubbles, but it came with no bubbles, I didn’t discover until driving half way home….

Then today, the bubbles and the coconut jelly toppings I ordered came only half portion of what it normally comes with (see pictures).

I’ll think twice next time before coming and I’ll check extra carefully next time if I come.

My Response to the Owner's Response:

My star rating will remain as 1 star, especially after the owner's response.

The owner said the bubbles and jelly appeared less because they're "floating" in the drink. I can do nothing but smile at this response.... because both pictures are taken after a few minutes of settlement and I did not rattle the cups heavily when I took the pictures. Remember, I did mention about the good experiences I had in the past with them..... so the toppings were not floating before? C'mon.

The owner asked a rebuttal question: Why would they give me less topping if their pay is not affected by how much they put in for the customers? This rebuttal question is inaccurate in a very important aspect: First, the owner assumed that I am questioning the "intention" of their employees, which I am not. I pointed nothing to whether it is the employee's purpose to give me less toppings. I started my review with "The quality of service...." Quality of service includes training and consistency. Could it be that the employee was not properly trained? Could it be that the consistency is not up to par (as I specifically pointe out when compared to past experience)?

My 1 star rating remains because the owner didn't think through before responding. I wonder if the owner even thought through what I posted? And yes, the consistency issue...

Boba has been consistent up until recently. Some of the newer employees have been providing inconsistent and unfriendly service. My sister always gets Thai Tea with regular sugar, and when we went today, her Thai Tea tasted like it had no sugar. We did go back and tell the employee about it, We’d nicely explained (and not demanded or yelled) how she’d had the drink before multiple times, and it didn’t taste the same. She was very rude and after some back and forth, she took the drinks back and sugar in them. We’ll still visit because it’s close by, tastes good when made correctly, relatively quick service during non-peak hours, and older employees (I think the male and female store managers) provide awesome service when they’re there. However, I hope that their newer employees provide better quality service...

The worst customer service I've ever seen!!! I wanted to order a grapefruit green tea but I can't drink green tea so I asked to change it to black tea instead which is a simple ask but they said it's not allowed and when I asked why they simply just said no without any specific reason. Every other gong cha store has allowed me to customize my drink. I'm truly flabbergasted. Never coming here again. What's really crazy is they actually told me to go to another store after denying my request for some black tea. It's very unfortunate that a ridgewood resident like myself cant even buy a drink in their own town. Hoping to get an explanation on their behavior. Absolutely...