Daboba Rockville — Restaurant in Rockville

Came here during their grand opening weekend. There’s no hours posted for them on fb or Google maps so I took a photo of what’s on their door. We arrived 11:40am in line (was one of the first 20 customers) and finally got our drinks 12:40pm. Besides getting our drinks 20 min after ordering, the ac was dripping from the vent in front of the cashier.

Boba: Ordered 3 large drinks with no ice. Yet one (the honey golden Pearl oolong milk) of them came with less tea (see photos, drinks are sealed). The worker said it was because it had no ice. But then why were the others with no ice fine? The guy just shrugged when we asked.

Taste wise, the actually roasted oolong milk drink was yum! However, my partner wasn’t impressed with his black daboba pearls since he repeatedly found tough, hard-to-chew boba. When he showed me one, it felt uncooked in the center! Their most popular drink also had 80% uncooked black boba in it and was impossible to enjoy. Also, we were chatting about how the boba looked like regular-sized boba and I had thought the appeal of DaBoba was the huge size of their black boba so I’m not sure what the incentive to go back is. Overall, DaBoba needs to be more prepared because as it stands there are many more boba shops in the area and they’re...

I've tried this spot three times, twice during soft opening and once after the grand opening and each time I've been disappointed.

I feel there is no leadership as I've seen the staff members confused at times when making drinks and when taking orders at the register. I can't help but feel like maybe there wasn't someone with barista experience at a boba shop who trained the staff (Not blaming the staff, this falls on management/ownership). Also, one of the three times I've gone, I've recieved the wrong drink and it was too late for me to let them know as I notice once I've already driven away. (I guess it's my fault for not noticing?). Atmosphere of the store itself seems just fine, no big issues there.

Biggest issue was the quality. The teas themselves are actually not bad but when I order drinks with cheese foam and the foam has absolutely no cheese taste in it (it's no different than a milk foam from another location) or I order brown sugar boba and the boba is overcooked and tough, there's a big issue. Overall I tried to give this place 3 chances and each time something went wrong and I can't justify going back and getting a sub-par drink when there's plenty of better options in the area. I hope...

Quality of the Pearl Milk Tea in particular was satisfying. It has enough body and tea flavor, and the boba was good and reasonably sufficient in proportion (see pic). I'll give this place that.

It was our first time here, and first impression with service was a little weird. The person in front of us seemed new too, and got Authentic Milk Tea which does NOT come with boba - something I almost mistakenly ordered had I not gone down further on the menu. The customer offered to pay the difference, which was 25 cents, and they said they couldn't do it, and that was it. For a first time customer and an honest mistake with offer of payment... it came across as pretty stingy.

They also told me that because I had mine with no ice, they'd fill the cup slightly less than full, which also came across as excessively stingy and I was taken aback a little. I'd never encountered a single store that nickle-and-dimed that hard as far as I know. Maybe it's a survival thing, but it really messes with the mood.

Conclusion: The Pearl Milk Tea was pretty solid. They had games and stuff there and a moderate amount of seating. Potentially good hangout place. The vibe of the service just cuts into the joy of the...