Boba Tea — Restaurant in San Antonio

this is wayy out there for me, coming from the med center, but i've visited a handful of times now and i can say that their drinks are pretty decent! prices are definitely sky high though (over $5 for an ice-blended milk tea with boba or pudding)-- one size only. free wifi, plenty of seating, bathrooms are clean, ambiance is just average. but customer service has been pretty stellar! i was the only one there one afternoon and had to make a phone call. it was too cold for me to step outside, so i asked if they would mind turning the music down and they were glad to. then the other day, i decided to venture from my standard coconut-taro drink to try the blueberry ice-blended milk tea. i asked the owner (?) if it was more sweet or tart and he said the blueberry syrup was more sweet. he suggested blueberry-banana, which sounded kind of odd to me, but i thought i'd give it a try. before he sealed the drink in a cup, he offered to let me try a spoonful from the blender. it was just odd and a little overpowering on the blueberry flavor (and definitely on the sour side). i hesitantly asked if he might be able to change my order to coconut taro, half sugar, and he was fine with that. considering that they have a giant sign that says "NO REFUNDS NO EXCHANGES," i was surprised at this example of great customer service! as far as sinkers go, the boba is nothing to write home about. i've been spoiled with honey boba in LA and houston, but this is at least soft and chewy, albeit flavorless. i've had plenty of gross, hard boba at various places in town! so i usually opt for the taro or egg pudding, which you can't really mess up! only other hangup about this place is that if you're there at sunset, you will inevitably get a migraine from the intense sun that comes blasting through the windows and bakes you. and this is coming from someone who is always cold, so i love a little warmth, especially when studying! there are maybe 1-2 small tables in the corner that are shaded enough that you can actually sit through the sunset period, but otherwise, you can't even look up, let alone use a laptop or read because of the intensity of the sun! maybe they could consider putting up some sheer curtains to diffuse the light/heat during that time. if you make a visit, don't forget to ask for a punch card! 1 free drink after 10...

The bubble tea and other products here are amazing. The owner is also wonderful and polite. The only reason I can’t give them a perfect 5 is the attitude we received on a lunchtime visit today. We use this as a monthly treat on payday and order anywhere from 3-7 drinks at a time and we call them in in advance. We’ve been doing this for at least the last year and a half and we’ve managed to convert a lot of people in our office into bubble tea lovers. Today, however, when we went in, our order wasn’t ready. I turned to my coworker and asked her why we had called in the order and suddenly was on the receiving end of an excess of attitude. She butted in to our conversation with a sarcastic head bob, saying that they didn’t fill phone orders. I told her we’d called in several times and had always explained that we had a half-hour for lunch and they’d always filled the order for us. She answered very rudely and then accused me of being rude to her. She was personally disparaging and openly combative and she made sure I saw her checking out my ID around my neck for some reason. When we asked to see her manager, we got the same attitude, minus her head bob.

We are not regular enough for them to recognize us as repeat customers and I’m not proud to say that in the end, she was so provocative that instead of acting like an adult, I tossed my repeat purchase rewards card on the counter and told her to let someone else use it because we wouldn’t be back. She gave an overly dramatic eye-roll worthy of a high school drama queen and tutted as we left with our purchase.

I want to make one thing perfectly clear- the bubble teas here are amazing. If the young woman behind the counter hadn’t all but attacked when I was talking to my friend, I wouldn’t be complaining at all. If the manager on duty hadn’t been hell-bent on interrupting me, I wouldn’t be complaining. I don’t know- maybe they had been having a bad day. Maybe someone before us stiffed them for an order. Maybe she just didn’t like the look of me. But I do know that I hope you get the owner if you visit instead of the two employees we encountered at...

Let me get the negatives out of the way. The wait was pretty unacceptable; took about 25 minutes for two drinks. Granted, there were a fair amount of people there, but they need to maybe work on hiring more employees then? Next, the drinks were very thin and seemed almost watered down. My girlfriend & I each ordered a drink, standard Milk Tea & Cantaloupe Milk Tea, both with boba.

Unfortunately, the thin liquid they were immersed in needed far more flavor. We both felt like we were drinking something closer to water. She couldn't even finish hers. By the time the ice melted, it really was subtly flavored water. The boba pearls were a little on the sweet side, which personally I do prefer. Pleased that they were also chewy and moist, so kudos to them for at least getting that right. Typical counter order with number system for drink pickup; the cashier was friendly and the ambiance in the little cafe seating area was welcoming enough, though I would take efficiency over friendliness for the most part.

Nicely lit. Several little tables, each with a little plant. Walls decorated with huge menu murals. Informational poster on boba. Beneficial for financial reasons, I suppose, but not so much on feeling cozy! They also sell Asian snacks, as shown in their display counter. Prices are standard, but with the quality of the drinks, suddenly it becomes extremely overpriced.

Good service, average ambiance, mediocre drinks? I'll buy some milk tea powder and boil my own boba instead. And if you knew how lazy I am, you would realize this is quite an insult, sadly, because this place seemed...