Sharetea | Hillsdale — Restaurant in San Mateo

Update: I have changed my rating of this Sharetea location to 2 stars, for a couple of reasons. The drink quality has not changed but the price has. Ever since they increased the cost of their boba topping to one dollar, I have been completely turned off by this location. Still, I gave them another chance a few weeks ago, because I was craving boba and they happened to be in my vicinity. The employees informed me that they don’t take cash anymore. Whether that was true or just an effort to deter me from ordering before their closing time, that made me stop coming altogether. I refuse to use card on their self-serve kiosk that charges you even more for the stupid “service” fee. How the mighty have fallen.

———

My go-to at Sharetea is the strawberry black tea with boba. The taste is consistent and the drink has a good pearl-tea ratio, plus the employees are friendly and fast. However, for what you get, it is a little overpriced, especially if you use the self serve kiosk. Therefore, 4...

Google maps says they open at 11:00, I arrived abt 20 min early so I waited. At 11:00 I stood out front with 2 employees working thinking they would finish their current task and then help me. I eventually asked if they would be taking orders when an employee told me they open at 11:30. I'm a little confused, did they think I was going to stand there for 30 min? Why wouldn't staff just say something? It's pretty annoying. It's not the employee's fault Google maps is wrong, but they could say something if someone is waiting 30 min early. I've been here before in the middle of the day and...

I don’t like that they can’t control the level of sweetness. Like every other boba shops, they have this levels of sweetness (0, 30, 50, 80, 100) and are obligated to ask which one you like while ordering. When they asked me, I said 30 % and the staff refused, saying they couldn’t do it and 80% was the lowest they could do for this drink because the sweetness came from the powder and milk. Excuse me?! Other shops that I visited could always control the level of sweetness as long as the customers want. This was unbelievable. As I expected, this drink was too...