The Alley Seattle — Restaurant in Seattle

Soft opening June 25-28. Grand opening June 29.

I am beyond ecstatic that The Alley is finally around the Seattle area! The Alley is my favorite chain when they’re on top of their stuff. Not my number one in the state (yet) but easily up there. This location is consistent with my good experiences in other states. They’re one of the originals to start the whole brown sugar boba boom, dubbing their version Deerioca. I wish more drinks had adjustable ice and sugar but that’s a standard across The Alley chains.

Their most popular drinks have always been the brown sugar series and Royal No. 9 Milk Tea and are generally the most consistent across stores. The inside is clean with restrooms. About two tables and two counter areas, so light seating as well. Location is a bit further than the main area of Chinatown and there’s free street parking on the opposite end or in the Pacific Rim Center across (I believe free for plaza customers or paid).

Brown Sugar Deerioca Creme Brûlée Milk - my friends and I agree that The Alley has the best creme brûlée drinks and this location definitely keeps that reputation. The creme brûlée is located in the middle of the drink rather than the top so one can actually drink it and have it mix with the drink. Boba is sweet and flavorful on top of being typically chewy.

Royal No. 9 Milk Tea - the Royal Number 9 has a subtle blueberry taste that I’ve always loved. No different here, it’s a light blueberry milk tea that’s super refreshing. It’s a great balance between milk tea and fruit tea without commitment (but it really is...

My first time here was because of TikTok/Reels, I ordered ube milk tea with less sugar, added boba and no pudding. The girl repeated my order back to me twice. I recieved ube milk tea with pudding and no boba. I asked them to remake it and Thao tried to peel the lid off my tea to scoop the pudding out and replace it with boba. There’s no way it would’ve all been scooped out (there would still be pudding bits floating around) so I thought it was strange for her to start doing that. Plus that’s also kinda gross. I’m pretty sure I remember seeing a satisfaction guaranteed sign on their countertop regarding remaking drinks to their customer’s liking. Then the other girl started to remake it, but before starting a new one asked me if I want pudding in my new one. I said no because I ordered mine without pudding. She asked me like 3 times if I want pudding before remaking it. She really tried to make me feel stupid by saying ‘this drink comes with pudding, you don’t want pudding? It comes with pudding.’ lol but she’s the one who took my initial order with no pudding and repeated it back to me twice before making the first one. I just think it was way too simple of an order to screw up then talk to me in a condescending tone as if it was my fault the drink was made wrong lol. The second drink in the end was pretty good but it also tasted like regular sugar instead of less sugar like I ordered in the first place. I’m perplexed at how much they screwed up a simple order, and they were visibly NOT happy to remake my drink. Super...

Update: got a jasmine milk tea with pudding and boba. I've tried their pudding once before and thought it was decent. Today, they must have done the recipe wrong or something because it's not edible. It's literally falling apart when you drink it. I'm going to have to scoop out all the pudding bits to enjoy the drink. I'd still get drinks here but never getting pudding here again.

I got a jasmine milk tea with brown sugar boba half sweet half ice. I thought it was the perfect sweetness for my preference, I could still taste the tea flavor. I'd agree with others that they seem to give less toppings than other places cuz I usually have a bit of boba left at the end but that didn't happen. They use non dairy creamer for their milk teas. I appreciate that the brown sugar deerioca series has soy and oat options. I do wish they had some more non caffeinated options like a caffeine free tea. The employees were friendly. I asked a couple questions and they took time to thoroughly answer them. I didn't think they took too long to make orders. Overall, I liked my drink and I plan to come back and try other drinks.

Note: Went the day after their grand opening so things probably will get more...