The Alley Tempe — Restaurant in Tempe

ATMOSPHERE: The place looks immaculate everywhere. The main floor is very inviting and very clean. No weird smells or designs. Great atmospheric music to match the vibe. Bathroom was very clean and well-maintained.

FOOD: All of the food looked great. I went for some seasoned fries for a snack, and a Royal 9 milk tea with half sugar (based on the worker's recommendation after asking me how sweet I like things). Fries were incredible. At worst, they bordered being over seasoned, but personally, I really enjoyed them. The boba milk tea was a fantastic treat as well. I think half sugar was a great call. Loved the balance of flavors. The worker there also told me the milk was dairy-free for those who care. Still tasted great.

PRICE: Everything seemed reasonably priced, and I'm pretty picky about my spending and tend to be pretty frugal. Some stuff seemed like it could've been overpriced, but without knowing if the display foods were the actual portion size it's hard to tell.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: I'm sorry to the guy who helped that I didn't get your name, but he was very patient and very helpful. He did not rush me, did not seem bored or annoyed while I seemed advice and recommendations, even asked me some questions to help me get something I would enjoy. It's people and service like that that really sticks with people and brings them back. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels...

Let me start by saying I love the drinks here.

Anyways, I ordered the Chicken Katsu Curry a few days ago. It came with some rice, the katsu cutlet, a little bit of curry, and some potato salad. The rice was hot as it should be. The cutlet was also hot and crispy. The potato salad was okay, nothing special, but that’s where the good things come to an end. The katsu cutlet and curry were quite flavorless, and the curry was not even warm. Would it have killed them to heat it up a little more? It did take like 10-15 minutes of waiting for my food dish after all. My drink came out way faster than the food item, and the curry isn’t properly heated?

Now the worst part is the fact that after eating this chicken katsu curry dish, I got SEVERE food poisoning. Like the person preparing my food had to have had the flu and was coughing all over my dish or something. I had 2 days and 2 nights of a high fever, whole body soreness, and crazy, CRAZY diarrhea. I felt like I had stepped onto my deathbed (or rather, collapsed onto it).

I like The Alley’s drinks for sure, and I didn’t expect much of anything from the food served at a drink-focused cafe. I get it, it’s not their specialty. Tasting extremely mediocre would have been fine, if it didn’t send me spiraling with...

The Alley is one of the best boba chains out there and I am incredibly jealous that ASU students in Tempe get to enjoy this right down the street. I had them in Vegas and they definitely satisfied the boba itch.

Their menu offers a large variety of drinks including popular ones using ube or purple rice. You're also able to build your own drink such as a milk latte depending on what flavors you like, and the servers were able to make great recommendations on how to build and modify existing drinks.

I went with an Assam Milk Tea Latte with Oat Milk with Boba, keeping it fairly simple. I also always order drinks with half ice and sugar levels. My drink was fantastic - not too sugary and I was able to taste the actual tea. I appreciate them having non-dairy milk options too for vegans and other plant-forward individuals. Note that a lot of their syrups (including their ube) aren't vegan friendly, and they were happy to check and recommend other drink combinations for me.

We ended up staying here for a few hours since the vibe was pretty relaxed. Seeing many people doing their own work or just hanging out with friends is a good sign, and a testament of the vibe they go for...