Loka Leaf Tea Lounge — Restaurant in Town of Cazenovia

While I normally never review places at all, the Loka Leaf has been such an overall bad experience that I genuinely just don’t want people to waste their money at this tea lounge. The first time my sister and I went, we got boba to go. When I was ordering I asked the girl taking our order about the boba. I simply wanted to know if they had different kinds, etc. she quite literally stood there for minutes with a blank expression on her face until the guy working with her decided to come over and answer my question. Our order for two boba teas took over ten minutes to receive. Mind you, not only were my sister and I the only ones in line and everyone else in the lounge had already received their drinks, but the boba tea that they make is only milk plus powder, shaken, and then added to a cup of ice with popping boba. In other words, it takes two minutes to put together. Regardless, it did taste good and we left fairly happy. The second time we went, there was a group of five or so people ahead of us in line. They all ordered boba (which again, the way they make it there should only take a few minutes per drink.) The girl from last time was the only person working (I’m not even going to touch upon her customer service because while it was terrible and she barely said anything to her customers, that wasn’t even one of the main issues). She took at least thirty minutes to take their order and make it. By the time she got to us, we were pretty hungry, so on top of two bobas I ordered one of the tea sandwiches. (I figured it’s a sandwich that even if it’s not already prepped, shouldn’t take very long because nothing has to be cooked for it. Only assembled. Therefore not taking a ton of time.). Well was I wrong. Not only did she take about fifteen minutes to make our boba (most of the time spent was her walking aimlessly around in the back kitchen for some reason) she brought out the boba to us and told me my sandwich would be coming in a couple minutes. The boba still had chunks of powder in it and no matter how much I stirred and shook it, did not dissolve into the milk. So I was stuck with a drink I wasn’t enjoying (and god forbid I send it back only to wait another thirty minutes for no reason) then she brought out the sandwich (which by the way took her a ridiculous amount of time as well) and it somehow managed to be even more disappointing then the boba. The sandwich was made out of cheap white bread (with the crusts cut off), lettuce, cream cheese, cheap turkey, and dried cranberries. I spent over seven dollars on a mediocre sandwich that was almost smaller then my hand. If you’re going for the actual tea they sell it might be worth your money but the atmosphere is lacking and the customer service and wait times are atrocious. Go to Latte Da or the Pewter Spoon in Caz if you want good drinks and food. Don’t waste your time and money on...

I wish I had a little better experience at Loka Leaf. My family and I (me, wife, 6 & 8 year old boys) stopped in for a snack on a Sunday recently.

The place was probably at 80% capacity and the kitchen seemed very busy. I wasn’t expecting to have table service, but we were quickly waited upon and given a table. We got a sandwich to share and that was good. We tried to order one herbal tea but was then later told by our server that there was no one staffing the tea part of the business and they were out of that tea (or at least couldn’t find it). We later opted to get a simple iced tea they had in stock but we waited quite some time and it was never served. We had the server cancel that order and then we had to leave.

There were a bunch of board games available to play which is a great touch.

One of my boys spilled a small amount of water (parenting, am I right?) and he was somewhat chided by one of the staff. I wasn’t really offended by that but it seemed out of place.

Overall it seems like Loka Leaf is a nice place for some light food and tea, but I think they could use a little help with staffing. The staff seemed to be a bit frantic.

I hope to visit again soon when it is a little less busy! They had a very promising...

Extremely disappointing!!!!!! I walked in on a Sunday morning at 11:30am when they just opened at 11am to get 4 small boba’s for my two kids and 2 nieces when I was meet right at the door by an employee who was very rude and Immediately asked “Are you here to get bobas??” And I replied “yes but we don’t need a table just getting drinks to go” (the restaurant was full) but was replied with “we can’t do bobas now we’re too busy!” As I looked around and other tables had boba drinks UGH… I said seriously?? And she goes you can come back later this afternoon around 2pm. I replied 4 hours from now ok no problem thanks and left. THEN I called to talk to a manger when I got in my car with the 4 kids and was hung up on when I asked for a manger, called BACK a second time and the girl stated were the woman who just called and I said yes I would like to talk tot the manager on duty and she stated we don’t have a manger on duty and proceeded to advise again how they can make no ads during brunch hours when it’s busy. This was my first time every going and I will NEVER go back so thanks for a terrible experience and disappointing...