Tapioca Express

I normally have a good time at Tapioca Express but this time was so-​so. There was only one person working so our drinks took forever. Our food took really long. They didn’t have any calamari so I was disappointed.
I ordered a taro slushie with the mini boba. The boba was still hard in the middle so that wasn’t cool. So it was a blah experience at this location.

I can understand where some reviewers gripe about customer service. The people behind the counter are authentic and pretty young — hey, this is a college town and students gotta earn some money, right? So, yeah, sometimes they do give attitude and probably get orders wrong from time to time because their attention span is a little short sometimes and they’d rather play around and talk about life with each other. But I can’t really complain because I come in here and order the same combo every time: a boba drink and an appetizer each time — I really like the chicken with 0 or 1 spice. I wouldn’t bother with the onion rings again — they come out overbreaded, limp and very oily each time.
In any case, Tapioca Express is a Great alternative to the crowded Starbucks or Peet’s or other café with free wifi access — but no time limit! Plenty of seating and plenty of power outlets. Might be a bit loud sometimes but really nothing that a pair of ear buds and an iPod can’t cure!

Okay. Gets the job done, but not great. There are better options in Berkeley. Popcorn chicken is just okay.

Okay. I don’t know what the **** is going on with Tapioca Express. Ever since they hired those new people, everything just went downhill from there.
I don’t understand what the hell was cashier’s problem. I ordered my drink explicitly stated that, «No BOBA on my Jasmine tea». This Asian dude repeated it to me, «No Boba on one of them» (P.S. I ordered two drinks).
Okay, here comes the best part, he still made my drink wrong. Let’s not talk about that 25 cents that he charged me for the boba. 25 cents, no big deal.
The worst thing was his customer service. After I told him that he made the wrong tea, he gave me #@$@#$ attitude.
Let me explain how he did this. He took the wrong drink and then opened it up with a knife. After that, he put the knife down real hard like he had some problems with it. And then Poured the drink into another cup and TRIED to seal it, but he couldn’t do it.
What a surprise. Ended up handed it to me with a lid instead.
P. S. for your information, this wasn’t the first time that he made the wrong drinks.

Not a fan.
I started going here out of convenience to grab some boba to drink on my commute to SF from berkeley, but this boba is just not good enough for me to consistently keep drinking. Just meh. I have trouble a lot of the times to finish drinking it!
Their service is decent at best, and I got my order wrong a few times. I also came her because of their spendgo service, but apparently that has been out of order, and I doubt that they are giving an effort anytime soon to fix it.

Huzzah! A Tapioca Express in the Bay! Maybe there is one in SF, but I haven’t stumbled upon it yet. So, it was a real treat getting to grab some boba from the Berkeley location. Pretty efficient, lots of variety, yum.

TIP: Get the Groupon codes! There have pretty consistent Groupon Now deals for $ 4 for $ 6 worth of boba. This helps make the prices more bearable. It does give it a nice feel and sells it’s brand as one of better boba places around. I would say it’s a little bit on the sour side, but decent all the same.
The atmosphere is rather dinky (you don’t want to stick around, inside is dark and a little worn down, and sitting outside isn’t exactly inviting with people constantly walking by). The board games are kinda old and yeah. Boba here is still not too bad.
I do reserve 5 star bobas for the random amazing ones down in socal which give you enormous servings (enough to satisfy all your cravings) of boba for like $ 4.

I’m usually not a fan of TapEx, but certain locations I can tolerate. This one has a fairly nice interior design for being on Shattuck Ave.
Great selection of drinks. I’ve had the barley, Thai milk tea (8 hr brew), and black sesame here, and I approve of them all.
However, for THE best boba in this part of the East Bay, head over to Mr. Green Bubble. Sweethearts near campus is good too if you need a cheap fix.

Service: 5
Taste: 5
Quality: 4
Variety: 4
Price: $ 2 – 5
Recommend to a friend: Yes
I’ve only been once, but I liked my Jasmine Milk Tea w/​Tapioca. The tapioca pearls are squishy and flavorful, unlike some other bubble/​boba tea places in Berkeley. Also, the tea was really well-​made (although I’m not really sure what makes it different) and sweet. The only thing is that it’s pricier than other boba places closer to campus. I’m not sure if it warrants the extra dollar or two, but if you’re looking for good boba tea, this is one of the best I’ve had in Berkeley.

Ugh. Had to write a review to express my hostility towards this place again.
So even though I know this particular Tap Ex can be pretty bad, I still come back. I even bought the Groupon $ 25 for $ 12 deal. I used it today and ordered a crispy chicken, at the original level this time so my tongue doesn’t die. (Totally lied about not ordering the chicken again haha.)
The bag was seriously less than half full. I get that I used a Groupon, so they make less profit than if I were to pay the full $ 4, but wth. I didn’t know they had a small/​large size to their crispy chicken. But I definitely got their small, maybe kid size. The seasoning was okay, but it doesn’t take a genius to sprinkle salt and pepper onto chicken. The chicken was pretty dry though, not as much as last time, but still dry.
I don’t get it. Did the people purposely only fry 7 pieces of chicken on purpose? Did they secretly have a big batch but only chose to give me 7 pieces because I used a Groupon? Do they hate me? I can let the small portions slide if the chicken was DELICIOUS, but theirs isn’t. Don’t places usually give you more to make up for the lack of quality? Obviously this place doesn’t understand that concept. They give you small portions AND bad quality.
I’m forced to come back at least another 4 times thanks to Groupon. I wanted to use it for their crispy chicken because it’s pricier than boba, but now I don’t even know.

Thai Ice Tea with Milk-​Base {which makes it much sweeter}
Is the only drink I order and they only drink I have ever tried.
Kudos for being across the street from my job.
Kudos again for sending occasional texts that you are having specials!

can you get full over some boba? YES. YES YOU CAN.
The first drink I’ve tried here was their Vanilla Chai milk tea, and it was okay. Jessica M. recommended it to me, and I decided to give it a go. The flavors weren’t anything super special, and I was definitely expecting more chai, but I suppose it was alright. pretty average.
Came in here a second time towards the end of the day and got their Hazelnut milk tea. This was so heavenly. So packed with flavor, the boba was the right consistency, and it wasn’t diluted at all.
Hazelnut milk tea is probably my go-​to drink the next time I come here.

First of all, this place isn’t as dingy as some reviewers describe it. It looks like what you would expect from a place that sells tapioca drinks but it’s not fancy and it does need some refreshing. New floors might help…
As for the drinks, I ordered a large sesame milk tea with large tapioca and red beans. Expect very little tapioca and whatever else you buy as additions to your drink. At best, a few teaspoons of tapioca slept at the bottom of my large plastic cup. If you like tapioca, buy the addition twice.
The drink itself is okay. It’s nothing special but it does the job. However, be forewarned that there is probably more sugar in this drink than you would find in any ice cream so drinking a large cup would mean eating the equivalent of three or more pints of ice cream. It’s pretty sweet. If I was diabetic, I would be dead by now. Hopefully, this drink didn’t cause diabetes (just kidding). In any case, there is also a ton of caffeine in the milk tea. I did enjoy the drink but I did lose a night of sleep over it so don’t drink this after 10AM! Trust me.

This Tapioca Express is pretty much the most ghetto one I’ve ever been to (and I’m comparing to ones in LA and NYC). Dimly lit, grungy feeling, inhabited by 15 year old kids looking to make trouble, I got my crispy chicken and regular boba milk tea to-​go and vowed never to come back. Everything tasted fine, but this Tapex was such an uninviting experience.

Tapoica Express offers tea, milk tea, … and junk food
got a munch on me voucher here for crispy chicken (43% off = 3ish)
battered chicken was about 20 random sixed pieces, little seasoned, and greasy. certainly wouldn’t get it for regular price.
2.5 stars for having real chicken meat inside, not some smashed goo paste.
leftovers:
–surprised to see nonasians working here.
–no specials seen anywhres.

I forgot to write a review for this place.
I came here awhile ago and even though I didn’t order anything my friend (who is a huge tap-​ex person) complained. He usually never complains about anything but man, this must be bad. He took a couple of sips, said it was nasty and then threw it away. And he always orders the same thing.

Came in on a Wed at 2:30 pm. There was 1 customer ahead of us. There were 8 customers half of them chilling with laptops enjoying the free wifi access. I ordered the avocado snow bubble. It was pretty good. We also ordered savory noodles for $ 1.75 which was basically a cup o noodle just add hot water. What a shame. If I would of known that’s what I was buying I would of never bought it. Horrible! We also ordered crispy chicken & calamari. I ate this at the Alameda location but this one was not the same. I was quite disappointed.
Overall I give it 2 stars cause the drinks were alright.

I decided to try this place as my usual smoothie place was packed. The line wasn’t bad and their menu is quite extensive. A drink to please for everyone. I got the Icy Mango with pearls. It was quite refreshing on a very hot day. What’s cool is they don’t use lids, instead they seal a piece of plastic on the top and u have to poke your straw through!
Def would come back.

I love this place! Board games, Music, Fried foods, ALMOND MILK TEA, What can be better?!
Love it! Get Almond Milk Tea! So delicious!

I wanted something green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day so I ordered up a large Green Apple Icy with Green Apple Jelly. I’ve always enjoyed green apple slushes from my neighborhood Lolocup and from Tapioca Express’ San Francisco location so I assumed it’d be just as good here.
It looked fine (
).
It was poorly made though. Less than half way into the drink the sour apple flavor all disappeared leaving me with a cup of blended green ice that tasted just like ice. Sucking on unflavored ice with apple flavored jellies suck. I’m sticking to the boba drinks, and I’m dropping a star from the rating for forcing me to throw out nearly a third cup of blended, colored ice.