Volcano Tea House

Best Boba milk tea I’ve ever had, Im here 4 – 5 times a week– no joke… its nice when they see me come in they already start preparing my drink, no need to order sometimes. haha, the staff is fast and super friendly.
–Coconut Milk Tea no sugar light ice with Lichee jelly– can’t go wrong
–Popcorn Chicken (spicy) most likely not the best for you but damn its good…
Prices are average
Staff is great
Parking is ridiculous!!! But i’d circle the block 5+ times to get their tea…

The bubble teas I had here at Volcano Tea House were delicious. This is a great place to visit for milk and non-​milk teas with various toppings as well as other sweet drinks, coffee/​espresso beverages, and shaved iced. Note: It’s cash only.
There are several Volcano Tea House locations in Southern California, but this one is the original store that opened in 2001. It’s in a strip at the corner of Sawtelle and Mississippi in Japantown, West LA. When we visited, the parking lot out front was valet only. However, the valet guys will let you self-​park for a short amount of time if you’re just making a quick boba run. I suggest parallel parking along one of the residential streets behind the store.
The store is small and popular. It hustles and bustles inside. Seating consists of 5 – 6 small circular tables packed tightly together plus bar-​height surfaces that run along a wall and the storefront window. Remaining seating amounts to over a dozen chairs pushed against a wall, mainly used by customers waiting to pick up orders. There’s free Wi-​Fi, but I can’t imagine coming here to get any work done. It’s just too crammed and busy.
Volcano Tea House offers roughly 20 different milk teas, over 20 different flavors of black and green tea, over 20 different fruit-​flavored drinks (not tea), over a half-​dozen each of ice-​blended drinks and caffeine-​free «specialty» drinks, and roughly a dozen coffee drinks including Vietnamese coffee and flavored lattes.
Most drinks cost $ 3.25 to $ 3.45 each for a medium-​sized cup (16 ounces). If you order a large (20 ounces), it’s 50 cents extra. Toppings, of which there are well over a dozen, cost extra too. They’re between 50 to 60 cents per topping. In addition to boba, topping examples include various jellies, aloe, barley, various puddings, sea salt whipped cream, jelly fig, and green and red beans.
In addition, the store sells Taiwanese food snacks such as spicy fried chicken and spicy fried squid and fish balls for less than $ 5 per order.
I like that drink orders are highly customizable. You can adjust the amount of each ingredient in your tea including the ice, sugar, milk, and toppings.
The two cold, medium-​sized, drinks I tried were:
* White peach oolong tea (no milk), half sugar, with boba and egg pudding ($ 4.09, tax included)
* House milk tea, half sugar, with egg pudding and grass jelly ($ 4.31, tax included)
The teas hit the spot. It was a lively night when we went, so the toppings were fresh as could be. The white peach oolong tea was nicely flavored — light, not too sweet, soothing, and refreshing. The house milk tea was bold and rich in flavor — a very classic tasting bubble milk tea. I enjoyed it. The boba were soft, sweet, and appetizingly chewy. Pretty much perfect. I loved both the egg pudding and grass jelly which came served as several thick, luscious, and silky smooth chunks. They flowed up through the wide bubble tea straws rather effortlessly. As they say, these teas were on point.
Despite the crowd, our drinks were made in a reasonable amount of time. Anna took our order and she was lovely. Thank you, Anna.
In summary, if you’re in Little Osaka (Japantown), Volcano Tea House is a terrific option for bubble/​pearl milk tea. Just be sure to bring cash with you.
Enjoy!

Nothing spectacular here. I do like the extensive menu though; they have basically any flavor and variety you could imagine.
I originally wanted to order a peach-​something-​oolong tea (I can’t remember exactly what it was) that was listed on the menu posted on the wall, and the cashier informed me that they no longer had that. I was momentarily really sad, like why don’t you just scratch it off the menu if you don’t serve it any more?! But I got over almost instantly (lol) and decided on my go-​to for basically any boba spot, the mango green tea.
I went to use the restroom while my friend waited for our drinks, and when I came out, they had their drinks but said mine never got called. So I went up to the pick-​up counter and told them that I didn’t get mine (and they went past my order number), the barista had a really dissatisfied look on her face and started whining about how someone else must have took mine to the other people making drinks. She explained to me that she would make me a new one, no problem, but continued making a fuss behind the counter. I do understand that this hiccup must have been annoying and might have thrown off their work flow, but honestly, it can’t be that big of a deal (and for credibility purposes, I have worked as a barista before and have experienced this kind of situation multiple times). I did receive my drink after a couple minutes, and she apologized again. So overall, the situation was handled well, but just with some (in my opinion) unnecessary commentary.
The drink itself was fine. It was a little too sweet for my own liking, but I should have clarified that I wanted it less sweet when I was ordering. I did like the little bits of mango at the bottom though, that made it a little more fun.
Volcano was a little bit out of the way for me, so I don’t think I’d make another trip specifically for this, but I’ll probably come back if I“m in the area and my friends are insisting on grabbing boba.

Volcano Tea is a great staple in my life. It’s super consistent, decently priced, and close to where I live. Can’t complain too much! This place is basically my standard, or my baseline, or whatever you want to call it – for boba.
Favorite drink is the taro milk tea with pearls, it’s probably the best taro drink out of all the boba places in West LA – definitely try it out if you’re a taro lover.
Parking is kind of a nightmare during peak hours (weekends mostly) and the line can be fairly long as it’s a pretty popular joint. The service is also a little bit slow. But… it’s open pretty late and always churning out tasty drinks and snack so that’s good enough for me! See you soon Volcano Tea!