Quickly

FYI this place is still OPEN.
It was briefly shut down for renovation, but it is now operating again.
Anyway, this place is very average.
Many of the things on the menu are quite novel, but they’re really there just to sound cool and tasty– the reality is that they’re all quite average. I’m not sure they even have a dedicated cook here.
In particular, please do not get the kimchi fries. Literally some terrible tasting fries with kimchi thrown on top of them.

Service is terribly slow. The kitchen is dirty and disgusting.

Four letters Y-​U-​CK wasted money food was awful.

This place is so weird. They change their menu and ordering system every time I go in. For the first month they had printed glossy menus. Then they changed to brochure-​style menus that were printed on a home computer. Then they gave up and just printed out one giant menu that they pasted over the glass pastry case, which is sort of odd. «Who needs a fancy glass case? We’ll just cover it in paper.» Sometimes they take your order at the first area when you walk in, other days they decide they’ll take your order at the far end of the counter where you pick up your food. They constantly seem like they have just opened and are under construction.
I was skeptical of how large their menu was, so I looked it up and found that it’s a chain with many locations around the world. It’s all pre-​made fast food, like an Asian version of Boston Market. Or maybe more like Panda Express. I think it’s funny that someone mentioned a «mucousy» sauce because I too got the chicken curry and was freaked out by the sauce that looked & moved like mucous. I seriously poked at it for a while wondering if it was saliva or jizz in there. Then I had that image in my mind so I couldn’t eat it.
If this were a shop that only sold bubble teas & those awesome egg waffles, it would get a higher review. But the food is just not good and they need to get their business act together. I feel bad giving a bad review because there is nothing else like it around, but shitty fast food chains are not uniquely American. It can happen to anyone.

First time I went to Quickly I ordered a coconut bubble tea, just from the experience alone it was pretty disappointing. The bubble tea seemed watered down, with barely much of a distinct coconut flavor and definitely straight out of the can. I guess my criticism just comes from being accustomed to bubble tea from Chinatown and their style of making it, once you expect bubble tea to taste like something from a previously good experience, you kinda uphold the same expectation. Though in reality, it’s hard to compare bubble tea among different nationwide chains and independently owned shops because every shop has a different style in preparation and ingredients used. So with that said, I try to withhold any biases. I rarely dictate 1 dissatisfying experience as my final judgment in trying out food within a restaurant.
The second time I ordered here it was for lunch and bubble tea, this time I tried their seafood malatang under their noodle/​soup dishes. I can’t exactly remember the name of the dish I had, but it was something under the name of «Oden noodles». So you have a say on how spicy you want the dish, right, without hesitation I asked for spicy. I can’t recall asking for very spicy, but when the dish came out, I was reluctant it would be spicy enough for my liking. Before I add any additional sauce I always taste my food, I took a swig of the broth and nearly DIED thinking I wouldn’t be able to even eat my meal– it was that uncomfortably spicy.
If you want to know what hell fire tastes like, I’m pretty certain I came close to that experience. But after (give or take) 10 minutes after the spice pain dissipated, I have to say it was one of the most delicious noodle dishes I’ve tasted. Okay, so let me explain a little about the authenticity. It’s pretty obvious the food that’s being served here is authentically Chinese, just judging from the staff barely speaking a speck of English, the ingredients used, and the spice level. Coming from a person of Chinese descent myself, I can speak from experience that Asian «spicy» is a whole ‘nother level of spicy. All I will say is, if it’s not hurtin’ it’s not hot enough.
So, I digress, back to the Oden noodles. The dish came served in a wooden, not sure what you would even call it… Think, a smaller version of those wine barrels one would use to stomp grapes in. That’s exactly what it looks like. I thought that was pretty cool. As far as what was in the dish I honestly have no idea, it included a concoction of unrecognizable seafood with lots of different textures going on, some gelatinous. The only things I could make out were the huge prawns and seaweed. From this near-​death experience I would go back just to order this again. But don’t say I didn’t warn you!
So along with that I ordered a green tea bubble tea, asked for it to be prepared as «snow». The downside about the place is they don’t accept any debit/​credit card charges under $ 5 so I had to do add-​ons with the bubble tea, I added passion pearl boba which were a $ 1 extra and that brought it up. These boba balls were pretty interesting as they pop when you bite on them, and out gushes the flavor. The green tea bubble tea itself was more milky than green tea, but not bad at all.
Overall, not the best first experience, but a more memorable second. I would be willing to try out more things on their menu, you never know if you’re in for a surprise.

Saw this place and thought I’d try it. I regret it. I’m pretty easy to satisfy with food, but this didn’t do it. I was there for lunch, and I typically go out for lunch and spend like $ 6 or $ 7, and the only things in that price range were the rice bowls. I tried the chicken curry rice bowl and it turned out to be like a lot of rice with a mucousy-​looking sauce on it and probably 1 oz of chicken (I guess a similar amount that you would see in fried rice?) and no veggies or anything else. Maybe I just had the wrong expectation, but to charge $ 6 for rice with a tiny bit of chicken is kind of ludicrous, considering I could go to subway across the street and get a bigger, tastier, healthier meal for $ 5, loaded with veggies and a substantial amount of meat. Also, the place had a funky smell that I didn’t appreciate, it made it seem unclean.
From reading other reviews my guess is that the only people who like this place come for the drinks (assuming those are decent is what makes this 2 stars rather than 1, although I didn’t try any myself), because if what I had is any representation of the rest of the menu the food is not even close to worth it. I’d be shocked if they stay in business.
If any Quickly employees read this, take my advice: add some more meat and some veggies to your rice bowls and charge an extra dollar or something, otherwise you will have very few regular costumers.

We left quickly.
I came here with pretty low expectations (I mean c’mon 2.5 stars), so my bar was already pretty low for this experience. I would’ve been happy with something that was baseline edible…
Boy did these guys manage to disappoint.
My friend and I both got rice bowls — I got the pork one and he got the curry one. The rice was terrible (think reheated/​microwaved multiple times, but still a lukewarmish temperature). The food tastes like leftovers that should’ve been thrown out a week ago.
Needless to say I probably won’t ever be going back again, even though I live 2 minutes away…

Bright orangey boba oasis — right in Downcity! The shop is bright and future/​mod — loads of seating and a convenient location before you go roaming about the city.
Back to the boba: LOADS of options for flavor and consistency (at least 100 combination options), also: options for your bubbles (tapioca, jellies, or poppers! about 20 options!). I asked the clerk what he would recommend and he suggested: BLUEBERRY MILK TEA w/​PASSION FRUIT POPPERS. I purchased a medium (~$ 3.50) and was blown away! Suprise #2: the cup is not the stereotypical vacuum-​sealed solution, however a simple lid-​on-​Solo variety (that’s means you have to remember how to hold a beverage like a functional human being).
Prices are reasonable for your flavor concoction, and there is no extra charge for tapioca + jellies/​poppers in your bubble drink (score!). Sizes: small — medium — large — and X-​LARGE! Now you can pride yourself amongst the ranks of big-​gulp guzzlers… only with a way more delicious potion in hand. Paid via a credit card plug-​in for an iPad (a little odd, but at least we could use a card). Bubble Tea House is my Federal Hill hook-up…and Quickly is my Downcity salvation.

I went to Quickly yesterday with a couple of girlfriends before I took the RIPTA back home and I have to say for my first experience here it was G R O S S.
It was rainy and cold out so I ordered the Wonton noodle soup. It was okay, the seaweed at the bowl was scary to look at at first but I got over it. I personally thought the noodles were overcooked and too soft for me. The wontons in the soup was bland, it just tasted like boiled pork, no seasonings.
One of my girlfriends’ ordered the Soya Chicken rice bowl and it tasted like it was missing something in the sauce. The Soya Chicken was fatty and inedible.
My other girlfriend ordered Soya Pork rice bowl and an order of Taiwanese Crispy Chicken. It tasted the same as the Soya Chicken so I didn’t like it at all. The Taiwanese Crispy Chicken was the greasiest thing I’ve ever put in my mouth… it was soggy and when I bit into it I just squirted out a bunch of oil into my mouth. It was bland with a kick to it (spicy).
Overall, it was the worst place I’ve ever been to. My friends and I took 3 bites of our food and just wanted to leave. I didn’t get to try any bubble tea or smoothies but maybe next time?

My first (and final) reaction was that this place is a bit disorganized.
Their credit card machine was not working again (as I read about in an earlier review) but the cashier was friendly and expressed his apologies –which means a lot to me.
Portions and quality are pretty good considering the price (very cheap). But the banh mi is not worth getting (served on wonder bread?).

Quickly is one of only a few places in Providence which sells serviceable bubble tea (although it’s not even half as good as my hometown Chicago fave Joy Yee which uses fresh fruit in their boba shakes or the NYC Ten Ren for awesome warm milk tea). By fast food standards, it’s above average especially for the area. Worth a try, but I wouldn’t go out of the way to do so.

unfortunately, i took my boyfriend here again yesterday night and the service was atrocious, so i felt the need to update my previous 3.5 star review.
first, upon entering Quickly, there was a strong smell — my boyfriend smelled fish, i smelled vinegar. but it was very unpleasant! barring that, we waited about 10 minutes to order as the countergirl couldn’t figure out how to put a credit card through their iPad CC processing machine. she had to ask her boss, who seemed to not speak much English, help in nearly every step of the customer’s order in front of us.
so we go up to order, i have a Green Apple/​Pineapple snow, went off without a hitch. but when my boyfriend tried to order a Orange/​Lemon mix, he was met with extreme opposition from both the countergirl and the older woman making the bubble tea. «Oh, that won’t taste good together. We can’t make that for you. It will be bad» and they both tried talking him out of his order (which, seriously, is lemon/​orange that weird? i would have thought MY order was a stranger mix of flavors)! so when my boyfriend told them that instead, he wasn’t interested if they weren’t going to make what he wanted, they started to backpeddle and show all the things they could do with orange/​lemon besides what he originally ordered…
the countergirl was a total space cadet — i don’t know if it’s her first job in the history of ever or what, but it was clear she didn’t know what she was doing, and this whole experience was extremely awkward and uncomfortable. i found the older woman making the bubble tea to be /​extremely/​rude towards my boyfriend especially.

good for lunch in downtown. Menu was very hard to read — seemed it was written by someone that used English as a second language. The counter boy did assist and recommend chicken with rice bowl. It was very tasty and tender. I do not drink bubble tea which seems to be the main attraction — although when I asked to sample it, they gladly let me.
My dish was light, tasty and satisfying.

The tea I ordered was pretty good, they did have mini-​tapioca which I like. My friend ordered some fried chicken dish w/​rice which was pretty good. But the wait took forever, matter of fact they forgot she placed an order LOL. It was only a quick stop, there wasn’t really much else to do in Providence, Rhode Island LOL

I don’t know what the deal is with this place. I’ve been back a few times since my initial review and the service is extremely spotty. One time I ventured back and they ran out of bubbles. Just like that. They didn’t even bother to say «well instead of bubbles, we have aloe… would you like that?»
Another time I went for bubble tea and it took 25 minutes for them to make it and other people were served in the meantime. By other people, I mean like 2 people who definitely arrived way after us. They forgot about our order. Then once we reminded them, they delayed in making the order and then finally brought it out.
While I’ll definitely go there for egg puffs (because it’s the only place I know of in PVD that sells them), I won’t be returning for their bubble tea or their other food products. I had such high hopes…

No no no no. Just turn around now and don’t do it. Had the most bizarre experience here last night with the most incompetent person I have ever encountered, an older asian woman. So my friend orders a tofu rice bowl. The woman brings her a smoothie, um no. This was apparently meant for someone else so we gave it to them. Keep in mind the only people in the room are ourselves and the other girl who ordered the smoothie with her friend. My friend reiterates what she ordered and the woman said yes and went about whatever she was doing. We had no idea if anyone was actually making the food or what was going on, no communication. She eventually asked again if her food was coming and then the woman went to get it.
I ordered a hot green tea, thats it. This cost me almost 3 dollars and I am pretty sure it wasn’t even green tea. It tasted like a black lipton tea bag and I drink green teas often. wtf to both. So I order my tea and she just says ok and stands there. So I’m waiting to pay and instead of ringing me up she takes the order of another guy, gets his order, rings him up, and totally ignores the fact that I was there first and she has neither charged me or started my tea. What the F is going on here? What am I missing? When she gets the tea out of a microwave at some point and I then see her pour a huge scoop of syrup in it. I’m like woahhh what is that? She says fructose. Ew. No. I tell her I did not ask for syrup, just tea. She again gets the tea, this time with nothing in it. We were ready to leave by the time we got our order.
Overall the entire experience was bizarre and there is no way this place will stay in business if this is the way they operate. Tea was terrible, rice bowl was meh, the place was dirty, and the woman at the counter is on a completely different planet.

This place is a whimsical oasis in the brick of Downtown Providence. Super sweet staff, really good food. Good for lunch or when you want something new for takeout dinners. Just expect to wait a bit. Try the egg puffs and any one of their amazing juices.

Quickly is my secret escape to cope with my temptation of bubble tea.
Bubble tea here is SOLID. I lived in California for 8 years and everyone kinda views Quickly as the last resort for bubble tea, but guess what… not here in Providence! I am pleasantly surprised that this is the cleanest and most friendly Quickly I have ever been to. Tables, chairs and the floors are clean. They have chic and colorful décor that the atmosphere almost appears to be like a froyo place. The staff really keeps the place presentable to the customers. The menu for drinks will make you want to come back for more because there are so many to choose from! I have been here about 5 times for the same drink (yes I’m boring and unadventurous for bubble tea) and every single one tasted excellent. Great job on consistency!
Taiwanese/​Cantonese food: They also have a food menu with an assortment of dishes. From my favorite Hong Kong style Egg Puffs/​Eggettes to Taiwanese minced pork rice, I think they do for a fabulous job maintaining the quality of food considering it is a chain and fast food restaurant. I dined in with my husband three times now and we really liked what we ordered. I am going back for more.
This is certainly a perfect addition to the city of Providence! Keep up the good work!

Awesome Taiwanese snacks and set meals for a fast food chain. For a FF chain, it’s up there with In and Out! Freshly fried crispy chicken with rice, peanuts, pickled turnips, egg in soy sauce and soup. They have a huge variety of drinks and other small snacks. Wish they’d open one in Chicago.

*EDIT*
Quickly’s been evolving since it’s opening several months ago!!! I’ve continued to be a loyal supporter despite the haters. And they’ve got really great Taiwanese-​style eats now. Even my mom wanted to try to Beef Noodle Soup and was adequately impressed. I also appreciate the TONS and TONS of boba, jelly, and pudding options. This is my local Taiwan homey dive. Well… I guess it’s not actually a dive. They have orange seats and trendy countertops. But you know what I mean. Heart Taiwan.
I may be the biggest bubble tea enthusiast in Providence. That being said, I’m admittedly a little predispositioned to love ANY boba coming to Providence, much less a reliable CHAIN boba that originated in my country of origin: Taiwan. The original bubble tea innovators.
For me and the 10 years or so that I have been a boba enthusiast, Quickly has always been a steady, reliable, rock of fast-​food Asian and bubble tea acriss the world. This Quickly is no exception. It has reliable boba that comes soft, drenched in the honey kumquat liquor that boba should be drenched in, and without any of the hard crumbliness of improperly cooked tapioca. These bubbles are chewy. Soft. Sweet. Delicious. Really well made.
So even though nationally, I would say Quickly is probably a 3-​star boba establishment, it gets 4 stars in Providence which is so devoid of bubble tea that I feel completely disconnected from my people here.
Quickly is quickly.
They have tasty, solid, and reliable boba when you need a fix.
If it’s being evaluated by any other standard, I say, down with the haters.