Tealicious Drinks

I ordered the Milk Tea boba drink and it tasted hideous compared to the milk boba drinks I’ve tasted from other places. Even Café 101 which is close by has a better tasting milk tea. Their vegetarian Banh Mi was delicious… but again, I have tasted better veggie Banh Mi and milk tea from other places.

I don’t hate this place, but as an Asian coming from California both the sandwiches and boba are pretty below average compared to just about every boba place in SoCal and the SF Bay Area. Probably because they don’t have Taiwanese/​Taiwanese American giants to compete against like Half & Half, Honeyboba, 85 °C, Purple Kow, or ShareTea. Heck, it’s not even as good as cheap boba from Sheng Kee and is more expensive ($ 3.50 for just about anything vs $ 3 for a chubby cup at Sheng Kee in Berkeley?). The boba scene in Houston is dominated mostly by industrious Vietnamese Americans selling very cookie-​cutter franchise-​ready flavors in cheap tea that’s 10 years behind boba in California, which offer similar prices but much more gourmet teas, flavors, and boba boiled in honey or sugar. That last point is HUGE, because it’s long since been a defining feature of boba in California but a rarity in Houston.
As for the food, it’s not as good or cheap as anything you can find westward in Bellaire, Sharpstown, or Alief so the only thing this place really has going for is its location.
And really, this place isn’t terrible. The food is still edible and tasty and the boba is fun to drink, but there’s just so much innovation that it’s missing and so much more it could be by doing something as simple and cheap as adding sugar to the water when making boba. It’s really not just this place, but almost all boba places in Texas. I’m not trying to be harsh or negative, but boba and Asian food in Texas really needs to look west and step their game up.

This place is amazing. I love the drinks, always will keep coming. The service is great and I like the atmosphere. When I’m off of work and school this is the place to relax.

I give it two stars because I’m a sucker for green tea with tapioca but today I felt like getting some eggrolls out of convenience and well… I wasn’t going to take the ones on the counter and asked for some fresh ones then I waited… and waited… and waited… and waited until it was time for me to leave and never got my eggrolls. So needless to say I don’t think I’ll be coming to this place anytime soon… idk of the guy on the counter expected me to eat those soggy eggrolls but seriously up your customer service people. I waited to not drink my entire tea because I was REALLY looking forward to those eggrolls… I left it there half drunk as my sign of disgust at their customer service. And as a side note their trash was overflowing too. From now on i’ll stick to Café 101 instead… I’ll take the walk over bad customer service.

So I gave this place another try and to my hopes, I was really impressed. The staff was very friendly and playful, and the service was fast. I’m very impressed with the taro tea that they offer. It was rich, creamy, and sweet. Just a tip if you’re getting tapioca with your tea– let it soak up the flavor for a few minutes!
I guess I was wrong the first time I came here. It was just a bad first impression, but I’m glad I didn’t just give up on the place. It’s my second visit here and many more to come!

I took my drink back because my tapioca was still too tough. The owner complained about me being too petty right in front of me… Sorry for wanting what I paid for to be at least decent? Basically they took back my drink, strained out half the tapioca pearls and gave it back. Not sure if they realized that did nothing but take away half my drink.
Banh mi was pretty disappointing here too, unfortunately.

The only redeeming quality about this place is its location.
I ordered a Vietnamese coffee (café sua da) the last time I went. It’s evident that they take a lot of shortcuts in making their drinks. Instead of brewing the coffee with a traditional Vietnamese phin filter, they used an espresso machine — strike one. The next thing I noticed was that instead of putting fresh ground coffee into the machine’s portafilter, they used those sachets you can dump in instead of taking the extra minute or two with fresh coffee — strike two. The entire drink tasted like it was made with stale, over brewed coffee, so the espresso machine either wasn’t cleaned well enough between uses, and/​or the espresso «shot» wasn’t done right… but there’s only so much you can do with those little packets.
The place is owned by a Vietnamese lady, I believe, so I find it rather depressing that even their café sua da is lacking.
The Thai tea here isn’t that great, either.
Go to Café 101 instead. Also not ideal, but at least enjoyable.

This place is good for any college student around the UH campus looking for a nice bite to eat, or good tea, coffee, and especially boba or tapioca. Lately when I went I have gotten their iced teas with boba and their banh mi sandwiches.
The food and drink was delicious, but I did have some problems with the service. It took too long to get my drink, though this is understandable in the heart of a college campus. What really got to me was the price, they for sure over charge you for a drink and a sandwich. Although it takes a while and is a little pricey compared to other teas shops it is still understandable, this is because it is located in the middle of a busy campus, and must meet the needs of many students.

Good food and atmosphere, a nice place to stop in and grab a bite to eat or just come in and relax with friends. Some of the sandwiches are a little drier than I like but they are still delicious.

There ain’t any improvement at all. This place is not a good place to hang out with friends nor to have tea.
If only Unilocal allows us to rate one star.

Worst tapioca drink I’ve ever had. The lady overcharged my friend. The tapioca balls were undercooked. Worse of all, there were ants in my Thai tea slushie and my friend’s honeydew milk tea. Get this, my friend pointed it out to the lady & in the business’s defense, she rudely explained that the «ants» are black tea leaves. There were noticeable antennas & legs on it… Even so, she should’ve filtered out the leaves like other tapioca places do. Do not come here. This isn’t the only tapioca place on campus. There’s a Café 101 on the end of Calhoun, across from Calhoun Lofts, next to Pink’s Pizza.

Before they had Café 101 on UH campus, this place was the only thing for boba cravings. The first time I came, I ordered a regular milk tea and shredded chicken banh mi.
The milk tea tasted pretty bad. I felt like it wasn’t properly mixed or it just seemed like it was more powdered content than liquid. It just didn’t taste like decent milk tea.
As for the banh mi… I was just extremely disappointed. It just tasted dry and no flavor. It just didn’t taste like your average banh mi sandwich. I was hoping to get my banh mi fix but it was just full of disappointment.

Tealicious tapioca is probably the worst tapioca place I’ve been to! Their tapioca isn’t soft or chewy. Their drinks do not have the fresh taste that it should. And their service is horrible! If your looking for better tapioca or other drinks, make the extra 5 minute walk to Café 101. Any other place will be better than this one!

I had the shredded chicken bahn Mi with egg, egg rolls, and a green tea.
The bahn Mi was horrible. I took one bite and couldn’t continue due to the amount of pepper that was put on my sandwich. The sweet sauce was also a big turnoff for me.
The egg rolls were on the counter and they weren’t the worst but they were quite soggy.
The green tea was alright, nothing special.

It has been a while since I have been here, but back when I went I use to love this place. I would always order a Bahn mi and a coconut smoothie and it would always satisfy my taste buds,
Over the years, the quality of the Bahn Mi has gone down, and perhaps that trend kept going and is the reason why this place is rated so low.

I mean, it was the ONLY tapioca place on campus… so why not? I was SO disappointed.
I asked the cashier for the most popular drink, ’cause I wanted to play it safe. Her reply? «Um…I don’t know.» –_​_​_​_​– Okay.
I went ahead and ordered a milk tea, a jasmine milk tea, and a banh mi sandwich. The milk tea was basic, nothing special. The jasmine milk tea on the other hand… was extremely watered down and quite bitter. The tapioca was hard and… just yuck. I spent a total of $ 6.50 for the drinks.
As for the sandwich, I ordered a pork ham roll sandwich with an egg in it… the total came out to be $ 4.91. Okay first of all that is ridiculously expensive for a Vietnamese sandwich. Not to mention it was the worst sandwich I have ever tasted in my life. The fried egg tasted like it was made two nights before, the pork was dry and old looking, and I noticed that they added Hoison sauce in it. It was weird and too sweet. I literally took two bites and threw the rest away.
Horrible first experience. Wouldn’t come here again, sorry /:

I was really disappointed in this place. The iced coffee was so sweet I had to throw it out. I’ve been to many other tea places and the Vietnamese iced coffee is normally strong and tasty without much cream. The one from this place seem like it was more cream and sugar than coffee.
Don’t know how much place this business get but with bubble tea like this probably not much.
There are plenty of other coffee places in the area to get a better cup of joe than here!

Ok so I was not planning on reviewing Tealicious… I mean what more can you say? You get your average bubble tea from here. I had nothing to say about this place until something bad happened. Dun dun dunn…
So, I walk in with my friend and ordered the jasmine milk tea with tapioca. I get my drink and slurp some and eh it’s ok tea and tapioca. Then I slurp some more and I notice I’m getting abnormal amounts of tapioca per slurp than tea. Hmm… then I slosh around and I realized more than half my drink was just tapioca. Literally half a cup of tapioca! I mean it was pretty ridiculous. I uploaded a picture and you must see for yourself. Well, I took my bubble tea (on steroids) to the counter. After I made my complaint, the cashier just gave me a blank stare and said she didn’t know what to do. Then she asked if I want them to take the tapioca out of my drink. I was like What? Clueless cashiers…
Then, I left with my tapioca and on my way, I attempted to drink the last bit of tea left in my cup and instead choked on the tapioca! So I’ve learned two things: 1). Do not make complaints to the cashier, they don’t care much for service here. 2). DO NOT try to drink the last bit of your tea…

Let the good times roll. Two stars for the shit they serve. At first blush, banh mi seems like a complicated thing. Bread, a bunch of vegetables, color, butter, protein, garnishes…
Until you realize it is just bread, butter, pre-​diced veges, pre-​cooked proteins, and garnishes.
How do you screw up banh mi? I’m not a chef but if you give me (rattles off that same stupid list), I could make an serviceable banh mi. First and the worst of all the mistakes is just having some low ass quality protein. As in tubs of shredded mystery pork, chicken, beef, and for-​the-​love-​of-​God don’t even think about that crab meat. The thought of it makes me want to vomit.
Then you can slather with mystery butter that is just too buttery to try and hide everything. Can’t complain about the bread, stale bread, fresh bread, I don’t care– if it is toasted, it’ll be ok for a few minutes.
You get what you pay for. It was like $ 3 of $ 4 dollars. It sucked. If I ever buy one again, it’ll be to throw at that stupid looking Banh Mi bus (what’s it called «Bus Mi» or something? lol) that’s parked across the street from it.

I’m thankful that a tapioca café exists on campus. After long walks in the heat, a nice and cool beverage is always necessary to keep you feeling refreshed. Overall, I have tried most of their tapioca drinks, and have been satisfied. My favourite flavours are the ones that contain juice mixed with tea, such as black tea with mango juice.
As an amateur to banh mi sandwiches, I have found my experience with Tealicious’s banh mi to be delightful. My vegetarian sandwich was filled with crispy and fresh vegetables. The tofu had a nice marinade, and the filling consisted of mayo and fried onions as well. The french bread they used for the sandwich was crunchy and chewy. Now that’s my type of bread, well toasted!
It’s unfortunate that most people have had a bad experience at Tealicious. I can only hope they can improve their service. There have been times when I visited, and they had ran out of tapioca. I can never have my drink without it! I hope this tea café can keep their food, drinks, and service consistent in the near future.