Quickly

This particular Quickly changed it’s name to BOBALIFE NYC. Surprisingly, there is still the same Quckly menu adorned onto the walls. The reason why I choose to stay going to Quickly when there are so many other bbt choices in Chinatown is because Quickly, aka bobalife, makes bubble tea just the way it’s suppose to. Simple and cheappp. They’re having a promo where you buy a small for 3 bucks and it gets upgraded to a large. SCORE! I’ll never step my foot into KTF, CHATIME, VIVIS OR BUBBLY TEA as long as I have Bobalife. CHEAP drinks that I’m use to. I’m forever simple with my teas and forever sold to this establishment as long as it’s still running.

Came in here because I thought it might’ve improved since it’s technically not Quickly anymore. I was wrong.
Still tastes the same as before, aka: Eh. Good, but not AMAZING.
It also super annoys me how they have all the «promotions» going on. Free upgrade? Buy 1 get 1 half off? Which is it?! Let me tell you, it’s not both.
I still prefer Chatime.

I visited this Quickly around a year ago to see what all the hype between my Asian friends was all about.
Right away I could tell these people have this down to a quick science. I placed my order: 1 Passion Fruit Juice to go, the true reason I was in there for. I got my straw, poked a hole through the plastic wrap cover and sadly I was somewhat disappointing. While is not the best passion fruit juice I’ve had, all I could taste was high fructose corn syrup.
I’m not sure if juices aren’t their specialty and they only cater to the bubble tear crowd, but I wouldn’t recommend if you need your juice fix.
On a positive note:
–Even though there were 2 other people in front of me, I was in and out in less than 3 minutes. 4
–The prices are good.

No longer a Quickly. Apparently the chain wanted to shut them down, they changed their name to Bobalife NY, effectively, but all the same food. Large is the same price as a small right now. Pretty busy when I wandered in at 3pm on a Saturday, too!

Fried fishball snacks for $ 1.00, spiced the way I like it & cheap! yummy. Right now, there is a promotion, buy one, get one 50% off so I got the largest size. I usually ask the person making my drink to put less sugar/​honey because it usually is very sweet. Friendly staff as well!

had thai almond milk tea
it was heavenly
can’t wait to try other flavors

What a quicklys in NYC?
While visiting New York and meandering through Chinatown, I was parch and craving boba. along comes quickly! yay something familiar from CA.
Like all others quicklys the service is fast, the teas are cheap, and the quality not amazing. I believe the workers were students and definitely had a super casual feel to the whole place.
Customer service wasn’t the best, but eh. they’re high school kids. so it’s all good.
I always find it interesting how different regions of the US call those yummy delicious boba balls all differently. In norcal it’s tapioca milk tea, in socal is boba milk tea, in nyc it’s bubble milk tea, and other places pearl milk tea.
It was quite hilarious though, on the menu for their boba milk tea they had a description something along the lines of «boba/​bubble/​tapioca/​pearl» milk tea. just to cover all bases. very well played.

Quickly consistently makes the best bubble tea I’ve ever had (I’ve tried 3 different locations). Kung Fu Tea can take a seat.
I pretty much always go for the Taro Milk Tea. The tapioca «bubbles» are good and all, but I have taken a liking to including pudding instead. Customers have the option in combine tapioca, pudding, and jellies into their as they see fit. There’s a lot of flexibility in customizing your bubble tea, so have fun! The teas are on the sweeter side, but that’s how I like them :)
Student’s get a discount with ID, but I didn’t even have to show mine. I guess I have a youthful face: P My order went from $ 3 to $ 2.50. The staff is really friendly and accommodating here.
There’s only two small tables to sit at. But if you can get a seat, staff doesn’t push you out or anything. It’s a great place, go check it out!

This place is very much whatever. The service is quick. The tea is good. But it’s also a massive franchise so. My only beef with them is that it took so long for them to get the hot tea in season. But they have it back now.
They do have one dollar fish balls, tofu balls, and chicken balls. Which is nice!
Also they have discounts for college students that show their ID.

This is a small take out place with limited stools for seating. The service is quick. I like that they seal your drink with a strong plastic wrap. I was able to carry my drink home without fear of spilling it.
I ordered the Thai Tea with the coffee bursts. It was very sweet. I like Thai ice tea so I was a fan of this.
Overall, good bubble tea if you need a quick fix.

As I’ve said before, Bubble Tea is my vice, all because of Quickly’s, as they have the best anywhere and I would challenge anyone to tell me Kung Fu Tea is any better. Black milk tea with bubbles from them has gotten through my many trips to Chinatown, even on days after a bad haircut on Pell St, a few steps away.
There are a couple tourist trap (not so great) Shanghai restaurants which will remain nameless on here where the wait is extraordinarily long, and that creates a mass of people blocking access to their store… it drives me batty.
Can we blame the tourists? YES WE CAN.
There’s a ton of competition in the neighborhood, which has prompted them to do a 2-​for-​1 special like the others do. It’s still great though, mind you. I’d still go out of my way to walk here for it. Did I mention I’m passionate about my bubble tea?

My favorite bubble tea chain. Make sure you get pudding inside Yuuuuummm

«Cheap» price, cheap ingredients.
I wanted to love this place because I had such a great experience at one in San Francisco, but unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. First, Quickly has the reputation for being cheap and good. In reality, Quickly is not that much cheaper than its competitors, differing by at most $.50 a drink. Also, their buy-​one-​get-​one deal is very specific and you cannot deviate at all from the list (even if you wanted to switch between green and black tea).
I ordered just a plain milk green bubble tea. I asked for it to be a little less sweet than usual because it was particularly hot out and I didn’t want to increase my thirst. Sadly, less sweet just means more water. My drink ended up tasting like milk and water, with a splash of green tea. I only drank half of it before throwing it out. The bubbles were the only redeeming quality of the drink, having the right chewy consistency.
I won’t be back for bubble tea, but I might be back for their snacks. They have a quite a wide selection and they have some of my favorite Taiwanese night market snacks too! If this location starts acting like its west coast counterpart, I might be swayed to come back. However, with so many places in Chinatown, you’re better off going elsewhere.

Not bad! Had better bubble tea in the past, though!
$ 3.50 (with a student ID card) gets you a large milk green tea with tapioca. It tasted a little watered down, but good thing the worker didn’t add too much ice, otherwise it would’ve been gross.

I’m going to go ahead and assume that this Quickly gets a lot of overflow business from Joe’s Shanghai next door. I know that I was expecting food in my belly without a half hour in line when I showed up at 4 in the afternoon. As this didn’t happen, we headed over to Quickly to get some sugar.
The place was small and plain, with a cashier and pick-​up on two ends of a counter running the space of the shop. We placed our orders, and they were filled with assembly line speed. It really was shockingly efficient. We beat a small line when we came in, but I can’t imagine that even a long line would be problematic.
The boba tea was pretty average. I had the black milk tea and tried some of Maka E.‘s passion fruit, and both were very sweet. The boba was chewy enough, neither hard nor mushy, but it wasn’t notably fresh. It was boba tea you could get anywhere (in areas with large Asian populations).
Of course, we needed it there and then, to tide us over until our very late lunch. Quickly may not have been memorable, but it was quick and easy, and it served its purpose admirably well.

The drink selection is decent, plenty of bubble teas, fruit drinks, mixed (powdered) drinks.
Having a machine to seal the cup to assure freshness is pretty good too. Staff is okay, they handle the crowd as best as they can.
Now, the crowd — filled with young teens and various other ages in a cramped waiting area (not really a wanted experience with a bubble tea hankering in the evening). If it wasn’t for this sudden rush, I look forward to reordering from here.
The drinks aren’t very fancy, regular mixes (with a $ 0.50 discount if you flash your student ID). Decent place sans the long wait time and large waiting mob.

I need a lychee bubble green tea with boka, quickly!!! Quickly is always quick. They are the McDonald’s of bubble tea.
I was on my way to this Quickly on Pell St when I turned around to find ARRRRRRRON Sanchez standing right next to me. OMG. OMG. OMG. Rich W. Saw me freak out! hehhehe. Fellow Unilocaler has got a camera!!! YES! ALRIGHT!
I love the tiles on the back wall… I wonder if they mind if I bite them about the tiles. I LOVE THE TILES. I want them!!!
I always get a large for $ 4 and get my card stamped. After 5 stamps you get a small for free. They dont upgrade the small to a large and let you pay the difference… too bad they could have done a UPSELL and gotten a dollar from me! They should rethink the upselling! Learn from the theatres and McD’s! Upsell, upsell, upsell. Not only do you get a free drink after 5 stamps… you can keep the card and be a Quickly VIP which will get you 20% off from then on. YAY.
Of course this is not the fault of Quickly but I like the way they make their Lychee Green Tea on Division St. better. But I wont it against Quickly. I am quite sure everyone has a different style of making it depending on who serves you.
You know what is awful about it?! I am totally addicted to Lychee Green Tea with Boba flavored crack!

It was OK, but not what I thought.
A little bit worse than others I’ve bought.
Maybe try it frozen & the bubble tea’ll be neat?
But they offer student discounts– totally sweet!

This is a very convenient Quickly location that does not serve Shabu. But, they do serve select snack items. It is easier for take-​out tea ordered here than Teariffic or Green Tea Café. I recommend their clear teas here vs. their milk teas. My favorite is sour apple green tea with lychee jelly. The taste of the sour apple blended with the jasmine green tea base is delicious!
They also have some items here like Fruit Vinegar, that I am still hesitant to try just yet. They play loud dance music at night, which makes it really hard to just walk on by without stopping to dance a little and even buy a tea.

I only come here because it’s better than anything in Philadelphia, and Ten Ren was closed. It’s also much cheaper here. This Quickly’s not even as good as the ones in California though. Student discount available, but be sure to order separately because they won’t take multiple discounts even if you’re ordering for more than one student.
Their milk teas never taste like tea, just milk, and it’s pretty gross. I stick to the passionfruit black tea (which doesn’t taste like tea either) because it’s just tangy and sweet and refreshing. The pearls are usually decent.
They also have popcorn chicken, which is one of my favorite foods, but the chicken pieces are tiny here, like they were scraps from a legitimate popcorn chicken operation.
Does anyone know of a place where they get the pearl milk tea shop thing right?