Tapioca Express

More like 3 ½ stars, but bumped it to 4 stars because my kids love this place. The snow bubbles and icy are way too sweet for my taste. Coming from a person that has a serious sweet tooth, that’s saying a lot. I usually order green tea with either passion fruit or lychee, easy on the syrup, add pearls. Yummy.

Today was apparently not a good day to get that Milk tea that I’ve been craving…
I gave her $ 10.04 for my total of $ 3.54 which means I should be getting $ 6.50 back, she gave me $ 6.05. Yeah, that’s fine, she just didn’t look at the total properly.
I ordered the Super Sized drink but received a medium drink, so she made me another.
The mistake that I did was leave without tasting it because my grass jelly was DISGUSTING. It tasted very gritty and old. M brother tried it and when he spit it out, the grass jelly had a white discoloration.
For not being busy, I expected better. Today’s experience was a definite no-​go. My experience usually isn’t like this so I’m pretty surprised I received mediocre service and product.

Pretty impressive for a Tap!
It’s kind of hidden, but I was really craving milk tea and crispy fried chicken before work, and I had time to burn, so figured, why not? Sucks that you can’t substitute regular milk tea for an earl grey one for combos, but it’s cool. The earl grey milk tea wasn’t too sweet [I was really surprised], and the chicken was decent. Food came out relatively quickly, and service was pretty nice.
No complaints here from me!

This place has pretty decent drinks with tapioca. They have combos with their crispy chicken and calamari rings. No AC at this place but plenty of seating to hang out. Their jasmine tea is much better than other blended drinks. Their crispy fish balls are okay. Not the best I have ever had.

OKAY… I’ve never written a review before but i HAD to after the incident i had today.
I used to LOVE going here. The staff’s great and friendly. I was such a milk tea addict, with no pearls. My bf loves it though.
My boyfriend and I went here and got a bento box and some milk teas today and it was good as always UNTIL… he took a sip of his milk and felt that something come up instead of tapiocas… IT WAS A PIECE OF A COCKROACH!!! I was horrified! It looked like a baby cockroach, meaning. there’s probably more where that came from.
We had to to brush our teeth and used mouthwash immediately. We threw away our drinks and we’re NEVER going there again! I’m actually shocked because this was my favorite place to go to. I don’t know where the cockroach came from but i have a gut feeling it was where they kept the tapioca… I’m so disgusted and now i have to go look for a different milk tea place.: (

I’ve had my share of shitty tap-​exs.
This review is based solely on the Coffee Milk Tea w/​small pearls I ordered that day. Yup, It was one of the best I’ve had in a long while. Of course the staff was friendly as well.
:]

I’m pretty much a regular here and for a good reason. I’ve always felt that this place had a quiet or chill atmosphere in comparison to the other Tap-​x locations. I don’t really see any loud kids come to this location as well and the staff is really cool, or maybe it’s just cause I’m so used to seeing everyone: p
If you’re looking for a good study spot and some milk tea and food, I feel this would be a good place to hang do that. Oh yea. there is always a bento special for each day of the week… I think 4.59 for a bento and a free drink. can’t beat that: p

Good place to get Tapioca, but it’s pretty well hidden between other businesses and the Ranch Market. Very quick on the order and very professional about it. This is always my number one choice for Tapioca since I’m always in Newark at some point.
Service: Nice, but you don’t really interact with them much other than to order things. The Asian women who work here are very nice and, between us men, are eye candy.
Final Verdict: ⁴⁄₅
I love coming here, and I always will.

I love their crispy chicken 0-​spice and mango-​peach snowbubble with boba. But most recently they charged me 60-​cents for mixing flavors. So lately we’ve driven the extra mile to the one in Union City where they don’t charge for mixing flavors and their crispy chicken is much better.

The taste of the food and drinks at this place was not all that great. My finance ordered the Jasmine milk tea, and she said that it was horrible. I ordered the Pearl milk tea. It was acceptable, but it was not great. We also ordered the crispy chicken and it was overcooked. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but something about the crispy chicken just did not taste right.
My finace ended up tossing her Jasmine milk tea, and we also tossed the crispy chicken as well. We will not be going back to this place because of the lousy tasting food and drinks.

I enjoy going here and chatting with my friends. Pretty casual since the customer is lower then the Tapioca Express at Alvarado Niles & Decoto.
Keep in mind they do a 1 – 3 spicy rating where the other one does a 1 – 5. Cried my first time.
You either love or hate the drinks. I drink Thai Tea.
Crispy Chicken here is delicious, but be warned that you are likely to taste it for the rest of the day.

Rude rude and not the best! Not coming here again. I stopped in for a cantaloupe snow bubble and it was just all ice. And they charge for using a credit card if you do not purchase 10 dollars or more. Not worth it.
NOTE: The manager, Jessica, messaged me and offered a complimentary drink for my troubles. Very nice of her. I will go back to give it another try but I passed on the coupon. I want to support businesses. I feel that workers just need to be pleasant and helpful.

Not one of their finer shoppes. The drinks menu is really limited compared to the «TapEx» in Union City. It’s really poorly ventilated; it’s hot, stuffy, and smells deliciously of little fried bites.
Their tapioca pearls were not sweet. We tried the grapefruit tea (something like that). It has some of the bitterness of grapefruit but not so much of the taste. Also had a pudding milk tea, which I enjoyed. Chunks of what I believe to be milk jello floating around in my milk tea. It’s a nice break from tapioca pearls.
If you can get over to the store in Union City, I think you’d be better off.

Grass jelly milk tea with peals is my favorite!
The drinks here are always good, but the food is always really salty.
Fried calamari and fried cuttlefish aren’t bad when you get the small portions, but when you get the meal deal (with rice, a boiled egg, and grilled vegetables), it gets overwhelmingly salty.
Meh, so the food isn’t my favorite. Come here for drinks and get some food at Lion’s or something.

I am starting to really dig Chinese cafes (did I just date myself??).This place has some really cheap prices. I got a Bento Box which came with rice, curry chicken, crispy tofu, pickled cabbage and… a free tapioca drink with soy milk. All for a whopping $ 5!!!
They also free internet and some mags while you hang out. The food was too salty but I wouldn’t dare complain at that price.

I love this Tapioca Express. It’s CLEAN and although it may be overpriced, it’s worth it. The bento boxes are delicious and they fill you up. The calamari and crispy chicken are bomb. Tasty and spicy! :) They have alot of flavors for snowbubbles and many other snacks, YUMMM!

I go to this place all the time
the people are friendly
its a good place to study
free wi-​fi :)
always have a movie or the friends series going on
they make the drinks pretty fast
shaved ice is good.
lychee, grass jelly, and rainbow jelly
bathroom is clean!

The milk tea with no pearls ($ 2.69) here tasted a bit watered down in my opinion and I“ve been to a bunch of Tapioca Expresses. I would think all of the Tapioca Expresses should have the same taste through out all stores but I guess that’s not always the case and the same goes for prices.
It seemed that mostly high school kids come here, too.

Update: Calamari was too breaded last night and the shaved ice wasn’t finely shaved enough. Pineapple wasn’t very fresh to say the least.
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4 stars for the spicy calamari. Perfectly deep fried and spiced to your liking. It went down well with the Thai Iced Tea, all while watching an episode of «Friends» on the flat screen, complete with subtitles. Crispy chicken seems to be a popular choice.

This is one of the very last tapioca shops to set up in South County, and its struggle to attract a loyal fanbase is showing. By the time it opened up its doors, all the local patrons had already established their preference to particular locations, and they rarely stray away. Most are unlike me — a wandering Ronin with no allegiances — so in this fierce Tri-​City area (arguably the section with the highest per capita ratio of tapioca shops in the Bay), the battle for pearl tea supremacy can be quite daunting.
As ill advised as it was to start up yet another pearl tea establishment around these parts, the owner seemed to know what he was doing, since he has also run the highly successful San Mateo shop for some time now. Was he up to the challenge?
All business and economics aside, the physical location of this Tapioca Express happens to be one of my favorites. Instead of the typical site along the parking lot or near the street, this shop is tucked away in its own Mediterranean style courtyard, to the side of the Ranch 99 market. Without the influx of exhaust fumes, out of all the boba shops in the Bay, this one has the most appealing outdoor section. With all the palm trees, each time I visit this relaxing atmosphere, I feel like I am transported to So-​Cal. There are times when I almost thought I was in Diamond Bar or San Gabriel.
The interior is even better. This is the cleanest, most organized Tapioca Express I have ever been to. Formal, wooden dining tables (as opposed to the Ikea plastic you see elsewhere) and expensive leather couches ensure that your stay will be a pleasant one. The restroom can get trashy once in awhile, but it usually doesn’t stay that way for long, as the staff is quick to act.
The employees are also very friendly. Instead of herding the customers like cattle, they take the time out to actually converse with them, and are more than happy to explain the contents of the food and drinks. Another feature I really like is the plaque telling you which are their «top ten drinks,» so you won’t have to ask which are the most popular.
However, the aforementioned courtyard setting may indeed be their Achilles heel. The store is simply NOT NOTICEABLE FROM THE STREET. They try what they can by putting pseudo lion dance looking flags outside, but it is still hard to see. Sometimes, in the late hours, due to low attendance, the shop is forced to close up earlier than advertised.
Within five minutes of here, you have two other Tapioca Expresses, two Tea Stations, Quickly, Fantasia, Desserts Zone, and the wildly popular Venus Café across the street. As I said earlier, loyalty is not in my vocabulary, but if forced at katana-​point to choose just one spot in South County, this would be it.