Kung Fu Tea

KFT on Cottman Ave. I like the one in Chinatown, and this one did not disappoint either.
I had the medium oolong milk tea w/​bubble ($ 3.75), 30% sugar. It was perfect! Creamy, nice tea flavor. The boba were a nice chewy consistency, and a little sweet. Just the right amount of ice.
The young girl working there was helpful in answering my questions. Took less than 5 minutes to complete my order; but I was the only one in the joint. I shall return if I’m in the area.

Been craving for bubble tea and this is the closest one near by my house. The sugar level of the drink is not bad and I love the origini here. My husband got the red wow milk and it contains red bean and tapioca. He likes but wish there was a little more red bean in it. This place opens pretty late so it satisfy my midnight cravings or simply when I wanna get a drink after dinner. The only bad thing about this place is it is CASH ONLY!!!

They cant make drinks! Go to Bambu or anywhere in Chinatown. One star for the tapioca balls… perfect.

Service too slow and not at all diligent nor efficient. Forgot to put boba in my tea. Mediocre tasting tea. There’s just really no effort or care in the service provided. A big fat blah.

I totally prefer the chinatown location. I usually get the black milk bubble tea with very little sugar because it’s always too sweet for me. The tea itself is great, although a bit too creamy/​milky. But I came here on a saturday evening and the gentleman at the counter said they ran out of bubbles. Now mind you, the reason why I ordered bubble tea is because it has bubbles!!! Aside from that, the people who work here are just plain rude and obnoxious almost. They stand behind the counter and make jokes and laugh with each other, they don’t even acknowledge you until you are leaning over the counter looking for someone to take your order. They don’t thank you either. This location lacks customer service and I will not be coming back.

This place was so inviting! Finally a place you can get bubble tea, onigiri, and other Japanese styled appetizers without going into Center City or chinatown! The place was clean and decorated very nicely. The bubble tea was delicious and fresh ingredients used! It was virtually empty on a Tuesday afternoon but the staff was friendly nonetheless! Cash only and you can park in the shopping centers parking lot.

This place is a chill place to come to with a friend. I usually order their coffee slur, it’s awesome! I also got the avocado rice ball, it was really good too! It took 25 minutes for some reason which I’m not sure why, but other than that I give this place ⁴⁄₅

I love KFT! This place is awesome. A great place to bring your laptop and do work or play board games with friends.

I was excited that a new bubble tea chain established itself in Northeast Philly so that people in the area don’t need to make a 20 – 30 minute trip down to Chinatown to satisfy their cravings. What I love about Kung Fu Tea is that they get the consistency of their tapioca bubbles perfect – they are chewy, but not to the point where they are sticking to your teeth, and they are lightly sweetened and not overpowering the flavor of the drink itself.
I went with my sister and her boyfriend and ordered a yogurt grapefruit bubble tea which mixes grapefruit juice (fresh, or at leasts tastes like it) with Asian yogurt beverage (i.e. Yakult). It was very refreshing, but initially very sweet, though I eventually got used to it because the sweetness was offsetting the bitterness of the grapefruit juice.
I also ordered takoyaki, Taiwanese sausage yakitori, and garlic popcorn chicken – which was okay, but not the best I’ve had (ViVi in South Philly is better).
Food/​drink wise, 4 stars. I’ve bumped my review down to 3 stars because the staff weren’t very friendly and didn’t chat among themselves either. My sister noted that the woman at the register didn’t smile even once in the entire time we were sitting down (we were in there for about 15 – 20 min). No one greeted us when we walked in and no one said anything when we were leaving either. Maybe it’s just because we were there so late at night (after 9 PM?) but judging from the other reviews, maybe they just need to hire a new group of staff that don’t look miserable all the time.

Kung FU Tea is my favorite place for bubble tea in NE Philly! !! So far, try the beef, chicken, and the tw sausage yakitori, spam and shrimp tempura onigiri, and the spicy popcorn chicken. All of the yakitoris are very flavorful. While the Taiwan sausage is my favorite. Their onigiri is less tasty than Tea Do in Chinatown. The rice is soaked in vinegar too long, at least that’s how it taste vinegary. The spicy popcorn chicken is good but nothing too exciting.

This location is convenient and close to Roosevelt mall. Finally, you don’t need to go down to Chinatown for bubble tea anymore and there’s a café style place to hang out in the Northeast. BUT their drinks are just average. Can taste watery at times and there are long wait times for drinks. They do offer different sugar levels and small food items.

Can I just say, how HAPPY I am that a KFT exists in NE Philly? I always hated traveling on I95 to go get KFT when I was craving it; now it’s just few blocks away from where I live. First of all, I prefer this place over the Chinatown location because a) it’s quiet and not bubbling with customers b) drinks taste way better and lastly, c) the boba here is better. I understand that the ingredients and the way they make it is the same, but this location makes it 10x better IMHO. I would give it a 5 star, but one star was taken off because lately their drinks haven’t been consistent. Some days my green milk tea taste really watered down and other days it taste exactly how I want it to taste.
When it first opened in this new location, the drinks were consistent and it tasted amazing. Now it’s on and off. Nevertheless, I am still a big fan of KFT and hands down, the best bubble milk tea place ANYWHERE.

Typical tea shop that serves snack foods. A lot of the drinks here are hit or miss with me. Its either I like it or I definitely won’t order it again. And for the strangest reason, I really don’t like their milk tea. This is honestly blasphemy because what kind of tea shop can’t get milk tea right? But something about it taste too fragrant and not your typical tea taste.
My usual orders are either a honey green tea (less sugar) or a smoothies of some sort because these actually taste good.
This location is super spacious so it feels empty all the time. And something about the service here is very unwelcoming. Majority of the time all of them are on their phones and they body language seems to illustrate that they don’t want you there.
For the parking issue, there are many side streets where you can park for free. There is even a Sears across the street with a parking lot so I honestly don’t understand what the issue is because you really only have to pay if you want a direct parking spot outside the store.

Really neat place, the first of its kinda in Northeast Philly. I especially like the interior of the shop and the good ambience it gives off. Clean, modern place to hang with friends with cool drinks. They also have board games you can play on their couches.
I got the caramel coffee smoothie with bubbles, not as good as Tea Chat’s coffee smoothie but still really delicious. I haven’t tried anything else on the menu because nothing is better than coffee. It’s also a little more expensive than other bubble tea shops. But the cool thing Is– they also have food! They sound good, so I might give it a try next time I’m there and hungry.

The best bubble tea place in the northeast… probably because it’s really the only one but it’s very clean modern and inviting inside and you can literally sit there for hours and play board games and Jenga. in comparison to the one in center city it is never really busy and it is a small narrow place but I like that it’s near the library and best of all I can get good bubble teas, smoothies, wow milk whenever o feel like without having to travel all the way to Chinatown

I enjoyed the Peach Ooglong Tea and Shrimp Tempura Onigiri. My mum enjoyed a Pineapple Slush.
The Peach Ooglong Tea was sweet and refreshing. To my surprise it came with little chunks of peaches which was lovely I added boba because honestly what’s a great tea place without great boba? I had to try it and super happy I did Good chewy texture, right amount of sweetness and great size pearls.
I wanted to try the food so I went with the Shrimp Tempura Onigiri holy moly! The packaging of the product made it really nice for carrying. The food itself was delicious, very fresh, the rice was cooked to perfection, the seaweed was super fresh, the shrimp inside was not over cooked, nice crispy tempura not greasy. I don’t know what the sauce was but it was so freaking good ! It has a nice kick to it if you like a little spice to your food.
The pineapple slush wasn’t mines but I did sample my mums (thanks oldie locs) it had nice size chunks of pineapples, was full of refreshing pineappley (I know that’s not a real word, let me live lol) flavor.
On a hot day this place is exactly what you want. Whether you want to hang out inside the estasblishment or get it to go. The inside environment is very nice, a nice place for people to chill. I seen a couple of games on the tables. I would go after school, like if we had to meet for a group project. Free wifi and its cozy, it’s a good place to meet up. Really clean, even the bathroom.
I would have love to give Kung Fu Tea five stars, the service is excellent but kinda slow. It was not that many people in there when I went, I would have thought being up the northeast not hella crowded service would have you in and out. Either they’re still learning to make everything (which is fine, I didn’t really mind the wait) or they are really focused on making everything just right (which who could have a problem with that ?). I heard this location is new (maybe about two months or so) so be patience when you head in because it’s well worth it

Normally I would give a 2 – 3 stars from average everything, drinks normally are okay; can’t speak about the food because I’ve only had food from a different location. This review is just a reflection of my most recent visit that I hope people will be wary of. Three things, the barista was very ill mannered, as if his life was at rock bottom and he hated everything that existed. That was his attitude, not extremely significant but definitely contributed to my poor experience. Secondly was the wait time; I’m generally really patient and I understand that some circumstances will hinder a steady production of drinks, and in my situation there was a group before me, which is okay, and I did have a total of 5 drinks. I wasn’t expecting flashy 5 minutes and it’s ready, but I surely wasn’t also expecting a whopping half an hour. The only group before me only had 2 drinks. I don’t think 30 minutes for bubble tea is any way possible. Lastly was the extra flavoring that the barista decided to add to my drink. Truth be told I didn’t notice till I finished my drink, and since I didn’t die I figured at worst it was a case of bad serving etiquette. I found a «dried» plum in my drink. I had green tea pudding with Nata jelly, there’s no reason for a «dried» plum to be there. I’ll also be uploading the photo on here as well to prove there were no gimmicks or interferences outside of what the establishment gave to me.

This place is not bad at all, and so are their services. Tonight was the second time the hub and I visited since I was craving matcha but it wasn’t available so the gentlemen offered alternatives, which turned out pretty good.
Try their inexpensive snacks:
Takoyaki, salt and pepper chicken and the onigiris.

It wasn’t busy at all. I wasn’t greeted as I walked in. I stood by the cashier for a good 10 minutes. They were not friendly at all. I ordered peach green tea but they couldn’t do it. I don’t get why because I know it’s just syrup and mixed with green tea. Also, they could only do peach oolong tea which tasted like weed. It was gross. Their takoyaki was good though. I ate there but I wish they had plates instead of giving us paper boxes when I ate there. Parking sucks because it was on a busy street and you have to pay meters. The interior is nice, location isn’t.

They don’t take credit cards– at least not yet.
I give them 5 star for the bubble milk tea. Even though the recipe is suppose to be the same– I think it’s better than the one in Chinatown. I would describe it as less milky? 3.5 stars for service. The cashier was a little rude to a customer who was before me. When his drink was ready, her tone wasn’t friendly when she asked for his receipt. He was the only person in there besides me. I understand they might need it for their record but eh service could be better especially since they just opened.
I’m glad there’s a KFT in the northeast. I don’t think the location is convenient, at least for me. Cottman ave is a large busy street. Meter parking on Cottman Ave. ($ 1 an hour!) just thought I would mention that since you would never see that in the city again. There’s also limited free side street parking.
Atmosphere: Couches and seated tables if you want to hang out there. Clean and simple– pretty similar décor to Chinatown.