Bubble Loca

This place does not deserve any star.
I came in with my kids. I ordered one mocha Frappuccino. It is a cold drink but they made it hot mocha instead
When I ordered the woman repeated it twice if I wanted it cold. I said to her, no one would want a hot drink while outside is over 90 degree. She made my drink hot. I didn’t want it so she told one of the guy to talk to me. (she was too embarrassed to talk to me, I guess) demanded me to pay $ 1.00. I argued with him that on the board it says add $.25 for icy why he charged me $ 1.00 She told the guy in Chinese that it’s right that add $.25 for icy but $.75 for the mistake.
Hey Bubble Loca, you will not have my business from now on. And none of the coffee, tea place charges customers extra for the mistake that make by the store. IT IS A JOKE BUSINESS. Shame on you !
PS: when I asked for the receipt. She told the guy to tell me there’s no receipts.

I really enjoyed how the tea blended with the milk/​sugar, even though it was a tiny bit too sweet.
Service was generally good, the string lights are cute and so is the menu, and the place has about 5 or so tables and one couch that accommodate about 20 people total.

Friendly customer service. Also and delicious bobas to drink. I really like their chicken pop for 4.25

It’s extremely hot in this room for some unknown reason but the room is really nicely setup. I have to say a great selection on snacks. I got a regular milk tea and a Thai tea, and it is not bad. I had a lot of ice though which I didn’t ask for.

I come here every time I’m in the area. I get their milk tea with boba and it’s good each time. Their coffee milk tea is also very good

I have been to this place so many time. This place is my Milk tea shop in San Francisco! Ofcourse I’m gonna give you 5 stars! Milk tea was my favorite but now Avocado milk smoothie is my new favorite and Yes, cash only!

The Jasmine Green Milk Tea was delicious, milky, and smooth. I asked for no ice and I suspect that is why my drink came out lukewarm instead of cold. However, they still filled my drink up to the top which is nice (no skimping). Recommended.

The best peach milk tea! So good with the mini tapioca or lychee jelly, seriously my favorite thing to get here. The place alone is small but the service is quick so its not that bad when its busy

Always make the extra 20 min drive out here because they have such good boba.

Cute little shop in the pacific west mall serving boba and milk tea. They also serve Illy coffee. We got the tapioca coffee, sesame milk tea and watermelon juice. They were all delicious! I really liked the sesame milk tea and the tapioca coffee was made with real espresso. The watermelon juice also tasted like biting into a fresh watermelon.

This will be my petty rant of 2016.
There’a nothing like a nice cold refreshing boba on a warm day. The last few times I’ve been here, though, my drinks all came out lukewarm. Just stopped in to grab another milk tea. I was the only person there and I very clearly communicated to the guy at the counter: «Could you please make sure my drink is cold.»
He says, «Yea, it’s [a] cold [drink].»
«Ok, just want to make sure because they were room temperature the last times I was here.»
Drink comes out and he hesistates for a split second before placing it on the counter because. it’s warm– C’MON!
I give up on this place.

Always our go to Boba place here at the Asian Market. I would order the matcha tea, black milk tea with their tapioca.
Sometimes there would be a line during the weekends.
The service is good.
The ambiance is relaxing .
I would recommend this place to my friends and family.

Good but nothing amazing.
Their drinks are pretty average, they will do the job if you are craving milktea, but definitely not my favorite place.
They have free Wifi.

Fast decent boba
Lines out the door during pick hours
Not a place to seat and talk — loud music, crowded table area
cash only — please change :(

The boba here is always good. I always experience good customer service. Sometimes I feel like they could add more boba but the Thai tea is the best. I will always get boba whenever I’m in the a

Pretty good. Cash only is a bit annoying being 2016, but the drinks are good enough and they’re really quick. The leak in ceiling was really sketchy and the staff seem nice.

Every time I go to pacific east mall, I stop by bubble loca.
It’s my favorite place.
Black tea with milk is very good.

I forgot to ask for reduced sweetness for my hot taro milk and it was excruciatingly sweet. If I come again I will need to see if they are able to adjust that – some boba spots can’t tune the sweetness of drinks because it’s embedded in the flavor powder – and give it another review. The cashier was very nice and accommodating of my swapping soy milk for regular milk, though.

Really delicious bubble tea. Frothy taro and tea with salty cream was delicious. Bubbles were nice and fresh and chewy. We were all happy!

Love this place for years. MILK TEA IS BOMB​.COM really in love with the boba, try getting mixed

One of the best boba’s you can find in the East Bay! Their boba is always soft and chewy, just as it should be! My favorite is the jasmine milk tea, hot or cold!

Good place after meals with family.
It is my favorite place.
I usually have black milk tea.
You should bring cash.

Awesome drinks. Been here before many times. Will definitely come back. Thumbs up! It’s a good way to get my boba fix. My favorite drink is the lemon black tea. They put lots of lemon in the drink, so it’s pretty tart, which is the way I like it. I also like their free tea and Thai tea.
Service was pretty efficient. Waited for 5 min for my drink.

I thought by checking in I’ll get the discount but when they said it needed to be a review so I was like «oh never mind.» Cashier just grabbed my phone and posted «Their drinks are good.»
No, you’re drinks are not good. And I won’t post a 5 star review for $ 1 off my mediocre drink.
Also hope you fix that leak from the ceiling. Seriously, it looks bad. Someone might get hurt.

Love the bubble drinks here. Awesome customer service. I always get the regular., Japanese green tea with Lychee. They also have free Wifi here. My boys and I like hanging out here. The ambiance here is nice and they always have soft music playing in the back ground. I also tried their coconut toast. It’s delish.

I like their black tea with milk.
Good place with babies.
My favorite place.
But you need to prepare cash.

Really great food and selection of drinks !! Love the pop corn chicken and service here. Good ice cream and friendly staff

I love that this place also has desserts to offer. The boba tea quality itself can’t really compare to Ten Ren around the corner, but that’s pretty fair considering ten ren’s is a tea shop– not a boba joint. Boba Loca is trendy and a great spot for the sweeter drinks (not really the teas) and snacks and sweets!
4 stars for variety and hip-​ness
2.5ish stars for the tea itself
3 stars overall package

Bubble loca looks nice with good amount of seating area for parties of 2 – 4 people. They serve milk tea, smoothies, icy, and ice cream!!! Prices are cheap too (~$ 3 – 5) Staff are friendly! And not too busy in Saturday around 8:30pm, I saw that there was a long line around 6−7pm!
Green apple smoothie is ok.3/5.

Love this place, stop here every time I’m in the Bay Area. Tapioca always seems fresh. Service is always fast.

Bubble Loca is the cute small boba place in the Pacific East Mall. They serve ice cream and other small dishes as well. The service is great. The drinks are pretty good. If you leave a review on Unilocal you get 20% off your purchase!

Thai tea w/​hazelnut & boba is a must
Or try their hot taro with boba. They get super soft and chewy, yummm.

With all the new boba places popping up everywhere, it’s hard to compete unless you bring something different to the table. This is your typical boba place. Order your beverage of choice, pick your toppings, then your drink shows up a minute later.
There are places that brew tea fresh. There are places that come up with different and refreshing menu items. There are places that make the boba so perfectly that it’s just hard for mediocre places to rank well. Unfortunately, this falls into that category.
I am not saying that this place is terrible. Their drinks are ok. They just don’t match up to the rest. Freshness is the key… and this place does not offer that aspect. 3 stars.

My kid loves this place, says it the best boba she has had. and she drinks a lot of boba :/
It’s pretty busy here after school.
Seems a little grungy to me?
And cash only. Boo.

A nice quick fix when I’m in the area and want some milk tea since there aren’t that many in the El Sobrante area.

«Smoothies, bubble tea and more». I ordered the honeydew melon smoothie with large boba balls in it and it was some of the best I have ever had. The smoothie was smooth and the boba was perfection. If you like honeydew, you’ll love this flavor because it tasted like I was drinking boba right out of a honeydew melon! Phenomenal! The experience was worth every single calorie of each sip! I have been a boba tea fan for as long as I can remember, so I love to try boba drinks from any new place I can get them. This boba drink was extremely memorable and I cannot wait to come back here or at least find one comparable to it in the near future. It just had the perfect blend of tea, milk and honeydew melon flavor blended together and made into a smoothie form.

I’ve been to Bubble Loca twice when I was around 99 ranch, and both times I left pretty satisfied. The first time, I got their jasmine green milk tea. It’s a really affordable price– around 3 $- and it tasted pretty good, but just the standard taste nothing special.
The second time, I ordered the hazelnut Thai tea or the tiger and I really liked it! Very sweet, it tastes like chocolate mixed with Thai tea. It’s much better than the green Milk tea.
Unfortunately, I have to agree that this place deserves 3 stars because the quantity of tea they give you is quite small. Sure, for the price you get what you pay for, but I feel like it’s just a bit too small for my liking. I’d rather pay a little bit more (maybe 1 $ more) for a larger size than what I got. The cup is like a McDonald’s small.
But I’ll come back because the tea is good.
Drink well and prosper,

I haven’t been here in a while, but I know they changed ownership sometime back. The menu is still essentially the same and the service is still kinda slowish. As someone who usually pays by card, this place is not ideal because it’s CASH ONLY! But, it’s the nearest boba place to my home and is easily accessible in the mall. My usual is the Hazelnut Thai Milk Tea with regular-​sized boba. Pretty good!
Today, however, I wanted to try something else. They had a sign at the register advertising that they now had real strawberries (or something like that), so I got a Strawberry Milk Tea with boba. Lo and behold, the drink had actual little strawberry bits in there! The bits were quite sour though, like tart dehydrated strawberries in cereals. Otherwise, the drink itself was not too sweet and the tea flavor was actually prominent amongst the milk and powdery mixture. Not bad!
So, I wouldn’t NOT recommend this place. It’s just literally nothing new or exciting or different compared to your average boba place. I guess if you were already planning on going to 99 Ranch and had a craving for boba, I would suggest going here rather than Ten Ren’s. Beware of long lines, though!

Although I’ve walked through Pacific East Mall countless times, I somehow managed to go years without trying any of the boba joints here. Granted, I never really crave the stuff, but it’s been surprisingly easy. Then again, it’s not like Quickly’s is much of a draw (been to one, been to them all) and I always forget that «the other one» (aka Bubble Loca) even exists. Whoops!
Located on the «restaurant side» (opposite from 99 Ranch), Bubble Loca is in the spot where J&S Café used to be. The menu isn’t as large as Quickly’s, but that’s also true of any boba joint (Quickly’s menu is insane). While they offer a typical array of snacks (popcorn chicken, fried tofu, chicken wings, fries, etc.), it’s clear Bubble Loca is more about the drinks — hot/​cold milk teas, regular teas, juices, smoothies, and coffee (Illy).
– MILK TEA WITH BOBA…$ 2.70
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There was a little too much milk/​cream, and the boba was a bit soft, but the overall flavor was pretty decent. The drink as a whole wasn’t too sweet/​syrupy and I could actually taste a good amount of tea. Plus, you can’t argue with the price!
– POPCORN CHICKEN…$ 5.50 (full order)
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Not bad, but not good either. It was a better value than the half order (just $ 1 less), but it still felt a little pricey for what I got. The choice of mild or spicy is nice, but the batter wasn’t that crispy and the seasoning gave it an odd aftertaste.
Considering how my friends and I were just looking for a place to sit and chat, Bubble Loca more than did the job. They aren’t as good as my favorites (ShareTea in SM and Wonderful Foods in SF), but their drinks are pretty decent, regardless of the lack of competition in the area (their snacks, on the other hand…). The THREE AND A HALF STAR average is dead on, but they’re closer to three than four for me. At the very least though, they’re better than Quickly’s!

Pros:
Friendly staff
Great flavored boba drinks. Having their avocado smoothie for drink.
Green tea flavored ice cream is delicious!
They offer snacks like cheese sticks, sweet potato fries and chicken wings. Their specialty is popcorn chicken.
Free wifi
Service is great
Tapioca are soft yet taste better than other places I tried
Parking spaces available
Cons:
Cash only