Boba Fiend Tea House

A lot of people really like this place, but I’m not exactly sure I can say the same. Maybe I just ordered wrong. I ordered the Taro Milk Tea and it was really chalky, and I didn’t like it at all. My friends that I were with also did not like what they ordered. I intend to go back and give it another chance.

Boba Fiend is my favorite boba spot in Riverside! My go to is the fresh honey green milk tea. I love their boba — it’s a good texture and cooked in honey so it’s nice and sweet. I haven’t ventured out into the other drinks, but I can tell you my regular is definitely good. The sizes of the drinks are also really big and the best value!
They also do $ 1 drinks on Mondays. You have to order whatever their drink of the day is, and boba is not included in the price. But it’s a great deal to get a large drink for just a buck.
It’s a chill area to study or just kick it with friends. It’s also a popular spot for student organization fundraisers. Some nights there can be a lot of people in there, but they’re pretty speedy at making your drink. I came here with my friends once and we just played the board/​card games they provide for hours.
The parking lot has a time limit but you can actually stay there for as long as you want. Parking is not enforced there. (They even have a sign on their door saying so.)

Their Monday specials (cash only) SO GREAT. Had the strawberry pineapple black tea for a $ 1 like what a steal! and their boba just so good and fresh and the right chew. I plan to try as many drinks as I can on the menu I love their Thai tea w/​boba I can’t wait to be back!!!

My boba addiction began a couple months ago, tried almost 20 boba places but this one is the best. They have plenty of parrking and the people wprking their are always helpful and friendly. I have tried their Caramel milk tea with boba and egg pudding which is my fav. I have also tried Jolly rancher slushie, oreo smoothie and mango pineapple smoothie. All of them were pretty awesome.

You couldn’t pay me to drink this stuff. The aloe tastes like tap water, and the drinks are too sweet, artificial, and taste almost stale. I’ve been here at least a dozen times, and each time is disgusting. I only go here bc my boyfriend thinks the $ 1 deal is worth. (It’s not.)

I love this place! It has the only place they have good Caramel Black Milk Tea. I also love how they have a sweetness level. The workers are so nice!

My favorite boba place hands down! The boba is very fresh and they make it with a honey additive. The drinks are inexpensive and it comes with A LOT. I always get my craving satisfied with the regular «Like» size!
This place is far better than any of the other boba places near campus, and they usually have $ 1 specials on Monday nights. I would rate 10 stars if I could. LOVE LOVE LOVE

2 years ago, as a college freshmen, my boba addiction began. I had tried boba once in high school, hated it, and never bothered with it again. But then a friend of mine brought some Boba Fiend drinks for us one afternoon, and so my journey began.
I’ve tried other boba places in the area and around the IE, and I haven’t found any other place that compares.
The boba is always fresh, and it has set a standard for which to compare all boba to. I went to NY once and found myself craving Boba Fiend! The drinks are delicious, and the baristas are always willing to customize, exchange, or even sample the drinks sometimes. Some may find the drinks more on the sweeter side, but personally I have never had a problem. The prices are reasonable, and the portion sizes are pretty big. Make sure to get your stamp card since they add up quickly! Customer service is always on point. The baristas are very friendly and the wait time is never too long, and you can linger and chat for hours with friends. I have converted/​hooked a couple of friends to Boba Fiend as well! This place has become one of the staple food spots for my friends and I. We love it and I will continue to frequent this place until I transfer or move from the area, which will be quite the tragedy since I will have to find a replacement, if it even exists.

Friendly people! Drinks are so good, boba is perfect to slurp up! They have so many flavors to try. My fav has to be the Thai tea with boba! Their portions are huge too, like their regular size looks like a little bucket more than 12 oz. for sure!
They also have board games. Recommended to take a group of friends 2 – 4 people.
They do fundraisers for the UCR student clubs too.
Perfect place to go during the summer. They are next to a Mariscos place and Gold Nail Shop, and this new comic book store.

Boba Fiend has been gracious enough to host many different fundraisers for my group on campus. The line tends to be long, but the orders come fast. They have many board games to play and welcome long stays. The inside has been recently remodeled (as of April 2016). Overall, I felt welcomed, and the boba is affordable and tasty!

Forget Boba Tea House, Ten Ren’s, and all of the sad boba shops in the UV. Boba Fiend is by far the best spot around UCR where you can get consistent, quality drinks for a great price.
My go-​to order is the Honey Green Milk Tea with boba and egg pudding. The milk tea has just the right amount of sweetness as is (although you can adjust the level of sweetness if you’d like), and the boba and egg pudding are always fresh and warm. I’ve also tried their Green Milk Tea and Lychee Slush, both of which are very strong and flavorful.
They have $ 1 drink specials on Monday (although with tax and a topping it comes out to be around $ 1.62), which is great if you want to try different drinks without having to pay the full price. Either way, their prices on any other day are very reasonable for the large portions you get. Don’t forget to check in on Unilocal for a free topping and to ask for a stamp card if you end up going often!

DONT FORGET TO CHECK IN ON Unilocal! You get a free topping. I decided to check in afterwards so I didn’t get to use my offer :(
Anyway, this place surpassed my expectations! Wasn’t expecting much from a place in riverside but this was actually pretty good!
I got the strawberry milk icee with aloe. Sweet and blended well, the portions are rather large. I got the «like» size and was shocked at how big it was since it was the smallest size. And the prices are cheap too!
They also have non-​dairy drink for those of you who are lactose intolerant. Yay!

I rarely ever come here… Only because there are way better boba places around the area. I only come here because of their Monday deals! It’s a specific drink they offer only on Mondays 3 – 6 pm and 7 – 11 pm. It’s cash only if you want to get the deal drink! I personally don’t like the boba here because it doesn’t taste fresh. I also feel like they don’t mix the teas well. There’s always more tea than the flavor. When I get passion fruit green tea or winter melon black tea I only taste the tea portion. It’s s great place to hang out though because they have a lot of tables/​couches and parking isn’t enforced.

Pretty okay drinks. I like how it’s not overly sweet, but just right.
Their slushy drinks are more on the watery side, and their ice are all crushed up.
Board games to play and leather sofa.
Yup

Out of all the boba joints in Riverside, Boba Fiend has the best deals ($ 1 drink special on Mondays, must buy a topping) and IMO, is one of my favorites.
They have the option to make your drink 75% sweet, 50% sweet, etc., unlike Boba Tea House’s limited sweetness levels. I’m picky af with how sweet I like my drinks, so I appreciate the range. The menu is also pretty extensive with different types of milk teas, slushes, smoothies, milks, and yogurts.
My go-​to drinks are the «fresh milk teas», which are just milk teas made with real milk instead of creamer, or whatever they usually put in. Even if I just get normal milk tea, it doesn’t taste overly creamy and thick. Their frosted milk drink with boba is reminiscent of Half & Half’s, but not as sweet!
My only gripes about the place is that it does not serve food, and that the something in the bathroom always seems to be broken. Shoutout to Davina for stellar service!

Maybe I was a bit too harsh with my last review as I’ve gone to Boba Fiend since day one of their soft opening and Xiao was always experimenting with drinks that I’ve always had high expectations with service.
Anywho, for the most part, you can’t go wrong with the drinks here, and if you don’t like it, just let them know. Boba Fiend will gladly remake/​tweak the drink for you. This is something I absolutely love about this boba place. Also, a good way to try different drinks is with their Monday special, though it can be a bit crazy and the wait can be long.
I’ve noticed after my previous review, they redid their menu, which adds a nice touch. But I’d recommend maybe a sign (not of just the workers favorites) to display their drinks. So that people don’t have to crowd the register to figure out what they want.
I like the nice touch of the board games ;) as I’ve given my collection to them and they’ve added on as well even with the Rancho location. It’s a great way to hang with friends and meet new people too.
If you’re reading this, hi Xiao!

Pretty standard boba shop. Hard to find a good one around UCR, but this is the best.
Shop is nice and big, feels more open so you’re not sitting in a stuffy boba shop. The flavors were pretty good. I got the green apple tea with boba and my friend got the peach yogurt drink.
The cups are huge though, so make sure you have a place to put it in your car.

So many boba houses near UCR, which one to choose from? I suppose it’s a matter of convenience as some, such as Ten Ren’s, require complicated parking procedures. I think the simplicity of getting in and out of Boba Fiend is what keeps me coming back. Additionally, they are next door to a favorite Chinese restaurant, Richard’s Fresh Lunch, and sometimes I intercept the free wireless signal from the tea house.
It seems that food never really took off at this location and I have yet to see anyone eating. Nonetheless, their teas and selection are impressive. I like that the whiteboard lists the top ten best sellers, and another board augments the menu with recent adds.
I don’t like how they and many other businesses charge extra for ATM usage under a certain dollar amount. To me it’s the cost of doing business and it should be absorbed.
I do like the honey boba– warm and fresh, it is superior I believe to all comparable establishments in Riverside. Also commendable is the service. Overall I come here when it is convenient and on the trajectory of the day when driving home from work or eating next door.

They have the best Milktea Boba in the State. This is coming from one who drink on average 4 cups of boba a week. I have tried every boba place in OC and Riverside areas. And none, not one place have the same consistency of quality like Fiend. Fiend milktea is sweet, decadent and their boba is chewy and drowned in honey. They also have reasonable price and size. I cant never finish a Regular size tub.
Try it for yourself and let me know if it satisfy you the same way it does for me.

Unilocal 2015 Challenge #68
tl;dr: Stick to the 626.
Riverside wheee.
So to continue the story I had in my last review, we decided (or actually, I, since I was visiting) to go get a drink. And Boba Fiend it was. Apparently it’s one of the better options that’s in Riverside, as there is another place that’s also good but it’s smaller serving size or something. It’s in a small plaza that’s pretty close off the UCR campus and really close to a 60÷215÷91 freeways offramps.
First time coming in, I was confused so I just asked my friend what to get. Almond milk tea with egg pudding.
TIP: Check into Unilocal for a free topping!
It’s not like the Almond Haus that you find in Garden Grove (sob– theirs is bomb), but it does the job. The thing is that it’s a bit too watered down for my taste, but they put a lot of egg pudding in the drink.
Second time was to get the taro drink with taro pudding. The taro drink was so watered down for me ;_​; I wanted to cry. The taro pudding was a bit weak for my taste but mrah mrah mrah.
It’s also a medium-​sized place where you can sit down and talk to your friends– it’s also very colorful here. You’ll understand what I mean when you come here haha.
I really do wonder how their boba is.
$ 5 minimum for CC, $.35 or $.45 fee if you use card and under minimum. :/