Tapioca Express

This is one of the better TapEx’s I’ve been to. The menu is expansive and prices are moderate. The girls have always been friendly to me and are helpful with the menu. The drinks kind of taste a little bit extra delicious here and the balls are nice, soft, and chewy. Mmm mmm! I love the the thick and huge green pandan waffle (only $ 1.99) but have yet to try other food items. The location also accepts plastic, which is a huge plus.
In addition to the food aspects of this TapEx, what makes it awesome is the usage of such small space. There are plenty of tables and chairs and sitting arrangements, including on the patio – even little niches in the corner to converse with a pal. I’ve also been able to easily find street parking along San Carlos. WiFi makes it an attractive place to study since there are no real study options on campus outside of the library.

Compared to other TE, this place is a joke… from the customer service to the portion size of the crispy chicken. It was my first visit here today… and also my last.

MEH. what a disappointment.
the short ass girl that worked here was RUDE. I came in and she was hiding behind the counter on the computer or something. and i looked at her and she just looks back with no «what can i get for you» or any of that.
so i just ordered and they have no egg/​mango pudding … what a disappintment. then, she just hands me my drink after she makes it and nothing comes out her mouth no thank you come again.
CUSTOMER SERVICE IS IMPORTANT. obviously she has none of that. i know we dont want to be at work at times but she didn’t even try sound nice. I usually tip but she obviously didn’t deserve it.

Slow but cheerful customer service. The food /​snacks are okay but the drinks are good.
The place is very small and so is their parking. You get a free wi-​fi service.
You have to ask for a key to go to bathroom???

The place has a lot to offer in their menu, but 20% of them were labeled «coming soon»… –_​–
Comparing this one to the another other Tapioca Express…
===observations===
*Drinks menus are roughly the same
*Less food selections (No Bento boxes…: ()
*Less crowded…
*The Yan Su Gee (crispy popcorn chicken) = really greasy. At the end the paper bag was soaked with grease…
*More $$ than i think it should be, I got popcorn chicken + fried lobster balls + taro milk tea = $ 13…
*Great location, being right next to the MLK library.
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Snow bubble with pearls my favvvvv!
Although they’re food is meh okay :/​they make it up in drinks! It’s really close to campus which is great too!
I walked in and as if they knew I was coming played my favorite song! «can we talk» by Tevin cambell made me like this place even more! Not to mention all the comfy seats :)

We love the Thai Iced Tea and the Passion Fruit Green tea from this place. It’s close, somewhat cheap and fast.
Don’t forget to ask for their frequent buyer card, sometimes they forget to offer it.
All in all, good place. I’m just sad they pulled out the Mortal Kombat!

The only reason why this place gets two stars is because of their Vanilla Cookie Snow Bubble. That drink is THEE only thing good there. The chicken sucks… has a weird taste to it. The almond milk tea was WAY to sweet and the milk tea was too plain. The only reason why I go here is because it’s really close to campus and for the vanilla cookie snow bubble.

A nice place to hang out and study with friends over some tapioca. The staff is usually very friendly and their portions are pretty big when it comes to food.
Peach snow bubble = da bomb diggity.
TIP: Look inside the SJSU newspaper the Spartan Daily and half the time you’ll find coupons for Tapex: free tapioca or free upgrade from small to large.

Clearly, Tapioca Express rocks because their competitor, Lollicup has closed. Looks like there isn’t room enough for the two of them (in downtown San Jose)
I love getting boba milk tea, I am obsessed. The bad news is that there are about 500 calories in that bad boy. Can we say ‘MEAL’.
I’ve always had really good service. It’s CASH ONLY like most Asian joints.
Pineapple slush is tasty as well as the mango/​black tea (250 calories– not that I really care about that stuff. lol)

This is place is right next to SJSU and it has a good ambiance. A nice couch and a shelf of games for your to just hang out and enjoy.
The food/​drinks are extremely expensive. A large Jasmine Green Tea with lychee is $ 3.91 and where the most expensive place i’ve been to (Sweet Tea) is $ 3.73. Also me and my gf ordered chicken a crispy chicken and goodness the thing was empty. My jaw dropped with how little the crispy chicken was and for $ 4. I’m used to quickly’s where they stuff the bag. I got a little bag than it was barely half filled and probably like 7 – 8 pieces of chicken. I will never buy food from there again. Maybe if i need a fix on jasmine green tea, i’ll stop by. besides that i’ll go somewhere else.

This is the only tapioca express right by SJSU. (There is a quickly’s on the other side of campus but for geographical reasonings, Tapioca is a little closer to my classes and a little bit easier to get too.)
I ordered my usual mango milk tea with no boba. The lady didn’t even mix my drink. There was a layer of syrup and a layer of milk tea. After shaking and stirring the drink with a straw it finally mixed together.
I also ordered the chicken (medium spicy). The quality of the chicken was horrible. I know its not a Four star restaurant but I would like some REAL chicken. I got all crunchy, deep friend… fat? or something. After eating 2 bites I gave it to my guy friend, who eats anything…
The chicken at quicklys is cheaper and of better quality (or cooked better). I don’t think I’ll come back):

i don’t think i’ll ever come back here.
a hole in the wall place, the seats outside are falling apart.
the drinks were fine, i got a black milk tea w/​pearls.
after almost finishing my large drink i had to pee.
guess what? NO BATHROOM.
holy crap, not even for paying customers? i left after. i had to go.

Went on a Sunday early afternoon. Place was pretty empty.
The little driveway to the right of their store does NOT lead into a parking lot as I erroneously assumed. It goes into a ghetto apartment complex parking lot.
The drink was pretty good (iced chocolate chai with pearls) but the service was… non-​existent. I got my drink right away but the cashier was either tired or hates her job. She only said like 10 words to me. 3 of which were «three» «oh» «nine» and another 2 were «chocolate chai?» when it was ready. Actually, those 5 were pretty much it. :p

I like TapEx. Its nice and convenient as its sits right next to SJSU. Though over the years (past 4), service and quality seem to have gone down. Perhaps there was a change of management?
Well, I used to love the Crispy Pepper chicken but some how their recipe changed and I don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. As for their Tapioca drinks, I like how they offer a variety along with the choice of what size balls you want in your drink. I stopped getting Tapioca Balls because they are just too big. But because they now have small balls, I am able to enjoy my tapioca drinks. Service wise, they did disappoint me one time as I was up late studying and had a craving for their chicken and Tap. Drink. Well they closed at 11 and the girl whom was working was closing up shop at 10:30. We knocked and she totally ignored us. RUDE! But its understandable I guess since the place also employ’s college students. But still!
Anyhoo, I give them a 3 because they have become alright. Service and quality is not like how it was in 2005. Oh well…

I’m not a big fan of this one.
First time had the honeydew milk tea w/​boba.
… holy shit. i felt like i was drinking syrup
and to top it off… the boba wasn’t cooked all the way thru.
so was drinking syrup w/​powder.
So i come back… for some reason. –_​–
and i decided to give it another go.
Ordered the milk tea w/​pearl and popcorn chicken.
I figured… cant go wrong with milk tea. like the OG of boba.
I ended up drinking syrupy coffee-​ish tea with tasteless boba.
It went pretty well with my 5 humongous pieces of salt marinated popcorn chicken.
I’ve never thrown away full cups of pearl drinks before.
Let me tell you… i was heartbroken.
I couldn’t let the cup go… in the garbage. but it’s in a better place now.
so i went again today.
what did i get?
spent $ 1 on a Winnie the Pooh.
I’m a happy camper.
for that. +1 star.

I’ve got no complaints with Tap Ex. My 2 classmates would always come into class with boba drinks from there. Finally, in my last week at SJSU, I went with them to see what if their boba was all that it was cracked up to be. It’s a tiny, tiny location but their boba wasn’t bad at all. I had ordered the cold jasmine milk tea and the peppered chicken without the spice. The milk tea wasn’t too sweet which I like in comparison with Quickly. Chicken was tasty, not too salty, and it still tasted good the next day for leftovers.

I go to SJSU, so of course, I’ve been here before… But I finally decided to review this place. First of all, this Tapioca Express location is very small, and it’s always really stuffy in here. I think that’s one of the main things that makes me avoid this place. Even in the summer when it’s over 100 degrees in downtown San Jose, there’s no AC on and it’s stuffy in here. After trying a lot of their drinks, nothing really stands out to me here. The drinks are just okay here, and definitely don’t compare to the more traditional and original Tapioca Express’ (like the one in Milpitas).
The only reason why I’m giving this place some stars is for the food. They have lots of snacks and also «bento boxes». The other night, I got a bento box with white rice, macaroni salad, and fried mushroom tofu. Surprisingly, the bento box was actually pretty good for getting food at Tapioca Express. I would give more stars to this place if it wasn’t always so stuffy and if the employees were a bit friendlier. This Tapioca Express would be lowest on my list of places to go if I was craving a tapioca style drink. but, since it’s the closest to where i live, I end up here sometimes rather than going to the other side of campus to Quickly’s or up to Milpitas.

Two of my favorite drinks to get at a pearl tea place are of course, the pearl milk tea, and hot taro milk tea.
Personally, I prefer the pearl milk tea at Quickly instead of Tap X and I prefer Verde’s hot taro milk tea instead of Tap X.
I agree with the other Unilocaler that the only reason this location is in business is truly because of its location.
From the health building at SJSU where most of my classes are, I can get to this Tapioca Express, order and get my drink and get back to class in less than 15 minutes. For the times I just HAVE to have a pearl tea, this will do, but I’ll never go out of my way to go to this Tapioca Express.

I come here mainly for the milk tea. Maybe it was that one time I went but the milk tea tasted a lot better than the Quickly milk tea and the Hydration milk tea. It’s a little sweeter but the kind of sweeter that’s just right. Haha it’s hard to explain. The pearls are chewy and cooked right since the center of the pearl is soft.
Seats are limited but I don’t mind because I usually leave after I get my milk tea to go to class or whatever I might be doing.