Sharetea

High quality creama tea. Love the creama — better than Gong Cha’s, in my opinion. New location serves food. Had the beef short rib combo, with boba tea. $ 11. Beef short rib over rice tastes good.

I was surprised to discover that Sharetea moved and added food and munchies which I’ll have to try next time.
Usually I get my favorite which is the Mango Crema. However, I’ve been just a little obsessed with Green Tea Crema so I wanted to try it. I had high hopes since I loved the Mango.
I got half sweet and less ice. When I took a sip, immediately it was the most different Green Tea Crema I have ever tried. There were barely any green tea taste (I shake the drink) and all I tasted was basically cream. On top of that, there was a weird gritty texture. It didn’t feel like tea leaves so I wasn’t sure if it was the cream.
All in all, I would not recommend getting the green tea Crema. I will just stick to their Mango Crema.
Ps. I’m scared to see what normal ice level is since even less nice is a lot of ice :/

A very solid neighborhood tea joint (that has outlasted a surprising number of other boba shops over the years). They recently moved a few blocks down to a new location, which is much nicer (think more spacious, ample seating, and much better lit).
They’re flexible on levels of sweetness (0% for me, please!), and have a good variety of tea types to order from. I would be happier if they had a good ginger milk tea, but their bitter melon works in a pinch.
You guys should get a loyalty card system going on, though!

Shartea use to be one of my favs but now it’s just an goto when i need a quick fix. The new locations is awesome super spacious. The staff seems good the time i went it was just one guy working the front. My goto drink is the grapefruit green tea with Lychee jelly. This location has food options so i got the pepper chicken as well it was just ok i wish they made it crispy. Im sure i will be back because they are next to my new favorite cookie place lol .one thing I can say is that i’m really digging this new location.

They moved to this location which is much bigger than the previous one. Upon walking in we noticed there were more tables towards the back; it felt like a restaurant more so than a boba spot. Nice upgrade? They serve food items here!
In terms of quality, by far the worst Sharetea experience I’ve had. I’m really hoping we came at an unfortunate time. Their boba was hard to chew and didn’t taste fully cooked. The milk tea was bland and barely tasted like tea. The popcorn chicken was TERRIBLE because it tasted like rubber meat and we were given tiny portions. No seasoning, no spice. Plain rubbery chicken. The worst chicken I’ve had at a boba spot. $ 5 gone to waste. The workers were a bit unprofessional; they were joking loud and chilling very casually at the counter and around the restaurant.
As I mentioned earlier, I really hope we came at a wrong time. I’ll make another visit soon.

New location — same quality boba, but more seating, and even food options. I came in on a Sunday afternoon, and was expecting the usual craziness… nothing like that at all. The place was a ghost town. What happened to the bustling boba shop with people lining up through the whole store? Crowdedness and craziness was definitely part of the charm of the old location.
2 stars for the new spot, 4 stars for the usual quality boba.

I still believe this place is one of the better boba stores around San Mateo.
Now that there’s more seating area and a TV, where I could watch NBA or movies, or whatever that they’re playing, I think it’s better — in terms of entertainment.
Food wise, I dig it more, since Share Tea did not have food before, and now they serve food, although, I need to come back soon to try out their new menu.
The one thing I’m a little upset about is how their tea is a little inconsistent.
The other day, I ordered my always go-​to honey milk tea with pudding. One of the best — I usually have nothing to complain. But it felt like it was bitter and a little watered down.
However, the staff are friendly as usual, so I hope they keep their tea consistency.
Keep it up my fav tea place!

LOVE sharetea. One of my top boba spots in the bay area. Okinawa Milk Tea (cold) is the thing to get here for sure. I’m a huge fan. I’ve tried some of their non-​milk teas as well and they are pretty good, but I tend to lean more towards milk tea.

NEW LOCATION: still in downtown San Mateo, but now more centrally located next to Himawari.
This review is for the boba only! Reliable boba, customized sweetness, and a variety of drink options from black/​green/​white teas, iced drinks, milk drinks, etc. And the ever-​so-​infamous creama drink, which frankly I am too scared to try as it seems like it’s straight milk sugar and cream. Service is quick, teas are good, and reasonably priced — with this new location, there is even more seating and space, even though the long line inevitably curls around the front of the store.
This location has also implemented the «Miit Zone» in this shared space — it seems like it is independent to SharedTea, and honestly, I think it should stay that way, because if this review was for Miit Zone it would be for 2 stars max. Firstly, the food was sloooooooow. Painfully slow. I think even though the boba had a far longer line, we were able to get our boba and finish 75% of our drinks (casual sipping, not like we chugged our drinks) before getting the two food dishes we ordered. The fried tofu was not crispy (seems like it had been reheated… so not sure what explains the long wait time), and the beef rice dish ordered had a very strange after taste. Neither dish was finished. Not to mention, there is one shared delivery counter for the boba and food, and when we asked one of the workers behind the counter when we could expect the food (again, this was well-​into receiving the drinks, at least 30 minutes), he was VERY rude — «just sit down… over there *points to table* and wait for number to be called.» Thanks, real hlepful. Not going to knock down the stars for the behavior of ONE bratty punk employee, but not a good look.

TL;DR — I love sharetea.
sharetea is another import from TW that has translated well to our california coast. the tea is good quality, and the toppings are all superb (boba is exactly the right amount of QQ and fresh, aloe pieces are the juiciest and freshest tasting in the area). i usually get either the grapefruit /​blood orange /​sour plum with aloe, or the okinawan tea with pearls. you can’t go wrong with either.
of my 3 favorite tea places (Sharetea, TenRen, and Gong Cha), i like this place better for toppings than either of the others, but Ten Ren still has slightly better tea quality.

This particular location has cycled through a few restaurants now, but I think Sharetea will do just fine here! Although there are many other boba/​drink/​snack places in San Mateo, Sharetea seems to be a happening place even if it has similar options as others.
I came in with my mom to grab a quick dinner. I got the Chicken Curry Bento, and she got the Oyakudon Bento and a Green Tea Red Bean drink. Food and drink came out quickly. My chicken curry was reminiscent of Taiwan! I even told my mom it tastes very Taiwan-​flavored haha. The oyakudon wasn’t too impressive so nothing to say there. I had some of the leftovers for lunch the next day though. Portions were impressive. The drink was pretty massive too.
Service was so-​so. It’s just a pay at the counter place, so don’t expect too much. But, I do apologize for my mom’s behavior when we came in! Our cashier was kind of soft spoken and didn’t really welcome us, but that shouldn’t give my mom a good ‘excuse’ to give the cashier attitude and toss her card down when paying. –_​_​_​– So, I’m sorry about that. She’s not the best customer to wait on anywhere…
I also noticed a few people working behind the counter would check and play on their phones a lot. I know it’s kinda slow but it doesn’t really give off a good look for Sharetea, even at any other food or bar place really. I work/​have worked in food/​customer service so I thought it was standard to keep phones away for most of the time? Idk, correct me if I’m wrong.
Anyway, still decent food and drinks. I would be back to try their smaller snacks!

Sharetea’s got a new location, but it’s still serving my absolute favorite bubble tea! Compared to the old location on 3^rd Avenue, the new location’s a lot fancier with nicer (and more) tables and chairs. They now also have a sister store, Miit Zone, attached that serves Asian-​style snacks.
When it comes to drinks, the Okinawa Milk Tea is my go-​to drink. When I want some variety I go for my backups, the Hokkaido Milk Tea and the Mango Green Milk Tea.

Stopped in for some homemade taro fresh milk — my absolute fave at ShareTea. This was my first time at the new location — it’s certainly much larger and more beautiful than the old place. It kinda seemed like they had more people working than was warranted by the lack of crowd, but no big deal.
Since it was around dinner, I decided to also try the oyakodon, which they described as having Japanese chicken and egg — simple, straight-​forward, and promising.
My drink was ready pretty quickly and measures up to what I remember it being at the old location. Another 5+ minutes passed and a guy came out from the kitchen and said that they didn’t have anymore rice. He offered to refund me or said I could wait 15 minutes for it to be ready. I had some time to kill, so I decided to wait.
15 minutes passed and nothing. When it hit 25 minutes, I walked up to the counter to inquire about my order. The guy walked back to check and quickly came back out and said it should be ready any second. Seeing that my drink was now empty, he offered to give me a free refill since I had to wait so long! I happily accepted.
When the food and second drink were ready, he walked both items to me and again apologized for the wait. I don’t typically expect great service from boba shops, but this was just outstanding. (And, yes, the oyakodon was delicious!)
I’ll be back for sure, especially since I’m sure I’ll be down the street at Antoine’s Cookie Shop pretty often, too

To compare and contrast between the old Sharetea and the new Sharetea I would prefer the old one back on 3^rd street and here is why:
— workers were more friendly
— drinks came out faster
— drinks were not as watered down
I don’t know what happened. I guess workers just have a lot more room to lounge around instead of doing their job? It’s a bummer because I really do love Sharetea and I do come to the new Sharetea to study because it’s a good environment. The interior is really pretty but what kinda annoys me is that sometimes they blast Chinese music right after they play some laid back old school R&B.

Review #074 — 2016
This new location is definitely bigger and nicer than their previous location. They also added a kitchen which cooks up some snacks and such.
We showed up on a Friday night after having ramen at Ramen Dojo, so we were too full to try their food items. However, my son still managed to have room for fried garlic chicken wings and salt & pepper chicken. At $ 2 each, I guess you can’t expect too much. The salt & pepper chicken was pretty salty, but I didn’t try the wings so I’ll take my son’s word for it that they were pretty good.
The three of us decided on our usual drinks, while my brother decided to go for something different. He ordered the honey lemon tea and said that it was too sour for his taste. My iced winter melon tea with aloe vera was still good.
So, now you must be wondering why I’m only giving them a 2-​star rating… it’s because the girl who was helping us was not very nice at all. She acted like we were making her work by coming in and she kept rushing us the whole time we were trying to place our orders. I wonder whatever happened to all the friendly boys that worked at the previous location. Did they change ownership?
Any way, they need to train the girl to not have such a bad attitude because if she doesn’t have customers to serve, she won’t have a job in the long run… we were super annoyed, to say the least.

One of my favorite milk tea places moved to a new space. There are more tables to sit at and there’s no more echo chamber!
The drinks are good but I have this feeling service slowed down somehow. It could just be the new place with its nice lighting and comfy chairs throwing off my sense of time. The Okinawa milk tea is still where it’s at.

I came here to check out the new location in downtown San Mateo. This place is a little bit larger and now they serve snacks like crispy chicken and other items. I went inside at about 7 PM and it was mostly empty so I didn’t have to wait for my drink order. The last time we went inside was a couple weeks ago and it was at 9 PM and the line was maybe 10 people deep. I think they were still getting used to the new ordering system as well as the layout because it was taking longer than usual to order drinks so we didn’t get anything that time. The drinks are still solid, one of the better milk tea places in the bay. Will be back if the lines not long or at least moves at a good pace.

I really dig this new location! Sharetea moved from E 3^rd Ave to this new HUGE location right off S B St. It used to be this trendy looking sushi restaurant, but they totally revamped it.
The service was very good, much better than my last time at the old location.
I ordered the matcha green tea, pretty decent.
Also, bonus points for playing Bruno Mars
I would definitely bring friends here!

Hurrah for a new location! The old one was very small, poorly lit, and overall not really a place I’d want to spend extended periods of time (the clustering by the drink pick-​up-​counter was the most awful thing imaginable).
Now, it’s in a nice, big location (bye Sushi 85), with many more tables, much better lighting, more open space, and just a better feel. It’s a much trendier place, and they also offer little snacks as well (fish balls and wings ftw).
If you didn’t love Sharetea before, you may be a bigger fan now!

Definitely what the Unilocal two star review says, «Meh. I’ve experienced better».
The selection of drinks are a bit disappointing… usually it doesn’t take me long to pick something since I am a boba lover. But any time I go to ShareTea it takes me forever just to pick something I kind of feel like drinking. I ended up getting the passion fruit tea and there were really hard seeds on the bottom of my drink which could have been filtered out.
The new place is HUGE (it used to be a sushi restaurant) so I feel like it’s nice to hang out but I believe they do NOT have wifi which is a let down.
They offer FiveStar rewards program and take card.
I ONLY go to this place if there is nothing else near by and I want a boba drink… there are better boba places around downtown San Mateo for sure.