Koi Cafe

I stopped by to try the bubble tea of this place for some Singaporean friends told me not to miss their bubble tea when in Singapore. The taste was regular, can’t say it’s better than Gong Cha or other bubble tea places. But this Koi Café was satisfying my thirst that afternoon. Don’t mind to get another big glass of their bubble tea again next time I’m there.

Regular and large sizes available. The pearls are fresh and have a mild chew. You can get varying degrees of sweetness. I liked the milk tea barely sweet and also the passion fruit green tea. Every time I went they had a queue so be ready to wait for just a few minutes.

Really good milk tea right outside Bugis +.
Pro: They offer a large size while a lot of the Gong Cha’s in the area do not.
Con: There’s no seating unless you want to be a dick at sit at the MCD tables.
Warning: «golden bubble tea» is not made from a magical golden tea. It refers to normal tea and their golden colored pearls. The lady said they taste like caramel but I couldn’t really see that.

What would I do without boba… I don’t know. Not live? Hahaha, just kidding. Even in Singapore, I had to have my weekly dose of bobalyfe! Was recommended to come here by some of the locals, and although a chain, it did not disappoint!
I would warn that you get less sweet (especially if you don’t have a sweet tooth, and even if you have a minor one, I’d still recommend less sweet). There’s something about the people in Asia, but their love for sweets far exceeds mine. According the the locals, their current 70% sweet used to be the original 100% sweet… meaning, they diversified their sweet scale to accommodate a larger spectrum of less sweet and more sweet. If I remember correctly, it ranged from 0% to 120%. O_​O I got 50% sweet and still found it a tad bit sweeter than I like, but definitely anything over that and I would’ve been unhappy with my drink. I had the plain milk tea with boba and found a well balanced drink and plenty of boba! I didn’t get a chance to try the grass jelly but I hear that’s quite popular as well.
If you’re in Singapore, give it a try! I had to, it was #milkteasunday.

Review is for milk tea with pearls– this is my my new favorite place!!! I have tried a few other places and the pearls have a great texture and the tea is well balanced! ^_^

Koi, I miss you!!! I haven’t found any Boba tea in SF that can compare D:
Koi is amazing. The have a huge selection of teas, their boba is perfect consistency and taste, and they let you adjust the percentage of sweetness you would like in your drink. I must’ve subsisted mainly off of teh tarik, roti prata, kaya toast, and Koi milk tea the whole time I was in Singapore.

Koi Café is my favorite bubble tea spot in Singapore. When I first had bubble tea in the states it was just too weird and popular for me to enjoy. However, now that I am at home in Asia bubble tea seems perfectly natural and downright delicious. I alternate between straight up milk tea and the other awesome flavored teas at Koi. The line is absolutely horrific in length so make sure you plan ahead. The Bugis+ location offers delivery to your office.

This Koi café is located at the first level of Bugis + (its new name) just next to Macdonald’s, and it faces the main road so not easy to miss it. I particularly like this outlet as although sometimes the queue can be pretty long, like all other koi outlets who put service as their priority, the staff would come out of the counter to take orders.
Even if the staff doesn’t do that, the queue still manages to clear quite fast and customers just have to wait a maximum of 10minutes or less to get a thirst quenching drink. I have been to other outlets and the queue is long too but the waiting time can go up to 20 – 30 minutes which is madness.
I like their variety of drinks and coffees, and particularly the bubble milk tea which is the most basic drink there. The tea just tastes so natural and once you try the tea from this stall you wouldn’t want to buy any other bubble tea from other stall cause they just don’t taste that good anymore. The yakult green tea and black tea macchiato are also must tries.

The queues are long but the drinks are ‘meh’. I’ve drank KOI a number of times but I honestly dont know what the fuss is all about. I cant put a finger on why there are so many snaking queues around and why people bother to stand in line for so long.
Maybe its something about the pearls are something I havent ordered before but as far as I know, its not my favourite bubble tea outlet. Maybe the queues put me off abit but that’s just how it is i guess.
The longer the queue, the higher your expectations are of the drink/​food.

I can still remember the first time I tried Koi bubble tea! It was so different from the usual ones you can get around the neighbourhood. The tea tasted so smooth and the pearls were really ‘Q’ and chewy. Koi began with only one outlet at Toa Payoh a few years ago, and now there are several outlets and the one at Bugis+ is definitely one of the most popular ones.
But the question is, is it worth the queue? The queue at Bugis+ outlet is almost always very long. The wait can be about 10−15min. To be honest, this isn’t a very long wait for a delicious drink that you can indulge in once in a while, but what I am most disappointed with is the service at this outlet. My friends and I had bad experiences at this outlet. The aunties at the counter are pretty hostile and arrogant. There was once my friend made a minor mistake in ordering because she mixed up the name of the drink and sugar level with the other one offered by another popular bubble tea chain, and was given condescending remarks. Even though the drink at Koi is delicious, such bad service is unacceptable. Avoid this outlet!

Koi Café ist eine der vielen Ketten in Singapur, die Bubble Tea verkaufen. (siehe auch
) Ursprünglich kommt es wohl aus Taiwan. Bubble Tea ist in der Originalvariante schwarzer Tee mit Milch und dadrin schwimmen kleine Stärkebällchen mit einer Konsistenz zwischen Gummibärchen und Kaugummi. Damit man die Bällchen «trinken» kann, bekommt man extradicke Strohhalme. Man mag das Getränk oder man mag es nicht. Nach vielem Probieren hat es mir hier am besten geschmeckt, auch wenn die Preise hier deutlich höher sind (ab 3 – 4 Singdollar) als zum Beispiel bei Sweetalk oder Each-​a-​cup.
Hier und in allen anderen Läden gibt es mittlerweile unzähliger Variationen, was Tee (schwarz, grün oder auch Saft) und «Einlage» (Bällchen, Götterspeise, o.ä.) angeht.
Die Läden befinden sich meistens in der Nähe von Einkaufszentren, oft an der Außenseite des Gebäudes und sind dadurch manchmal schwierig zu finden. Fragen hilft meistens, die Singapurer helfen gern.
Neben dieser Filiale sind momentan wohl folgende weitere vorhanden:
Koi Café Ang Mo Kio
Blk 704 Ang Mo Kio Central #01−2545 Tel: +65 6459 1518
Koi Café Bishan
513 Bishan street 13 #01−503 Tel: +65 6258 1729
Koi Café Clementi
Blk 442 Clementi Ave 3 #01−101 Tel: +65 64 405 845
Koi Café People’s Park
1 Park Road #01−16 People’s Park Complex Tel: +65 6536 8330
Koi Café Marine Parade
Blk 83 Marine Parade Central #01−562 Tel: +65 6440 4869
Koi Café Toa Payoh
190A Toa Payoh Central #01−562 Tel: +65 6256 1169
Koi Café Tampines
Blk 510 tampines central #01−250
Wenn man eh an der betreffenden MRT-​Station ist, lohnt es sich, mal Ausschau zu halten. Man muss ja nicht so verrückt sein wie ich und extra für Bubble Tea irgendwo hinfahren…