Tapioca Express

Got my iced coffee milk tea, staff was nice. It’s a small place, small menu, few options… but hey its a simple concept and I’m happy right now. First time @ Tapioca Express here in college. Convoy is much bigger and much more busy.

The best tapioca express here in San Diego! Squid balls are the best compared to other branch. Staffs are cool and awesome!

Yesterday night my bf came in to order drinks and both were snow bubbles but the person charged him for one that wasn’t a snow bubble. So she advised him to make sure that he was clear about his next order since their establishment gets charged $ 2 for every credit transaction. So the only difference was $.60 vs. $ 2 do the math here! Take a hit for $.60 or get charged $ 2?! First off, customers are always RIGHT! Second, if she had LISTENED clearly about what he ordered it wouldn’t have been an issue & they didn’t have to double their work. Third of all, you don’t tell a customer they are WRONG! What kind of customer service is that?! I’m very displeased especially because we’re regulars too & plenty of times we go there with friends and order big! #doublethumbsdown #impissed I’ve worked in this industry and never once told a customer they were wrong. Customer service is a big deal to me. That wasn’t impressing what so ever.

Oh Tapex, just when you were starting to get good… everything goes bad. Some workers seem like they hate their job and the boba is always inconsistent. Some days its soggy, hard, or crunchy. Boba should never be crunchy. It was a terrible experience where I chewed an undercooked ball of boba and it was like biting into hard candy. I’ve had multiple encounters with their boba being undercooked or overcooked, milk tea tasting like diabetes, and the taro milk tea feeling grainy. The grass jelly is often not cut into small pieces so you’re left with 1 inch cubes of it floating in your cup. Also, they stopped using the classic plastic lid boba shops normal use and started using the pop on kinds. I don’t wanna drive all the way to Convoy just for good boba and I don’t wanna spend another $ 2 at TeaStation across the street. Tapex is just adding on to the list of bad boba shops in City Heights. Now, the crispy chicken and calamari is pretty good but if you ask for spiciness they will pour it all at the top. It’s not evenly seasoned like you’d expect. Think about swallowing Hot Cheeto powder. Yeah, it’s gonna kill your throat and probably make you run to the bathroom.

This place is alright, not the best boba or tea. Small lunch menu. Staff is usually pretty pleasant though.
Location is pretty good if you live in the area. Although parking can be troublesome during rush hour.

I usually have a great experience at Tapioca Express. They have a wide variety of drinks and the general drink toppings. Boba and various jellies.
To tonight’s employees:
However, today when I went, my drinks were very lazily prepared. One drink was spilling out of the sides as soon as it was put on the counter and as I tried to wipe the excess around the rim, one employee said «don’t worry about it we’ll clean it» but that wasn’t my issue. My issue was not being able to take my drink off of the counter without making a mess everywhere. I had to aggressively drink my Thai tea while they were just chatting amongst each other. After I finally reached a point where I could safely take it out, I noticed my other drink was noticeably lacking in drink toppings. Please pay more attention to your customers needs, especially when there are only a few.
Again, this is just for the specific persons working that worked this shift. I’m very disappointed with your customer service today.

Nice spot to grab a refreshing drink. I love there dumplings and calamari. I get them spicy and it’s delicious!

Good boba, just a little unclear when it comes to explaining the menu. They kind of assumed I knew what Snow Bubble was, even though I’ve never stepped inside. Either way, it was good boba and I’d definitely come back again.

This place is ok to me I guess. I’ve had better in other places. My son likes the spicy chicken with the sweet and sour sauce. I come here only when I crave boba and plus it’s near my house…

I have been in the neighborhood and I LOVE how they were open late! I came in around 10pm on a Friday. I had a craving for milk tea and the staff there got me in and out quick! So convenient being located by SDSU and my tea was superb. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my stomach.

The extra spicy crispy chicken and tofu are soOoOo good. It’s cheap, and gets you full.
The staff are also really nice. Patrick was super friendly too. Thanks!

Pretty good place to get Boba drinks. We always go for the snow bubbles =) The snacks are pretty good too.
Honeydew snowbubble and peach snowbubble are amazing =D
Nice location — College area (SDSU)
Sad there is no Taro snowbubble =(
Small seating area

I usually try to make a TapEx run everytime I go down to SD and now I know to never return to this location. There were three baristas that night and all had some attitude. None of them looked very happy to be there, especially the two young ladies. As they would call customers whose orders were ready they would call their names with attitude and would raise their voice with annoyance and they would even roll their eyes.
Unfortunately my drink spilled and was told «there’s a trash can behind you» in a rude tone. I waited for awhile to see if they would remake my drink and unfortunately they didn’t remake it until they were asked. Maybe it’s policy? Either way save yourself the annoyance of bad service and stay away or atleast go to the Convoy location.

Craving bubble tea. Looked on Unilocal for the nearest one, didn’t check the opening time on the first one, and found not it was closed. Luckily, this place was already opened.
There are A LOT of flavor choices and tea choices. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten older, but I decided to go with the Iced Thai milk tea with boba. It was delicious and hit the spot, and I absolutely love that they offer different sizes (regular or large), because often times, a large BBT (bubble tea) is like three meals (depending on your stomach capacity).
And in case you get the munchies, they have some snacks for sale as well.

This location is pretty close to me but sucks all around compared to the other ones. I’d rather drive a little further to the Plaza blvd or Convoy locations.
The drinks are either watered down or too milky. The only drinks they seem to be on top of are the green and black iced teas.
The crispy chicken seems to be mostly the fried batter or fried chicken skin/​fat with very few pieces of actual chicken.
The Cream cheese wontons at this location contain cream cheese, very little crab and cheddar cheese?
The staff are ok.
This tap ex is really small too.
Hmm, they do serve a good amount of food in the snacks and combos. :)
I highly recommend the Convoy location. It’s worth the drive. They have a lot more to choose from, the building is much larger, and if you’re dining in they have board games you can play with.

This franchise has higher prices than other locations but cheapened out on everything.
Granted, Tapioca Express isn’t considered top notch by any means but the owners seriously compromised on quality here.
Boba was stale. Milk tea watery sugar. «Ranch» was disgusting. No idea what brand it was as it was pre filled into clear plastic sauce cups.
Crispy chicken was on the small side with 1 basil leaf and no spice. (I ordered spicy).
They charge $ 7.50 for their combos when they serve canned corn and peas as sides. Smh.
Cashier was also incredibly slow.
Drive 15 minutes to the Tapioca Express in Convoy.
It’s so much better!!!

This Tapioca Express does not even compare to the one on Convoy. I’ve been here a few times and usually just order my regular Jasmine Green Tea with boba. I never order anything else because it’s not worth my money. Most of the other drinks taste really watered down. I’ve tried the chicken and calamari and it’s not that great. The sides for the combo are different from Convoy as well. They have corn and peas as the side, which isn’t all that great. It’s also much more expensive. Service, however, is great. They’re really nice and quick to make the food and drinks. Parking is also not as bad here though!

I hate to say it, but it sucked. At least the thai tea that we got sucked. We went to this location after dinner last night to try it out, and it was a bad choice. We got our thai teas half sweet and it tasted like half milk half water. It wasn’t good. At all. We’ve gotten it half sweet before at other places and they still tasted like thai tea. I don’t know, maybe other drinks here are good, but we had a bad experience, and probably wouldn’t be coming back here.
The place is also very small, with what looked to be 3 tables inside. Maybe they don’t get that busy, I’m not sure, but it felt cramped.
Good thing we don’t frequent this area often. We’ll driving somewhere else next time for boba.

Really nothing bad to say. Fast, friendly and the coffee tasted good. Had a Carmel Iced Latte. Very sweet but had this odd after taste, which I liked.
The gentlemen was polite and told me «Merry Christmas» which i appreciated it because I’m tired of all this «Happy Holidays» bull.
Homie…ITS CHRISTMAS!!! LOL. Anyways, coo spot.

Spicy tater tots w/​sweet & sour sauce are life
Can never go wrong with their pineapple ice with boba.
Every time I come to this place the girls are really friendly & they get my order just right.
Perfect spot for a refreshing drink & snack on a sunny day, which in San Diego is basically every day