Quickly

I’m SO glad this place went out of business. I mean who serves Tapioca balls along with fried chicken strips? I guess everywhere in the Castro, but I’m still glad this place isn’t taking up valuable space anymore.

Good, but not especially friendly…
I love bubble (boba) tea, okay? Especially snow. :)
However, this place is not always open when I go over there (and that involves some effort). PLUS, they usually don’t have my favorite flavor of bubble tea in stock!!!
Anyway… I’m sorry, two stars. If they get better, I will up it for sure. :)

Why even bother? The food mostly tastes and feels like panko-​covered, pre-​chewed gum, and the boba is naught but standard. Sometimes, I wonder why we embrace the worst parts of Japanese culture as cool — Quickly, Pokemon/​Yu-​Gi-​Oh/​etc., Fruits magazine, making peace signs in photos — while ignoring the best qualities.

It’s very worth the four minute commute from forest hill to castro station. lol. My friend timed it once, and so, even if I go to school near a Quickly at regular price, I’d much rather go to this one.
Especially if you don’t want to pay 3 bucks for a bubble milk tea with tapioca at the other locations.
The people are pretty nice too. :)
And the food seems decent, since my friend who introduced me to this location gets food and tapioca from here whenever we go together. lol.

PART III of my quest for good boba tea/​bubble drinks.
The jury is out on if this is a «Quickly» or not. It used to be, but the «Quickly» logo is torn from the outside marquee. I wonder why???
Not that Quickly is bad, b/​c I did have some good bubble drinks (try the watermelon slushie) and a few others around town (there are a lot of them), but I tried a basic almond milk tea at this location and it was waaaay too syrupy and there was sugar clumps on the bottom. BLECH!
Me no likey sugar clumps.

This Quickly is definitely not closed, although I wish it were. I started wishing I was Chinese and could claim boba as my own the first day I tried it… and this Quickly location nearly sabotages the boba legacy.
It seems almost silly to write a review on a fast food-​esque place, but I felt so saddened that I had to. Service is painfully slow and unfriendly. I waited 20 minutes for my jalapeño poppers and milk tea, when the cashier could’ve easily AT LEAST given me my drink while I waited for my food (as she did 4 other people while I waited!).
The snacks that sound so good in theory are quite awful in actuality. And as I stood waiting I noticed how disgustingly dirty the whole place is. So unless slow, gross, dirty, and entirely unfulfilling is your bag, I’d avoid this place altogether.
And now this has gotten far too long for something that should have been done Quickly.
:(

I love this QUICKLY! And I really did hate all the other ones. They offer no fro-​yo here, but they do have energy drinks and milk and other joys from Costco.
I got a Large Jasmine Milk w/​Taro Pudding for $ 2.16 and it satiated me much better than the cookie I got next door. Viva la Quickly!
P. S. I think the best part about this place is that:
1. No loud music
2. No crowds of school kids hanging around
3. Fast service
4. They have the drink sealer up in front so you can SEE it in action! :)
5. They don’t judge you for having overalls on.

More like SLOWLY. Two employees; the girl at the register took my order, told the other girl to make them, and then just sat there. It took 15 – 20 minutes to make two regular milk tea’s.
The tea was okay, but service needs work.

The tea here is decent, but not outstanding. The tapioca has a great consistency and texture to it, which I think is pretty important. However, I tried ordering a drink with the smaller, white, rectangular jelly tapioca, and they did not have it. Either they ran out or they don’t serve it.
Also, as others have noted, the service is not very fast.

«I would like milk tea… blended.»
«We don’t do that.»
«What you say?»
«We don’t… blend… milk tea.»
«Butchoo blend everything else.»
«Yeah. I know.»
WTF Quickly, I know it’s not Burger King, but why can’t you just blend me some motherfucking milk tea? I love me a lychee slushee as much as the next guy, but I just want a fucking blended milk tea, a’ight?

I was wandering the Castro one night after getting donkey punched by an angry top — SOUNDS HOT RIGHT?!? Except it’s not, donkey punching is not an AMA-​approved sex act like scat for example, and can lead to side effects including but not limited to disorientation, death, and writing vulgar reviews! Careful!
Anyway, I was hungry, irritable, short of breath and short on cash. «Darin,» I said, «Darin, you’ve gotta get something in your stomach or you’re gonna pass out — oh look there’s a Quickly.» «Self, what is wrong with you?» «I know, it’s a chain and the bubble milk tea is bland but what the fuck, it’s 10pm, it’s Thursday, what else is there?»
So I walked in and ordered a large Jasmine Milk Tea with big tapioca bubbles. After taking my cash, the sullen, poker-​faced woman behind the counter prepped the tea, vacuum sealed the cup using the machine, and placed it on the counter for me. I gave the cup a good shake and put it back on the counter. Picking up a large tapioca straw, I aimed for the center of the lid with the straw and right when I tried to pierce it – POP! –
THE MOTHERFUCKING CUP EXPLODED BOBA AND MILK TEA ALL OVER ME!!!
GAWDDAMN COCKSUCKING SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!
Milk tea and boba was everywhere: on the counter, on the floor, but most importantly there was now a fucking boba in the pocket of my WOOL BLAZER and a new creamy gloss of milk tea all over my LEATHER FUCKING BAG. I had a look of utter shock on my face akin to when some dude squirts the salty stuff in my eye unannounced — I panicked, reached for the napkins, and saw that there were only TWO FUCKING NAPKINS LEFT on the counter. «OH MY GAWD, OH MY GAWD.» And while I was losing it, sullen tea woman was looking at me with, I kid you not, the BITCHIEST face because clearly it was MY FAULT the fucking cup split in two and she wasn’t doing shit to help so I said «Hey, CAN I GET SOME MORE DAMN NAPKINS HERE? My bag is LEATHERRRR!» She continued to stare and purse her lips, as if she had to seriously consider this request — I dunno, maybe she was thinking of saying «hey, fuck you and your dead animal Prorsum bag, you fucking queen!» — then realized that if she did nothing I would have cried/​gone apeshit/​killed myself/​had a stroke so she finally grabbed a handful of napkins and nonchalantly scattered them over the counter, oh thanks for your help. I did the best job I could cleaning the milk tea off my jacket, bag, and the floor — yes, the FLOOR — I mopped up that shit too ’cause sullen tea bitch CLEARLY wasn’t going to lift a finger, OH NO, she was happy to watch me gradually descend into madness as I trembled and cursed and mopped on my knees with my ass in the air, and when I FINALLY finished cleaning the floor and handed over the smelly rag and damp napkins with tears welling in my eyes and sweat streaming down my right temple, the sullen tea bitch asked:
«So, I GUESS you want ANOTHER milk tea?»

59 cents for bubble tea! I just wish I had realized «bubble milk tea» meant just the tea, not the bubbles! Don’t seal up my cup! I’ll spend the extra 50 cents for those wonderful tapioca pearls!
Of course I needed something to eat alongside my tea, so I ordered the second cheapest thing on the menu — sausage sandwich. I think it was a whopping 79 cents. For that you get a hot dog bun with two overdone Jimmy Dean © breakfast links. For the price, this is totally acceptable.
Good tea, cheap food. Service was a bit backed up, but with prices like that, you should expect a short wait just about anytime of the day.

Cheap; delicious; filled with Ikea-​like plastic stools… fantastic!
After hiking all the way up to Twin Peaks and back down, this place was the oasis you see in those cheesy old movies about wandering the dessert…
In our parched state my friend and I were drawn in by the «$ 0.59 Bubble Milk Tea» sign. The wait took a bit of time as there was only one guy working behind the counter, but it was worth it. My friend also grabbed a sausage dog bringing our total cost to a mere $ 2.37 or so (again, like Ikea — this is the place for a cheap lunch!)
The cups were vacuum sealed (plastic across the top) and made for a fun, klutz-​proof way to drink the tea. I’m easily amused and this distraction provided me with plenty to do while we continued our walk up Market street toward SOMA.

Oh Quickly on Castro… how I love thee!
Your Avocado Snow drinks are superb. Throw in the large fruit balls, and you make me smile.
Even if your employees are not that friendly, I still love ya. You make me giggle. And I love tossing my cup back and forth in my hands, laughing like a maniac because it won’t break.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Quicklys are trying to become the new Starbucks or McD. Remember the bright orange sign and get your boba fix here as they pop up in every neighborhood! It’s a chain and they are all over the world. They also have a fan club.
This particular Quickly in the Castro is tiny tiny tiny. There are 2 tables and no waiting room. They have a limited menu of fried snacks and a full menu of drinks and tapioca.
I don’t believe in paying more than $ 1.50 for boba because it’s is $ 0.99 everywhere in LA. This location usually has the boba tea (regular milk tea) for $ 0.59 and you can add the boba in it. Not a bad deal for a quick fix.
The boba tea is OK, it’s not the best, but you can’t expect much from a chain that pumps them out super quick. I like their sealing system that prevents any type of spilling until you poke a straw through it.

This place is just so cute. It’s a tiny hole in the wall you can easily miss. There’s usually two girls working behind the counter taking orders and making the drinks. The place is clean, bright and cheery. And the walls are covered with posters that look like they come from a HK mall.
The boba drinks here are pretty decent. The boba could be a little more firm and I actually found that I ran out of boba before I finished my drink. So definitely could use more. I wonder if I can pay for a double helping? The special of the day is only $ 0.59 + 0.50 for tapioca balls = $ 1.18. Not bad methinks.
Bike Parking: Designated bike parking up and down Castro St.

Is boba the new black?
Something tells me no. Now I like a good bubble tea as much as the next person, but having a shop devoted to it reminds me of the Scotch Tape Boutique on the first seasons of «Saturday Night Live».
It’s really a glorified kiosk, very brightly colored (even for the Castro), with two iddy-​bitty tables which you are forbidden to sit at for more than 15 minutes (so says the warning sign). Two Asian girls run the counter, and no, I don’t believe they are Pink Lady. When I saw the menu, I realized I had been to the Foster City one when I was at the Asian shopping center down there. Looks like they are branching out of the Asian-​dominated enclaves to see how the rest of America will treat them. Gee, I hope they don’t meet the fate of Pink Lady.
I had the $ 2.50 Almond Milk Tea and had them add the Coffee Jelly for fifty cents. It was tasty, and when I closed my eyes, I felt like I was in the Ginza in Tokyo. But I opened my eyes to see half-​naked men in the Castro. Go figure. They vacuum seal the cup in a machine and give you the big straw with the dagger point. As I went skipping along Castro, I noticed a rather liquefying effect in my tummy that had me begging to use the restroom at the Sausage Factory. Now I know why it’s called Quickly.
BOBA — 4 stars… tasty…and the river runs through it
AMBIANCE — 3 stars… a burst of J-​Pop on a decidedly un-​Ginza street
SERVICE — 3.5 stars… aren’t you Pink Lady?
TOTAL — 3 stars… still think it’s rather pricey for what you get, and since it went right through me, maybe they could have just charged me a rental fee

Why is the computer always on
or the m4m category of craigslist? Oh yeah, dirty castro boys!
Popcorn chicken is a great snack when in a pinch!

The Taro Milk Tea is great! The almond is good as well! My all-​time favorite is Thai Milk Tea.
I am glad this So-​Cal phenom is now prolific in San Francisco!

I’m not too fond of boba chains in SF — I like the ones on SoCal much better — but I like this Quickly because it’s actually really clean. It’s a small place with only two small tables. It has a computer with internet, although the internet wasn’t working the time I went. My most favorite part is the 59 cents daily special.
I always order the same drinks when I order boba, but for 59 cents, I’ll order whatever’s the special of the day. JONASAPPROVED!