Gelabong

Love this local business in Hillcrest ! Most boba I have been to is located in Convoy area so it's nice to have a local one. The employees and service is here is always top notch. Servers are efficient, it's never too busy, and they are really nice ! It's open pretty late for the area too so you can your fill They sell mochi donuts and some desserts too which I'm excited to try Definitely earning 5 stars for allowing my dogs in there

Tucked away in a corner of a small plaza, parking can be a hassle. There's small parking lot in front and street parking--both require a fee. They were very kind and patient as I was trying to figure out my order. They explained the differences between their selection, which was super helpful! I got a jasmine milk tea with crystal/white boba. It's made with fresh brewed tea, not pre-made! I really enjoyed it. I also got taiyaki--red bean, Nutella, and custard. Well-filled but not as crispy as I typically like it.

Gelabong is an absolute gem for taiyaki lovers! Their gelabong (taiyaki) is a delightful treat, freshly made and wonderfully chewy - reminiscent of mochi. It has quickly become my new favorite spot, surpassing my previous go-to, Somi Somi. I opted for the nutella-filled gelabong, and what sets Gelabong apart is their generosity with unlimited toppings - a fantastic touch! In my opinion, this spot outshines Somi Somi. However, parking can be a bit challenging. The lot is small, and the spots are quite tight. Despite this inconvenience, the delicious taiyaki and the overall experience make Gelabong a top choice for us. Additionally, my husband enjoyed the peach black tea, which was simply delicious. Gelabong is now our preferred spot for satisfying our taiyaki cravings!

It's not gelato, is just soft serve ice cream! The little fish-shaped waffle thing was ok (filled with custard), but not with $4.

I had been looking forward to going here for a long time and I was really disappointed. Staff was friendly but the ice cream was just not good. The chocolate vanilla swirl had such an odd flavor. The cookies and cream tasted like chocolate, kind of. Not like Oreos at all. I was hoping we would be able to get the tayaki as a cone, like other places I've been, but it was just added to the side of the cup. The tayaki that did come with the ice cream got soggy since it was placed directly into the ice cream and wasn't cooked long enough to add a little crunch. The filling was good. Inside the shop was cute. They have a picnic theme and I like the little benches. But I wouldn't go back.

Delicious Thai Milk Boba Tea, although a little too concentrated and sweet which was something I could've personally altered. Also, order the Taro Taiyaki, which was served hot and perfect. The store was quiet and small, clean, too, with quick service that got my order ready in under 5 minutes.

Gelabong in Hillcrest is a gem for boba enthusiasts. Nestled in a clean and vibrant area, the shop offers a welcoming ambiance that's perfect for a quick refreshment. The service was impressively fast and friendly, ensuring a pleasant experience from start to finish. I opted for the boba Thai tea with Oreo crumbles, and it was nothing short of amazing. The rich, creamy flavor of the Thai tea paired perfectly with the delightful crunch of Oreo crumbles, making each sip a treat. Gelabong is definitely a spot worth visiting for a delicious boba fix.

The location is such a cute neighborhood, my friend and i want to come back for pride. The boba and taiyaki were super fresh and perfect. Our drinks were nice, sweet, and smooth not overwhelmingly sugary like some places. They were super friendly and quick. 10/10 if i lived here I'd be here all the time

Pros: the dalgona milk is delicious! The flavor is really flavorful. It's a unique drink that I haven't been able to find at other boba places. The boba is chewy and delicious. The price is very reasonable for a boba drink. Con: I found a tiny fruit fly and a hair in my drink. This only happened once on the same day, but it was enough to make me rethink the drink. Not super appetizing! I guess the sugar is just very sweet.

Stopped here for a soft serve and immediately when I walked in, the lady at the front had a big smile and greeted me. This is a very cute place in a corner with very similar vibes of somi somi. I got strawberry & matcha swirl with some toppings and it was very refreshing and tasty. The lady who gave me my ice cream was also very kind and friendly. Service to me is sometimes more important than the food itself. Definitely recommend and if I'm in the area, I can see myself coming back.

A bizarro world where your ice cream cone is turned upside down and filled with Nutella and soft serve. Oh and your cone is a freshly waffled Fish. Yes I am here for this. It's a Korean thing. Not that I'm Korean just 100% cultural appropriating. I have crazy respect for the culture and cuisine and this joint is a fun and yummy neighborhood gem. My professional advice to you, Grab yourself a fish filled with custard and sweet cream skip the toppings.

With a cadre of snacky teens in tow who had just escaped a serial killer's apartment (see previous review ;), Gelabong came to my rescue with its extensive menu of taiyaki, boba drinks, and more! There was something for everyone, and while nothing blew anyone's mind, everything tasted as expected. Unfortunately, there were very few mochi donuts in stock by evening, and what remained didn't look particularly fresh. Service was great, however, and surprisingly speedy given the size of our group!

We have been meaning to try Gelabong out for some time, as it has popped up on our IG feeds numerous times. Finally got the chance to and it was a bit of an effort to find parking since the lot is pretty small, but luckily we snagged a spot from someone who was just leaving. Upon entering, the staff wasn't too friendly and seemed a bit overwhelmed that they had multiple customers inside at once. As for the shop, it was simply decorated inside with some chairs lined up along the wall. You could see behind the counter as they made drinks and taiyaki etc., which was cool as we witnessed our order being prepared. We ordered an ube mochi donut, an iced Thai milk tea with boba, and a strawberry & matcha filled taiyaki. The donut was a bit stale, though it was expected since it was pulled from the front pastry case. The Thai tea was awesome, but the boba had a gummier texture as if it had been overcooked or was stored at a temperature that was too warm. The taiyaki was fresh and the strawberry & matcha soft serve paired really well together and weren't overly sweet. Overall a decent visit, but Gelabong is not high up on my list to revisit due to accessibility and quality of products.

I and my family were craving sweet drinks. I found Gelabong on Yelp. They had a very nice menu of drinks, Tayaki, and Mochi donuts. Since we were craving drinks, we ordered the following to deliver to our hotel: -Banana Fresh Milk  5/5 - Thai Milk Tea.  5/5 The Best! - Strawberry fresh Milk   5/5 It has fresh strawberries in. - Taro Milk Tea 5/5 They gave us a free Mochi Donut with 4 drinks. The donut we got was Ube. It was scrumptious, fluffy and delicious All the drinks were refreshing and not too sweet.For sure , next time I will go in person to try their Tayaki and more of their delicious drinks.

Love all the options here... mochi donuts, taiyakis, smoothies, milk teas... basically everything to satisfy your dessert craving! Must try the dalgona caramel macchiato!

HI!! i never write yelp reviews or anything, but i wanted to thank the staff who were working on May 22nd at around 8:30!! I ordered some taiyaki for delivery and they were out of a certain flavor so the staff wrote a sweet little handwritten note explaining and gave me a second of one of the other flavors i chose. i know orders closer to closing time can be super annoying, so i really appreciate the time it took!! i got the custard and nutella taiyaki + the oreo milkshake. all super sweet and delicious. thank you!!!

Just okay. If you're in the area craving boba it's fine but no worth going out of your way. Stopped by here on a boba craving. It's located in a small strip mall with a poke place next door. Parking sucks. Lot is too small and people always seem to block the way in and out. Menu is pretty extensive with tea, desserts, mochi donuts and more. I had a milk tea with boba and some tea with Korean candy on top. Also orders a few Mochi donuts. The tea was okay. Boba was pretty soft. Yea was a bit watered down. The Korean candy tea was pretty bad. The candy is supposed to melt into the tea?? It just created bland tea while you waited for the candy to dissolve. The mochi donuts were stale but tasty. I'm not sure if it's the recipe they use or the donuts were old but I have had better. They do have a huge selection of flavors. Overall it was an underwhelming experience. Nothing was terrible but nothing great.

The brown sugar salted crème milk tea with boba is absolutely amazing. I think about it all the time lol. The staff is always very sweet.

Fast, cute, tasty spot to address all your boba cravings. Friendly staff and great variety of flavors.

Taste good, but I guess they try to save food cost by not filling the center of the cup.

I have gone to gelabong many times and I always get the same thing. I really like getting the "gelabong" with vanilla soft serve, the fish waffle with honey inside and then toppings. They are made fresh and taste so good! You can also order the waffles separately. They also have boba teas which look good, but I haven't tried them yet. It's a must go for dessert while in the Hillcrest area. Parking is hard and the lot for this place is small and usually full.

This place caught our eye on the way to thrift store shopping in Hillcrest. We love taiyaki--crisp, flavorful, and fresh here. We ordered it with Nutella, vanilla/chocolate swirl soft serve gelato, and crushed Oreo topping. Delicious! They also have Mochinuts and milk tea beverages here. Friendly service, two benches outside and limited seating inside.

We stumbled upon this place while looking for Boba place. Their drinks were pretty good. We got couple of ube drinks and a Thai idea tea. Ube drinks were with oats milk and Boba. Lychee Boba wasn't that good. I'd stick to the regular Boba. We also got few mochi donuts. Honestly we were not impressed by it. We won't be getting those again, but we liked the drinks. We asked for less sugar on all drinks and they were perfect.

Bomb donuts, ordered delivery and got the waffles. Surprised and loved how cheesy the string cheese one easy! Will be back

it's okay! It's nice to have a boba spot nearby. The last time I went I was craving boba and they happened to be all out. I opted for a strawberry lemonade tea- delish!

Ordered the Oolong Tea with Milk Foam and Strawberry Banana smoothie. The oolong tea was extremely bland where it tasted like milky foam water. The smoothie tasted quite artificial.

If you're in search of a novelty ice cream or an instagrammable snack, then Gelabong will deliver what you need! I had no problems with the quality of ingredients, but the price was a little high for what it was and it was more difficult to eat than expected. I'm not upset that I went, but I'm also not itching to go back and try another. Staff was very nice and helpful!

I like their soft serve gelato with taiyaki (bread fish with fillings) than their boba. Their soft serve gelato is about $7 with unlimited toppings.

5/5/23- 7:30pm. Very small parking lot and free parking for 45 minutes. Big menu to choose from. The young cashier was very formal and provided great information and suggestions. Thinks she was 16. Fantastic communications skills. Ordered a Gelabong for $7.25. It was vanilla ice cream, a fish freshly cooked waffle/pancake and filled it with custard. Then at the end they ask what you want for toppings. I went for all the chocolate!!!! Very good. See the photos. Would recommend this place.

This place is great! I got taiyaki and a mochi donut (not pictured) both were amazing. I love how you can choose your toppings for the taiyaki and it's definitely a good amount of dessert for your money. The mochi donut was so squishy and yummy!

I'm a huge Gelabong fan! Highly recommend! I was impressed by the super cute decor, unlimited toppings and great service! I noticed the teas were a lot more reasonably priced than other boba shops I've visited recently. I tried the Taiyaki ice cream and thought the ice cream was great! It was slightly less creamy than other taiyaki ice creams I've had, however this was nice because it was lighter and less filling. The taiyaki was perfectly cooked. They put a very generous amount of filling! I also love that you can add as many cookies as you want! Give Gelabong a try! I can't wait to go back!

Such a convenient location for boba in Hillcrest. Tried their taiyaki with Nutella and froyo.

I don't think I'll ever trade this place for another boba spot. Esther (I believe owner) is so nice and makes me and my partner feel welcome every time. I appreciate when I walk in and it's welcoming and they recognize us! Again no complaints on the drinks. I swear everything always tastes so fresh. Definitely deserves their 5 stars!!

This place is a gem. If you love Asian inspired flavors with the aesthetics to match, your life will be made as you will never need another ice-cream parlor. The coffee drinks also offer something new and cutting edge. The dessert I ordered instantly became my "Last Meal" dessert. The k-pop playing on the walls just makes everything taste better too! Not that it needs it.

Wannabe Korean dessert shop. This shop tries to do so many things: at least 10 types of drinks, ice cream, donuts, taiyaki. We ordered a mochi donut, matcha flavored cheese drink, and taiyakis. All of it was mediocre - blah flavor. I watched them bake the taiyakis and they put the Nutella in the taiyaki batter while it's cooking - wrong! All of their donuts looked sad and old. How did this place get 4 stars?! Just go to any place on Convoy. Don't come here.

My daughter enjoyed the Boba. Good selection of toppings. Reasonable prices. Fast and friendly service. Very bright and friendly ambiance.

There's a small parking lot in front of the store if you're lucky to grab a spot! They have a really big menu of taiyaki, soft serve, smoothies, dalgona and milk teas! The person on register was great at helping me narrow down what to order! I ended up ordering an ube smoothie but I didn't really like it. It was slightly nutty like ube but was not sweet enough though the boba was sweet and chewy! The taiyaki was really good and didn't take too long to make. The batter tastes great and I enjoyed the various toppings you get to pick at the end.

Cool dessert shop where you get to watch them make their artistic items ie fish (taiyaki) The wait can sometimes be a little long as they are making almost everything fresh to order except for the mochi donuts. Can't wait to go back and try their other offerings and leave with a smile.

Overall: In the middle of Hillcrest, its a small store that can be easily missed. However, I noticed it and love how it provides several different high quality treats in one convenient location. Food: - (this one is my fault and I admit it ) I got the Hibiscus Milk tea with boba. It tasted earthy but not really good...haha - The Taiyaki was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, which is what I always look for. - The yellow cake ice cream was good - just tasted like vanilla Its gimmicky. Has a small parking lot, but has two tables outside for nice seating. Its a nice alternative to Convoy :)

Amazing service, ordered online, vanilla and chocolate soft serve, they were out of chocolate so gave me the closest, cookies and cream and included a free donut with a sweet note! The donuts are worth a try, very yummy.

This was the first late night dessert spot that looked interesting when we visited San Diego earlier this year. It was fairly close by and I do love supporting small mom and pop shops so I had to try it out. Here's what we ordered: **Strawberry Fresh Milk: Very good and has strawberry tons of fresh strawberry bits. (5/5) **"Gelabong" with Vanilla & Taiyaki (Nutella): This was absolutely delicious. They do offer free toppings which is a plus. Every flavor profile worked together really well. (5/5) **Mochi Donuts (Matcha & Ube): Very fresh and fluffy. Flavor was on the weaker side but not too bad for the price. (3.5/5) The service was very friendly and helpful. Their cups were really cute. Everything was very fresh. The ambiance was very nice and they have some seating available outside. On the downside, the parking lot has very limited space but you should be good if you're coming late at night.

Looking for something unique and sweet? This is the spot. Located in a small strip of eateries that include Subway, Poke Chop, and a soon to be opened? Mediterranean fare place whose name I cannot recall. Parking is semi-hellish if you have a bigger vehicle, good luck fitting in the few spaces in the shared parking lot. You get 45 minutes free parking while you are dining at any restaurant here, but signs say if you leave without paying you might not see your car when ya get back. We ordered Strawberry Milk, Taro Milk with boba, a large Dalgona Latte, and a half dozen Mochinuts. Honestly, everything tasted fantastic. Made to order, the flavors were true to their names. I did find that the yellow-cake overpowered the strawberry in the gelato. but we still enjoyed it. We fought for the last piece of the taiyaki lol The taro and strawberry milks were served in cans, which is something I haven't seen before. Very unique. The latte was epically strong, that is, until the chunks of dalgona floating on top dissolved. I had to refill my cup with my cold brew when I got home to dilute the sweetness. The mochinuts were fabulous! They looked like colorful delicious bracelets. We tried the ube, Nutella, strawberry, and matcha. I like how they easily separated in sections if you just wanted a bite or two. Sorry, no pics, these got destroyed and devoured fast! I paid around $40 for all, including tip. Not cheap, but the care and quality is there.

Small family shop. Really delicious and very personable. Great place to enjoy a snack when in the area.

Delicious black milk tea with boba! Cute atmosphere and the employee was a very nice and helpful lady.

This place was so cute an aesthetic pleasing . Love the pop cans they have and the mochi doughnuts they have they are very delicious.

Gelabong is a cute little dessert shop that offers boba, gelato & taiyaki and even mochinuts. I decided to try their boba cause I was craving it, but it wasn't what I expected. I got the taro milk tea but it tasted grainy and the boba was bland and gummy. Definitely not worth the almost $7 spent ;( On the other hand, their gelato with taiyaki was absolutely DELIGHTFUL. If you're gonna come here, you should be getting this instead! My boyfriend was IN LOVE with the taiyaki and I agreed with him. It was fluffy on the inside and slightly crispy on the outside. The gelato had a very nice consistency and they even offer unlimited toppings which is a plus! Definitely recommend this!! I am pretty sure my boyfriend is still dreaming about it too haha

Mochinut is super delicious, even better if you can get them fresh. The taiyaki with nutella or red bean was flavorful. The batter is amazing. Workers are really friendly and helpful. It's designed minimally on the inside but really cute!

Gelabong is a seemingly all rounded Asian dessert place with everything from boba drinks to mochi donuts. Honestly it feels like a hybrid of a boba shop, mochinut, and somi somi if you've been to any of those places. Food: Strawberry Crobong (8/10) This dessert came with strawberry gelato topped with strawberry syrup, strawberries, and their croffle (croissant baked into a waffle shape). As a fan of hot/cold desserts like ice cream and brownies, this really hit the spot. The warm flakey croissant paired nicely with the cold gelato and made for an amazing first bite. I would come back for this again. Service (6/10) The service was decent for a dessert place. The staff were nice and helpful when I asked questions about the menu and directed me to suggestions too. The only thing that made me mark it down was the time it took to receive my order. I waited about 10-15 minutes when there weren't any other people in line behind us or orders to be fulfilled (the only other customers were already enjoying their food). Ambiance (6/10) The vibes of the store were giving mom and pop shop with how it was run. The interior was bright and colorful which isn't my personal style but it was clean and there was plenty of seating. The music was largely kpop selected so if you're into that it's a nice chill hangout spot for that. Overall it was a quirky little spot and as someone who can sometimes feel lactose, the gelato focus was much appreciated.

Came here for dessert and had the mochi donuts which are my fave! I got the ube, Nutella, and black sesame. I also got the dalgona coffee which is really good if you're a coffee lover! Prices are great and staff was friendly!

We popped in to try their boba. That is all. Yet somehow, we walked out with boba AND a half dozen mochinuts. Not sure what that's about. ;) I do believe I like their mochinuts better than their boba, but I'm willing to give the drinks another shot. I prefer a bit of sweetness to my tapioca pearls, so the ones they served felt a bit bland for my palate. The drinks were flavorful and refreshing, at least: my husband got the strawberry milk ($6 with boba) and I got the black tea ($3.95 with boba). For the 'nuts, we went with: blueberry, ube, black sesame, fruity pebbles, ore-oz and strawberry ($14). I'm not sure if they make these in-house, but they tasted fresh and had that chewy yet crispy texture and slightly sweet flavor that I adore about the mochinut craze. We'll likely swing back in to give their boba another try - we both wanted to try their Dalgona latte but didn't want the caffeine. And it's nice to know we have quality mochinuts without having to drive to Convoy.