Jennifer L.
Yelp
I didn't expect to have an appalling experience at my favorite spot for boba. I've been coming here for over two years now - since my initial review, my go-tos have been exclusively 1) strawberry tornado, and 2) uji green milk tea. Nothing else, because those couldn't be dethroned for me.
I've come dozens of times to this location; most recently in August, and the drinks were consistently amazing. Not once were they off. I stopped by because there was only a short line today and ordered the strawberry tornado.
When it came out, I had to do a double-take to see if it was my drink, because it practically looked like a milk tea.
The boy that handed it to me insisted it was the correct drink, so I initially left it at that. When I put my straw on it, watery cheese foam squirted out. That's fine, I thought surely the slush would be in the middle because why wouldn't it - since they'd never messed it up before, but no. It was essentially that same diluted cheese foam (how?!?) with a hint of strawberry slush.
The girl at the register was really understanding when I inquired about it just 2 minutes later, so I stood off to the side when he came to me and condescendingly said "We'll remake your drink as a courtesy, but this is a one-time exception and won't happen again." What? I tried to tell him it was made incorrectly, and there's got to be a mistake because it's never been like this of the dozens of times I ordered, but he interjected each time and even said "It probably melted by the time you got it" (I stood waiting for it + it hadn't even been over 10 minutes).
After a minute of back and forth, he passive-aggressively said "Ma'am, we appreciate your loyalty. Now we can argue all day [what!], but the recipe hasn't changed [obviously?!]. That's why we're offering to remake your drink. It's always been made this way [from the way it was perfectly remade afterwards, you had to have known it wasn't]."
He quickly took the drink after that, and I tried to ask him to wait so I could take a picture of it, but he ignored me and walked away.
When he came back, it was finally made correctly. I just don't even know why he wanted to convince me I was wrong, and that Omomo was doing me a favor just this once; and be rude from the get-go when even he (or someone on the team) knew how to make it properly.
If you're seeing all the reviews saying "What's so special about this place? Why is there so much hype when it's just average?" - it's probably because the once-genuinely amazing drinks are being made like this lately.
Edit: I'm also seeing the other reviews now where people are having issues w/ their drinks, and even being refused to have remade, so I would technically be considered "lucky." And also they're accusing customers of lying? What on earth?
Instead of remaking or distrusting customers off the bat, I wish management would take the time to properly train their hardworking team, so they don't go through the time & hassle of having to rebuff us as well (+ have both parties' day soured). They're already dealing with a fast-paced environment.
Tl;dr: please bring our strawberry tornado back - without attempting to gaslight me :(