OMG. I wish I could eat this stuff everyday! Why does it have to be so out of the way on Washington Ave?? Despite the distance, I've probably been here a good 10 times.
The desserts and drinks they serve here are legitimately 5 times better than boring ol' bubble tea. For one, most bubble tea places taste so fake and everything comes from blended powder/sugar syrup with ice. Even the tapioca is laced with food coloring. Well not here at Bambu. These are the freshest, most natural tasting yet mass produced drinks you will ever have. I don't know how they do it. They use ingredients like mung bean paste, coconut milk, coconut water, grass jelly, pandan, etc. Everything just tastes so real and never anything artificial or imitation (think jolly ranchers or 100% juice blends from concentrate). If you get something like coconut juice, it actually tastes like they made it on the spot.
I've tried many of the desserts here, but my favorite is the #4 (red tapioca, grass jelly, pandan jelly, jelly strands, and mung bean paste topped with coconut milk). The #4 and the #10 are pretty similar except the #10 doesn't have mung bean paste. The #2 is also a good one with a variety of sweet beans, traditional tapioca pearls, combo jelly cubes, and taro paste! I love the taro paste in the #2, but the texture of the combo jelly and tapioca pearls requires too much chewing.
I've also tried the Bambu Special #1, the avocado dessert #5, and the #6 the one with a lot of canned tropical fruit. I did not care for #1 and #6. #1 seriously looks really pretty like liquid jade but it is too sweet and the coconut meat is tough and hard to chew. #6 is filled with canned fruit like logan and lychees and I could not stand the canning syrup, again too sweet. The #5 is really interesting. It's basically a sweet guacamole or a avocado ice cream without the ice. It's dense and creamy but will never melt in your mouth, kinda like eating avocado icing. So weird. It will definitely fill you up though. I feel like they put at least 2 real avocados into the thing so it's worth the cost.
For drinks, I've tried the penny wort drink mixed with mung bean (too sweet), raspberry juice, and the strawberry tea. The strawberry tea is really good and really refreshing. Beware though it does come with basil seeds. I mention this because there's a poster of the strawberry tea on the wall but you can't tell it has basil seeds in it. The raspberry juice was way sweet and tasted more like strawberry juices honestly.
The good thing is though, you can tell them to adjust the sugar and ice level in most of the drinks and desserts. Also, I didn't know this for a while but you can get a large size for $1.
For smoothies, I've only tried the sour sop. It tasted like a creamy tart apple smoothie!! Tart at first with a surprising creamy after taste, kinda like the green apple flavored Airhead candy.
BEST OF ALL, the drinks here are impressively CONSISTENT. I've never had the same amount of consistency at ANY other coffee shop or drink place ever! Most places, your drink will vary with the barista or bar tender that makes it. Of all the times I ordered the #4 (at least 7 times), it always came out the same: same sweetness, same amount of jelly, same amount of coconut milk, same amount of ice (unless I request less ice). I don't know how they do it but that's effort and science right there. The ladies back in the kitchen would put most bar tenders to shame with their consistency.
Seriously, I don't think you can NOT like this place, except if you dislike texture in your drink which I found a lot of my non-Asian friends hate. In that case, you'd probably hate bubble tea, too. Bambu does have the usual cafe latte and smoothies though without the chunky toppings.
Lastly, I love the smell of this place (coconut milk heaven), the EDM they ALWAYS play on the wall mounted TV, the cozy red sofa against the wall, and the fact that most drinks cost $4.26 but they only charge you $4.25 to avoid the extra penny (dude, how can you keep doing this? How do you get your checkbooks to balance?). This place is so quirky and just my kind of quirky.
BAMBU owners, if you're reading this, you need to open a location in Rittenhouse or Chinatown. You would make bank! I would go there over Tea Do, Tea Chat, or Kung Fu Tea any day! read more