Bobae has the best boba tea in town. Over the Rainbow in Renton on 4th (ONLY - the others suck) is…read morethe only place that compares. Service is slow friendly and taste is good so I'll be back

Bobae is a very cute boba shop located on Lake St in downtown Kirkland. It's right across the lake…read moreso people can buy their drinks and soft serve ice cream here and walk across to the park to people watch and enjoy the sunset. I tried the mango and matcha swirl with mango pearls. The yogurt was nicely balanced between sweet, sour and earthy. The mango pearls pop in your mouth and release a refreshing mango flavor. Apparently, bobae has other locations and has been voted Best in the PNW in 2024.

Every time I'm on the West Coast, I have to stop by Salt & Straw at least once for ice cream. The…read morestaff at this location was fantastic and happily let us sample all five of the current monthly flavors before we decided. The seasonal lineup included: * Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie * Wildflower Honey and Lemon Chess Pie * Peaches and Cream Galette * Gruyère and Tomato Custard Tart * Coconut Cherry Pie and Almond Crust (v) SINGLE SCOOP I ended up choosing the Wild-Foraged Berry Slab Pie. I couldn't pass up the sweet, refreshing berries with chunks of of pie crust folded into salted vanilla ice cream. It was bright, fruity, and not too sweet. A couple people in our group preferred the Peaches and Cream Galette, which was sweet, juicy, and tasted like a fresh summer flavor. I also expected the Gruyère and Tomato Custard Tart to be much funkier and savory, but it was surprisingly subtle. It ended up being one of the more interesting flavors I sampled. Salt & Straw continues to be one of my favorite ice cream chains. I love how creative they are with their flavors. Too bad they're only on the West Coast!

SALT & STRAW @ KIRKLAND TOTEM LAKE…read more Parking is available in their parking lot, but it can get pretty crowded. There is also street parking available, but since this Salt & Straw is located in a smaller plaza in Totem Lake, finding a spot can sometimes be a little difficult. I would honestly recommend parking near Trader Joe's or Ross. It may be a bit of a walk, but you'll have a much easier time finding parking. I was really excited to try the Salt & Straw in Kirkland since the locations I was familiar with were in Bellevue and Redmond. I'm super happy that Salt & Straw is expanding because this location is great. The space is much bigger, and I really like how easy the flow is when ordering. The staff were super friendly and quick, and I also love that they have outdoor seating with heaters. Trust me, a lot of people still come here even when it's cold outside, so I really appreciate that they have heaters available. The area itself is perfect for grabbing ice cream on a warm day. There's a kids' play area, lots of stores, a movie theater, and plenty of things to do around the plaza, making it a great place to spend time before or after getting dessert. Salt & Straw is always one of my favorites. My go-to flavor is the Strawberry Coconut Sherbet because it's light, refreshing, and has the perfect flavor. They also have so many unique flavors, including rotating seasonal options, so there's always something new to try. Overall, this is definitely one of my favorite locations, and I absolutely love it.

The service is nice and the chocolate is super good! I will come next time for sure!…read more My girlfriend is happy with the gift.

Excellent customer service. She is so sweet, friendly, and incredibly helpful!!! Excellent customer…read moreservice. She is so sweet, friendly, and incredibly helpful!!!

This place is awesome! I was walking around Kirkland and decided to stop in, and I'm so glad I did…read more They had so many free samples to try, which made it easy to find a favorite. We ended up getting the milk chocolate mocha and dark chocolate mocha bars, and they were delicious and reasonably priced at $6.99. I also loved their product selection. They had chocolate covered dates and mangos, lots of vegan and gluten free options, and even the Dubai chocolate bar. The chocolate is super high quality, making this a great place to pick up a gift, bring something unique to a party, or just treat yourself :) I also loved learning about the family's story behind the business. It's always nice to support a local family owned shop, especially one that's the only chocolate store in the area!

We happened to be walking around Kirkland recently and came across Fortunato Chocolate while…read morebrowsing the stores in the area. The sign outside states they source their chocolate from Peru, which immediately intrigued me. I recently tried a single origin Valrhona chocolate from Peru, which I did not enjoy. I found the Illanka to be musty, almost like wet hair, making it quite unpleasant to eat. A local chocolate shop going bean-to-bar was an excellent chance to give the cocoa beans from this country another try. Fortunato offers chocolate they advertise as being from the world's rarest cocoa tree - from the original Nacional cacao strain, which was thought to be extinct until the founders did genetic testing on some trees in Peru in 2009*. Interesting story, but is the chocolate any good? 68% Dark Chocolate Mini Squares 7oz Bag ($12.99) - This is clearly high quality chocolate given that no emulsifiers are in the ingredient list. I tastes a bit tannic, like wine, to start which then goes to a sweet dried red fruit finish. It has a good snappy quality, but there's a bit of a chalky consistency probably due to lack of emulsifier. One piece had a tiny shell-like crunchy bit inside, perhaps contamination from cocoa husk? I only found this in a single square, so I'm not entirely sure what it is. (4/5) Unlike other bean to bar manufacturers in and around Seattle, I hadn't heard of Fortunado before and ended up doing some more research. Apparently until 2020, the chocolate was only available for purchase via wholesale to restaurant and chocolatiers. They only launched their retail shop for regular consumers in 2021. The chocolate Fortunado sells is similar in price to other high quality bean-to-bar manufacturers around the area. I found the chocolate to be a little too chalky for my tastes, so I wonder if it's better to be used in baking or in confections. *Note: Another brand, To'ak, which I had actually heard of before, seems to have made a similar discovery of Nacional in Ecuador sometime after 2013. To'ak has way better marketing that makes it seem like they revived the Nacional cocoa.

Yum! Goat cheese chocolate? WHO KNEW!!! Totally and uniquely yummy! Chocolate covered orange…read morepeel? Exquisite! The best ever, in any country. So many varieties of hand made chocolate, the flavors no one else dares to try - researched until they reach maximum deliciousness. Perfect for a special occasion or a special someone. Who will share, otherwise, they're all to yourself.

The chocolate truffles are so smooth and creamy. They have lots of unique flavor combinations. My…read morefavorites were the passion fruit and raspberry ones. The fruit jellies are also good and found out they're vegetarian for those who don't eat gelatin. The store is conveniently located close to the Redmond shopping center and lots of parking although it can fill up and be busy.

love the concept of this place! each of the items here use a blend of different nut milks (cashew,…read moreetc. but i don't quite recall all of them). i was interested rinsed his that impacts the flavor of the drink. i think you can definitely taste the nuttiness of the milk in the drink in a similar way to how oat milk would interact with the flavor of a matcha latte making the base a bit nuttier and making the natural astringency and sweetness of the tea stand out against the other flavors. staff was super friendly and helpful in picking the different drinks! i think sugar level-wise, there are three options none, 50%, and 100%, i went with 50% and i think i would have perhaps preferred 100% because the sweetness level of 50% was a bit lower than i'd typically go for. still enjoyed the drink though! i think on the topic of price though, the tea and macarons are a bit expensive for their size, so that's reflected in my more granular rating below. overall, would come back! overall: 8.5/10 taste: 9/10 price: 7/10

This place specializes in typical boba-shop drinks that contain nut milk/cream (stylized as mylk on…read moretheir menu) that this chain is known for. It's near Redmond's Downtown Park, and I scored parking on a Friday around 7pm near Columbia Bank on NE 80th Street where this place is located. This is ideal for me since I have slight lactose intolerance and I'll sign up anytime for a milk not based on diary for my drinks! Or so I thought... Before getting to that, there's still some ground to cover. Overall inside is spacious with limited seating fit for groups of various sizes. The logo of this place is plastered on the wall to the left-hand side of the entrance, and the interior is decently lit especially when it comes to the darker hours. Overall very cozy place to hang out especially when there isn't a lot of people. There is a kiosk at the front where you place your order, and your drinks come out around the counter. I got myself the matcha nut mylk tea and my friend got their oolong nut mylk tea. We both got our drinks at 50% sweetness and 30% ice levels. Now I'm not sure why I haven't learned my lesson on this, but considerably less sweetness has been a bad idea in today's drinks because of the lack of sweet taste, and less ice doesn't really help; both of these were the case especially with my drink. On top of the sweetness levels, the nut flavor in both our drinks is straight up overwhelming. It's so overwhelming that I couldn't even tell if they used ceremonial matcha in my drink or, conversely, oolong tea in my friend's. The nut aroma is aromatic but it goes through the whole drink quickly and I had to leave it for a bit for the nut mylk and matcha layers to settle down. My friend and I weren't really satisfied with what we got and see this visit as a one-time thing, but it was nice to get to try this place since it has made cameo appearances on my IG feeds.

It was love at first scoop! We were completely over the (Molly) moon!…read more Molly Moon's is a local Seattle ice cream chain. From the cute, friendly branding and store to the long lines out front, it was all more than enough to draw us in. We got their Matcha Strawberry (a seasonal flavor) and Scout Mint Brownie. As a side note: every single flavor we sampled was divine. It was so hard to choose! The Matcha Strawberry actually tasted like its name. The green tea flavor was strong with bright notes of strawberry. The Scout Mint Brownie is probably my favorite rendition of a mint chocolate chip. The mint was fresh and bright with no green artificial coloring in sight. It came with generously sized chunks of brownies incorporated throughout. So good! The texture of Molly Moon's is stretchy and chewy which I appreciate. Our new go-to ice cream spot!

Homemade ice cream solving real-world problems! Molly Moon's has 12 locations around Seattle and…read moresupports the local community through fundraising to "fight hunger, support public education, empower women & girls (HEY Girl Scouts of America!), advocate for workers, celebrate the arts, and promote equity." WOW! If that's not enough to spend money/time wisely, they've also founded the Anna Banana Milk Fund to bring nourishing milk products to food banks in the local community. BUT ABOUT THE ICE CREAM. Standard flavors & rotating seasonals have the line running out the door, and this was the longest I've waited in line for a kids' scoop, but likely due to the hot spot location across from Bellevue Park, a gloriously manicured open space. Aidan was generous with samples, helping me land on some ALWAYS good flavors - 'Scout' Mint Brownie & Melted Chocolate for a sweet walk in the park.

Love this location. Super easy parking nearby a dollar tree and grocery outlet which I love and…read morefind convenient. Store is clean and nice. Staff is young but extremely kind, friendly, and hard working. Stopped by for a boba taro milk tea and it was perfect! Boba quality was great and drink was tasty. Some locations are inconsistent or have poor boba quality but Kirkland boba lust location has great boba. I enjoyed my experience and would return! :)

I don't truly lust after Boba but I do like a good boba or mile tea. I got a mango peach something…read morewith peach jellies. It was delicious, not too sweet, but had a gritty grainy texture. Inside seemed vast and sparse. Better to take the drink and go. The boba barista was great with helping me choose my treat, it can be so hard to choose only one.