Final Thoughts: 4.00/5
It's a soft 4 star for me today. Came here in the late evening time for some boba and a meeting. Nothing too significant to note about this experience. Pretty simple. We came, got boba, and then had our meeting there.
Food:
Popcorn Chicken (Not pictured): 3.9/5
Their popcorn chicken is alright. The meat itself was very tender, which was nice. Flavor was just alright for me. There was some flavor from the seasoning, but it needed a little something else. Perhaps if we had some kind of a dipping sauce, it would've enhanced it just a little bit more. We decided on the highest spice level, but the spicy seemed pretty minute (subjective). I wished they had tossed the chili powder and mixed it a little more because some pieces were covered in the chili powder and others didn't have any.
Taiyaki (Not pictured): 4.2/5
Delightful little snack to go with my tea. It comes with two pieces per order. This fish-shaped snack is filled with red bean. The outside is very crispy and has a nice shell on the outside, has some nice chew and bite on the inside, and pairs very nicely with the red bean filling on the inside. For the texture of the red bean, I felt that it was just a little dry on the sides. Perhaps this is to extend it's shelf life, but it was just slightly dry and sticking to all the sides of the fish versus being a full smooth filling on the inside. When I got to the middle, it was quite nice though. Something I like is that there are still full red beans on the inside versus just being a red bean puree on the inside. Something to note though is that you should eat it when it's hot or maybe reheat it if you do decide to bring it home. I brought a piece of it home and the exterior got a little bit hard and felt really oily afterwards. Delightful upon eating after we received it though.
Drinks:
Roasted Mountain Oolong: 4.0/5
Simple oolong tea drink for me today. The flavor is alright, but not as strong as I would like for it to be. My preference is for my tea to have a deeper flavor to it. Sweetness of this drink was to my liking. The tea flavor has this nice floral scent and taste to it, which I really liked. I like a very subtle sweetness to my teas, so I just got 25% sweetness today. This pairs nicely with the taiyaki because the taiyaki is sweeter. Definitely very refreshing for the summer weather.
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Quality: Average
Quality of this place seems alright. Things seem to be made fresh because we did wait a bit for the food to come out. For the red beans, I feel like this is homemade too because its not sugary sweet like the canned red bean paste. Also, the pieces of red beans inside of it gives it a very handmade feel. Some might not like those lumpy bits, but I personally prefer it. Gives it some nice texture.
Price: Average boba shop
The pricing for the items provided seem pretty average. For my cup of tea, it was $6. The pricing will be within a $6 to $8 range depending on what you get. Again, this is pretty standard for the cost of a boba or tea around the bay area. For the foods, they were
Service: Simple gestures and interactions
There were pretty limited interactions with them. They have two kiosks present with one being at the front of the counter and one larger one being located on the right side right when you get into the shop. We just order from there and then pick up the drinks and food whenever they call out the number. My one note is that they're nice enough to not kick us out even after we overstayed our visit a little bit. They did start cleaning up and putting things away and that was our sign to leave, but they never verbally asked us to leave. We definitely lost track of time for our meeting. Would not recommend taking advantage of this gesture, but we appreciate that they let us stay a few minutes past the closing time.
Ambiance: Simple
The interior is very simple. There is a counter taking up half of the space and then the remainder space is for the tables. They have bench seats and then some chairs. The tables are quite small, so not really made for a large crowd, but you can make it work. There are some tables inside and then some tables and seats outside too if you wanted to enjoy the breeze. Love their music choice today. It was just playing in the background and I like the places that just have the soft music playing. Very soothing and it doesn't disturb me with the volume.
Location/Parking: Fair lot size
The shop is located inside a little plaza with Big 5 Sporting Goods. There are quite a bit of parking spaces here, which is nice. This might also depend on the time. When I first got there, there were very limited spaces leftover. It would be one space leftover here and there. If you're willing to park a little farther, there really shouldn't be a big concern though. read more