EDIT (10/1/09): The owner contacted me and was very courteous, but his account was disabled when I tried to reach him. Anyway, I've been back once or twice and I'm happy to say that the cashiers were really, really friendly and the service was fast, considering how long of a line there was. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The only redeeming quality about this place is the fact that it's located in the center of UCSD campus. (The drinks aren't so bad, either.) I've been to this TapEx a couple times now and I am continually disappointed by the quality of their food (the spicy chicken snack, especially - definitely not worth the price) and the attitudes of (most of) the workers. I understand that most of them are students and they are probably stressed out, but it is never okay to be snobby and/or rude if you're working in customer service. Never. (This is not to say that all of them are bad, there has been one older man (the owner?) and one other guy who were actually friendly.) The convenience of the location is probably the only reason I'll return. read more

Their crispy chicken is SOOOOO good! I love getting my chicken medium spicy-always just enough heat. They also keep the spice packet outside in case you want more spice in your life! Also, I like that they fill up the bag all the way so I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. My favorite drink to get there is the trident milk tea-enough caffeine to keep me up studying, but not enough for me to be bouncing off the walls. 10/10 would recommend (especially if you're a broke college student like me!) read more

Truly awful "food". It's texture is unnatural and the sauce is some sort of nasty paste. Spice levels are adjusted by sprinkling cayenne pepper over everything at the very end. Their food might be considered a weapon if mass destruction. I felt like going outside and licking a tree to get rid of the residue. I think the chemistry department should look into this place. And possibly FEMA. read more

A Tapioca Express on campus is very convenient and provides a great place for study-snacking and to just hang out. Compared to other Tapioca Expresses, the quality of the food isn't up to par. The last time I ordered a crispy chicken here, it was not crispy and didn't taste very fresh, especially compared to the other Tapioca Express by Vons. The drinks are decent, probably one of the better choices around campus, but still far from great. read more

I don't love their boba, but they have pretty good variety on their menu and their milk tea is nice. I would recommend getting the milk tea without the boba though. Service is quick and portions are decent. read more

Strongly recommend the Vietnamese iced coffee with boba! Also completed order in a timely manner.

I made a yelp account just to review this place. That's how bad it was. 1) The girl at the register gave me major attitude. Watching her try to flirt shamelessly at another customer later (who was trying his best to ignore her ugly face), made me resent her customer service even more. 2) My stir-fry tofu and vegetables looked like something that could be served at a refugee camp. Did I really just pay $7 for some carrots, broccoli sprinkled with red pepper?? 3) The tofu was sour. 4) Oh, did I mention the girl at the register? Again, watching her ugly face try to be cute and flirty was nauseating and made me lose my appetite for an already unappetizing meal. 5) Basically, never going here again. Unless I'm desperate or something. read more

One of two places I frequent in Price Center East. The smell of fresh, fried, spicy squid balls stricking your nostrils at 10 o'clock in the morning is just too priceless I tell you! If you haven't tried your stab at some fried squid balls or fried fish balls, get on board with the rest of us please. Thank you. read more

I agree, this place on UCSD campus is mehh. I got a crispy combo and was stuck with the rice gets burned at the bottom of the rice cooker. I would usually let this go but it happened again, and to my other friends as well. Come on, we pay about $8 dollars for a combo and we get stuck with left over, burned rice!? =[ read more

I'm amazed at the low reviews! Always, without a doubt, a good standby if you're campus. The crispy chicken snack can probably give you a heart attack, but it is simply amazing. Greasy, crispy, savory...all in one! Another standby is the chicken bowl where you can choose between fried or grilled chicken and it comes with rice and a mini salad, all for a little more than 5 dollars. As for the boba....I usually go for the normal milk tea which always works. It's always enjoyable to both eat and drink at the same time. However, stay away, and I mean stay away, from the more bizarre flavors like green apple (artificial flavors, uck!). read more

I actually enjoy Tapex a lot. I love their crispy chicken and their calamari is awesome. I totally recommend the Earl grey milk tea, almond milk tea, and the yogurt slush. read more

I've never really been a fan of boba drinks at all in my life, but coming to UCSD and having Tapex conveniently on campus is SO nice! The workers are always so friendly with a smile on their face and you never wait very long for your order. My favorite is their Red Bean Milk, which I strongly recommend! Definitely my go to place :)! read more

The drinks are great and the crispy chicken is delicious. Good price too.

4 stars because it's the only boba place on campus. Not the best boba place, but it will grow on you if you live on campus and eat here often. The staff work very hard to process orders quickly. They give very generous portions of crispy chicken snack (popcorn chicken), while the calamari snack is only about half calamari and half deep-fried batter. I always get a large boba milk tea with no ice, or passion fruit green tea. I never get their combos because the vegetables look like they are the pre-washed salad mixes from the grocery store. Spring rolls are decent. read more

I like it. It satisfies your needs, what more can you ask for? Good boba place, deserves a lot more credit than it receives. Would recommend if you just want boba. WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT FROM THIS PLACE????????? read more

They have a big variety of flavored teas. I usually come here for the food, though, often stopping by for lunch or dinner. Their meal combos are pretty good. Nice price for a rather large amount of food. Their fried chicken is probably my favorite. However, one of their pork meals does not really resemble its picture on the menu. Still tastes OK though. The meal boxes sometimes get hot and soggy, especially with the tofu combo, so be careful picking the boxes up. This place often gets very busy, serving a lot of UCSD students, so I applaud the employees here for working so hard. read more

it's the only thing i eat on campus :) nothing's better than having a yummy drink during lecture! definitely recommend this place! :) read more

Just came here about 5 minutes ago. Ordered lychee green tea with boba. I started drinking it, and after about two minutes of drinking it, I realized that there was absolutely no lychee flavoring or syrup in this drink. It was just straight up iced green tea. The server was a girl named Angela during the 5 to 530 shift on a Saturday for the record. Probably will not be returning. read more

Honestly I feel so embarrassed every time ordering here because it's so typical of me (an asian!!) to get this stuff! I LOVE their crispy chicken but definitely not at this location. Not sure why but it's just not up to par in my opinion. When they call your number and you don't get there fast enough, they scream it into the damn microphone. Calm down people! Freakin heard you the first time\ read more

Most convenient place to eat on campus. Great service and spacious environment~a very decent place to either catch up with friends or have a study session. I personally don't like to drink fancy tea, but boba black tea is one of my favorites and they really do a good job getting the taste to be exactly the kind that i like. I can't possibly imagine UCSD without tapex. read more

Customer service is pretty bad, although I might just have bad luck and got the mean workers serving me. Tapioca express is never really that amazing in general, but the line at this place gets pretty ridiculous at times. It's okay to get a quick boba drink as there is not another one close by, but it just never seems that worth it. The spicy French fries are decent and I haven't tried the other dishes, but I'm sure it tastes okay. The main thing that keeps me away from this place is the customer service. I understand that you're all college students under constant stress, but it should not effect how you treat customers. read more

The boba here is extremely low quality (even to TapEx standards). I understand that most boba shops only use powder to make their drinks, but 9 times out of 10 the milk tea tastes like water and the Thai tea tastes like black milk tea. The coffee milk tea also tastes like black milk tea. Their hot drinks are better, though. read more

Excellent! Delicious! I've never had a Thai tea so delicious. Also the milk tea is a great drink if you wanna get more bang for your buck. 10/10 would do again. read more

honestly i think this place is pretty freaking expensive for the crap they give you. what happened to the "old (soy sauce mix)" boiled egg thing?? and the sour vegetable with mince meat??? is it only an LA thing? the chicken tastes the same as all the other asian drink places. but it comes with this crappy ass mixed vege thing straight from the frozen vege bag. wtf. and i dont remember what the other side (if there is one) was. i never come here anymore. blah read more

This Tapioca Express is ok. I have definitely had better. It is too expensive for boba. A large almond milk tea with boba cost me $4.95. Definitely not worth the price. Because it is on the campus of UCSD, it is the only boba place on campus, they can inflate the prices. read more

The vibe is friendly, the location is great to take a break, the service is quick and the drinks are lovely. One of my favorite spots at UCSD :) read more

Hooray for boba at UCSD! Great drinks -- in fact TapEx is my favorite tea place in town. Food leaves much to be desired, but that's not why I go there. read more

WTF. I still don't know why I still come here multiple times a week when it sucks but I always have a craving for milk tea when I'm at school... read more

This place is located UCSD cafeteria lounge, not conveniences to outsiders. They offer Student discount. There milk tea's are about the same as most of all the milk tea places. There Ok-Ok- good! The boba is kind of hard and chewy, but its really Ok-ly Ok! But there are kind of expensives compare to Quickly. read more

Love that this is located on UCSD campus at the Price Center and by my classes. I come here for a refreshing drink during these warm summer days :) mmmm I wouldn't recommend the tofu rice plate though... The vegetables that come with this are hard and not steamed! The rice is also hard. The sauce that goes with this plate settles to the bottom and doesn't do a good job in flavoring the food. read more

Why is it that all the Tapioca Express branches in San Diego all differ from each other? For instance, how come their Strawberry drink doesn't contain real strawberry pieces like the Convoy branch does? Or why doesn't their menu list real fruit drinks like the one on Regent Road does? *Throws hands up in the air* IDK! //Long list of drinks I've tried I've tried a good amount of different flavor drinks here and I found that you can never go wrong with Black Tea (tastes like honey!) and Thai Tea. Both are on the lower price range ($2.95). I'm kind of disappointed with the boba they make because the center isn't fully cooked which makes it very chewy. I try to get the small boba whenever I can but they always run out of it by 5pm. Almond Milk Tea is another good one. My friend recommended that drink to me and it tastes exactly like the almond jello that my family serves with fruit cocktail at gatherings. In my opinion, I thought their Hong Kong Tea tasted like the Lipton tea I make at home with milk so don't get it. The Passionfruit Tea and Mango flavored Tea both need a few shakes to stirr the syrup before consumption. Drinks that taste good but leaves an aftertaste in your mouth include Taro Milk Tea and Honeydew Milk Tea / Snow Bubble (slushies with milk). I didn't like their Peach Slushie drink. Blech! It was obviously made from powder and it tasted like that peach candy I hate. The one with the floral wrappers? The peach drink is a lot worse in Snow Bubble form. Stay away from the Chocolate drink. My friend got it and I took a sip it and it was gross. It tastes like the lactose intolerant chocolate coins I got for Chinese New Years some odd years ago. //End of long list of drinks I've tried I have tried their Chicken Bowl once and I must say that I will probably never get it again. It comes with rice and the spicy crispy chicken that people are always getting in little bags with skewers. After taking a few bites I instantly had heartburn and a stomachache. I had to sleep that meal off. Powerful stuff! read more

I like this place out of convenience since it is right where I work! The owner Alan is very friendly and it is great for a boba fix. My go-to drink is the lychee green tea with no tapioca. The caffeine gets me thru my long work days. I'm a fan do the non-fried dishes, like the pork ribs or the curry grilled chicken. It's not the best food on the block, but definitely a good lunch every once in a while. read more

In a nutshell: Overpriced for the quality of food you get, yet seems to be the going rate in this student union. Had the grilled chicken combo (grilled chicken thigh meat, white rice, and a small iceberg lettuce salad with a [tasty] green tea). Recommendations: (1) Check that you're charged the right price. (2) The Vietnamese spring rolls looked good and were 'appropriately' priced ($3.75). read more

Pricing: Good. Not going to break the wallet, but still not worth it. Quality: Poor. My fried pork chop was dry like a bone and more brown than golden. Turnaround: Good. Always a line. Service: Good. Just rung us up and hand the food over. The pricing is not bad per se, but I am paying way more than the food is worth especially since I am getting mostly rice and a watered down powdered drink. The salad was just a few pieces of lettuce and shredded carrots. The few pieces of meat I had consisted of pieces of pork fried and refried in probably weeks-old oil (explains the dark coloration) so many times that they came out as dry chunks of protein blocks. They were so dry that I had to drown them in sweet chilli and ranch sauce so that I would not worry about choking on them. On the other hand, the powdered honeydew drink I got was was okay. I can attest that the tapioca was not half bad, neither too mushy or too hard, and there was less than half a cup of ice in my drink. They are pretty fast with passing out the food, but since there always appear to be a line, I end up waiting a very long time. I had enough time to go to the other side of Price Center, use the bathroom, pick a table, and then wait a little bit more before they finally called my number. This is pretty much a self-service kind of joint with the only interaction during the paying an handing of food. read more

So I've only had two drinks here but both of them I love!! Location - in the Price center on the undergrad campus. Hard to access by car but easy by foot and the Price center is a great break from a boring work day given its wide range of restaurants and ample outdoor seating. Line - can get quite long, if so expect to wait anywhere from 5-10 minutes for your drink. Drinks - Their watermelon juice is so good when watermelon is in season. They literally put whole watermelon into a blender and give you the finished product, no sugar added. And I love watermelon. Their boba has always been wonderful too - very soft and sweet and the perfect amount for your drink. I've also had their milk tea at 50% sweetened (to save calories) and this has also been great, but 100% sugar is of course better! Food - had their popcorn chicken with the spiciest level - they just pour red chili pepper on it to make it spicy. It's super fried and delicious if thats what you're in the mood for and its quite a big portion. Best part is that during happy hour, its cheaper! read more

I would say that this place is GREAT! yes the food isn't the best..but the service is great and the drinks are AWESOME! there's a TON of flavors you can choose from. As for food...i LOVE the curry chicken steak rice. read more

The Place: It's in Price Center, so it has an awesome location. Plus it's a two minute walk to Yogurt World. I think they're trying to recreate that little area of Convoy at UCSD, but that's just a theory. There aren't many tables, but they still have the flat-screen TVs that all tapioca places must have. The tables are always dirty, which makes me wonder if the PC cleaning staff has to clean the TapEx tables too. The Student Workers: I don't care if something super amazing and funny happened to your friend while you were at a party the night before. If you're working out in the front where EVERYONE can see and hear you, I'm pretty sure the customers don't want to see you gossip, especially when there's a line of 15 people, one person at the register, and four people NOT MAKING ANY DRINKS!!! I'd like to say that this has happened only once... but it's happened at least three times. I ordered some fried food in the back and saw that one of the trainees dropped my food and then picked it up with her UNGLOVED hands and put it back in my bag. Uhm, gross? The Manager: Even though the students are terrible, the manager is super nice and will try to fix things. When I caught the above mentioned student, the manager apologized, rushed another order for me, and provided me with a voucher for a free drink. The Food: The spring rolls are decent. A bit pricy, but not bad. The crispy chicken is very oily. I can't have more than 1/3 of the bag before I give the rest to my friend. The fried tofu tastes good the first few times... then tastes like a fatty fried mess after that. Also, don't ever the combos! They're expensive and give you about 1/10 of the amount of meat you get when you order the snack but make up for it by giving you rice. Wow. I'm pretty sure you could bring rice from home and it'd be much cheaper. The Drinks: Have you seen how many calories are in a Snow Bubble?!?! Oh my gosh. I don't think the drinks are worth that many calories, but I do get them at times. I prefer the snow bubbles and the milk teas, but that's just my preference. You can always personalize your order by getting different syrups or tapioca/jelly no ice, but for some reason my ordering the tapioca on the side angers some of the employees. All In All: If you live on campus and want to get TapEx, go ahead and go to Price Center. If you want slightly better service (and no line), go to the one on Regents. Run by the same people (I think) and with a 20% off coupon in the Dollar Stretcher. read more

Great milk tea, I always go for the kiwi with double boba. Their crispy chicken snack is really good as well, especially since they added the fried basil. The line is sometimes long and the kitchen gets backed up but its a great place to stop in between classes for a boba fix! read more

Typical Tap Ex, but on UCSD's campus. I like the spicy chicken, even though I'm not a big fan of boba tea.

the drinks are decent but the food is meh quality. the rice is either really dry or really really clumpy. I mean if there is no way to get off campus then this is better than dining hall food. read more