I highly recommend, the service is amazing and the crispy chicken is nice,crispy and tender the vibe is amazing they got some arcade games like a claw machine and a pac man game and the decorations is amazing. it's nice clean read more

This is my go to boba store in La Jolla! My favorite drink is the mango snow bubble. Would definitely recommend!

Great service and good drinks, shoutout Zachary! My favorite is the strawberry black tea!

Love the honeydew! This place is great! The service is always fantastic! I highly recommend! read more

Chose a cantaloupe snow bubble which was like a blended drink. Delicious, sweet enough and good to the last drop. Also asked what 2 snacks employee would recommend. She immediately answered popcorn chicken and gyoza. She then asked for spice level which I chose medium. They were crunchy, and a bit spicy and salty to me but Doc seemed to like them. At the very end of the strip mall. read more

See all

Service is very fast and friendly. The prices are pretty fair. They have a bunch of different specials throughout the day, lunch, happy hour, and a drink special after 8pm. The inside has plenty of seating (warning, they don't do well at keeping the dining area and chairs clean). I normally take my drink/snack to-go or sit outside in the small patio. read more

See all

Amazing service love the boba here! My fav is the taro and mango! Very good place for lunch or a quick snack!

Close to my house and convenient, I love to come grab boba drinks for my family. They have a wide variety of drinks from milk tea to mango slush. I normally get the house milk tea with boba or taro milk tea with boba. Their fried tofu, fried squid balls and pop corn chicken are pretty delicious. The staff are efficient and get the orders out quickly. The seating area isn't super luxurious but there are a few tables and chairs. read more

Tapioca Express - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

I love this location, and have been coming for years. I love how fresh the food is and the drinks are amazing. 100% would recommend, especially with the amazing service they have. read more

amazing service fast and very kind workers. I really enjoy the boba hear and the atmosphere is amazing.

Drinks are awesome! I usually have the Thai tea with half sugar. So yummy. I highly recommenda

I LOVE THEIR DRINKS!! They're always playing something on the TV and it's such a vibe. Amazing to go here after a long day at ucsd and doing work read more

We stopped by this location and had a couple drinks - iced coffee and a mango tea and some potstickers. The service was great. Lola helped us and was friendly and fast :) we'll be back. read more

I'd been coming to TapEx with my friend since we were teenagers, so it is pretty nostalgic. I generally prefer other boba shops, but this one is good if you're in a crunch. A lot of the UTC boba shops don't stay open late like this one. I usually get a snow bubble (strawberry and thai tea) which has always been pretty good. Definitely the cheapest boba you will find in SD - i think the snow bubble was under $6 total. With that, the restaurant smells a bit funky and the furniture is pretty old/worn down. I prefer the outside seating. The claw machine is a fun touch! I won a toy on my first try, but my friend didn't after about 5 tries. read more

See all

We were around the corner and since it has been a while since we last visited a Tapioca Express we decided to give it another go. We ordered the Crispy Chicken Combo paired with a Sweeten Black Tea and a Korean Short Rib Combo paired with a Milk Tea. Gotta admit that both hit the spot if you are looking for something quick and filling. This location def hits vs some others previous ones that I've been too so if you are in the area and want that Boba Meal combo. Def stop by. read more

Tapioca Express - Korean Short Ribs Combo - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

See all

Randomly stopped here with my guy cuz I was sicky and wanted something cold on my throat. Very unimpressed by this place. We were the only ones here and it still took them over 20 mins to make our two drinks. I got a Taro slush and there was zero taro flavor at all. Very disappointing. Of course I still drank it because the cold felt amazing on my throat. Plenty of other places that are way better than this one. Edit for owner: I stopped by 03Dec2024 read more

See all

Great drinks and snow bubbles! Such a convenient location, would recommend to any students looking for a cheap meal

this place carried me during my 10 hr class days and my 4 hr lab days during my 4th yr. sharing some credit to my bs in microbiology to tapex and their crispy chicken combo meal with a mango green tea with popping boba. read more

Love their Tofu snack! Earl grey mixed size boba :) is great too. :) :) :) :) :) :)

I love tapex this is always my go to meal on and off campus! I especially like the #9 combo which is the fried chicken with curry

Always great customer service and amazing drinks at at the best price in town! They recently renovated so it's very cozy in there!

I had to run an errand and I checked nearby for any boba shops I have not visited yet. There were 2 spots nearby and I decided to come here due to the reviews on the food at this spot. The place is in a shopping plaza, a couple spots right in front and many throughout the whole parking lot. The inside is very basic, nothing stood out in decorations or seating. I did see they have some board games available to play if you end up hanging out. They had the menu hanging above, but it was not that easy to see. (a bit dark) They did have an actual menu in front where you ordered. It definitely looked like more things in the menu vs what appeared on the wall. I didn't see many 'speciality' drinks on the menu. They have the milk teas, the fruit teas, ice slushy, snow bubbles, fruit sodas. These are the items I got: 1. Thai tea with mixed boba (big & small boba) This was run of the mill Thai tea, I could not tell you if this was freshly brewed Thai tea being used, but if I had to guess, I don't believe so. The boba were good, the smaller ones were soft and chewy. The bigger ones were not as good but decent. They skimp on the toppings.  3/5 2. Passion fruit green tea with grass jelly with sea salt foam. I got this for my sister, she noted that the foam was uber delicious, the drink was ok. It wasn't bad nor good.  She noted it had only a few pieces of grass jelly. 3.5/5 3. Mango Fresh Fruit tea with green apple jellies These were different from the slush/icy drinks since those use flavored syrup while these have real fruit. It was pretty sweet. 3.8/5 4. I got shrimp balls, I was hoping these would be panko fried shrimp in ball form, but they are like fish balls but made of shrimp. They did put the seasoning they put on the crispy chicken so that part made these better. These were not bad but not what I was expecting. 3/5 5. Crispy chicken- I came here due to the reviews,  I do think they give you a pretty good portion for the price, but the chicken was overdone, chewy and in all different sizes. I have had this type of chicken many times and the fact it being dark meat but dry and overdone is a travesty. You really have to cook thigh meat to death to make it this chewy and hard OR this was old fried chicken. Let's just say I was very disappointed. The seasoning was good, too bad the meat was terrible. 1/5 I might visit this joint again but definitely not any time soon. Food: 2/5 Service: 3/5 (took a little bit longer than expected and the chicken was still bad!!) Ambiance: 3/5 read more

See all

Came here on a weekday to study and it was quite nice. It was quiet and the food was very affordable. You honestly can't get these prices around here, especially during happy hours, these days. Happy hours start at 10AM, so right when it opens and honestly, I was glad because I was going to wait until 11AM to go in. Ordered the Tapioca Express Crispy Popcorn Chicken Combo with Boba Milk Tea which came out to be under $10. They were also very generous with the chicken and the amount provided. The chicken was good. It wasn't the best but it was still juicy and cooked thoroughly. The outer layer was crispy, and their spice level had a nice kick to it. I did wish they mixed it with the other chicken rather than just sprinkling it on top though. Boba tasted like every other boba places. Love that they give boba without additional cost so that's a huge win. Other than that, I would love to be back with my headphones to study since it was quite spacious and staffs were friendly. WiFi is fast and parking is free since it's shared with the other businesses. read more

Tapioca Express - T.E. Crispy Popcorn Chicken Combo with Boba Milk Tea - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

See all

They have a happy hour milk tea special that we took advantage of. They also had a special on their crispy chicken for $3. The milk teas were a little on the sweet side but the boba was good. The crispy chicken was ordered with a medium spicy level and it was delicious! Whatever flavoring that they sprinkled on the fried chicken was so good! read more

See all

i love the remodel! this tapex has one of the best lunch deals in sd, and really friendly staff!

Visiting and So disappointed, they kept getting my drink wrong and my food. It was only three crisp chickens, and two boba drinks. It was. Horrible experience. It used to be better read more

Why is there half the amount of chicken than usual in my combo? Are they cutting back? Are we in a depression? read more

Tapioca Express - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

Ordered Thai tea snow bubble asked for not too much boba and it was perfect, taste and portion. Tofu snake medium spicy right amount of heat and crunch.. chicken snack good portion and heat but they were so hard to chew and tough to eat.. maybe if they sliced smaller and fried less. Will be back for the really good tofu!! read more

I gave them 3 strikes and that's it. We won't go back there again. Food is gross. I ordered grilled chicken and there was a fairly big metal piece you used to clean in the kitchen inside the chicken. I showed the shop staff what I found. They said they can give me refund or make me a new one. I totally lost my appetite so I accepted the refund. Today we went there for Boba tea (we wouldn't risk to order food from here again) and French fried for my kids . I ordered Blended tea with boba and fried with NO Spice. I didn't notice there were not boba in my drink until we walked out for a while. I went back and asked why no boba in my drink. They said they did not see the boba in the order. And after we tried the fried. I tasted the spicy and I saw chili powder on it. That was the last straw. We won't go back again. They screwed up too many time. Plus very disgusting food preparation and cooking. Let's hope the better business in the neighborhood like Jersey's mike take over soon. read more

I accidentally ordered the wrong thing and they corrected it with no cost--such nice service! This is also just my favorite boba spot in SD (: read more

pretty butt ngl. i came like 20 mins after opening n the chicken from my #1 combo felt old as hell n tough bruh. rice was dry asf too. some grains were dumb hard. but this is def a bargain for like 11-12 bucks.so ill bump up to a 2 stars read more

Tapioca Express - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

Short story but I was having a tough day and wanted to stop by tapex before going to mt soledad for a picnic. I was greeted by the front cashier Brent, he was truly an angel! He was THE nicest person who's worked at any establishment. Served everyone smiles, and always asking if you're having a good day after your order. I ordered a chi chi fries (fries, cheese, popcorn chicken, some chipotle sauce) so good! Definitely come here for the munchies!! And my usual popcorn chicken with rice!! (Always a good choice in my opinion can never go wrong) this was a HUGE portion! They hooked it up with chicken, other locations skimp out for some reason! Good for 2-3 people!! Squidballs!! Always great, made to order, crispy, and always fills that late night craving. I've had their drinks here as well and they're all great but my usual is taro so you can't really mess that up haha Will come back solely for the service! read more

See all

Very nice staff, always super friendly. The drinks are usually a hit or miss. If you're looking for something to drink you can't go wrong with either their black or green tea or any of their snow bubble (blended) drinks. I wouldn't necessarily recommend their milk tea drinks, I feel like the ones I had so far can be a little watered down. To this day, the lychee or passionfruit snow bubble with boba are my favorites. If you're getting boba I recommend going in the afternoon or later, that's when they have their fresh boba. Their combo meals are also pretty good and they have great deals for some of them during happy hour. I like getting their crispy chicken combo, along with a snow bubble drink. It also comes with a very generous portion size for the combo meals. read more

Tapioca Express - Crispy Chicken Meal - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

See all

Good local neighborhood boba shop but very run of the mill, nothing great. Prices are high considering their location and after ordering food several times now, I can say definitively that they're inconsistent when it comes to food. Sometimes overcooked, sometimes too spicy when same spice level was ordered, at least boba drinks have been consistent. I suggest skipping their food. As for the chewiness of their tapioca balls (boba), it leans towards the tuffer side -doesn't have the right consistency for boba lovers but fine for the average person that doesn't know better from having been in Asia. read more

I been going here for years, after gym I eat here I usually get Pop corn chicken combo or tofu with rice. They been serving me the portion of snack. which is $3 and some change but charge me $5 and some change or $14 with combo and drinks. Just bunch of rice and small portions especially the tofu. I don't think the owner likes me here. Its only " James " the one that serves good here. Most of them are snobbish. I don't mind the attitude but at least make the portion or item right. read more

Never been in a more disgusting place that's serving food. Everything is caked with dirt and grease. Need a shower after sitting here for a 10 minutes. read more

My favorite place to eat in all of San Diego. Great tasting food, cheap and boba is delicious. Really close to a nice park, and the actual place itself just feels like it's stuck in the early 2000s (I mean this 100% as a compliment-- it's just cozy). I go here after work, surfing, studying; Tapioca Express fits every scenario, every time. Staff are always super courteous, and they seem to care. I always love introducing my friends to this place, and it's perfect for a small snack or a real meal. read more

See all

This is a long-standing boba joint in a Vons plaza. The drinks are reliable, traditional, and reasonably priced and not as creative or expensive as the new wave of boba joints. Interior is a bit sterile and sparsely decorated. Service is fine and usually staffed by at least two employees. read more

A great place to grab a fun drink! I love boba tea! They have a huge variety of flavors and a good assortment of alternative milk. I came here with friends right before they were closing and they were kind and patient as we reviewed the massive menu and made our selections. The flavors were good and they weren't stingy on the boba! I would definitely come back next time I'm in town. We need this company in NYC too!!! Happy Sips! read more

placed 2 drink orders through doordash, & received a lil snack in the drink LOL... jokes aside, found an eyelash underneath some layers of my drink. so disgusting. read more

Tapioca Express - eyelash in drink - Coffee & Tea Near Me - San Diego, California

See all