Tapioca Express

An ATM that charges an arm and a leg to get your own money in your store! WTH!!! I’m already giving you my business! Paying you for your service AND you want more !!! Are you getting a kick back or own part of the ATM company??? It doesn’t cost a lot to simply get an app for your phone to take cards… I am NEVER coming back! There’s a lot of other tapioca places that aren’t trying to get over on their customers!!!

Love this place! So many choices and usually a short line only.

I ordered a passionfruit green tea with baby boba pearls. It was a bit more sour than I’m used to, but it was still quite good. And the boba was enjoyable as well, I’d order the baby boba again!
The calamari seemed lightly fried, not in a bad way, but definitely different than the style you get at BJ’s. It didn’t taste overly salted, and there was a nice crunch to the calamari, too.
The chalkboard menu with recommendations is pretty cute. There’s plenty of seating, and the restroom is clean as well.
CASH ONLY!

I’ve been to this Tap Ex a couple of times. It’s been decent. Service is kind of slow and the place is somewhat clean. It’s average for a drink IF YOU’RE IN THE AREA.
I stress this because two weeks ago we drove straight to Tap Ex, around 6pm and it was closed.
I went there again this week. There was only one customer before us and we waited about 5 – 10 minutes for the lady to make their drinks. Finally she said hi, I asked for a chicken and she said the kitchen is closed. I asked for a milk tea with tapioca and she said there is no more tapioca. She said they close at 7 and it’s about 7:30.
If they were closing she could have told us as soon as we walked through the door. Or she should have closed the door. Because it wasn’t busy. It was after 7, but the tables and chairs were still out. How am I to know they’re closing if on Unilocal it says they close at 9 and on google it says they close at 10. It seems they just close whenever they feel like it because it’s slow. And I get it, but this is how you lose more money.
Maybe it’s my fault. I should have called or asked when they close. But I think they need to update the times on the websites for those that don’t live in Alameda. I choose to come here when I’m not even in the area. But honestly, with their inconsistent closing times and mediocre drinks, I rather drive all the way to the Tap Ex in Union City. It’s waaayyyyy better over there.

YIKES!
This place is horrible.
Not only did I witness a child in the back of the store in the kitchen, picking his nose, pulling out a wedgie, and then proceeding to touch everything in his distance,
I also got charged for asking for LIGHT ICE.
Seriously? The worst part is, they didn’t even let me know they charged me until I looked at my receipt. Because I couldn’t POSSIBLY pay $ 5.50 for a SMALL drink with tapioca.
After I pointed it out, her reason for it was being because I was getting «more of the drink» and when I told her she should at least let the customers know of the extra charge before charging for it, she said, «everyone knows it. everyone charges extra.» UHH. Not the one I typically go to in San Leandro, or the one in downtown Oakland. or any other one I’ve ever been to, BUT OKAY.
Also, I got the wrong change from the dude cashier, but I didn’t even say anything because I felt bad to point it out to someone who is supposed to know how to count; and they obviously need my 25 cents way more than I do if they’re charging for a drink customization. Rude customer service, disgusting hygiene, money hungry people. Stay away!

Simply put, they serve expensive stuff that take your money.
This is a boba place that serves boba drinks. It uses powder and water with syrup and sometimes yogurt.
I come here solely because of my high school.
Now, here’s what makes it special.
Snacks, such as 12 fishballs costs 4.50!
And I love lumpia and eggrolls, so I bought their lumpia which stated 12 rolls.
After waiting 16 minutes in an empty line with no one but me inside, I finally received my food.
And what shocked me, was that they sliced 6 lumpia rolls by half and then refried them. So what I received was actually 12 halves of lumpia rolls.
Yet again for 4.50.
And we’re not even talking about gourmet lumpia. This is processed, obviously frozen because of the water content inside, it’s just horrid.
And that’s not even the worst part. If you name your restaurant as a boba shop, that’s your specialty. and that’s no different with tapex. They have dozens of flavors and powder mixtures.
Yet, they charge you for boba.
Yeah, they actually take your money for boba.
I would never go to this defective vending machine ever again.

The owner didn’t seem like like she was having a great day. She smacked her kid and forced her into the kitchen. Wasn’t very friendly with other customers too. Making smart remarks about their order.

I’ve never had a bad experience at a tapioca express. Their food and drinks are pretty consistent but this one asked for level of spice between 1 – 10. I ordered honeydew milk tea, fried tofu, popcorn chicken, and garlic fries with spice level of 8 for the tofu and chicken. Food and drinks came out fairly quick. Level 8 spice was not spicy enough and I should have went with 10. Fries came with pretty good dipping sauce and dipped the tofu and chicken in the sauce. I requested for more dipping sauce and they charge 60 cents.

I am done with this place. Take caution with their store hours because even though they post store hours they pretty much shut down when they feel like it. This happened twice! Just tried to stop by for a quick snack for the kids at 2:20 pm and the guy says they’re closed! What?! It’s 2:20! He says because the owner left he’s closing. So I guess he’s not trained to make drinks? Terrible customer service. I guess they don’t care about their customers. There are plenty of other boba places that are happy to take my money. Never coming back to this place.

Man I hate to do this but that smoothie with pearl I just had today, turned out to be awful later. The tapioca didn’t look right for some reason but I still got it. Wrong decision. It was too soft; man I knew it was old. After reading the more recent reviews now, I can see that this new owner change ain’t so hot if that’s the case. I hope it gets better but not on my dime.

TL;DR: hella good food but okay drinks
The popcorn chicken and the calamari here is awesome, and I love the sauce that comes wih the calamari. Although I only get these two when I come here (or when I get friends to order), my friends have said the other snacks are good. I would give 5 stars for food alone.
As for the drinks, theyre alright, mostly powder. I see them use actual tea and the powder when they make the drinks, when confuses me (just use one of the other?). I like the snow bubbles. I always get the mango one. This time I tried the jasmine milk tea snow bubble and basically, the tea snow bubbles are not good. Most of the milk teas are powder based. The honeydew milk tea has the actual honeydew in it (I don’t like the flavor of the actual honeydew). 4 stars for the drinks.
The texture of the tapioca is good.

Standard boba and azn snacks. The fried calamari is pretty good. Customer service is decent.

TapEx used to be my number one destination for jasmine milk tea with boba. The jasmine milk tea has a really strong tea taste (which I enjoy) and their boba has the right chewiness.
Although I enjoy the boba, I’m giving this place two stars for poor customer service. The girl who prepared the drinks looked very angry and unhappy to be working there. Maybe she had a bad day, but she should still smile at the customers. A little smile wouldn’t hurt. But this wasn’t the first time I’ve seen her like this. Probably like all the time when she’s working.
I’m making this a big deal because customer service should be the workers number one priority — making your customers happy and giving off a good vibe.
Correct me if I am wrong… Isn’t Alameda’s minimum wage $ 9? I wouldn’t mind dropping a few dollars in their tip jar, but the resting bitch face got in the way
Also, the flamboyant guy cashier doesn’t know how to give change correctly after pointing it out. Therefore I had to do it for him

If I could give this shitty place a –100, I would. Their service is slow, they are so rude, and they for sure got a nasty attitude. And the bitch ass boss, even took out the buy one get one free deal that happens! I won’t be coming back here & my friends won’t be coming back here, so all you disgusting people can suck my ass. They even got like 5 of my orders wrong. Fuck all of you. This place used to be the spot for us, now it’s shit. All I want to do is shit all over this place because it’s shit and it’s already full of shit & it taste like shit.

Pretty spacious and clean. No complaints about the service and they have egg pudding add ons (although the egg pudding isn’t as soft and tasty as it should be). They also have a very large menu full of goodies to choose from. Crispy chicken, calamari, lobster balls, etc. similar to quickly’s.

Spacious. Lots of seating. 2 separate menus to show what’s popular & there’s the main menu. What’s interesting is that, I’ve never seen a Boba place with a big picture of the definition of what Boba really is, until I saw it at this Tapioca Express location. Great for those who don’t know what boba is. Customer service is on the «Okay» side.

The only real complaint I have is that they gave us a cup that had a hole in it because my boyfriend’s milk tea cup was dripping all over the place. I don’t know if it was the cup or maybe the seal was broken but hello? You’re supposed to check that before you give it to us. The least they could’ve did was give us a new milk tea since half of it was on the ground but they just gave us a cup to put the milk tea in. It stopped the leak but half of the milk tea was on the ground so not much to enjoy. Sorry.

It’s unfortunate I’m giving this place a once star since I’ve been here before and never had a problem, got taro milk tea last weekend and they gave me the worst batch of tapioca I ever had — it was all melted and gross, could not even drink it and had to throw it away. Felt cheated. Definitely not coming back anytime soon.
So FYI make sure their Tapioca is good before you buy.

three stars knocked off for cash only. not even a minimum for credit card. straight up cash only. now that we got that established…
free upgrade for milk teas! the tiger milk tea is the best! its a mix of milk tea and thai tea. mmmmm. i can drink that errrrrrday. the boba is not bad. soft and chewy. not that flavorful but hey its a franchise. always got high school kids working and hanging out there. chicken is always good. add plenty of spice! and the basil. mmmm. love that combo for a nice snack. parking is also kind of hard to come by cause mainly street. there is a lil lot but thats always full from other establishments. it is downtown tho!

Drinks too sweet.
They don’t consistently greet customers and thank them after.
I said thank you after receiving my drink, after they slid the drink on the counter to me and were surprised at this. They then said, «oh, sorry, thank you.» meh
Cash only, that’s okay.
They have stamps card.
I’ll be going to one of 5 other Boba places in this side of Alameda from now on.