Tea Leaf Berkeley

«GIVE ME BACK MY SON!» — Mel Gibson.
I too screamed these legendary words upon hearing of this establishment’s closure. It wasn’t just an establishment to me. It was more. It was a child to me.
While I was never able to fully appreciate the diversity of its menu, I can say that everything here tasted exquisitely amazing. The item that I’ve found to be absolutely flawless is the popcorn chicken. I’m a connoisseur of popcorn chicken. KFC first introduced me to the fluffy and boneless pieces of chicken, and ever since then I made an oath to unlock the full potential of the chef who cooked the best popcorn chicken.
To this day, I continue that quest. Now why didn’t I fulfill that oath with this restaurant? I ponder that same question. Maybe it was because there was still more establishments for me to try? Maybe it wasn’t the best? Maybe something. But these questions mean nothing now and I completely regret it. At this point in my life, I can say that this place had the best popcorn chicken I’ve ever eaten, and now it’s gone.
What made it so great? There’s no point in explaining it now, but I still think I have to, because who else will immortalize it on Unilocal?The people who refused to eat here and let it close down? No, they are traitors.
The popcorn chicken was heavenly. There were 3 different types based on your level of spiciness. I don’t recall the exact names for the levels, but I think it was mild, spicy, and flamin.’ The actual popcorn chicken was rich in tender pieces of chicken breast with very light breading. Now traditionally, popcorn chicken usually has very little meat and a bunch of breading. This is what gives it that crunch. But this restaurant was able to make it completely opposite while still preserving that crunch. That is a work of Michael Scofield structural engineering right there.
The seasoning varied on the spiciness you chose. I’ve only tried the spicy and flamin’ varieties. I personally prefer the spicy because it actually is spicy. I love spicy food, and this actually had a little kick to it. The flamin’ was incredibly more spicy. It burned my lips, but that’s not why I don’t prefer it over the spicy flavor, it’s because it tasted different. It had a little smoky flavor to it which I didn’t think was as good. Regardless, it was still great.
In addition, you can order sauce on the side to dip the popcorn chicken into. They costed extra, but they were worth it. Garlic Aioli and Spicy Chipotle were heavenly. They had a great thick consistency with bursts of flavor. Spicy Chipotle had a very cool flavor to it while still being spicy. A great combination that just went great with the popcorn chicken. If you don’t want the spiciness, choose the Garlic Aioli.
Overall, this place had amazing popcorn chicken and it will surely be missed.

Yum! I stopped by Tea Leaf last week during the afternoon on my lunch break needing a serious pick me up from work. I was going to grab a coffee from Starbucks but decided to give Tea Leaf a shot. I was going to order a passion fruit milk tea (my go-​to drink at most of the boba places around Berkeley), but saw that they had a «coffee milk tea» option available. Two birds, one stone! It’s sweet milk tea with a shot of espresso, and absolutely delicious. I had been thinking about this place so much I went back a couple days later.
The milk tea is $ 3.00 — adding boba makes it $ 3.25 and if you upgrade to a large it becomes $ 3.50. Not bad for delicious boba!

I love there onion rings and fried shrimp. There Thai milk tea is bomb!!! I love this place so much. My friend and her boyfriend took me here and I loved it so much that I kept comming back myself. The service is nice and the people that work here is super friendly.

DRINK:
Got the Thai tea. It didn’t taste like Thai tea or milk tea, instead it was a weird mix It was like a very milky tea with a hint of thai.
SERVICE:
Nice cashier guy and speedy service though.
PLACE:
Free wifi in the place plus Airbears reaches this area too. A few tables here and one or two outlets from what I can see if you want to stay and study.
Overall, okay.

I’m not sure I understand why this place has so few stars? It’s always packed with students cadging the free WiFi.
I always get two things here — hot milk tea and a fresh avocado smoothie with boba. Both are made right in front of me and very delicious.
One took off one star because service is very slow in the afternoon. There is usually only one person out front having to make all the drinks by him/​herself. The layout does not see efficient because the worker has to take an estimated 18 steps to just make a hot milk tea. Cups are in one place, milk tea in another, etc…
Don’t let the stars fool you. Give it a try.

Surprised there are so many negative reviews! I actually enjoyed their jasmine green tea with pearls a lot. Tea was strong, although a tad sweet even after requesting half sweet, but that can be adjusted accordingly. Pearls were perfectly chewy. Spot on tapioca shop.

Tea leaf looks great from the outside, but that’s it. I’ve passed by a few times and was intrigued by the menu. Pretty good selection of teas, coffees and slushes.
I ordered the hazelnut milk tea and it ok. You could taste the hazelnut. Although it was slightly a little too sweet but I’m sensitive to the sugar.
But the boba was bad! Way too soft and it didn’t taste like anything. I’ve definitely had better, so I’m not sure I’d be back to order any boba. I just wasn’t impressed.
The interior is pretty small. Not a great study space, plus they close every night at 8pm.

Boba is not that good
Milk tea isn’t great either.
They replaced Tapioca express which wasn’t much better.
I’d suggest going to Asha Tea house.
$ 4 /​drink, fair pricing

I came here last week because I was craving milk tea and Tea Leaf Bistro was in a convenient location. When I first walked in, I noticed that it was a small, cozy little café. I wasn’t planning on staying, so I didn’t mind. They also had a large menu with great variety. It was very nearly organized. Although I had walked in planning to order milk tea, I was tempted to order something else as well.
I ordered their Jasmine Milk Tea. Pretty standard, but I’ve never been very spontaneous with my flavors. The taste wasn’t bad, though it was a bit sweet. Additionally, like what others have previously mentioned, it was a bit watered down. However, neither of these issues bothered me much since I have a sweet tooth, and I still enjoyed my drink overall.

This place is destined to close with their current business practices:
We stopped by at 8pm on Sunday, an hour before closing…
— Kitchen was closed by 8pm (although someone was eating chicken at the table)
— Cashier got our order wrong… twice.
— Cashier didn’t know that he ran out of egg pudding before selling it to us
— Place didn’t have napkins set out and I had to ask for them
— Tea was watered down and flavorless
— Tea contained very little of the «extra ingredients» that we ordered — specifically we ordered the red bean in an extra large cup, but barely received any.
Overall the place looks a little janky. The painted chalkboard featuring the menu is a creative idea, but the paint job was horribly executed. Someone obviously didn’t care enough to line the wall with tape or even paint a straight line.
The décor in this café was lacking. + The fact that I can see the ingredients bought in bulk behind the counter makes me wonder about the quality of the product and cleanliness of their business. EW.
One star because nothing was done right during my experience.

Good service here, and some decent boba as well. The tapioca is not wowing, and the teas are necessarily strong, but it’s an OK place to grab a drink on the go.
This is a place that you can get some affordable drinks that will scratch your itch for some boba.
I think it’s tricky selling boba in a city like Berkeley, where there are SO MANY great options; you have to do your best to stand out. This place gets middled in the pack.

BF had bought a groupon deal months ago for 5 drinks to be used on 5 different visits. We finally used up our last drink stamp and am ready to review our 5 visits!
The service really depends on who is at the register/​making drinks that day. Once, the guy up front gave us samples of his «original creation» of a passionfruit blend smoothie, other times they are just all about business, which is okay since we usually just pop in and out to pick up drinks. On at least two occasions, the store had run out of particular toppings (multiple) or particular flavored teas– not correlated to a particular day or particular time of day, appeared to be random.
With our last visit, I wanted an almond milk tea blended with red bean and ice– one of my favorite drinks but something that isn’t on their set menu– but the girl did her best to recreate it as described. It wasn’t as chunky as I’m used to, but still tasted fine. Props to her for going out of her way to accommodate my request =)
Anywho, probably won’t be going back here too often cuz it’s a bit out of the way and they don’t really have those cheap student specials we’re used to seeing near campus, but would if I have a craving for a specialty drink, this would be the place to go.
P. S. I think they’re building a bus stop outside the storefront, so no more street parking right outside anymore =/

Not sure why all the bad reviews here. Ok, so the drinks aren’t amazing but I still walked away a satisfied customer.
Pluses:
1. I like that the way the menu is set up it makes it very easy to create your own mixed tea or coffee drink by picking and choosing the combination of ingredients you want.
2. Prices are very reasonable and service is fast.
Minuses:
1. Boba milk tea is a little too sweet and tasted watered-​down. (I ordered honeydew). Too much ice?
2. When I came in and asked for boba tea the girl at the counter did not know what I was talking about. Really?!? All you serve is tea, and you don’t know what this is? When I started to explain, she said «ohhh, you mean tapioca, yeah we have that.» Tells me that baristas don’t know their business.

Not sure why this place has such bad reviews. I ordered a large jasmine milk tea with boba and it was fine.
The only thing I could see folks complaining about is the lunchtime Berkeley high crowd taking over while eating popcorn chicken and other cheap snacks as their meal: P
In any case, I’ll try to come back for the other drinks to see if I’m a «fan»…

Walked by and saw a new boba place down on shattuck that I’ve never tried before! But upon closer inspection, I realized that it’s basically Tapioca Express, with a new name.
Do not come here. The boba here is an absolute terrible watered down and sugar loaded powdery mess. Go to either Asha or Tea Fever down the street or even go thirsty!

Couldn’t believe TapEx closed down and Tea Leaf took over, but then again, I barely went to TapEx, so it’s all Gucci. I’ve heard mixed things about this place, but when I found out that my girl Kara works here (she’s this super cute fun-​sized girl, it’s hard to miss her among all the tall people), I told myself that I had to give this place a chance because I know she’ll hook it up and make me a bomb ass drink!
Thirsty Thursdays again. Me and Elena L. give in to Tea Leaf because we had no idea of other places close by to get boba and Asha was out of the question. We both roll in and I see my girl Kara doin’ her thang. She recommended the Thai milk tea, but I had so many of those the past week that I decided to get the large caramel milk tea. Large upgrade for 25 cents more? Hell yeah, super-​size me! They have this iPad by the register advertising the Belly rewards program, so I felt the urge to make my visit count and signed up. Elena followed right after and ordered the taro milk tea. No Belly signup for her though.
The layout is just exactly like TapEx — same wall decals, chalkboard menu, etc. but that doesn’t necessarily matter. No idea why people trip off of it being the same. It is what it is, still a great place to sit back, chill with friends, and/​or study.
We both wait a minute or two for our drinks, have a seat, stab our straws in, and drink up. For a caramel milk tea, it most definitely wasn’t a caramel milk tea. It had some other flavor going on, I forget what, but it for sure caught my attention and overpowered the caramel. It’s not just even that — I could feel the powder on my throat as I swallowed it. The amount of ice was fair — it melted fairly quickly, but it didn’t ruin the drink. If anything, it probably made it better because I found myself enjoying the drink more and more with each sip. I had a taste of Elena’s drink and I definitely agreed with her that it was a lot heavier on the milk than the taro, but it didn’t ruin the overall taste. In the end, I was still satisfied, but I probably should’ve listened to Kara and get the Thai milk tea. Noted for next time, along with a review update!
Sorry, Kara… this isn’t personal. Strictly business. I’ll personally request for you to make my drink next time, unless it was you that made my caramel milk tea… then I don’t know what to tell you. I love you! Please don’t slap me.

Avocado smoothies with real avocado yummy
This is my little pitstop before heading over to MCAT Prep at Kaplan across the street.

ONE STAR…
Only because Tea Leaf had these really adorable over sized teddy bears!
The interior and ambiance here is favorable, but the quality of the boba tea was downright TERRIBLE. I’m used to walking into a boba shop and seeing a group of loud Asians gossiping in whatever the language may be, but this place was freaking empty for a Saturday night.
My lil sis ordered a mango milk tea and I ordered a litchi black tea. While she was paying, I observed one guy make our drinks. My biggest pet peeve is sanitation. Prior to making drinks, this guy was texting on his phone. After we ordered, he didn’t bother to wash his hands, he lonly rinsed them in water. That’s not washing your hands!!! He picked up syrup bottles and began mixing. o. O
My lil sis drink came out fuckn sweet with boba. Mine tasted like it was only syrup. REALLY?! The boba WAS NOT chewy. It tasted like it sat in that boba bucket for awhile since the core was not cooked through. Litchi black tea is usually made with fresh litchi fruit or the caned kind, but SYRUP?! WTF?!
Looks like an okay place to socialize but I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ordering the boba. HELL NO!!!

Tea Leaf Bistro has an ongoing Groupon offer, 5 for $ 18. checked out the address and website online. found it’s Tapoica Express déjà vu. one can redeem the drinks one at a time within a limited time period using the punch card method.
vistited the storefront recently, saw a large stuffed cal bear on the counter, the Tap. Ex. sign hasn’t been completely removed from the front entrance.
various teas going for 2.6, to 3.25
–remembered the powdery flavorless drinks i got previously
and walked on by.

This is a tap ex with a new name.
When you walk into a tapioca shop, you expect to see two asians working, but not here.
It’s funny, i mean it’s a simple recipe so unless you’re completely incompetent, your drink will be fine, it’s just a strange sight and to hear a white man say «do you want tapioca with that?» is just too much.
The drinks are fine, not great but in no way bad.
The FOOD. We got garlic fries (mild) and crispy chicken (mild).
I absolutely love spicy food, but the BF doesn’t’ like it too spicy, so we have compromised with mild.
Either he made a mistake, or they are just some heat freaks.
After eating two fries that had no garlic taste, smell, or pieces, I was in TEARS.
Delicious as it was, they were way too spicy to be mild.
The BF claimed the chicken was too spicy as well, just maybe not as spicy as the fries were.
As an additional confirmation, i shared the leftover fries with my mother, who loves spicy food more than anybody i know. She was doing the pregnancy breathing (hee-​hee-​haaa) two fries later.
Right out of the downtown Berkeley BART station, it’s a easy spot to hang whilst shopping.