Bubbles

I love their Mango snow bubble it never disappoints. Their stuffed Oreos are amazing too!

So… in my vast number of boba-​ventures, I seem to always forget that there is, in fact, a boba shop that’s been around in Newark. Bubbles. Tucked away in an alley between Ranch 99 Market and 85 Degrees, it’s pretty easy to pass by if you’re not looking for it.
To satisfy a boba craving and not wanting to battle the crowds at 85 Degrees, my family and I decided to give Bubbles a shot. We walked in on a Saturday afternoon. Completely empty. The workers were in the back, so one came out as soon as he heard us. We perused through the menu and I decided on a hot hojicha milk tea with boba, my sister wanted the sesame milk tea, brother-​in-​law got almond milk tea, and the little nephew got an avocado smoothie. We placed our order with the worker (who, very simply, just did not make an effort to seem friendly), but he told us that they were out of sesame milk tea. Back-​up for my sister — genmaicha milk tea. We got ready to pay, handed him a credit card, and he tells us that the credit card machine is broken. No sign telling us beforehand. What if we didn’t bring any cash? Luckily we did, so we paid and that was that.
Nearly 20 minutes later (the longest I’ve ever waited for boba, btw), we got our drinks and left. The flavor of the tea was pretty strong and quite nice, which is why they get a semi-​decent rating and why we cut them some slack for the long wait time. The boba was alright; you can tell from the texture that it’s been sitting out for a while, probably due to the lack of business.
The inside is spacious; there are a few random arcade games in the corner that I’m not sure if anyone actually ever plays. Everything looks nice from the outside. The bathroom is pretty graffitied up, though. Clean, but graffitied. Guess they don’t want to bother painting over it if people are just going to keep spraying it anyway.
All in all, if you’re craving milk tea, this isn’t a bad stop, but I think I would still opt for another shop that has friendlier workers and less graffiti in the bathroom.

The menu said they had strawberry jelly but they didn’t and they did not put a lid on my drink.

All I can say is WOW. I’ve been to this place a few times since it’s close to my house. But the customer service I had this week is the reason why I’m never going back. We ordered 2 milk teas with tapioca. Simple right? Wrong. Received our order over 20 mins later and only 1 of our drinks had the tapioca. She tells me theyre out of tapioca and gives me back the change I paid for the tapioca. I told her I wanted a refund and didn’t want the drink. If she knew she couldn’t make my drink the way I ordered and paid for it then she should have told me. Instead, she screwed me into paying for the drink I didn’t want and Refused to give me a refund (keep in mind I hadn’t touched the drink yet).
To top it all off– the guy who came in after us got his drink right before ours. with tapioca.
I’ll stick with tapioca express ;)

If I wrote this review a few months ago, I definitely would’ve given 4 stars because this was a go to boba place for my brother and I whenever I came home from SoCal. But after the last visit, I think I got to find somewhere new. I got two milk tea’s, spam masubi, and mozzarella sticks. The milk tea used to have the perfect sweetness, but instead it was overpowered by ice which watered the drinks down. The spam masubi was okay (I mean, how can you mess those up?!). And for some reason the mozzarella sticks had the seasoning of the crispy chicken/​calamari on it AND no marinara sauce… *cue «I don’t understand» dance. Maybe it was that visit. Maybe they really changed it up since I’ve been gone. Maybe I’ll give them a second chance. I guess the automatic upgrade to a large drink is something worth going back for.

Drinks = 3.5 stars
Food = 1.5 stars.
The $ 5.50 combos of 1 drink and a snack (popcorn chicken /​calamari) is a nice deal and comes with a good amount of food. Both the chicken and squid are solid. Definitely not amazing, but typical boba HK style fast food, it’s an easy munching snack.
Tried the thai tea which was tasty and the green matcha tea which (ask for extra milk) was nice and smooth, and not made of powder. 3 – 4 stars.
DO NOT get the phở or banh mi sandwiches. ZERO STARS and disgusting! The picture on the wall of the phở looked very appetizing with tons of meat and noodles, but in reality the $ 6 bowl was incredibly small (¹⁄₃ of the photo) and came with 3 pieces of disgusting meat with no flavor and the broth tasted basically like water with pepper in it. They definitely did not make the broth overnight like phở places do. Glad I had the boba, else i would give this 1 star. The banh mi was tiny and while tasty with an egg and decent ingredients, was ridiculously small as well. I finished it in about 5 bites. Stay away!
Again, come for drinks, do not eat here.

After overlooking the negative reviews, I decided to give this place a try. They accept credit/​debit but with a 50cent charge under $ 10. Other than that, they have really good combos and reasonably priced items. Pleasantly surprised that my iced milk tea came with warm fresh boba :) I only know a couple of places that do this. I also got crispy chicken which was well seasoned and crispy. Overall, I’m happy with my first visit here and hope they stay this consistent!

Mom and sister just came back from getting lunch to go here at Bubbles and I will say we have had much BETTER experiences.
Mom had a $ 10 off $ 20 min. purchase from
and had been wanting to use it. Before heading to Bubbles we decided what we wanted to order to make sure we had at least $ 20 worth of food.
We decided on:
Daily Special Beef Stew ($ 4.99)
Daily Special Pork Chop ($ 4.99)
2 Spam Misubi (1.75 for 1)
1 Crispy Chicken (3.75)
1 Vietnamese Sandwich (3.50)
All of these items cost around $ 24 total. However, when my mom went there and ordered the food the person at the counter rang up all of these items at $ 34 — and then the final total to be $ 24 with the $ 10 off… What kind of math are you doing at Bubbles? After telling her what the actual cost of these items should be, something that the people at Bubble’s should know themselves, the person corrected herself and said your new total is $ 14. What I want to know is, what kind of things were you trying to sneak into our bill and are you doing that to other customers as well and trying to get away with it?
Then, my mom and sister came home with the food and realized that they «forgot» to give us the crispy chicken. My mom called to tell them and the person said «Oh, I forgot, I’ll make it now». We were not going to drive back to pick up an order of crispy chicken so my mom said, it was an honest mistake and next time she is in the area and comes by the restaurant they will give her a free crispy chicken to which the person agreed.
Bottom line in my opinion — Go somewhere else where they won’t try to cheat you

We ordered the taro and Thai milk tea, crispy chicken and the crispy Oreos. We were hoping the quality of the food would make up the long wait we endured but NOPE! The taro milk tea was powdery; they ran out of boba; crispy chicken was stale tasting and lastly, they got chili powder mixed in with the powdered sugar of my crispy Oreos. So… this will be our first and last visit ever to this place.

Honestly, I just came here to satisfy my craving for fried calamari craving, which they didn’t mess up. But this place seems like an independent Tap-​Ex or Quicklys to me. You know what that means…
Powdered, chalky, oversweetened milk teas!
Yeah, probably not coming here for that any time soon. Or ever.

Lavender green tea was too sweet (ordered regular)
Crispy chicken was tasteless and over fried.

Time: 2:17pm/60°F sunny
Purpose: On the way back from SJ picking up a box of free mochi. Ate two of them while driving, knew I had to stop and get some real food. Too afraid to park in uncharted territory, smash window or ding on door. Luckily there was a security patrol station kiosk with a space open. Thinking to myself take that chance or not? Sorry, I cherish my S5 like a baby!
Ambiance: Located inside an strip mall like setting right off the corner of 85° Bakery/​Café. Four close-​together tables, three single solos, two bistro style tables outside, two tone ceramic floor tiles, couple of share wire mesh benches, two stuff anima crane machines, six stack animé toy dispenser machines, two 40’in flat screens. Counter with Xmas tree, utensil organizer, assorted color boba straws, register, tip, jar, various publications, chess board, kids games, reading materials. Four panel menu plaster on wall with pics of their offerings. Despite a TV there were no entertainment of any kind only radio tuned to 99.7 FM. For a place with so much things to keep yourself occupied no one uses it. A couple came in with kid in towed sat down looking at menu. Kid saw crane machine didn’t even bother asking parents for money to play. Wow!
Staff: One girl about early 20s not too engaged with work but, with social media she’s more than wanting to work. I think, I only spoke to her in less than 15 words during my order with «thank you» included. That’s the only time I was talking in there. No check up of how’s your food/​drink, no follow up. When I left she didn’t even know as too engrossed on tablet screen.
Cleanliness: Grade C, kept clean but, the restroom is filled with graffiti from ceiling to floor. Not sure if that’s what owner wanted or completely gave up on restroom maintenance, let it be. Some hot sauce bottles needs a good gunk removal on top spout. Clogging the rest making an accident waiting to happen.
Eats/​Drinks: Black sesame milk tea $ 3 and pulled pork banh mi $ 3.75. Drink tasted like powder sesame blended in. Little to no hints of sesame. I was hoping for that toasted aroma like in coffee beans. There were more milk than anything else. I could’ve bought a carton of it next door. Paying $ 3 for a cup full of flavor down milk with powdery aftertaste is kinda off putting. Sandwich was ok but, the fixings that yellow mayo and pâté needed a call out for active duty. Pickled daikon and carrots was wilted not crunchy. Pork was chewy and dark not sure why? Only possibility I can come up with is day old or more. Saving grace here is the bread which, I adorned slight crunch good for the size and fresh. I wish I knew about this baguette being used as, I can ask to be left in toaster oven a bit longer making it extra crunch. My preference of banh mi bread.
Products/​Services: Boba drinks, coffee, tea, power smoothies, shaved ice/​snow bubble, juices, ground tea, Vietnamese desserts, snacks, candies, shrimp chips, onion rings, calamari, wings, mozzarella poppers, chicken, cuttlefish, corn dog, mushroom, musubi. Wi-​Fi not sure didn’t use.
Punch Lines: Slow, sleeper, below average, quite bland, most snacks are fried, not too fresh, amusement for kids, graffiti restroom, located in open air mall, spacy, TV, hip hop music, drinks start at $ 3.50, powder ingredients.
Tradeoff: Same as places like Quickly but, with a more homey independent feel to it. Absolutely no difference in food catagory not as popular as Quickly also. Let’s just say a place that wants to do it all, trend follower.
Final Thoughts: Now a day boba drinks would be the least likely thing that comes to mind when I want a cold dessert drink. Lately, I have craving for thick creamy shakes made with flexseed, almond butter, berries, oats, dates, and figs. When boba places first pop up, it was like the kale and pomegranate craze. When that slows down, you need a better back up plan as to what are you gonna do? Most places starts with all drinks only when others open doing the same now you’re in competition with each other. Scrambling to put more things on menu doesn’t mean success will prevail.

The drinks here never disappoint me. My go-​to is usually the iced Vietnamese coffee with boba or Earl Grey Milk Tea with boba. You can adjust tea strength, sweetness, ice levels, and spiciness levels if you’re ordering food.
Also, for some reason I loveee the popcorn chicken here. They give you a decent amount and it just tastes delicious.
50 cent charge if using credit/​debit on purchases less than $ 10.

Kind of just your run of the mill boba shop. I’m surprised this place even gets business at all due to it being tucked away in the corner of this side alley in this Asian strip mall.
Earl Grey milk tea was pretty decent. Tasted like what it should taste like. Definitely not a mind blower. As said in a few other reviews though, service isn’t the fastest at all. I’m usually in and out of a boba shop in under ~5 minutes. Took about double that here. Didn’t have any problems with the dude working the register, but yeah, Unilocal isn’t lying when they tell you about the wait. Not that 5 extra minutes is going to ruin my life or anything though.
Bubbles is a solid option in the area. Especially if you’re feeling too lazy to grab boba from elsewhere!

Never ever ever come here.
Came here a few weeks back when it was dead. Only other customer there was me. Order the large jackfruit snow, 5 dollars, and it was basically water, ice and an essence of jackfruit. What a waste of 5 dollars.
And even though it was dead, somehow it still took them a good 5 minutes+ to make the drink. Customer service was also a major fail. Rude little girls who spend more time mugging me then making my drink right.

Pros: accepts credit, quiet, plenty of tables and chairs, Earl Grey milk tea!
Cons: extra charge for boba, relatively slow service
Time was 3:30pm. My sisters and I walked in to an empty store. The guy at the cashier was friendly and took our order. After taking the order of the girl behind us, he disappeared for a little bit. I was not sure why, but it took a while for another employee to come out to help with her chicken order and for the guy to come back to start on our milk teas. When we did get our drinks, I saw that the cups were very tall and I was not upset for paying $ 2.75 per milk tea at the size of the cup that we got. The Earl Grey was delicious! I can’t say the same for the almond, taro nor the thai tea though. The place does not seem to get much traffic coming in because the workers here did not seem rushed at all during the time we were here. I will definitely come back to drink some milk tea, and it beats waiting in line at 37 degrees.

I like this place but, their service is so slow sometimes and even worse when they have a customers before you. It seems like you wait forever. I’ve been here in the evening a few times and their service is a bit faster. I also like how they have specials on drinks which are actually nutritious smoothies. The power protein which comes with berries, tofu, barley, and pomegranate juice and is my favorite. Give it a try sometime.
If you’re a first timer here. You gotta try their deep fried oreos. Taste so heavenly with the covered powdered sugar. Eat them as soon as you get them. Don’t save it for later because it wont taste the same.
Also, remember to ask for a Bubble stamp card.

This is one of those places that I used to love like crazy but has some flaws recently that I can’t just overlook.
First is the consistency. The milk tea has gotten a lot inconsistent lately. My usual order of Jasmine milk tea has tasted different on my last few visits here. The boyfriend used to love their Vietnamese coffee milk tea until he got 2 bad ones in a row. May have something to do with who mans the register at the time, but I’m not so sure.
The food here is amazing and cheap, but it’s mostly a hit or miss. Again, this is what I’ve observed in the past few weeks. The popcorn chicken here WAS superior to TapEx in Decoto, but the last time I had some they were hecka dry and small! I had to ask my boyfriend if he bought it from bubbles because it was just so tough and terrible. It was like eating popcorn chicken flavored cap’n crunch! It was so dry the basil leaves were in pieces. I mean, the popcorn chicken they used to have – which was juicy, flavorful, and in nice bite sized pieces, with the right amount of crunch. What happened, bubbles?
I really hope they get their stuff back together, because I really want the old popcorn chicken back.

3.5 stars because I’m feeling generous I’m rounding up. Typical boba joint with Vietnamese options. I got the avocado love drink, which was ample amounts of avocado chunks, jelly, and mini boba with shaved ice bits swirled around with milk of some sort. The drink was really good and creative, not too sweet and lots of ingredients.
My friend got a mango milk tea with boba. There were actually really fine pieces of mango in the drink. I had a couple sips, pretty good. Size of drinks are standard.
I liked the place due to its ambiance, lots of tables, not too crowded, and most importantly, I can have a catch up conversation without shouting.
Restroom is unisex, but clean. Service was ok. I’d come here again.

Pretty O-​K milk tea joint in the East Bay area. I’m used to having my Ten Ren tea, which I think is the best in this area, but Bubbles seems like a step up from Quickly’s and Tapex (ew).
I ordered an jasmine milk tea combo with popcorn chicken, and there was SO MUCH popcorn chicken! I was pretty surprised at the amount that they gave. The employees working there were pretty nice, and they let us sit inside for a couple of hours.
Sweet people and not bad in terms of price and quantity!