Brian’s Shave Ice & Boba

I usually come in about 2 – 3 times a week for an ice tea with boba. Never again. Walked in and there was no one at the register. Wait a minute or two still nothing. A girl is talking on her phone in the back but is not coming out to take my order. Two other customers walk in and we are all waiting for this employee to get off her phone. This is a business after all. Still nothing. Three more customers walk in and she is still chatting away. We have been waiting for about 5 – 10 minutes at this point. Finally some kid (Alex is the employees name) walks in from outside and comes behind the register. Without an apology for making us wait. We begin as follows:
Alex: may I take your order?
Me: yes I will have an iced tea with boba.
Alex: ok that’ll be $ 4.75
Me: you charged the wrong amount.
Alex: No I didn’t.
Me: I have been coming in three times a week for 3
Months and I have never paid that much. You are over charging me by 3 dollars
Alex: well if you would like to wait I can call the manager on the phone
Me: you are going to call the manager over 3 dollars. I have been waiting here for 10 minutes already.
Alex: no you have been waiting 2 minutes, I saw you walk in
Me: if you saw me and probably all these other people walk in then why didn’t you come in sooner?
Alex: …
Me: would you like to see the receipts from all the other times I have paid? I have them on my phone
Alex: Ok sure
Me: (Showed at least 10 receipts all with the lower price)
Alex: ok you don’t need to be so annoying
Me: If that is how you are going to speak to me then you have lost a customer
Alex: fine I don’t care
(then he says to the next person in line) I am not going to deal with someone so rude. «
So yeah. They have petulant children working here who treat their customers poorly, and on top of it all, will try and rip you off and call you annoying when you prove to them, with receipts, that they made an error. Not once did I raise my voice, call him a name, or do anything but hold them to the price I am normally required to pay. And in response I get this sort of treatment from an arrogant, bratty kid who clearly hates his job and takes it out on customers. No thanks. Take your business elsewhere unless you want to support this sort of garbage.
Edit: Spoke to a manager at another location and apparently this Tarzana location has no manager. So they are just letting a bunch of kids run the place. No wonder it’s always a mess in there, bathroom toilet has been broken for a month, and service is deplorable. I used to wonder why I was always the only customer here during peak hours, now I can see why. This place will be closed within a year.

I love tropical flavors and whenever I come here, it hits the spot. The ice cream they use to fill their snow cones is absolutely FANTASTIC. it’s creamy and super complimentary to any flavor syrup. ⁵⁄₅.

The best shaved ice and boba in the area. So many options to choose from. The people at the counter give great suggestions and flavor combination ideas. Will definitely be back when in the area.

Family loves this place cause it reminds them of Hawaii. Lots of different flavor a to choose from.

Boba was nice and squishy. Taro slush and taro milk tea were good, but it def still had chalky or powdery underlying texture.
If you need a boba fix, this place will do.

JOSH.JOSH.JOSH.JOSH! Oh my gosh, Josh is the best! I come here at least twice a week and Josh ALWAYS makes my drinks the best. I never steer away from familiarity but Josh makes my usual so good that I trusted him to have me try something else and I have ZERO regrets.
He’s amazing… his customer service is always above reproach and his product is amazing. If you have a chance … have Josh make your boba! He’s there Friday mornings and Sunday mornings. You won’t regret it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, JOSH!

Came in with my sister just now. I ordered a kid sized shaved ice and she ordered an almond milk tea with boba. Hers was given to her and basically finished before I even got mine. The staff was very unorganized and kept taking orders without even doing the orders they had taken.

Failed boba trip!!! Ok maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. But i came here with my sister on a Sunday afternoon. The place was packed, but no one in line. There was a lady in front of us who put in a complicated order.
I ordered an almond milk tea with boba and it turned out great, but then spent 20 min waiting for my sister’s shaved ice. It was insane. There were 3 people working and they were ridiculously unorganized. They cheated me out of 4 cents of change because they didn’t have pennies in the register, and they had the ipad for the belly check in turned around, so you couldn’t check in. It’s a bunch of small things that normally wouldn’t matter, but added together turned out to be a horrible experience.

I’m a sucker for boba. So the fact that I went to Brian’s, looked at the menu, ended up ordering a shave ice (instead of boba), and did not regret my decision is really saying something!
This place is fantastic… going to be a staple any time I’m driving through the valley. I had the regular size (read: huge) shave ice with mochi ($ 1), matcha syrup, and snowcap (sweetened condensed milk drizzle). I think it was the first time in my life eating shave ice that wasn’t too sweet – LOVED the matcha. It was perfectly balanced, even with the addition of the sweetened condensed milk. They were super generous with the mochi… to the point that I didn’t even finish all of it.
My husband, ever the purist, stuck with boba, and opted for the coconut milk tea, which he absolutely loved. Also not too sweet, and with great coconut flavor. The boba itself was solid, too.
We’ll be back!

I really enjoyed this place. I thought it was decently priced for the amount that you get. They don’t charge you very much extra for the things that most shaved ice places do (i.e. ice cream and condensed milk). I’ve been to Hawaii and obviously it wasn’t exactly the same, but I thought it was a very good California alternative. Went here with another friend of mine and both of us have since talked about returning, so it made an impression on us. The people working there were really helpful and nice even though we came at the end if the night right before closing time which i always think is worth mentioning. I can’t complain and I recommend it!

Came here the other day to try their shaved ice. It’s located in the middle of the plaza. I got the mango, cotton candy and strawberry with vanilla ice cream inside and condensed milk on top. It was really good, prolly one of the best shaved ice I’ve ever had. Place is clean and was very neat and colorful inside with hawaiian theme. Will definitely come back specially summer is coming!

The young man (Alex) taking the orders was very helpful and was patient with us deciding what we wanted. The shaved ice and slush were amazing.

I wanted some tea after having spent a couple hours at GlowZone in Woodland Hills. This place was about 2.5 miles away, so I took the side residential streets rather than jumped back on the freeway. The sun was out, but it was still a chilly day. In fact, it was so windy that the door literally blew wide open! BAM! A second of utter surprise before everyone went back to what they were doing.
This establishment offers flavored milk tea, fruit flavored tea, slush, some specialty items, and of course shaved ice.
Dole Whip Float ($ 4.50) — Very cool that this pineapple treat is available here. My friend ordered it because the last time he had one was at Disneyland. I haven’t had Dole Whip in years but once I took a spoonful, I remembered why I only had it once and never again. Personally, it just tasted artificial and was too sweet. Considering how chilly the day was, it was melting pretty quickly too.
Lavender Flavored Milk Tea ($ 3.50) — As I get older, I realize I have a greater appreciation for things I did not like before… like the scent/​flavor of lavender. I was considering getting it hot, but decided on having it cold because it would quench my thirst better than a hot drink. I let my friend take a sip and he expressed in amazement that he liked it (moreso than his Dole Whip Float). I wholly agreed.
Three stars. The service was okay. The entire shop was clean (even the washroom). The mural is quite unique. It definitely adds some personality to the place.

We came here specifically wanting to get the Dole while sundae.
If you have been to Disneyland and in adventure land next to the Tiki room there is a the Dole whip stand.
I have seen some frozen yogurt places start carrying dole whip, but for some reason I can’t find one that tastes exactly like Disneyland.
But the dole whip sundaes are still good here.
I haven’t got to try their shaved ice yet.

The most authentic feeling shave ice I’ve had on the mainland. They even have Dole Whip here! You can get a layer of Dole Whip on the bottom, shave ice with exotic flavors. Doesn’t get any better than this for Hawaiian shave ice.

Meh. Very mediocre, overpriced for what you get, especially with how little they give you.
Maybe I’m spoiled by the shave ice in Hawai’i and the real Hawai’i ones popping up. This one is like a cheap version «trying» to be Hawai’ian. They don’t even have some basic Hawai’ian flavors you’d find at Get Shaved.
The cups of shave ice we got were ‘lightly’ packed with random straw holes in it, whatever that’s for. It was leveled off, not up and above for a cap, like at Get Shaved. It’s WATER… and syrup, you’re already making a huge profit margin so stop being cheap… jam it in!
I got a Dole Whip, sounded great from the chalkboard, like the ones at Disneyland… but here, you pay Disneyland prices ($ 4.50?) for a TINY cup and hardly any pineapple juice, if at all.
The really annoying thing is that we bought the Groupon for FIVE items. So, being four of us, we wanted to use four of the five. The worker was kinda embarrassed, «The owner says you can only use one per visit.» WTF?! I have to come FIVE DIFFERENT TIMES? How about they notate that in BIG LETTERS while buying the Groupon.
Honestly… if you have a choice between this and something else, give ‘something else’ a try. It’s not bad here at all, but I just hate feeling ripped off.

Shaved ice and boba in the same place. What??! I came here for shaved ice and I tried out the Green Tea shaved ice which comes with Mochi, red bean and condensed milk. The green tea ice is no joke!!! A must for any green tea lover.
Overall, the place is decent but nothing to rave about much.

Stopped in on a warm night for a blended Thai tea, I’ve also tried the green matcha Tea blended. This place is busy the last few times I’ve stopped in but the line moves very quickly they usually have at least two or three people working behind the counter which makes things run more smoothly. It’s got a great location in the shopping mall next to Corbin bowl with plenty of parking and its open in the evenings till 11 during the summer.
I haven’t tried the shaved ice is yet but they have a large variety of syrups and ice cream’s to make your own creations.
Definitely a great addition to the valley.

Not bad, but nothing extraordinary! This place is just a bit above average for shaved ice. You can choose from a variety of sizes, different flavors of ice cream, syrup flavors, and toppings. Prices range anywhere from $ 4 – 6 and they also offer a variety of milk teas, slushes, and even acai bowls!
We tried a regular shaved ice with POG (pineapple orange guava), watermelon, and strawberry, plus macadamia nut ice cream, topped with a snowcap (i.e. condensed milk). The shaved ice was really tasty and refreshing, although it still didn’t taste anywhere close to the shaved ice in Hawaii! We also tried the wikintoki, which is basically matcha green tea shaved ice, azuki red beans, and mini mochi balls with a snowcap. This was light, but almost too light to the point where it was generally flavorless, especially once the ice started melting. I enjoyed the mini mochi balls, but that was about it. I definitely wouldn’t recommend the wikintoki, but would much rather stick with ordering the customized shaved ice and toppings!
The service here is really disappointing. They took forever to take and to make our orders, even though the line was really short. They also didn’t clean off any of the tables, so we couldn’t exactly enjoy our desserts without getting pretty sticky :(Overall, the Valley has so many good restaurants, but I still have yet to find an impressive dessert place.

Nice location next to Corbin Bowl with plenty of parking. Interior is bright full of color with nice decorations and art on the wall. There’s a wall full of pictures of customers enjoying their treats. By the register you will notice a tablet to sign up for rewards/​points or check in if you’re an existing customer.
Today I came in wanting to try taro milk tea with boba because I’ve never tried taro before and wanted something different. The drink was great. My son enjoyed his mango slush with boba as well. Our total was $ 8 for 2 regular sized drinks.
Next time I will try the dole whip!