Tapioca Express

Yes it’s a Boba Chain, yet the taste is definitely nothing like a chain indeed. Decided to try the Coconut Milk tea with Boba. Drink was refreshing and can be ordered with little to no sugar (you can choose). Boba consistency was chewy but not soggy and quality was no stranger to anything offered here at Tapioca Express.
As soon as I sat down on the comfy leather sofa, I was called for my order. Jet fast service here with friendly staff. I ordered the wonton with mild spice. After asking questions I found out this chain started in 1999. Offering high quality Taiwanese drinks at the level of edible art for consumption.
Never had I heard of a firm orchestrating drinks with sight, sound, touch, scent, and the ever-​substantive taste in mind, delicious tea and snacks. Makes sense to me. Sipping coconut milk on a 100 degree Fahrenheit day in Irvine was divine (see photos). Clean and bright store, definitely ideal for studying, meeting friends or getting drinks/​snacks for take out.

Love this place. Perfect for study or just to hang out. Love their variety of the drinks too
Friendly service for sure

No credit card. Only debit and cash. That’s how you lose business for already a failing place

Always delicious. I love that the boba and its miasma of yummyness hiding under the milkfrost are warm!

The boba milk tea is so water downed here. We ordered an Earl Gray and an egg custard milk tea and they essentially tasted the same.
Not worth the money… go somewhere else.

While there are better places to grab a drink, the slush at TE is pretty good and the item I keep returning for.
Service is nice, a bit slow if they are busy and I am not a huge fan of their green tea.
Space is simple but clean, options are endless and you can have them modify it anyway you like.
Prices are descent, quality ok but not the best.

I love this boba place. I am a regular here, no matter how confusing and customized my order the staff always gets it right. The boba is fresh and delicious each time. I had to switch to sugar free boba milk tea to watch my calories but it is still so good. I hope this location never changes its recipe.

Passion fruit green tea, large with aloe and boba is delicious! My co workers and I always get it! Tastes the same every time and the place is definitely a lot easier to find than lollicup.

Great place for studying after work. Usually fairly empty, easy to find a study spot.

My all time favorite place for Tiger Iced tea with boba! I’ve been coming here for around 10years now, and this place never disappoints! I keep on trying Thai/​Tiger iced tea wherever there is one on a menu, but still keep on coming back to Tapioca Express every time! :) And this place isn’t bad for just hanging out and talking! Though I’d say their bathroom is in need of a little refresher. But otherwise the place is cozy and great for a boba drink, studying or hanging out wth friends!

I don’t care for this TapEx as much as the other locations… some reason my drink was way too sweet (I asked for only a quarter sweetener). It also gets really busy being right by 99 Ranch. I’d prefer to go to Lollicup or Bambu across the street instead.

This is one of my favorite chain boba shops to go to in a pinch. My default is their iced black tea with boba. They put the perfect amount of sugar in and the tea tastes great. The boba is the perfect consistency — never stale, but not too soft.
The staff here is courteous and typically pretty fast in making the orders.
Make sure to check in on Unilocal to get 10% off! And grab a punch card so you can get a free drink for every 10 you buy.

This was probably the first boba chain that opened in the north Irvine area (definitely before Lollicup across the street, and wayyy before the Café Bene on Walnut), so if you lived in the area way back when, when your friends said «let’s get boba» they were referring to this Tapioca Express.
With that being said, I’ve got a lot of (biased) love for this TE location. Been going here ever since there was still that sushi express place next door (sadly that’s now replaced with a Chinese store).
I know that in some of the flavored milk teas here they use syrups instead of fresh ingredients, so I understand why some people complain about this. At Cha for Tea near UCI you see strawberry bits in their strawberry milk tea but here I think they use a store bought syrup.
Still, milk teas here are delicious and lack that Coffee-​mate taste so present in the Cha for Tea black and green milk tea.
The crispy chicken here is the best and I love that they fry it with basil leaves — so much flavor! I miss the cheese ragoons here — please bring them back!
More about this place: free wifi, clean bathroom, music playing over the speakers is at a great volume level where you can bob your head to the beat but still be able to converse with friends, and discount when you check in on Unilocal

My favorite Tapioca Express location. Their boba tastes the best out of all the locations I’ve been to! They are soft, warm, and sweet! I love their strawberry milk tea with boba!
Their food is also pretty good.
What is nice is that they are opened pretty late at night (even weekdays) compared to other boba places in the area. I usually come here after the gym at around 10pm.

Pretty good boba. Their popcorn chicken is great also. You can get the boba + popcorn chicken combo for a discount. Don’t forget to check in on Unilocal to get another extra 10% off!

If you follow me on Unilocal,you’ll see I’m a regular here for a few reasons.
1) They are open late. Nothing better than a late night boba run.
2) Their crispy chicken is second to none. Really. They follow the Taiwanese recipe with five spice seasoning and basil and it’s really just soooo good! You have to eat the basil, which is soaked in flavorful goodness. It’s a heavy snack (enough for a meal quite frankly), so I recommend going halfsies with a friend. I’ve tried crispy chicken at other Tap-​Ex locations but for some reason it just doesn’t taste as good.
3) Yummy boba drinks. Sure, they don’t use artisanal grass-​fed organic vegan gluten-​free honey substitute or fresh handpicked strawberries or whatever in their drinks, but sometimes you just really crave a drink that you know full well was made with a concentrated flavor powder.
My go-​to order is crispy chicken mild spicy and peach green tea with boba. So delicious.
TIP: Check in with Unilocal for 10% off and get a stamp card. Hint: they expire every year, so use them up!

Why is sugar in nearly every single drink you guys make? And HUGE amounts of it? I must’ve ran through half the menu with the cashier, trying to find a tea that could be made with no sugar.
In the end, I paid $ 3 for a cup of hot water and a tea bag.
Nothing healthy here, that’s for sure.

Besides this location being a lot larger and roomier than the location closer to the John Wayne Airport, it was actually colder and less cozy. With a Unilocal check in you receive 10% off your entire order. It’s in a shopping center, and parking is a pain not too mention there isn’t a lot of it.
Prices are affordable and decent, they only accept cash or debit nothing else. Internet access was non-​existent for me. I typed in the password, but was asked to reconfigure my computer wi-​fi network set up, opted out. What a pain. I actually think the location closer to the airport is cozier, even thought it’s smaller. I am more of a Lollicup person.

Tap Ex is your regular everyday boba shop. They offer your basic milk teas, flavored ice teas, and a good variety of slushie (snow bubble) type drinks.
What I like to get here:
SNACKS:
–squid balls! I get about 2 – 3 orders of these bad boys because my family and I love them. Each order has 6 pcs.
–popcorn chicken. I like it better than most boba shops that offer popcorn chicken (i.e. Cha, Tastea, Guppies, Class 302)
DRINKS:
–earl grey, milk tea or snow bubble (both are good)
–honey green milk tea — this is the only drink my family and I have had a lot of inconsistencies with quality (sometimes it’s really watered down)
–taro milk tea — it’s too sweet for me but the kids enjoy this one
–the boba (tapioca balls) are good too. Sometimes though, they’re overcooked (which means they’re really soft and mushy)
The location is also really convenient for us too!

10% off entire bill with check-​in!
Parking is terrible. Why so many businesses in one plaza? Anyway, there’s seriously 3 tea spots within walking distance of each other (TapX, Lollicup & Bambu), so the check in offer is nice if you’re able to snag a parking spot.
Tapioca Express is a classic for me, lol. It’s the first of it’s kind before all these other tea fusion bars popped up. My usual go-​to is watermelon juice slush with lychee jelly, but I decided to mix it up with a peach snow bubble. I added the lychee jelly, of course!
For a regular size + 10% discount, it was roughly around $ 3.25. The beverage is a bit sweet, but you can always ask for less sugar or sweetness. Totally slipped my mind, but I needed the pick me up for Monday anyway, so I let it slide.