Bolansa

I use to come here when I lived and work in the area.
I have been here at least a dozen times but never for the real food, I love the desserts and their drinks. It is not cheap but I like their cold fruit deserts with birds nest, coconut, mangoes, melons and the such that you can’t really find anywhere else.

I just heard that it was closed… A bit mixed feeling about this place.
Despite the fact the food was nothing special, there didn’t seem to be a much better alternative for Asian desserts. So we visited on a not-​so-​regular basis.
Always tried to get the couches and coffee table at the back, but the couch had sagged quite a bit from usage. Didn’t think they’d ever replace it.
The mango pudding is my favourite, which were better during mango season since the slides of the fresh mango on top tasted sweeter.
One time with about 10 of us, we looked at the menu a lot more carefully and saw a dessert with hasma and wondered what it was. It turned out to be the fallopian tubes of snow frogs and that was a bit disturbing…
Really not quite 3 stars but I did visit repeatedly and now they are gone…

I came here yesterday and ordered my usual. Somehow it didn’t look the same as I remembered it to be. So I asked the lady, is this what I ordered (she doesn’t speak English very well so I pointed to the menu)? She said, «yes» and walked away… Uhhh…okkkkk…turns out they added hella coconut juice but forgot to add the Mango juice in my drink. I knew something was off.
They need to have better service at Bolansa or else people will think twice about coming here!

I look through the window, and there’s a single customer with a bunch of dishes in front of him. The waiter and waitress are sitting behind the counter, and the girl looks like she’s about to fall asleep.
I got one of their mango drinks and a bowl of curry fish balls with noodles. The drink was about $ 4.00 an made with actual mangos (this was pretty good). The noodles was around $ 5.00, I think? Not sure, my mom paid.
The fish balls were not hot. I could tell they just dropped it into the soup before serving it to me. They should’ve at least microwaved it or something. $ 9.00 and I wasn’t even close to being full. Maybe that’s why the other customer had hella food in front of him.
Don’t refer to the photos in the menu. The dishes doesn’t really look like that. Fail.
Stick with the drinks.

The only thing I ever get here would be the C14 or C12. Watermelon juice is so goood! But! you have to make sure you come when the watermelon is still halfway cut because sometimes theyll make it with the white rind and it makes the juice just plain bland. but aside to that get the C14. the C12 is mango blend with green jelly and something else. Those are the only 2 worth ordering.
I’ve never had the food here but I wouldnt recommend it since its always dead in there and people have reviewed bad things about it. Just a good quick stop for some refreshing drinks.

I usually order the Mango-​Coconut-​Sago drink, and that’s pretty much the only thing they ever get right (except sometimes they get too close to the pit, and I get all the nasty mango fibers). The first time I came here, they had the most amazing sticky-​black rice with coconut milk, but I don’t know if their ownership changed or what, because since then, my cherished dessert has been served to me PRE-​PREPARED with rice as hard as rocks and coconut cream that’s frozen.
And boy, don’t even bother if you’re a stickler for service. They’re R-​U-​D-​E, and they know it. Last night, my boyfriend and I walked in, and the ENTIRE STAFF was sitting and eating, and they looked up at us with this «Oh great, customers are bothering us» look. Then there was this awkward stand-​off as they looked at each other deciding who would have to stop eating and take our order. The guy finally stood up and took down our order in a hurry with an annoyed tone. I’m sorry, what restaurant thought it was a good idea to put all their staff on break at the same time, DURING HOURS. I know the importance of breaks, but seriously?
We got two drinks, and egg nuggets. The egg nuggets were soft and soggy, not crispy. Bolansa, if you ever read this (and I doubt you do, seeing as how I’m not the first to complain about service), you’re lucky you’ve been in business this long.

This is similar to a vendor in the night markets in Hong Kong. The drinks are good here but on the pricier side. I always order the coconut/​mango drink.
Unfortunately, the service is pretty bad here. They don’t greet the customers, smile, nor do they say thank you after you pay.
I’d rather spend my money elsewhere…

This place used to be pretty good when it first opened. I came here quite often with friends to have crepes, beef stew, wonton noodle soup, and what ever else. One of my favorite drinks used to be c12!
It was aloe, mango, coconut, and mango bits on top and probably the best drink there.
Unfortunately through the years, it got worse and worse. The people who work there are deadbeats. It’s besides the fact that they look emo, they are lazy, ignorant, and rude. It takes forever for them to acknowledge you and you would almost always have to go up to order and pay. One of the last times I visited, we saw cockroaches all over the floor and had gnats (fruit flies) in one of our soups. That was the breaking point. GO somewhere else!

Usually, I would come here to eat the entrees, but this time after eating Crawfish, I came here with my father and family friends from San Francisco to try and eat some tradtiional Hong Kong desserts.
My family friends were particularly interested in seeing whether or not this place had black sesame or almond dessert (hak jima wu) — to our surprise, they had it, and it wasn’t power-​based like other restaurants! The black sesame turned out to be really good, but the almond paste was a little too thick for my liking.
We also ordered the red bean, corn, and taro white cake for the «buy two get one free» deal, and we were satisfied with this as well. I personally like the red bean and the corn one. This would be an interesting dessert for those who aren’t familiar with this kind of style.
I also requested that we order a mango mochi roll, and it was delicious! It had custard, coconut bits, and real mango slices in it, and it was a personal favorite of the day.
Bolansa makes me really miss Hong Kong, and I guess this is the closest I can get to «Hui Lau Shan» (for you Hong Kong-​ers).
I’m definitely going to come back here for desserts next time!

How is this joint only 3 stars? For the prices, you can’t really complain. They have a variety of noodle soups for under $ 6 BUCKS! =P
I got their hainese chicken/​rice lunch special for $ 6.99 and it also came with soup.
My friend says the jello drinks are really delicious here, and I can’t wait to try them next time! They look so yummy and filling.
The only thing that was a bummer were the employees. One guy in particular just did not want to be there. I understand one may have a bad day or something, but this guy CLEARLY did NOT want to be there. He was annoying me so badly! I asked him what type of soup they made and he said «mmm I don’t know. Just soup» I was thinking in my right mind «Are you shitting me right now?! Do you seriously work here?»
And we asked him to split the bill and he just shook his head. Is he mute?
If it weren’t for their poor customer service, I would be more impressed with this establishment. The prices, location, variety of foods on the menu and yummyness are all great!

2.5
Meh. Eh.
Chestnut, Taro, and Sago in Coconut juice. EHHHHH, it slightly smelled like vomit. It was not BAD, but It was on the below average side. The taro tasted frozen, chestnut was out of those sealed bags, and the small tapioca was pretty much the only good part. Soup was eh. The egg pancake was ehh. Ehh means 2.5, below average. Service was ehhhh. Mhm. Maybe I came on a bad day or I ordered the wrong thing?

I came here knowing that it was at an average of 2.5 stars, thinking it had a chance at 3, but discovered that it’s definitely at a 2.
First dessert was the sticky rice with coconut milk and mangoes because it’s one of my favorites at these types of HK dessert shops. For some reason they really whip this one up because the coconut milk ends up being really foamy! Almost like a cappucino.
Second dessert was the sesame paste with rice balls and as soon as it got to my table, everyone kept commenting on what it looked like: ink, oil, etc. which it really did. It didn’t taste like the instant kind of I’ve had but it also didn’t taste like the fresh kind of I’ve had in HK either. It was a very goopy in-​between. The rice balls are filled with ground peanuts. This was not worth the $ 4.99.
Third dessert were the egg puffs. Undercooked and really chewy.
I like this little plaza. I haven’t eaten at any of the other places but it’s nice to go somewhere that’s not so intense as Milpitas Square. Bolansa has plenty of seating and even a little couch lounge area which is really low and sunken in. But unfortunately the desserts weren’t good enough for future trips.

There are two things worth getting at Bolansa:
1. Mango-​Coconut Juice with Coconut and Mango
2. Egg nuggets
The service is bad, even for a Chinese place! Cash only.

My friend still had room for dessert after an evening of sushi; thus we headed over to Bolansa.
I’ve seen this type of HK-​style dessert/​drink/​café everywhere in HK. As their prices were about half of BreakTime in Cupertino, we decided to give it a try.
I ordered a Coconut Tapioca with Mango which tasted average at best. Instead of coconut flavor, there were wires of Coconut that felt like hair in my drink… eeek! To top things off, the fresh mangoes used in the drink weren’t very ripe and tasted bland…
…Perhaps I’ll save my next dessert like this in HK instead?

I went here again tonight for late night hangout w/​a friend, though I find the location convenient and the food pretty diverse, I have to give it an updated rating of 2 stars because of these things:
– they messed up our order of «dine in», so they served us everything in plastic /​styrofoam containers. I don’t mind that, just politely asked the service girl to change the container, she shrugged it off and told us to «just eat it in the container»… then when we explained that the dessert was packed in 2 separate containers so we need a glass bowl for eating it, she RUDELY poured everything into a glass bowl and just PUSHED it in front of us… Her facial EXPRESSION told us plainly that our (very reasonable) request is ANNOYING her. !!! but they made the order mistake first!
– then we find out that on our bill, there is a MYSTERIOUS EXTRA charge for «recycle fee»… when we casually mentioned it to another waiter, he said it’s an ADD-​ON for take out orders! But we are obviously sitting here and eating here!!! it’s not that the amount is a lot, but the attitude they take towards hiding this fee without display any visible sign or inform us up front of this fee is just UNETHICAL…
– and one last thing, I noticed that the safety sign read «Max 25 people in this room» while there were at least 30 ppl seated at the time and it’s not even half full…
Come here at your own risk, be ready to pay for hidden charges, as well as prepare to be treated by rude waitresses and they definitely don’t value your patronage!

Ordered the strawberry mochi based on this picture on the wall:
Received the strawberry mochi, and it looked like this:
uh… what happened to all the nice looking strawberries that’s supposed to surround my mochi?
service was craptastic. we had to flag the girl down after 20 minutes, even though she walked by us multiple times. when we went to pay the bill, the guy was listening to his ipod and the two girls were jut sitting there chatting. it must be magical to have invisible clients.
also ordered the egg nugget. if you order it, i would look at the grate that it comes on. i don’t think they wash the thing. ever. b/​c mine was filthy. it made me nauseous just thinking about it.

Bolansa is tasty place to meet with friends and have a sweet drink or dessert. They’re located right in the middle for a lot of us, just off of McCarthy in Milpitas, so we seem to end up there occasionally. Ok really, it might be the egg nugget waffle that keeps us coming back but, the location is good too.
You get 1 $ off if you order a drink and waffle or food together so, I tend to get the Mango with coconut milk and saga and the egg waffle. If they cook it too crispy for you though, make them redo it. Sometimes they don’t pay close enough attention. Come to think of it, Bolansa could probably use a more friendly and attentive waitstaff in general.
They have a lil couch section in the back that’s pretty comfortable but, don’t sit there! That’s my section. :p
See ya there!

I can’t figure out if i should give this place 1 star or 5 stars… so i’ll give it one
Why does it deserve 5 stars? This place has my favorite dessert drink in the world… some kind of mango harsmar pudding and coconut drink that totally rocks anything out there including the overrated and over populated pearl tea drink scene.
Why does it deserve 1 star? The last two times i’ve been there, the mango pudding has been spoiled. The first time, i bought one for me and one for the lady. Mine was fine, hers was spoiled… but we didn’t know it was until i gave it to her 7 miles and 15 minutes later. The second time, i told them i wanted to taste the mango first. It was good, but then the second one that i didn’t taste was spoiled. I was pretty upset because i was on the road already and didn’t have time to go back.
I’ll give it another try one day, but with time at a premium these days, i’ve started to go back to the pearl tea drinks because at least i know they’re not sitting around for weeks getting spoiled.
Happy Eating!

My experience at Bolansa wasn’t a very memorable one, as neither the quality or price impressed me. My friends and I all ordered mango drinks all of which were reviewed as «just okay.» Mine was a little on the sweet side in my opinion and although I tasted some real mango in it, it wasn’t good as a lot of other Asian dessert cafes I’ve been too. I kind of had a reaction similar to:
«ehh this drink is too sw– …WHAT?! Real mango?! Awesome! … no wait, this drink is still too sweet.»
I’m sure you’ll understand it more if you were to try it.
Although I don’t plan on returning here, I give props through a star for containing real mango in my beverage.

The «maximum occupancy» sign reads 25, about half of what you’d expect (given the numerous seats). The overall experience is similarly about half of what you’d expect. And what the heck is a bolansa, anyway?
I came by after lunch with four friends. When the waitress came by, four of us ordered drinks and desserts, and the fifth asked for a couple more minutes. The waitress never returned to take the fifth order. Like, we still had the menu when we were ready to leave. Strike one.
When the drinks and desserts arrived, the waitress didn’t identify them for us. We were left to guess what was what and whose was whose. This can be non-​trivial with some similar-​looking items. Strike two.
After finishing, we sat and talked as we waited for the check. The check never came; we had to go up to the register to pay. Strike three, grab some pine.
The desserts themselves are not very tasty either. I’ve had some papaya dessert (the only one pictured in the menu) and the mango sweet rice. Not great. I guess at least the mango sweet rice wasn’t as bland as the papaya thing.
The edited menu reveals the values of this establishment. Prices have been carefully labeled over, no doubt to raise the dollar amounts. Meanwhile, the easily noticeable typo «kruit juice» remains in bold lettering.
The menu also features some unusual items. Among them is bird’s nest soup… a number of items feature swallows’ saliva. Gross. (I half-​jokingly speculate that when they run out of bird spit they probably substitute human spit. This is unsubstantiated, but I could totally imagine it.)
And yet, the avian saliva isn’t even the grossest thing on the menu. Do you know what harsmar (hasma) is? If wikipedia is to be believed,* it’s made from frog fallopian tubes. What the heck.
*: Dubious source, I know. But now it’s on wikipedia and Unilocal (in this review), so it must be true.
I’m not a big fan of frog meat to begin with… but fallopian tubes? Really? Fallopian tubes? I hadn’t even heard those words since sex ed class in 7^th grade. This «food» begs some questions:
1. WHY?
2. Isn’t it difficult to remove fallopian tubes from frogs, which are generally small?
3. Who decided it would be a good idea to eat frog fallopian tubes? How did he/​she come to this conclusion?
Seriously, how ridiculous was the conversation that led up to this?
«Hey buddy. You see that frog over there? I wonder how its fallopian tubes taste. … Yeah the things connected to its ovaries. I’m gon’ get ‘em!»
Why is Chinese cuisine so weird sometimes? :[