Frubble

This is a nice quiet spot with good food and good boba. Sure it’s next to a big church and when we were there abstract religious art filled the walls, but even to a couple of atheists like us, it was not offensive and the owner was helpful, friendly, and there was no preaching.
Honestly we visited a while ago so I don’t remember too many details. I think I had the coconut boba and my husband had some sort of coffee boba. I do remember him saying it was the best coffee drink he’d ever had. We also ordered some wraps and they were tasty and inexpensive.
This place is a bit out of our way, so we haven’t been back recently but for no other reason than that.

Finally decided to try this place out. I came here with my bf on a Sunday night (9:15pm)… At first, I was a bit iffy as I pulled into the lot… It was a big parking lot and only one pick up truck.
As we walked inside, I was very surprised with the type of atmosphere. It’s a total different vibe than boba shops off Convoy. Arcades, huge images of musicians, some artwork… and a stage… very unexpected.
We ordered a mango and taro smoothie, both with boba. Prices weren’t too bad ($ 3.75 for a large). My mango was very sweet. I could taste that there was some mango in it, but i wouldn’t really call it «mango.» it was just really sweet. I had a taste of the taro smoothie, and that was ok.
I would come back to this place because its close to El Cajon and I wouldn’t have to drive all the way the Convoy for some boba… Plus this place has groupon deals. We just happened to go after 9pm.
Happy we tried it. If you’re looking for quality, you probably won’t like this place. but the location is very convenient for East County.

My recommendation: Caramel Apple Boba Smoothie.
The food and drinks here are good and cheap. Make sure you try the Caramel Apple Boba! I’ve never had that flavor at any other boba spot I’ve ever been to. I think its safe to say that’s Frubble’s signature drink.
There was a lot of couches and open space to chill out and relax on while you’re waiting for your food. I’ve been here once while a video game tournament was being played. This spot is definitely good for the younger crowds.

I’ve been to Frubble multiple times. I love the coffee n’ cream frubble, it’s super delicious. Sometimes it’s a little heavy on the chocolate syrup, but that’s OK, I’ve watched them put it in and it seems to pour quickly so I don’t blame them for it. The boba isn’t overcooked, still a bit chewy but not nasty mush. I liked the milk tea boba too. They are very open to mixing flavors. :)
On another note, I haven’t seen anything crazy religious in here save for a note of «have a blessed day» and a candle decoration shaped like a cross. I didn’t feel like I was being recruited into a church. I’m an atheist, my Husband is atheist, and we have no problems with Frubble. If they want to put up a cross or play music they like, they can, it’s their business! I’ve seen plenty of businesses with wayyyy more god stuff around than Frubble has. The artwork on the walls changes. at one point it was cars and now it’s some paintings. The events change depending on what day, one night it was some emo band and the next families doing projects/​arts & crafts, they also have some videogame tourneys here. Great as a venue and a boba shop since it’s so roomy. The owners are SUPER friendly, employees are nice too. Just because it’s next to a church doesn’t mean they are trying to recruit you through blended drinks. Hate to see people thinking that’s the case.
Haven’t tried the food, but I love the boba drinks. And when you order double boba, you actually get double boba. I have been to so many boba places throughout SD and Frubble has hooked me. A+

Where to begin. Let me start by [forcefully] retracting my former review. my 1– star review should solely be based on this venues product and not their community services.
That being said, Frubble does a lot for the community. Ranging from live bands to a location for various youth clubs and organizations. They’ve become a safe haven for adolescents and a familiar home for the neighborhood.
As for their drinks, their smoothies are sub par, shadowed by big boba/​café corporations. I stand by my former rant of cheap ingredients.
To summarize, I don’t recommend this place as a drink destination. But I would steer all young people to check out this local hangout.
Alexander M
–a former customer.

Great boba place. The staff was very friendly and welcoming. They offered advice on what flavor combos were best and offered to swap out any drink if I wasn’t completely satisfied.
I also appreciated the neighborhood feel. They have open mic nights, music, board games, etc.

My date and I came here by the magic power that is Groupon. I got a large honeydew with boba and he a large passionfruit with boba. I enjoyed my drink. I admit some boba pieces weren’t as great as the others, but that was only a minority and I am ok with that. My date, however, did not enjoy his drink but that has nothing to do with Frubble. It was his 2n time trying boba and he wasn’t a fan of it the first time, and he realized passionfruit isn’t his thing… I, however, enjoyed both flavors! They do have a large parking lot and are very nice! If you’re in Santee, stop by.

This place is awesome! Price is great, milk teas are awesome, boba is freshly made, and the owner is really nice.
I wish I could have this everyday but sadly I don’t live close enough to walk.
I would love if you expanded to the golden hill area!!!

2 ½ stars
I hate to give it such a low rating especially since the owner is so nice, but I took a sip of my last boba drink and had to throw it away. I ordered a strawberry green tea with mango popping boba. They asked if I wanted it in a slushie form or a milk tea form and I said I wanted the tea form, but I guess that wasn’t an option so they turned it into a slushie… The slushie did not taste at all what I imagine. Strawberry with something that tasted like it was not green tea and the popping boba did not work with the slushie. I’m use to getting a green TEA with strawberry flavor but I got strawberry slushie with green tea powder or something. I guess the combination of choosing the mango popping boba was my fault, but I didn’t really like the slushie itself either.
My BF on the other hand went with a simple mango slushie. 4 stars on that one. 5 because it was good but –1 because it tasted so artificial.
Overall, I think I would give this place another shot. I might have just chosen a wrong combination. The very first time I came here, I got a banana split shake. That was really good. But for this past experience, I’ll going to leave it at 2 ½ stars for now.

Today, my girlfriend and I decided to go on the search for the best boba in San Diego. Our usual places are tapioca express and tea n more, but we decided to get out of convoy and find locations more off the grid. This place looked good from the Unilocal reviews and so we decided to check it out.
We left very disappointed.
First of all, the price was on the more expensive side — about $ 4 for a drink.
The environment had a very interesting vibe. It was a mix of an arcade and a music café.
The employees there seemed nice enough.
However the boba was not very good at all. The milk black tea that we ordered tasted like a liquid form of butterscotch and one of those see’s candies vanilla lollipops. It was way too sweet and didn’t tast like tea at all.
The search for the best boba continues…

Large space, tons of seating with tables and living room/​couch set up. Computers with free WiFi and a free hr of computer use with purchase, otherwise $ 2/​hr. This place seems to cater to those who wanna hang out/​lounge around. I was impressed by their really friendly employees, and kind of liked the cool community paintings/​artwork that decorate the walls. The building itself is older and looks like it used to be a school or something with those old-​school panel ceilings, but this place can’t be faulted for that, I suppose.
The Low-​Down: Its location is convenient and surprisingly east in San Diego (if you’re from east county you know what I mean) for this type of business, however their ingredients and quality are great and I used to have to drive to Convoy st. to get good boba drinks, but the passion fruit slushie with boba I had here was amazing. I will definitely be back. It also doesn’t hurt that their prices are lower than any other boba place i’ve been.
also: they have different community events, open mic nights, concerts, etc. that they post in-​store if you’re into that kinda thing!
$ 8 min charge for cards or a .40 cent charge if its under. they also have an ATM nearby if you’d rather go that route

Customer service deserves 5 star alone. I think we met the owner, and he’s a cool dude… will def stop by again and tell our friends about this place! Thanks for the free potato chips =D
PS. The owner noticed some creepy guy outside his shop and one of the customer was kinda scared to leave, so he walked her to her car… really nice d00d.

Poor location — next to one of those evangelical supermarket churches, which they are. undoubtedly affiliated with given the abundance of Christian decoration and propaganda.
High prices — $ 5 for one boba drink? That’s a couple bucks more than everywhere else. There’s no way to get their Unilocal deal either since you can’t check in without adequate cell reception.
Pushy counter help — I don’t care for anyone who passes judgment on and heckles their customers for wanting a traditional boba drink and not some whitewashed smoothie.
Quality of product — Meh. Anyone with a blender and a Costco membership could buy powdered drink mixes and do the same thing at home for next to nothing.
Avoid like the Crusade it is.

I came across this place due to a groupon deal I bought earlier. I’m always in search of new places to try — and am willing to be adventurous.
Made a trip out with two other friends here. I did not realize how far it was! I was a bit sketched at first because it was a dark parking lot and the Frubble sign was not lit. Estrada’s mexican food was! The location of this place seems a bit out of the way but I guess if you live in Santee, it’s great.
It was busy inside! We saw a huge huddle of people. Turns out they were practicing for a gaming tournament the next weekend. There were several TVs with game consoles hooked up. I’m not sure what game they were playing, but looked like some type of 1 – 1 fighting. I could barely see pass the mass amounts of guys.
The girl who took our order was really cute. She was young and looked like was on the cheer team at school. The owners were very nice and brought out our drinks to us. They chit chat a bit and explained the situation with the games. Usually the atmosphere isn’t like this. Then proceeded to tell us the boba was just freshly made, so it hadn’t absorbed the sweet juice yet. –_​–
We ordered the frubble smoothies and they were decent. Not too sweet.
This place isn’t bad, if you’re in the area. But it’s too far for me to drive all the way to just get boba.

Came to check out this place because its been the venue for the World Collide tournament and I was pretty impressed about the size of the venue. Their drinks are pretty decent, I ordered the Milk Tea or something (my memory need to get sharper) and despite the massive amounts of people it was brought out speedily.
The main reason I give a FOUR STAR rating is because this place is a mom and pop shop. The owners are nice and don’t have fancy equipment. I got my card swiped on the iPad Square attachment which I thought was freaking awesome by the way. I’d go here to support even if this place in Santee and I’m like 20 minutes away.
I think this may be an awesome place to hold a book club, a card tournament, poetry night, and I’m sure the owner won’t mind.

The staff is very friendly when handling orders. It’s a mom and pop shop and I definitely support local businesses like this one. Frubble is a spacious area where many activities and gatherings take place. They have comfortable chairs and free wi fi for use. They even have some nice tvs and a few computers that you can use as well.
Their boba and food are good at reasonable prices.
I come here primarily on Tuesday nights and that’s where I see The Box Arena host one of their events.
Love this place.

I found this place because of the Unilocal deal and decided to check it out. I got the $ 5 for $ 10 deal instead of the check in offer so we could grab a snack too.
I was really hoping it would be in the shopping center across from the library, and admittedly groaned when I saw it was right next to the church. I had already bought the deal so I thought I’d give them a chance. Just because they were next to the church didn’t necessarily mean they were associated with church (I hadn’t yet read the review saying they’re owned by the church).
We were greeted right away, as we were the only people there. He asked if we were new, saying we had that look to us. Truthfully, I was looking around for the Jesus paraphernalia, but we WERE new, so I just went with that. I told him we were there because of the Unilocal deal, and he acknowledged it, but said it was only good for drinks, which it doesn’t say anywhere on the deal itself. He told us about the place, saying it was in east county, so most of their customers were Caucasian and therefore their menu was a little different and the milk teas were their least popular drink.
Thai tea with boba is one of my favorite drinks, but I was considering getting something else until he said that. I was incredibly turned off by that comment. As soon as he knocked the milk drinks I knew I was going to order one — I’m just contrary like that. He gave me a hard time about not trying something new, but I think he realized I wasn’t happy because he ended up saying I was the one drinking it so he was going to stop talking.
I used the deal to get a cookie too, and was prepared to show the deal to him if he resisted. He did make a comment, but said he’d let it slide. I poked around while he made our drinks, and he kept telling us to make ourselves comfortable, to change the music if we wanted, etc. After seeing all the Jesus magazines mixed in with Avon catalogs, I just wanted him to give us our drinks so we could go. The tea was okay, the boba was undercooked. Places with non-​Caucasian customers make them much better.
I have only two words: never again.
Also, FYI, neither one of us could check in inside or near the building, so we wouldn’t have been able to get the check in offer anyway.

The sandwiches and wraps are enormous! Unless you are Andre the giant, you can split one with a friend. The drinks are good, but you can tell they are made from mixes. I don;t think they actually use teas in their «teas», but the coconut Frubble is to die for!!! I had it on a rainy day and it transported me to paradise!
I love the atmosphere because it feels like you’re in a larger version of your BFF’s living room. It’s cozy, family-​friendly and they have toys for the kiddos.

Well, my hopes were dashed once we pulled up. The big red signs on the windows made the place look like an extension of the taco shop next to it. And why the dark tint on the doors? That seemed a bit off.
We were greeted once we got in. There was nobody else in there but us. It felt kinda lonely. The lady who attended to us was really nice — however, she defaulted on two large smoothie/​boba orders without asking us what size we wanted. Since she already prepared the cups and wrote the smoothie flavors on them, I didn’t say anything. I ended up paying $ 10++ for two drinks! Steep, I say. Steep.
My taro smoothie was alright, but I tasted a bit of an aftertaste, like maybe the milk wasn’t that fresh? On the other hand, my niece said she liked her caramel apple smoothie with yogurt popping boba.
I’ll probably just stick to Penguin for boba smoothies, or make the drive out to Kearny Mesa for better options.

My friend (who has recently become obsessed with Boba) and I to check out Fubble, as there was a BOGO coupon & positive reviews on Unilocal.
The café is in the same shopping center as a very large church, and as it turns out the church actually owns the Frubble… due to that all the artwork has a VERY Christan connotation. For someone who is not Christan, this atmosphere may be a bit unpleasant as it is very overpowering.
That being said, the place was completely empty when we came in and therefore, we were served immediately. The barista was not aware of the BOGO coupon but honored it anyways. He said that the Thai Tea was not available on the coupon (though it did not state any restrictions), so we decided to both try the Coffee w/​Boba — it’s not actual coffee, its just a mix, but it was ok anyways. Also, just an FYI, the Thai Tea smoothie is not actually a smoothie, its just Thai Tea poured over ice with Boba.
Overall, this place is ok– nothing too special. The boba was decent, but the overwhelming Christian atmosphere & the fact that i cannot get a smoothie when it says Thai Tea smoothie will prevent me from returning.