This is worst bubble tea place and a disgrace to us Taiwanese! First, the two employees working in there looked like they just didn't want to be there.... They almost seemed like a couple who are fighting and had the shittiest faces ever! No smile, no conversation with the customers. Not to mention they were slow as hell! It would have been all good if the bubble tea was good... to my biggest disappointment it's not even properly cooked... WTF!!! The tapioca was very hard since it wasn't cooked thoroughly!!! Cha Time is a famous brand in Taiwan and the workers making such basic mistake is just unacceptable. read more

Chatime - Uncooked tapioca - Coffee & Tea Near Me - London, XGL

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This place was just "okay". I ordered the Wintermelon Latte with 50% sugar and there was nothing really amazing about it. I went on a Monday night during the holidays and it seems like the line is always out the door. The employee who took our order was very nice and had a smile on her face. It was weird because there was two workers at first and in the end, I don't know where the other girl went, but there was only one girl taking orders at the cashier AND making the drinks at the same time. I honestly don't think we should have waited as long as we did ... almost an hour ... read more

Wow! I can hardly keep up with the explosion of bubble tea places in London Chatime is a well-known Taiwanese bubble tea chain, which already has one outlet in Soho, less than 5 minutes from this new location. However, its prime position on Chinatown's main drag of Gerrard Street and its familiar brand name in the Far East will ensure its success, I'm sure It was certainly rammed today when I was there. The good luck new opening hampers were still evident and there was already a line snaking out of the door. The limited seating was fully occupied but the queue was still good-natured They do a variety of teas in different flavours with different toppings. What I like is that you can customise the sweetness and the amount of ice in your drink, so you get your drink just the way you want it. There are extra toppings available but disappointingly for me, no popping boba I like their fruit flavours and on a hot day like today, bubble tea is a good way to cool off I'm sure this outlet is going to be popular read more

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One of the few places that makes authentic bubble tea in London. My favorite is the roasted milk tea (with half sugar and tapioca). Really smooth with a hint of roasted tea. Their tapioca balls are really good. Small, chewy and a little sweet to make them special. I don't usually order tapioca balls due to health reasons but I ll make an exception for chatime. Minus one star for: constant long queue and cash only. read more

Chatime - The line on a Thursday night. Really? - Coffee & Tea Near Me - London, XGL

I've been to a Chatime here in the States and I had the sudden craving of boba while walking around London's Chinatown when I saw Chatime. I have to admit that I've only been to Chatime once here in the States and I never wanted to go back because I likened this place to a non-premium boba joint where they scoop their pre-made teas for you and you don't get a chance to customize. The line here is ridiculous for a number of reasons. 1. It's Chatime and I think it has a big following in Europe. 2. It is on a major street in London's Chinatown 3. It is probably one of the only boba places in London in general. So after waiting in the ridiculous line that wraps around the shop and almost out the door, I finally ordered and got my drink. I ordered the Brown Rice Green Milk Tea with Boba. I had it less sweet and with less ice. The drink didn't have any brown rice flavor. I presumed it was going to be like a roasted rice tea but I didn't get any inkling of that. Next, the drink was pretty bland. I have had other drinks less sweet and I still get that tea and sugary taste but nope, they pretty much put no sugar in there. Finally, the boba was cooked relatively well but still missing that bite that I expect from boba. The drink was mediocre and not to standards with the drinks you would normally get in here in the States. It is decent and pretty much filled the spot but I wish I had gone somewhere else. I doubt I would come back again if I am ever back in London's Chinatown. In fact, there are other boba shops near the border of London's Chinatown that I feel might be better than Chatime because since they are secluded from the huge traffic from the main street, these shops probably have to be on point to survive. I say skip and find the other boba shops around the corner with no/shorter wait times than to come to Chatime... read more

Chatime - Counter signage - Coffee & Tea Near Me - London, XGL

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Bustling Bubble Tea Shop near one of the Chinatown gates. ChaTime serves Bubble Tea Taiwan style. This means you can customize the sugar level to your liking - 6 levels in all. I had the Taro Milk Tea with Black Pearl, No Sugar, No Ice. Well made, fast service. The Taro and the Black Pearl provides the drink with natural sweetness. The are 2 other Bubble Tea shops within 2 blocks of ChaTime. I have not had a chance to try these other establishments. read more

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Definitely a good boba shop. Pretty extensive menu if you're into that. Their regular milk tea with boba (pearl tea) is really good. The tea itself is more subtle in flavor than I prefer but still good and the boba itself is just the right combination of chewy but not too chewy and sweet but not too sweet. They also let you specify ice and sugar level which is always a plus. I usually prefer "half sugar" and "less ice". read more

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It's always great to have a hot drink when it's freezing but a hot bubble tea is even better. They do know how to do it in Chatime and the queue to have your drinks tends to prove it (was very glad to arrive just before a guided tour group of singaporian tourists!). They have a large range of flavors for you to try but basically you choose: 1. your type of tea: brown rice green tea, roasted, jasmin green tea, matcha, oolong, taro and a few others 2. with or without milk (it is powder milk, not fresh milk) 3. with or without a fruit flavor: litchy, mango, lemon, peach 4. your type of toppings: tapioca pearls, red beans, fruit gelly, pudding... 5. hot or cold 6. with or without foam 7. the degree of sweetness that you want I tired the hot taro milky tea with tapioca pearls and it was awesome with regular sweetness (medium, £4-ish). Rich in taste and in texture, filled me up for the whole afternoon and wasn't too sweet. Because of the taro (loooove it!), it's a bit thicker so don't choose if you just want something light and fresh. It isn't! read more

Chatime - My lovely hot taro milky tea - Coffee & Tea Near Me - London, XGL

I am pretty darn sure I have written a review for this place before and yelp deleted it......so frustrating. So in case they delete this review again I will keep it short as to be time efficient. Chatime is a well known and probably one of the biggest worldwide bubble tea chains offering consistent flavors of their selection of beverage options + toppings. The most popular of course being their classic milk tea (with boba). Being so reliably tasty this place is also packed no matter what time of the day so be ready to wait in a long line. Ive been in the winter and summer. So far also I have gotten lucky they never run out of stock of anything. Customer service is great and they speak english and chinese (I heard canto and mandarin) I also think so far this is the best tasting option of the now decent competition in the area. Recommend of course......until Vivi chains shows up :P read more

PROS - When there is a queue for an establishment, it probably is pretty damn good. Well, the good news is this place will always have a queue - making it hard to miss. As an avid bubble tea drinker, I tried FOUR bubble tea joints in ONE day. I will now bring you exclusive coverage of what I found to be the best bubble tea around London. Chatime may always have a busy queue but they are organized and quite efficient. I really enjoy their original "Chatime" bubble tea with basic tapicoa bubbles (#1) however I have also tried their Matcha milk tea with red bean (#4) and mango QQ (#7). Their menu is big and it ranges from fresh brewed tea, mousse, fruit tea, juice (QQ), milk tea, tea lattes to smoothies and coffee with different toppings. If it is your first time there and you haven't found your top 5 staples, the choices may overwhelm you. CONS - Even after you order your drink, there is another queue to retrieve your drink. Another con is that the font on their menu is VERY small (or maybe I'm just blind), I found it helpful to take a picture of their menu up by the cashier on my phone and just zooming in to make my choice while in queue. Side note: #4 (the matcha milk tea with red bean) was tasty but I think it gave me a tummy ache afterwards CONCLUSION - I will definitely be back as this bubble tea joint is better than Café TPT, Boba Jam and HK Diner. 4/5 stars because I'm still rounding up bubble tea results from places I haven't tried yet :) read more

Just a quick and short update on this place - They have started to charge if you add other ingredients or even add pearls to drinks that do not automatically come with pearls. It's an additional 50p. I ordered the Chatime Roasted Milk Tea - this apparently does not automatically come with pearls, extra 50p on top for me :( The drinks still taste good, it's just that it's a tad more expensive now :( Come here if you want an authentic "treat". read more

I know chatime is a chain, but I was my first time going there. I had a great experience with the bubble tea! I almost wanted to get another one to take home! I got the mango QQ which has lychee jelly and tapioca but they ran out! I asked if they could give me jelly instead and they let me! So nice (but that's only because they don't have the tapioca)!! The mango flavor tasted very real and captured the true mango juice flavor! Very aromatic too. My friend had the roasted black tea with grass jelly and the roasted tea gave it a novel and different twist. I enjoyed it! But I don't get the pricing. On the menu it says £2 something but when I ordered it, it ended up being £3 something close to £4. I wasn't sure if it was the tax or it was the add-ons... Overall, the taste and quality of the bubble tea and service were very good! read more

Chatime - Mango QQ - Coffee & Tea Near Me - London, XGL

The hot roasted milk tea here is absolutely amazing. It's a perfect blend of tea and creamy creamer :) The line here is a bit long especially on weekends but I think it's well worth the wait. I recently had chatime back in the states and it definitely could not compare. If you're in the area and craving milk tea, check this place out! read more

I got honeydew with no sugar. It still tastes like that powdery artifically sweetened flavor. And the girl that gave me my drink gave me the dirtiest look for no reason and turned away. Sheesh. It wasn't even that busy. I would got to cuppacha a few feet away instead read more

Every time I've been here, they're always out of every tea I might want. Seriously. The last time I resorted to just asking, "Ok, can you just tell me what's available?" That's really not how a boba place should work. :( The queues are long, the tea is out of stock, they're cash only. If you can't get anything you want, consistently, why would you go here? There are plenty of better options just metres away. read more

The place was always packed when it first opened. I'd have lunch nearby and think about getting a dessert bubble tea on the way home. But every single time there was a giant queue outside the shop. The rare times there wasn't, they'd actually run out of bubbles to put in their tea!! Well it's been open for some time now and the queues do occasionally go out the door, but all the cool trendy kids have had their fill of bubble tea now, so it was my turn. I ordered the traditional Taiwanese standard pearl milk tea. I feel that's the best way. And I found it very very good. The milk tea was nice, sweet but not sickly sweet. The bubbles were the best bit. Some bubbles can be extra chewy, stuck together, slimy etc.. These were perfect. Nice and big with an great chewy texture. The place is nothing special, but the tea is solid. read more

Came here twice (two different branches). Both time they were out of boba. And milk tea. It was before 6pm - not doing very well for a milk tea boba place.... Oh and the staff was super rude about it too read more

Cha time has done REALLY well for itself, they now have a shop slap bang in the middle of chinatown and given it's status across the world, they ALWAYS have customers. But the service is slow, it takes about 10 minutes to get my tea done,and that's not really that acceptable, especially when your contenders are doing it much faster. They need to take a good hard look at how they process the system, maybe even hire an extra pair of hands. but they do offer a nice waiting area, if a little clinical. I actually opted for a match red bean with less sugar and even that was too sweet, but I do enjoy they offer customisable sweetness. They definitely stepped it up since my first visit but I think they still have alot of improvements to do. read more

I wanted try some different tea places but this place just wasn't well stocked. Every kind of tea I wanted they ran out. Just not good service when you see that. read more

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Probably the worst Chatime place I've been to. The attitude of the staff there is appalling. It's as if smile is a topping one has to pay for, and even then it's completely gone from the menu. There're plenty of other places in Chinatown, go there unless you want a sour mood that may go nicely with your preferred drink. And the tea I got is tasteless :/ read more

Foul service, i ordered bubble tea, received no bubbles, I could've just had a normal cup of tea at home. Anyways asked for boba and got told I didn't pay or order with boba so had to pay for a new one. Mine and my brothers were the same price he had boba I didn't. Idiots who makes a bubble tea with no bubbles read more

The queue here was absurd. But I'm inclined to say that my taro milk tea with grass jelly was worth it. I seldom ever get taro bubble tea because it's usually a powder base, which just isn't my style. Chatime uses real taro and you can definitely taste the difference! The flavor is light, but nicely refreshing. If taro doesn't float your boat, there are so many other options to try out. All their ingredients seem pretty fresh due to the insane volume of business that is constantly coming through the door. read more

I thought bubblology was the best place for Bubble Tea in London. I was wrong. This place has a plethora of choices. That might be a bad thing. But you know you always have something new to try there. I just love it. I have never had a bad drink. I don't remember names particularly but today I had red bean milk tea hot with pearls. mmmm.. it was good. I also tasted a bit of hazelnut milk tea with pearls which was sugary and had that nutella kind of flavour to it. loved both. I would definitely go there. It is a worldwide chain and now I know why it has been so successful. read more

I'm generally a fan of chatime, although being a franchise, the quality can't always be guaranteed! This one has been good - a little bit on the sweet side, but it's pretty decent version in relations to all the other chatime that i have been to. About 3 quid for a bubble tea. The lines are generally long but the wait is not too bad as they go through the motions relatively fast. Nicely decorated and good seating for waiting,but for sitting in. I generally get the roasted milk tea with coffee jelly, no added sugar. read more

I first had Chatime in Toronto and my mind was blown, after that night we went every night for the rest of our trip. When I found out London had Chatime I was ecstatic!! Upon our walk to Chatime after dinner I was skipping and singing to my fiancé because I was soooo excited to get a taro bubble tea, which was my favorite at Chatime because it is made from real taro (at least that's what they told me in Toronto). After my first sip, it was nothing but disappointment as I continued to drink away my cup of iced water with a hint of taro. Very disappointing as this location does not seem to be at the same standard as it's other locations. read more

Service is appalling...definitely won't be coming back. Treated family for a day out as its mother day and the girl behind the counter got some attitude...the manager need to sort they staff out if they still want customers to come back read more

I visit this place back home in San Francisco and I thought I would try it out here in London while visiting. Fan of the milk tea so that's what I ordered. Sized up since I was sharing. Came here at 6 pm and only 1 person ahead of us so very service. Drink was really good, not too sweet and the boba was chewy. read more

Average boba place but came here because it was next to where I ate dinner and I haven't had boba in 1 month. They ran out of the brown rice mousse (so sad :( ). Instead, I had the oolong mousse and it wasn't out of the ordinary. Treated my friend to a bubble milk tea and ordered her milk tea with pudding. Either they didn't understand our accents or....? But they forgot her pudding so we had to ask for it and still had to pay the extra. Should have been free because of their hearing problems but eh, can't expect exceptional customer service everywhere. In the end, I'd choose to go somewhere else if I knew it would be better milk tea and better customer service. read more

Chatime - Coffee & Tea Near Me - London, XGL

Fine selection for a bubble tea outside of the San Francisco Bay Area. But oh the attitude from the cashier, stinks the place to high heaven. Need to find another place. read more

Long queue all the time, but worth it! It's quite authentic. Pearl chatime tea is as good as I expected. Sales girls are pretty, polite, and energetic. The only issue is that the smell of plastic is quite strong in their straws. I suspect it will have some health impact, or at least influence the flavor of tea. Not sure whether it is always the case. read more

Sub-par quality. Poor service and rude staff. Never going back here again. Would not recommend this place. P.S. they would offer you toilet paper if you ask for napkins. read more

Just your traditional bubble tea done fairly okay by international standards, but actually considered good in the UK since most here are pretty dire. Service is as per your Chinatown standard level of rude and contemptuous. I just get the usual original Assam milk tea with pearls, when they're available that is. Most of the time I go here, they've run out of pearls and milk... Not sure how that is acceptable at a bubble tea place, yet there's always a queue. Don't even bother with their fresh milk versions read more

for those new to the world of bubble tea, chatime (like many other chains) will allow you to request certain levels of sugar and ice in your drink - 70%, 50%, etc. & an insider tip for this particular location of chatime - and only this one, as i've never seen this happen at another location or chain, and likely never will again - your server has another custom level that they will adjust for you here, wholly unrequested and undesired: 30% tap water! while walking out with our orders, my friend and i had to confirm that we had in fact both just seen a worker top off a good percentage of our drinks (about a third of the cup, but i'm sure they adjust to taste) with lukewarm water from the sink. maybe this could have been some sort of terrible shared hallucination, but i don't think we could have ever dreamt up the resulting travesty that is the 70% powdered, chalky tea swimming in 30% water that we paid for that day. needless to say, neither of us finished our drinks. very thankful i live across the atlantic and will never have to step foot here again read more

I was so happy when I discovered Chatime existed in London, and not too far of a walk from where I was staying at that. I went here all the time last fall and it's basically as close to the real thing as it can get. I usually get the black (occasionally green) tea with nata de coco (I love nata de coco! So happy they have it), which tastes basically the same as it tastes in Taiwan. The milk tea tasted a little weird the first time I got it - there was a slightly weird nutty taste? It got better later on I think. Cons...there seem to be periods of time where they run out of bubbles. The line will be ginormous if you go on Friday afternoons/weekends. Also, the staff do speak English, but it's slightly hard to understand when they're shouting out numbers (although that might also be because it's usually pretty chaotic when I go...) As with many other bubble tea places, it's also cash-only. read more

I'm from California, the land of boba, and after trying a few places in London, I think it's the best boba you'll get over here. I've never been a fan that they don't take credit card, but I get it. However, what is more troubling to me (and the reason for the one star) after my visit on December 28 is that there's a fly/gnat infestation going on in there. I saw a couple of them buzzing around, but then looked up at the ceiling and there were at least a few dozen of them just camped up there. I really hope that is being taken care of. read more

I have had Chatime in other places of the world. I find this location to be watered down. The taro milk tea I go it twice and it was both times bad. They have a small bench to sit and no other seating space. The staff there looks at you until you leave especially late at night or when it's raining. Many times they don't understand your order or I don't understand them. Hope for more consistency between locations. read more

I'm a huge fan of bubble tea. I come from Asia where the bubble tea industry is so competitive and it's hard to get bad bubble tea (because the bad ones get ousted from the competition sooner or later). This is one of the best ones I've found in London. The roasted milk tea was fragrant - I always order no sugar to taste the tea. The pearls were one of the better ones I've tasted. It's chewy but not hard and had a bouncy texture to it. Love this! read more

Even though they had a dry spell of not having boba or tea in stock (how does this happen to a business based on these 2 ingredients??!?) for about 4 weeks, I still go back for more. I prefer my milk tea tasting more tea-like instead of being overpowered by artificial sweeteners and flavors like Boba Jam or Bubbleology. At Chatime you can adjust the sugar level to your preference or opt out of sugar completely. It tastes great cold or hot. This is the only place I get milk tea/boba in London. read more

This is the first time I've ever seen a store that has options for sugar AND ice levels. Amazing. I got the roasted milk tea, no sugar, no ice, with pearls and red bean. The roasted flavor adds depth, though I wish I had branched out more to their more interesting flavors. The queue was insane both times I went - we waited longer for bubble tea than we did for a table at a restaurant during peak dinner hour. One star off for charging for toppings, I'm used to milk tea coming with boba (and being able to opt out). read more

I had to wait a little while for my bubble tea to be ready, even though the shop wasn't overly busy, but when it arrived it tasted great. I had a fruit tea, passion fruit flavour, which was very yummy and refreshing. The price was reasonable in relation to other bubble tea shops (£3.25 for a small) and the location is great. It's open till late too, 11pm each day, so handy after a night out. read more