With COVID, they are limiting the amount of people inside which I think is great. I love this location because it's the only one I can get a Ferrero Rocher Snow Bubble. While there also check out the chicken, its amazing! I promise. read more

This is my go to boba spot. The only negative thing I would say is the line can be pretty slow and they never have change. Other than that I really enjoy the boba and my favorite thing on the menu is the Thai tea snow bubble :) read more

I got to say one of the best boba places I had ever been to very happy here and they have amazing customer service!!!! read more

Tapioca Express - Captain crunch yummy - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

Decided to come for a late night snack with a friend. We wanted to try the Sisig Fries and placed our order for the Watermelon Juice with Mango Star Jelly and Taro milk tea with Boba. After I had given her my form of payment the cook informed her that they ran out of the Sisig fries. We we're disappointed but decided to order the Longanisa Fries. My friend and I were pleasantly surprised by the Loganisa Fries and enjoyed it with our drinks. This place wouldn't be my first choice but to find a place to get food and drinks at 11pm isn't a bad choice especially in National City. read more

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My whole family love this place. We always get at least 6-7 order of bobas. Avocado and Taro are the best! We'll coming back for sure.

This place was amazing!!!! The variety of drink choices were awesome. The staff was a lot of fun the music and ambiance was on point. Even when being busy they were able to make the drinks fast and efficient! Over all worth the drive to go there for sure! read more

Tapioca Express - Honeydew with boba - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

I guess they close 15 minutes early on Wednesdays.... Me and my girl wanted a lil Boba to end the night, and I hate to be a Karen about this but seriously? 15 minutes early? I've worked food before and even when we had 8 hours of it being dead we would wait all the way till business hours ended. I get that you wanna go home early, and working does suck, but cmon man. Locking the doors? Having the floor entirely mopped? And then at exactly 10pm I see one of the workers who was in the back cleaning run out the front with boba and enter their ride. Like dang man....... Must've been a bad day or something. Still a decent place, nothing against their boba, but you can usually tell what customer service is like by things like this read more

Always friendly staff, my only question is: why don't all locations have the yogurt frost?? That's my jam!

How many times does it take to finally get an order right? The world may never know. Literally how I feel whenever I specifically ask for NON spicy chichi fries and they give me EXTRA SPICY chichi fries. Get it together. read more

During my visit there was a ton of construction in the parking lot. It almost looked like they weren't open, but they had a sign and I could see people inside. They do not do call ahead orders--even for food. This has no baring on the rating. This is not the same decor/layout as before. They've remodeled to a more modern design. I think this is what makes it 'look' clean. There was dust in the entrance towards the registers attributed to the construction. But the bathroom was dirty. Piss on the seat which had been left there long enough to dry. No toilet paper or paper towels and soap dispenser didn't work. This was at 11:55 am. It's safe to say that no one had checked the restroom in the morning or the night before. Ordered the crispy chicken extra hot combos the veggies that come with it are not what I expected. Before it would be broccoli and carrots, now it's just over cooked cabbage and even that was lacking. 2.5 stars read more

Hubby and I order 2 drinks, 2 snacks and 1 combo. My milk tea was nasty straight up no flavor My husband combo chicken was dried and the egg was hard. The rest was Okay! The worst part is we waited too long for our food and drinks since one of the employee was busy making free drinks to her family. She priority their free food and drink that people who pays like us. read more

I love ordering from here. But today I did an uber eats order because there was a promo. I had crispy tofu and three drinks. Everything was great... but how do you forget straws for three drinks? It wouldnt be an issue if they were just regular drinks or smoothies but my drinks have jelly and boba :( had to have my boba with a spoon. read more

I used to get my black tea w/boba here. I've stopped because I don't think they change their water/ice filter. The ice makes the drink taste stale and dirty. This is the most convenient boba shop to me but I'll need to find another place. read more

The place is super clean and big. Aileen is super friendly and she always smiles. Thanks for your excellent service

Always love to come get my boba and there crispy chicken, but very busy at time . Guesss u can't help wait for goodness

Not much better...the food is good and it's been open during the stated hours so great! Buuuutttttttttttt......the music. Usually it's great, little hip hop mixes or some pop whatever.....this is the second time that the music is " blahnlahblah my pu$$@, blahblahblah bi@#$, thisandthat fucking bi!@#$..." I mean it's just not professional. Theres kids here. And families. And me. I dont want to hear that and feel all awkward around these poor kids read more

Tapioca Express is by far our favorite place to eat snacks and get drinks. We love this place and this where we buy our go to drinks most of the time specially during hot season. Workers moved really fast and they know what they're doing. A cashiers name Kristine (asian)is not happy person that can be put in front and take customers order. She doesn't approach customer. She doesn't smile and the way she responds seems mad. She doesn't even acknowledge customers thank you. I don't think she loves her job at all. She needs more training too. read more

I rated this a 3 stars but now it's a 2 because my drink was not good. Parking: There is an open parking space but when it's busy, it's a little hard to find space. Waiting: This is the part that made my give them a 2 star. I waited around 15-20 minutes for my drinks. The cashier was super friendly though. She always had a smile on her face which let me to give this place 2 stars. Other than that, my drink was not good. I ordered an Avocado Smoothie and I knew they put more ice than avocado because all I could taste was shaved ice & my drink was a light green. read more

Cute little spot for boba place! Interior is very cute. Lots of tables and chairs for customers. I would definitely recommend this place! They have a variety of drinks. The staff is very nice and helpful. read more

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We will never go back here anymore to get our food, we're the first one in store to place an order and there's a lot of people behind the line but they got their order first than us. We wait for an HOUR and asked them TWICE about the order until we decided to just refund it. Employees are just gossiping and not doing their job. I'm so DISAPPOINTED and MAD at the same time they just wasted our time for nothing. We could have go somewhere that valued our time and has great customer service. They should trained their employees to be more professional and I don't even know if it's safe to eat there because of how dirty the place was. read more

Love this place but Idk if it's the ppl at night but the customer service is rude and not friendly. I've been to all the ones in San Diego and I come often but this by far is the worst customer service I've ever received coming to a tap-x EVER. Not to sure if I'll come back to this location again. But we'll see how my drink is. Or I'll come during the day for more friendly service. Update: did not have lychee in my drink. read more

Came in not knowing anything about this place and I asked the cashier about the drinks and he was kind of bothered having to explain everything. Overall the drinks were good. read more

Tapioca Express - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

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Listed open until 11 on Wednesday night and got there at 10:40 doors were locked no one answered the phone. If I could put 0 stars I would have given 0 stars read more

I've been there 3 times so far and I must say its gotten better each time. The waits are shorter and it seems like they work out all of their grand opening kinks. From reading all of thier yelp reviews people have been so harsh! Give em a break the place is still a baby in restaurant years! And really how are you going to review the other customers!? The people working at tapex can't really control who comes to their place and how they act.. They can't be like you there! Stop staring or I will spit in your boba! But honestly I have nothing to complain about. The service is nice and prompt the food is good, the orders are completed in a timely manner and the bathroom is spotless! It's a small place, but good for a grab and go fix. Got my crispy chicken fresh outta the kitchen (my bag was completely FULL btw) and I coulnt be happier. In a sentence: don't let the grand opening hype and hiccups keep you away, they have gotten better everyday (oh wow that rhymed!) read more

Look what I stumbled across... Yup, Tapioca Express in the heart of National City. Just like the one on Convoy, this is located in a little strip mall with absolutely crappy parking. If you're like me, then you don't let a little non existent parking stop you from your snow bubble and crispy chicken snack. Circle around a few times, and I'm sure you'll eventually get something. There was a long line, of course, but again, I was on a mission. The gal at the register was friendly and efficient, however the wait was a bit too long. The drinks were watery and unlike the one on Convoy, my strawberry snow bubble had no real fruit in it. Bummer. Crispy chicken snack, was good as usual. Given a choice, the one on Convoy would be a better bet. read more

Tonight, they had one of the many high schoolers in the store steal my drink. Thinking maybe there was a mix-up or I had seen something wrong, I waited for another drink to be made or a call to attention. Did anybody make another drink? No. Did anyone call me up, apologize, and say it would take another moment or so to make a replacement? No. Nothing. Happened. They were busy closing and talking amongst each other. Eventually I grew tired of the wait and informed them of what happened. The cashier then looked away as she said they were "working on it," while continuing on with her closing duties. Wow. I have friends who work at the Convoy and Chula Vista locations. I KNOW what closing looks like at their stores! They were busy washing blenders, wiping down bar surfaces, and making conversation with one another before I even asked about my drink. What a smack to the face to be lied to like that! After finally making my drink, the employee gave a quick "sorry" (unnecessary if you were actually "working on it" and didn't make a mistake), but didn't even bother to look me in the face or sound sympathetic! At least fake the sincerity! This is a customer service job! Honestly, you're better off making the 20- minute drive to Convoy than taking the service of this location. Or down the street - to Lollicup. In the end, my drink didn't even taste close to decent. Seriously, guys??? I should have gotten a refund. Better service would have easily fixed the problem... read more

Wide flavor options. The manager specials are pretty good. Cap n crunch, green tea kit kat and taro coconut snow are my favorite. It can get pretty busy, but this new location has plenty of seating. read more

You should only come here if you need a quick boba fix. I was excited when they opened this tapex and find myself coming here every other day. Of course this will never compare to the og location in Convoy! This tapex is nice if you want your quick boba fix. I usually order my drinks, pick them up and leave. I feel like they need to hire better workers though. They have no people skills and aren't that much help. My receipt said mini boba on it and I had to go back because I didn't want my money to go to waste. I waited on the side for the worker to acknowledge me and was standing there for a good couple minutes. All of the workers clearly saw me and gave me eye contact but took their time. When I told the worker what was wrong he didn't get it that my drink was missing mini boba. After I showed him my receipt he ended up pouring it into a new cup with regular sized boba -___- I was tired of recorrecting my drink so just took it and left. read more

I usually go to the Convoy location and was happy to find out that they were making one in National City because it's a much shorter drive for me. I didn't want to go while the hype was still at it's peak because I knew the line was gonna be out the door and the wait was going to take a while but my mom was craving it and so we decided to give it a shot. The location is really small and parking is inconvenient because the place where it's located in is always so crowded. The way the store is set up is not welcoming at all. It's more narrow, than it is wide and it makes it very easy for it to be crowded. The seating is horrible. There's only a few tables in the front, a long bench for people who are waiting and then a few more random tables in the back next to the bathroom. They don't have combos, they don't have calamari, and they didn't have ice cream for my drink which the Convoy location never fails to provide me with. I knew the wait for the food was going to take a while, so I gave it 20 minutes. Still no food. 30 minutes. Still no food. 45 minutes. Still no food. So we asked the employee how much longer it will take, and she seemed very stressed out and knew nothing about customer service. She said it would take only a few more minutes. 15 more minutes go by, still no food. We ask again, she said they were bagging it up. Another 20 minutes, we ask "How long does it take to bag it up? If 5 more minutes go by, we'll just cancel it." And long and behold, the food comes out in the quickness after we threatened to cancel our order. After about an hour and twenty five minutes of waiting, all we ask for is ranch..............they didn't have ranch. I could've driven 20 minutes to Convoy, enjoyed my food within 10 minutes of ordering, and came back home within the amount of time I had to wait for my food that was not even worth the wait. They gave us chicken crumbs instead of plump chicken bites that I usually get at the Convoy location. I'll post a picture of how bad it was. If I had the option, I would give them zero stars. And if they manager/owners are reading this review, my advice would be to thoroughly train your employees before handling hungry customers that expect a lot out of TapEx due to other locations. read more

Tapioca Express - My "crispy chicken snack" made of crispy chicken crumbs. - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

Very disappointed with the customer service. Went in with some friends and they messed up on one of our orders. The young lady took one of our drinks right as we were about to grab it and gave us a smaller size when we let her know we ordered a large she rolled her eyes and took the drink. She clearly just added water to the drink and put it in a bigger size. Due to the fact that we ordered snow bubble boba it was very easy to tell. We just wanted to get what we paid for not attitude when it's your mistake. :( read more

I always go to this place like almost everyday. They have the best milk tea ever. But i was disappointed the last rime i went here. I always order Easy on boba since its too much boba/sugar for me. Sometimes they dont do it. But its okay but the last time, i heard this girl reminded the guy who's making my order to put easy boba. But he didnt mind. And ignored it.. read more

Meh. It wasn't crowded, it wasn't noisy. I ordered my honey milk tea with pudding without a problem, but I've definitely had better. Their milk tea seemed pretty bland, probably not enough honey. Their pudding is hard too. I don't even what to know what they put in their pudding. It's tougher than jello! Eeee... read more

I don't see why everyone is giving it such horrible reviews. I went there around 9:30 PM, and there was a line, so they must be doing SOMETHING right, especially since there's already two Lollicups in the area. Personally, this is the best boba I've ever had. My favorite is the Green Apple Snow Bubble with just regular tapioca boba. The line was really long, but the people who worked there were super nice to me. The girl at the register was really helpful and I never once felt rushed, even though there were people behind us. We didn't wait in line for more than five minutes even though there were a ton of people in front of us, almost out the door. But they tried to work as quickly as possible, and I think they did a great job. It took about 10-15 minutes for them to get our drinks out, which was pretty fast for how many people were in there. I think this place is great, and I will DEFINITELY be going back!! :) oh, and people should stop complaining about the food. because it is TAPIOCA Express. Meaning the specialty is boba. I don't think I'd go there for anything but boba regardless. read more

This Tap Ex is okay, as in it gets your boba fix in if you're in the area. I live around here so it gets it done. I'm rating it so low because the location is really small as in there is the entrance and a hallway, literally. Also, just so you know, people like to bring their kids in here so that makes it even more cramped. The crispy chicken is really good here but they give tiny pieces compared to the Convoy location but I feel like they give you more at this location which is cool by me. The boba is a tad sweeter here than other locations so be aware of that. I would have given 3 stars instead of 2 but my last experience kind of pissed me off. My friend and I both ordered jasmine milk tea with boba and well, the order went through, right? So here's where I get pissed, they call me up 15 minutes later to tell me they ran out and so I can order something else, which I did but I wish they would have told me BEFORE I ordered -_-. And when my friend got his drink, there was 10% less drink, the drink wasn't at the top, and they didn't even reimburse or apologize. Honestly, they really could have said, "hey you might get a little less if you still want that or you can order something else" but they didn't -___-. Edit: HEY, STOP PUTTING BIG BOBA MIXED IN WITH MY MINI BOBA -________- read more

I come to the Chula Vista area a few times a year and I swing by this spot sometimes. The interior has changed a lot, it's very nice inside. It resides a bunch of Filipino teens that look like they make Youtube videos and sing to every song that is playing on the radio. My order came out promptly, then I looked around to see their other items on their menu and they sounded really good, like the green tea kit kat or halo halo something. I got a taro milk tea with boba. It was not good. The boba was decent, but the milk tea was more of a thick chocolate tasting milk. At least it was purple. The prices are fair, not too cheap not too expensive. They're open till 1:00am on the weekends so that's cool. read more

Tapioca Express - Nice interior - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

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Slow service... Came in late Sunday night...hmm around 10 ish. Place was packed but there was no one in line. I'm guessing everyone there got their drinks or just there hanging out. I went to the bathroom and my bf ordered our drinks. As we were waiting I noticed the 2 employees behind the counter chit chatting away not caring about getting our drinks out or anything. Like the other reviews...the service sucks! 20 minutes later our drinks finally came out. Like really?!!!...20 mins to make something that only takes a few minutes to do. read more

The first time i stumbled into this place was in Clairemont Mesa, since then they have expanded. This one is located by the chic-boy rotisserie, Starbucks, and manila seafood on plaza blvd. If your craving boba and quick bites this is a great place to come to in National City. I usually oder a thai tea with boba, or their melon snowbubble. Their crispy chicken is always a local favorite, i always order mine HOT with a side of both ranch and sweet n' sour (sometimes they charge extra.) I'm a big fan of their sisig fries, a filipino fusion food (fries topped with seasoning, sisig , jalapeños , and cheese) a must try ; made to order with your desired spice level. ( no spice, mild, medium, hot) A great place for different style fast food at a reasonable price. read more

As a patron of tapex, I really have no problems with their drinks and quality of service. i feel like if you been to one, then you been to them all type of attitude toward chains anyway and I like it that way. But this review is more so to inform folks that if you plan on kicking it at tapex for more than 2.5 to 3 hours and you drove and parked in the GROVE PLAZA parking lot, be aware that they will tow you! Being towed there myself, I will admit that I wasn't being cognizant of the signs posted that advises you on parking policy of the lot, but as a patron and consumer of the businesses in the Plaza, who does so anyway?!. Especially if you're say a person who likes to work at cafes like starbucks to work on stuff for long amounts of time, you usually don't question whether your car is going to get towed. As you sip your coffee/tea/boba, working away on your project/chatting for an hour or so, and buy another cup, and continue...As a paying costumer, I find it rather ridiculous that I'm penalized for contributing to the economy as a consumer. Anywho, this tapex is fine, but bad location for folks who just want to chill, sit, work/or chat for a while. ...I hope folks still come here, but because of the property it is on...I'd rather not come back. Sorry tapex, but I'll take my money and consumerism else where...to another tapex probably on convoy. (so don't worry) read more

TapEx as the locals call it is a great place to find an extensive menu of drinks with the option of adding bobas and jellies. You can drink-in or take-out, and if you need to munch and crunch, they have a good snack menu with various fried eats. Our favorites are The Watermelon Icy with boba/mango stars and Vietnamese Iced Coffee with boba. You can also order mixed boba with a combination of big and small pearls, or also a combo of bobas and jellies. This place is close to my house, and it's always good. If it's not right, return it and ask for a redo or return. I've never had to, but I have requested redder riper pieces of watermelon before and they were quite accommodating. read more

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Besides their stuff being yummy! Their totally awesome!!! Just went in a while ago. As i was leaving i dropped one of my boba drinks outside their door. I went back to order a new one and told them i had just dropped it outside. And one of the girls kindly gave it to me at no charge! Something i didnt expect nor demanded. Because it was all my slippery fingers fault. I missed her name but you totally made my night!!! I'm not the type to review places but this i just had too. read more