Came in at 10:24pm (I know I cut it close). There was a sign posted saying kitchen hours 10am-1030pm. Cook refused to make my order. Two thumbs down. They should change the sign to 10am-1024pm. read more

Tapex you failed me. [STORYTIME WITH RACHEL!] Today I ordered my usual time sensitive items. Crispy Chicken and Watermelon Icy. I call them time sensitive because I like to eat them as soon as possible when I get them. I like my chicken hot and crispy and my drink nice and icy simple as that. After I ordered I saw my drink get put on the counter and I thought alright, now I just need my food. I see a guy put a plate on the side and walk away. So I thought hey, he must be letting the girl taking orders call out orders too. No problem. After she finished taking the order she was taking she walked away so I thought hey maybe that's not my food. A good 5 to 10 mins passed as I watched my drink slowly melt. Keep in mind there were no customers in line, about 4 or 5 workers behind the counter and people who ordered after me were getting their drinks. Finally the same guy comes back, bags the food and calls my number. Wtf. Now I'm easy to please for the most part so I grabbed my food and went on my way. By the time I got home my drink was half melted. But I ignored it and went on to open my crispy chicken meal with no egg. Guess whats on top of my crispy chicken? An egg! You might be thinking it's just an egg Rachel get over it. Eggs are delicious. But you see I'm not too fond of eggs. I usually only eat them a certain way (preferably scrambled with cheese and maybe some cholula on top) and I dislike runny yolks. So I say no egg since I eliminate the risk of a runny yolk, it saves me from wasting food and it saves them an egg. Win win situation for everyone, guess Tapex was like "Nah man, you're taking this egg" Ok I'll pick the egg off. Well nope looks like runny yolk spilled onto my hot chicken and cooked itself onto some of the rice and chicken so they infuse together. Ew. I still ate around it. But I felt the need to share my irritation. I may love you Tapex. But I don't have to like you right now. Get. It. Together. read more

See all

I wish i could go down a few stars The cashier took the order then waits until we've already been waiting for about 35 minutes to tell us that they were out of popping bobas . Additionally, they wouldn't honor my coupon which specifically provides their location on the coupon . The cashiers response after "talking to manager " says to us :" we are a franchise " I will not elaborate on my reaction upon hearing the cashier so that I can keep it PG I'm extremely disappointed in this establishment considering this is my first experience with boba beverages at Tapioca Express. I hope that if this business is truly operating under the Franchise system , that other locations do not reflect such behavior read more

Tapioca Express - Careless barristers leaked all over my clothes - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

This is my go-to Tapioca express when I come home from work and it never disappoints! This tapioca is pretty big, so there is a lot of seating indoors and space to wait for your items. The parking lot is kind of sucky, but still worth it! The workers are always really nice and super quick. Our go to is the milk tea with boba and a watermelon slush with popcorn chicken. Definitely recommend coming here and will always be my go-to(: read more

Why tf these girls stare so much? If you want some attitude with your boba and snack. This is the perfect place for you!! If you want to have a stare down while you wait, or sit and eat, you'll love It here! PLEASE RETRAIN YOUR STAFF ON CUSTOMER SERVICE. It's been a while since I updated my review, I don't live in San Diego anymore. But I came to visit family for the holidays. That being said, Tapex was on the list of cravings I need to fulfill while I'm in town. Wow the customer service here is non existent. It sucks so bad that I can't even rate It because you get no customer service at all. We first walk in as a group of 3 adults and 2 kids. There's no one at the counter, no other customers inside. Everyone is back in the kitchen somewhere. After standing there for a few mins someone finally sees us and walks over, no sorry about that, no welcome, no hello. She just stands there with her finger on the screen waiting to put in orders. My cousin orders her combo for her kids, pays, then goes to sit down. Then girl behind the counter walks away and goes back into the kitchen. Didn't bother asking If anyone else was going to order something? She's standing between where the wall breaks the kitchen and front off. And keeps looking back wondering if we're still going to order or not. Obviously we are because my sister was just standing there waiting. My sister has to call for her attention, which she still wasn't paying because she ordered TWO snack size crispy chickens but in the end only received one. Guess she was paying more attention singing along to Miley Cyrus than listening to what she ordered initially. We didn't get charged the first time for the second one, but we still wanted to order the second one because that lil ass bag isn't enough for 3 adults. So It took even longer because we had to order AGAIN, and wait AGAIN. We didn't cop any attitudes or anything whatever. We'll wait, but we did talk about the mistake at our table. Now i wasn't even annoyed until we started getting stares. So while we're snacking and waiting for the rest of the order (the additional crispy chicken and my mom decided she wanted a wintermelon MT.) The two girls at the register kept looking over to our table and watching us eat. I'm assuming they're trying to listen if we were complaining. My 7yr old niece even asked why do they keep staring at us? I told her, they must be hungry because they just keep watching us eat! I even made eye contact with one of the girls then she finally turned away. Like wth are you looking at? We wouldn't still be here waiting and having to order a second time if y'all got It right the first time. Wintermelon MT came out, tell me why the drink has no ice in It? It's literally just lukewarm. My mom didn't want to "fuss" anymore than we already did, but hello. We paid for something and we should be able to expect It to be good. My cousin went up for my mom to ask for Ice in her milk tea then we left. All of that for one crispy chicken combo, 5 drinks, and 2 crispy chicken snacks. I shoUldve just went to convoy location. Btw this was on 11/23/2019, check who was working around 330pm and fix their attitudes. read more

Tapioca Express - Chichi fries & a milk tea ! - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

messes my drink up everytime ?? kinda silly of them. at least the food is good. ordered a orange crème snow bubble maybe two months ago and the staff were pretty loud about how there's no more orange juice so they opted for lemon juice .. ummm?? also they had a whole conversation on how the lemon juice looks questionable...i'm pretty sure everyone in the place could hear them too. if you're gonna make my drink crazy at least be quiet about it because why would i want that, that's disgusting. came back and ordered the same drink this month thinking the drink would be okay but this time i think they just filled it up with yogurt. the drink was orange but i was drinking yogurt the entire time. maybe it's the drink that's bad but they suck at making drinks if it happens so often. don't you guys have recipes? read more

This is a review of the crispy chicken snack. The problem with this locations crispy chicken is that it has more crumb sizes than actual chicken pieces. You can't even poke it with the stick because it's so small. Also, please place more than 1 stick . It's also missing the basil leaves. I'd rather drive to the convoy location and this place is 5 minutes away from me. I haven't ordered here in about a year and I guess it's still the same. Disappointed. read more

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

Almost a 20 minute wait for one drink... People were literally just walking out because it was taking so long. read more

All I can say is they need to upgrade there fries. I got the longanisa fries and hubby got the sig sig fries. Both of the dishes, the fries were STALE. I cant even poke it with a fork. But if you're wanting boba drinks go for it but if you're craving food? It's a no. read more

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

Crowded & loud in a Sunday evening. I'm a huge fan of the Captain Crunch signature drink. This is my go to any time I come. But, since I love Yelp so much- I browsed through TE's business photos & saw the longanisa (Spanish sausage similar to Portuguese linguica) fries. So, I order my usual Captain Crunch drink, the longanisa fries & sigsig rice. However, the food items are in combo form only and cannot be sold separately. Boo!!! So, the food combos have a choice of beverage to choose from: bottled water or teas. Well, since I got two combos, I ordered a green & taro milk tea. The plan was to have the sigsig rice for lunch tomorrow. I will not review the taste of this plate. But, for some reason I was thinking this was a fried rice plate. This is served as: two scoops of steamed white rice, scoop of sigsig (chopped pigs head & liver, squeezed calamansi citrus juice, & red peppers) and a fried egg. I did indulge in the longanisa fries while dining inside. There's plenty of melted cheese & I think it's a sriracha mayonnaise spread on top of the seasoned fries. I LOVE looking at melted cheese. But, the fries itself had me doubting this order. Many of the fries I bit into seemed like they were sitting underneath a heat lamp for quite some time. Ends of the fries were chewy & tough versus being fried when ordered. That's my main gripe. The longanisa was cut into chunks & tasted delicious. I would love to order this again some other time, but, not sure if I'd want to deal w/ another bad batch of fries. Plenty of 90s love jams playing overhead while waiting & dining inside. read more

See all

Made an order online to come pick up and man did that take longer than going in and ordering. I came and immediately told them I had an online order. Guess how long I waited for an online order. A total of 40 MINUTES!!!! So ridiculous. There were at least 5 people working and people who came in behind me got their order first. Very frustrating and irritating. Be more efficient with your ordering system. read more

Love their Boba very chewy and soft. Their menu is full of so many flavors I love chocolate so I go with those! read more

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

When we got to the register the staff were just standing around and goofing off, didn't take our orders until a few minutes after. Whoever took our order was either clearly new or didn't know how to fucking work. She clearly had fucked up something on the register and she kept laughing and goofing off. Customer service was ass. read more

Chicken snack is always my go to snack when I have cravings for chicken popcorn. It has right flavor and spice according to my taste. Among my Fave milk tea here are Thai Milk tea, Almond Milk tea & Taro Milk Tea. Service is always good. The place is a bit small for dine in customers. However, good ambiance if you want to eat inside the restaurant. Friendly crew and nice people most of the time. Highly recommended to everyone! read more

I'm trying to like Tapioca Express, but I have not had the biggest success with them when ordering Milk Teas and always boils down to flavor. At this location, I ordered the "Royal" milk tea or milk tea made from Earl Grey with no boba and 1/4 sweet. The milk tea was smooth and creamy but the flavor of the black tea was not there. I could not even tell whether Earl Grey tea was even present, and normally when I order these, the flavor punches me in the face. If they are going for subtle, well then it's way to subtle. They need to bring it up a notch or two. Other than they play the music to loud at this location, service was good. The young lady who took my order was high spirited and nice, but in the end, I want to taste the tea! read more

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

See all

Not coming back ever. Came back because I was craving buffalo fries and I am very grossed out of what my fries tasted like.. It was super oily, some ingredients were missing and there wasn't a lot in it either.. Kinda sad because I liked their buffalo fries but I am def not coming back.. Fries were just too oily and soggy and tasted bad.. When we threw our trash away, there was a cockroach just there waiting for food or something.. SO GROSS! YOU KNOW IF THERE IS ONE COCKROACH THEN THERE IS MORE!! The line gets really long during summer so be prepared to wait.. On top of that trash cans are always filled to the top.. Makes sense to why they have cockroaches.. I would just stick to going to the one on Convoy. Hands down the best tapioca express. They give you an abundant amount of everything, and it always tastes fresh and good... AND CLEAN. read more

Tapioca Express - A COCKROACH... Eww.. That means there is more somewhere.... That's not ok... - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

Came in because another boba shop was closed. Average priced drinks, alright taste. A little too sweet for me and honestly not that great. The workers were helpful and they made my drink very quickly. Although it was speedy, I don't recommend it too highly and most likely won't return. read more

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

At first.. they were really really slow... and effing up my orders... and i have walked out irritated from here before... but IMHO .. They improve every time i go there. The manager, Elaine is such a sweetheart. she takes care of her customers well. TRY THE CALAMARI HERE! its better than the one off convoy. :) u can order the appetizers mild, medium, or EXTRA SPICY.. i like.. EXTRAA SPICY.. x) they have soy milk here and they dont charge extra for it. :) OH yea parking is a complete b*tch. its in the parking lot with the Manila Seafood.. sooooo expect crazy azn parking& hearing people honk their cars just cuz. -_- read more

If you were working the closing shift on Friday night, I hope you find a job you enjoy cause you made it very clear you hate your job at tapioca express by rolling your eyes, being impolite and walking out of the store after our group came in 30 minutes before you closed ( not wanting to inconvenience you) asking if your kitchen is still opened BEFORE actually ordering. So we left ( again clearly not wanting to inconvenience you but apparently we still did). No food and no boba was ordered. Instead we went to Popeyes and they were actually so very nice to us. (: life tip: don't work service industry if you hate people coming in 30 minutes before you close. read more

Sae was very helpful by recommending me the Avocado smoothie! My first time coming hear I definitely felt welcomed will come back! Once again shoutout to Sae!! For the Positive Attitude and great Costumer Service read more

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

This TapEx is different from others because they actually have extended food options (Chichi fries/sisig fries, etc). The fries are pretty good and you can make it a combo by choosing a drink to go along with it. There are also some other unique drinks choices, including extended iced green/black tea flavors which I appreciate, but nothing tooo special. I had the Jade Green Tea with Herbal Jelly and it was pretty solid. Not my first choice for boba drinks but if in the area for some reason, might consider stopping by. Location is convenient, located near a major Starbucks so theres lots of parking. Also its pretty clean and not that bad after all the reviews I read about it being gross. read more

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

Two stars for location and restaurant hours. Staff was okay. However, the food was not so great - even worse than other locations. Guess the reviews speak for themselves. I thought I should still give it a try because everyone is different. Wrong choice. The popcorn chicken was super dry, overcooked (fried for way too long), and salty. I ordered extra spicy. It was more like mild. Each piece barely had any meat in it. I felt that I was eating fried batter. Drink was still too sweet when I ordered half sugar. I would not be coming back to this location. read more

The Boba is really good and our server was super nice taking our order. We had tons of questions about the menu because it's super expensive, but she was kind of answer all of them. read more

Craving honey dew slush... didn't taste like the way tap ex on Convoy makes it. It was too sweet and a little gross. Maybe it was the person making it or unless they have a different recipe. read more

I liked to go to this location after coming down to get a car wash. I say "liked" because the quality and service is very below par as of late. I've ordered sisig fries which were mostly topped with fatty bits which was really unpleasant to pick through and didn't come with an egg despite having paid and checked the "extra egg" option when checking out. Let that one go and decided to just order other stuff going forward. Tonight 11/18 I went after my car wash with my partner and stopped by after to pick up some Buffalo Chicken Fries which ended up *barely* having any chicken in them. Also paid for both of my boba drinks to have egg pudding but only one did. Receipts below. It really wasn't busy enough when I went in to warrant this low quality and attention to detail. I will definitely be stopping by Royal Mandarin now instead on my way back north. It really sucks when one of your favorite joints' quality in the gutter but if it didn't happen then Gordon Ramsey wouldn't have a gig. It's been real. read more

Tapioca Express - All Buffalo, very little chicken, plenty of fries. - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

See all

Horrible...Daughter literally stood there for two minutes waiting for them to say hello they were speaking a different language the whole time. Continue to speak this language throughout our visit no thank you for a purchase so noted... no tip. I am in the service industry she's so service needs to be pretty horrible for me not to tip it happened today...bye read more

Come in here all the time! Love their new location which is literally 2 doors down from the old store. A lot bigger and lots more seating. Don't know why since the opening of this new location, there seems to be more peeps here than usual! Like WTH?! Line was out the door today, on a Saturday afternoon?! Anyways, must be the great drinks and the friendly service. Love this place!! read more

Negative damn stars if I could. Hey manager, read your reviews, read this one too. You guys suck at customer service. Your branch sucks, your rude shitty attitude employees suck, your management sucks. It's about the 4th or 5th time you guys got orders missed, or just all wrong. That doesn't include my wife's issues either. When I order chicken with NO spice, it means no spice. It's for a toddler, she chokes on spice. When I order extra spicy, it means ADD THE SPICE! Long wait times, and crappy customer service. No more, I'm done with the damn rolling eyes employees, rude damn employees, and top notch shit service. I'll drive further to another tapex, where customer service actually exists. Don't bother contacting me to change my review either, don't want your free food that you would probably get wrong too. read more

Go to SD Boba Tea just down the street in the former Lollicup location. They do not use powders in their drinks. "Go there, go there now." I used to love this place in the early part of this decade when TapEx National City first opened. Moved out of San Diego in 2014. Tasted boba in Chinatowns in San Francisco, Seattle, LA, and especially Hawaii since then. Though Grove Plaza Center brings back childhood and Starbucks working meeting memories, nostalgia and the mild crispy chicken would be the reasons I'd still go to this TapEx. I don't know where else I'd get the crispy chicken! Please, just go to SD Boba or Convoy for quality boba (QQ Tea; Kung Fu Tea). read more

I've been coming to this tapioca express for about a few years now and I'm still amazed on how well the workers here are in bringing out food quickly. I usually get the chicken crispy with buffalo sauce and some milk tea with Boba to go with it. I also enjoy how close it is from the neighborhood and freeway. This is a great place to catchup with friends and family while enjoying tasty food and drinks. read more

Everything at Tapioca Express is always super delicious! Not going to lie , they are a little pricey.. around $5per drink read more

Tapioca Express - Always delicious Milk tea Taro w/ Boba & strawberry yogurt frost w/ mango jelly - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

Dang I've only been gone from SD for 9 months and ChowKing turns into TapEx LOL Stopped by for a quick drink last weekend, I ordered the Mango Milk Tea it was actually pretty good. Lots of tables, pretty standard for a boba place. read more

This was my first time going to this place when i walked in there was only about 2 customers waiting for their orders, i wasn't greeted or told they would be with me i waited about 1-2 minutes until somebody acknowledged me to take my order, short and simple. I ordered a taro boba which overall was okay but there were chunks of ice as if it wasn't blended correctly and there was barley any boba. Im not necessarily sure if I'd give this place another try but this definitely wouldn't be my first pick read more

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

Drink was ok. A little bland! But seriously what happened to your chicken!!!!! Its so tiny and it tastes so chewy. It looks very old! And the taste was blahhhhh!!! Oh how i regret paying for such thing. read more

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

See all

Good customer service and great food, only down fall and the reason for a 3 star is the chicken was as small as M&Ms and basically no meat.. this is the second time this location does this to me and I've stated my experience to them and they tell me they will let the cool know but it's not enough. read more

Tapioca Express - The picture does no justice but here is the chicken - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California

If you're an avocado lover, yy "go to" drink is their Avocado Smoothie with boba. It's on point!

I got an oolong milk tea with boba. Whoever made my drink forgot to put any sugar. Overall, this place is incredibly inconsistent. read more

I got the grape snow bubble - I think it was decently made and blended well, good flavor, not too light nor too strong. I also got the fried tofu as a snack...this was made okay (slightly soggy, even though I was there) and had a nice seasoning to it. The staff is alright and get the order out somewhat quickly. read more

See all

Don't come to this boba shop hoping it's still open till 12, I came here to get some late night boba and when I arrived I found out the store was closed!! Fix your work hours!!! read more

I love 1 mile from this location and it was closed 15 min early. I called and no answer. I showed up and door was locked. We knocked and we're ignored. read more

Tapioca Express - Closed 15 min early. - Coffee & Tea Near Me - National City, California