Despite Tea Station always being full of customers, I’ve never really been a fan. I find the drinks to be overpriced (about $1 more than any other tea place), the food to be just so-so, and the service to be pretty bad.
I used to visit mainly because I was dragged there by friends. It’s been a long time since I’ve paid a visit, but I decided to try again because I was craving the brick toast which I used to enjoy, and the honey toast I recently had at Up 2 You Cafe was disappointing.
To avoid the crowds, we went to the Mira Mesa location.
We started with a round of tea drinks. Tea Station does have a huge selection, with pages upon pages full of tea options.
Milk tea with boba
One thing I do like about Tea Station is that they are always one of the first places to adopt trends from Taiwan. For example, they were one of the first in San Diego to offer mango snow ice after it became really popular in Taiwan a few years back. And on this visit I noticed that Tea Station now offers an option to choose different sugar levels for the tea drinks, a customization I really like that was offered at all the tea places in Taiwan I went to last Fall.
However, even though they offer different sugar levels for your drink, the problem is that the regular level was way way way too sweet. So even a reduced sugar level wasn’t much healthier, but more like the regular sugar levels at other tea places.
Milk Slush with pudding, caramel and boba
This has been one of my favorite drinks at Half & Half, a tapioca tea chain in LA, so I was curious to try the one here. It’s also a good option for those who don’t like tea beverages as this one only has sweetened milk. I actually enjoyed this one, though not as much as the one at Half & Half.
Sweet Butter Brick Toast
This was disappointing. It had way too much butter on it, creating a wet oily layer on top of the bread that did not look appetizing. I also wish they had pre-cut the toast like at Up 2 You because it got all smashed when I tried to divide it.
Even though this location was quieter, the service was pretty bad. They screwed up one of our drink orders and then took almost half an hour to get us the correct one. We also observed them mess up the drink order of the person next to us two times and take forever to get his as well. The staff seemed untrained and unsure of themselves and acted more like the staff at a grand opening rather than at a place that’s been around for awhile.
We left pretty disappointed and I think it’ll be a long time before I give Tea Station another shot. There are some items on the menu that they offer that I can’t find anywhere else, but the bad service make it not worth the trip.
Tea Station
9003 Mira Mesa Boulevard
San Diego, CA 92126
i used to go to this tea station in college 🙂 miss it.
I wouldn’t mind visiting if the service was better. It is nice that they have such a huge menu.
That sounds like a horrible experience, you should forward this to their customer service department. The Milk slush looks pretty good, but what is a boba? Is it something like “sago?”
No. Boba is actually very chewy little tapioca starch balls.
Oh I have heard that the food at Tea Station has been getting more and more awful.. looks like the brick toast was a victim. I actually enjoy the brick toast from Tea Garden (though I’ve never had it from Tea Station or Up 2 You). You can also get tea with different “sweetness” levels at other places now too, like Tapioca Express and Tea Garden.
Hmm, neither place has offered me different sweetness options. I guess I’ll have to verbalize it next time I’m there. Thanks for letting me know!