Chill Bubble Tea

Chill Bubble Tea is the best thing that's happened to Dallas since Jessica Simpson left for L.A. Now if only Chill could date Tony Romo, too.

Born in Dallas, I've lived in New England for the past five years. When I came back to DFW in November, the complete and total loss of a café culture threw me for a loop. Oh, I suffered. Not being a coffee drinker, I am ever on the lookout for a cool place to sit and drink tea. So I trudged through a dreary progression of Starbucks (so corporate), Saxby's (as bad as Starbucks, but with inferior taste in wall art), and Café Brazil (ugghhh, shoot me now). I wept. I Googled. I was miserable, downtrodden, brokenhearted. Why were there no classy cafes? Don't people in Dallas do anything but shop, golf, and eat hamburgers?

Then one day two weeks ago, I wandered into Chill Bubble Tea. I was smitten on aesthetic value alone. The store's interior is like something from a David Mamet play produced in an art deco theatre off-Broadway--it's très chic. White walls, white floors, pumping music, and chairs so zen you'll swear you're in Ikea. There's even a black-box-style loft upstairs (sorry, no climbing: for looks only). Definitely a step up from Buffalo Wild Wings. Actually, make that 400 steps up.

The guy working the counter was happy to illuminate all the offerings for my benefit--he even let me smell the tea. One whiff of Carrot Cake Latte, and I was in love. THIS is what I've been looking for. Dallas just got a whole lot more bearable.

I've now been back two additional times (clearly, I need this), and I haven't been disappointed yet. The staff is wonderfully warm and friendly; the drinks excellent; the atmosphere ideal. The bright, clean environment is very Eastern, charming in an "all is light" kind of way. Though if it's true that there's always a ying to the yang, I haven't seen Chill's dark side yet.

For those who are ready to stage a full-fledged revolt against the not-just-boba menu, I suggest a slightly more broad-minded perspective. After all, this is America. We want variety. Across the street, Lovers Eggroll sells (gasp) more than just eggrolls. Shocking, I know. So the fact that Chill Bubble Tea sells more than strictly bubble tea didn't really rub me the wrong way. On the contrary: it was refreshingly different. Diversity is a good thing, remember? Check the Oval Office for more details.

Considering that below-60 degree days are an increasing rarity in the Dallas area (thank you, global warming), I consider a tea shop that sells smoothies to be a definite boon to the metroplex. It certainly offers something for people who don't consider themselves members of the elite and narrow sect of society who enjoy a nice hot cup of tea. Most of those cats stayed in Britain, anyway. Or left after that whole "Boston harbor" incident.

It's also a brilliant way to corral kids for the boba cause. On my second and third trips to Chill Bubble, I had my younger siblings in tow. No way did my 13-year-old brother want a taro-flavored tea. But he was utterly elated with the Strawberry/Pina Colada blend. After one sip, he was practically giddy. He turned to me and said, "This is way better than Jamba Juice!" Considering that my brother is a regular JJ addict and begs for a Strawberries Wild every day after school, this is no small compliment.

The store is also the perfect place to study or get work done. As a freelance writer, I can spend up to twelve hours on my laptop in any given day. I've had far more success writing at Chill than at home where a constant cavalcade of children, cats, and hermit crabs makes focusing a virtual impossibility.

I'm not the only one who thinks so--on my second trip, I saw a Hockaday student and her math tutor working on math problems. The mood music is perfect for channeling your inner muse, the ambience very feng shui. And in an area where a glut of kids from Dallas's top private schools descend upon restaurants Monday through Friday, ravenous for after-school snacks, serving cold boba is scrumptious, savvy, and smart.

This store's main problem will be figuring out how to tap into the classy, educated metro-ites who are dying to know that a place like Chill Bubble Tea can exist in Dallas, Texas.

And as a matter of fact, it does.

A cool place to chill, but I'm a bit cool on their drinks.

Maybe it's the name. But when you have the words "Bubble Tea" in your store's name, anyone who's had bubble tea before has reasonable expectations to believe they'll sell traditional hot and cold liquid fruit or tea based drinks with tapioca. As Anne S points out, they only serve a smoothie based cold tapioca drink - no liquid. Huh? I don't get it. It's like saying you're a hamburger shop, but then you only sell chicken burgers, no meat patties. It's misleading.

Sooooo, Chill mixes up smoothie based tapioca drinks, hot teas, and a limited selection of frozen yogurt. My green tea latte SMOOTHIE tapioca was aight - a bit icy at times and the tapioca was a bit hard. Chill is a bit tucked away so keep an eye out for Hibashi and turn into the parking lot. Interior is definitely hip and if you need a place with free wi-fi to do some work or studying this is a much less commercial alternative to Starbucks.

Okay, despite the fact that all of the fake reviews for this place have been really annoying me, in true Yelp spirit, I had to be fair and go see for myself. I mean, is it as great as the people behind it (see all 5-star reviews to date) seem to think it is?

Nope.

The menu is insulting. It's like "oh, we're in America; we must cater to clueless Americans who know nothing about real boba." Mmm thanks but no thanks. Even worse, what they call "boba tea" is (bizarrely) a smoothie. What??? Yeah, I know that boba smoothies exist...just don't call them TEA!! There are some real tea options, but you can't get them flavored with the (more appealing) smoothie flavors. The real teas are (I guess) brewed straight from flavored tea leaves, so you're stuck with really boring options like "breakfast black" or "jasmine green."

Sure, they do have a few random tea flavors like "Toasted Coconut Truffle" (which is probably why all of the employees/owners/friends-of-owners reviewing this place have mentioned it -- "heyyyy we have at least ONE interesting flavor!!"), but really, I just want good, old-fashioned, Taiwanese-style boba. None of this silly "earl gray" business. Where's your taro-flavored tea? Your hazelnut-flavored tea? Your apple-flavored tea? Your lychee-flavored tea?

Okay, so, long story short, I ordered a taro boba tea and got handed a smoothie. On a 40-degree day. Great. I thought about asking for a different drink -- one of their boring real tea flavors -- but my love of taro won out, so I just decided to give it a shot. Well, the flavor was good, but the ice was unevenly blended. I was more annoyed about the fact that it was a smoothie than anything else, though. I had just wanted a nice, light, taro-flavored tea with some chewy pearls.

Pearls? Ah, yes, the pearls...hmm...there was a good amount of them, actually, so that was nice. I'm always the type to want more than they give me, but I have to admit the guy behind the counter (fellow Yelper RafiQ S., actually) was fairly generous. However, the pearls were unevenly cooked -- some were nice and chewy, others were hard and crumbly. Meh. I couldn't tell what they were sweetened with because the flavor of the smoothie overwhelmed them. (Grumble grumble...smoothie.)

Oh, one more thing. Cheaper than Fat Straws? I don't think so...but Fat Straws is nasty anyway. (Sorry, Fat Straws fans...go to Taiwan and find out what you're missing.)

I knew before even stepping foot inside that I wouldn't like this place, but my husband insisted we try it. You call yourself Chill Bubble Tea, but you don't sell bubble tea. Not cool. I'm not a smoothie or slushie or icee person, so I was out of luck. They had I believe two or three options, regular milk tea, maybe taro? I forget but it was almost like an afterthought on their menu.

So, I ordered I think the Taro Milk Tea or something, without pearls, and they made me a slushie. Hello, I just finished telling you that I was looking for milk tea only. So, they remake it, and this time they put pearls in it. Really? Are you just not listening to me at all?? You have no other customers. But I felt bad saying they did it wrong again so I just drank my mediocre milk tea and walked out knowing there was no way I'd be conned into going there twice.

Sure, Chill has a *really* cool, modern, iPod-esque ambience, but let's cut to the chase and talk about the drinks and service.

To be honest, I've only tried the mango smoothie and the banana smoothie that my friend ordered.

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Pros:
-used real fruit, not (just?) powder
-mango smoothie was not overly sweet
-generous helping of bubbles
-individually wrapped straws (for the germ-a-phobes out there)
-at least one nice barista

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Cons:
-mango used in my drink did not taste ripe
-banana smoothie was very very sweet (added sugar?)
-did not see the cherry flavor on the menu board, despite it being on the website's menu
-location is a bit out of the way

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Make what you will:

-When asked "how does your bubble tea compare to Fat Straws?" the barista quickly said "we use better product" but then added that she had never tasted Fat Straws.

-The bubbles are a tiny bit smaller than the average pearl, firmer than Fat Straws's, not very sweet, and retained their own flavor without really taking on the drink's. My personal favorite would still have to be Mug 'N Mouse's pearls (firm, a bit sweet, chewy, take on the drink's flavor). However, I compare Chill's pearls favorably against Fat Straws's overly sweet, sticky, and soft boba.

Overall, I rank this place slightly below Fat Straws because of its location and lack of jasmine latte/milk tea drinks (= crack-like addiction).

Chill is like the Ikea of Bubble Tea. It's sleek and cook and trendy, but not very authentic. it's actually more of a frozen yogurt and smoothie shop that offers boba in their drinks than they are a bubble tea shop in particular.

When you order a smoothie you can get some of the usual flavors (milk tea, taro, green tea), and some fresh fruit options (mango, kiwi, banana), or you can go with one of their totally strange creations like cotton candy, orange creme, or purple oreo (!?).

They also have their own brand of high quality tea (didn't try it, you be the judge of whether or not it's actually high quality) and frozen yogurt with toppings. Service is good and the place is quiet and comfortable, but if I want a really good bubble tea, I'll go to Fat Straws or Boba Latte

Underwhelming, at best.

Compared to the other places I've been, Chill has a good clean ambiance to it, but the drinks just weren't that great.

I ordered a standard green tea latte which is pretty simple to make at any of these sort of places. Unfortunately, the taste just wasn't very good and the drink continues to leave a chalky aftertaste in my mouth which I'm not fond of.

I'd rather just go to some of the other places that do this, even if they are farther away.

Alright, well I will throw my 2¢ in.

I had a Groupon to Chill that I thought was expiring today so I braved the heat to check it out. I had $12 to use so I told my coworker I'd bring him back something. I had already armed myself with the knowledge that their "bubble tea" was actually a slush/smoothie.

The interior is pretty cute in that predictable Pinkberry kind of way. There were two ladies working and the one who greeted me was friendly.

I was pretty miffed to find my Groupon had already expired! I SWEAR that thing said the 7th. In that case, I just ordered myself an almond slush, no pearls, coworker be damned. I do sort of think the lady helping me could've been more sympathetic about that but whatever.

It didn't take long for my drink to arrive, cold and slushy. I didn't detect any chalkiness and it was blended very smooth.

All in all, I would go back but mostly because it's really close to my office. Prices were maybe a smidge on the high side? Especially for the froyo, which they don't allow you to top yourself, like Pinkberry.

This location of Chill Bubble tea is not the ideal location for normal M-F business hours.

I hope this little shop will thrive during the recession do well with the competitive market that Dallas has.

I like to stop by here whenever I am shopping at Galleria Dallas and get a frozen almond milk tea with bubbles/ boba. Most of the bubble tea here is made with the powered teas. And other teas are brewed fresh.

They offer free WiFi here, so if you ever need to do some light internet surfing or take a quick conference call, this place is quite and less busy.

Having just moved to Dallas, I was immediately in search of a good place to find bubble tea. Luckily, my girlfriend and I were driving by one night and happened to see some very lovely and inviting signage reading "Chill Bubble Tea." Since we were on our way to dinner that night, I knew we couldn't make it, but I made her promise me we'd go back.

When I finally made it there, I was amazed. Both my girlfriend and I are designers, and the interior of Chill Bubble Tea was amazing.....it was our cup of tea (very lame pun, I apologize)! We have been loyal customers since, going as many times as we can a week.

Contrary to what another review said, you can get your bubble tea in the original liquid and ice format or as a smoothie. They have traditional bubble tea flavors (taro, milk tea, lychee, etc) that you can mix if you please, or if you're feeling adventurous you can try one of the custom creations available. They also have frozen yogurt, but I've yet to try any because I'm too obsessed with the bubble tea smoothies. You can also get loose leaf tea served either hot or cold (my girlfriend's favorite - toasted coconut truffle).

The service and staff there are extremely nice, as well.

It doesn't matter if you're a veteran bubble tea lover or completely new to bubble tea - this place is amazing.