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Categories: Ethnic Food, Coffee & Tea
Neighborhood: Outer Sunset"One of the best coffee joints in SF. Henry and his baristas are incredibly friendly and helpful. We came in for a little coffee break with…" read more »
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Wonderful foods is just well wonderful!!
I very rarely drink the tapioca drinks but I do love the self serve candy!! I always get sour coke bottles, frogs, and cherry sours. Love it. Everytime I come all the candy is filled and fresh (meaning no hard candy). They weigh it out by the pound and the bags they have are similar to those Sweet Factory bags (remember that candy store in the malls)... Cash only.
There are, what, like 80 boba places on Irving, but Wonderful Foods Co. is a really good one. My favorite drink there: thai iced tea with grass jelly. In second place: regular milk tea with tapioca. The BFF gets taro with tapioca. The ladies are always very generous with the boba or grass jelly & the drinks are never watered down. Cash only. Two drinks will run you about $8.50.
P.S. I hope they don't move again because that really confused the BFF & I & I guess we get confused easily.
*****5 STARS*****5 STARS*****5 STARS*****5 STARS *****5 STARS*****
I don't know any other place that sells tapioca that is as sweet, soft, chewy & perfect. Not only is it PERFECT, they give you A LOT TOO!!!!
I must have been crazy to give them 4 stars before, they don't deserve that.
REAL FRUIT & PERFECTLY MADE TAPIOCA =]
REALLY?!?!?!?! I don't already have a review for this place...weird...I've been here soooo much. I… Read more »
Definitely one of the better places in SF to get boba drinks, though any boba place in SF pales in comparison to the ones in the Silicon Valley area. I'm a sucker for the tea eggs, but I think I got sick from theirs once. Their lychee milk tea has actual lychee in it, which is a plus.
This place is my favorite boba place in the city! I always get the coconut milk tea and it's always delicious!!!!! It's always very coconut-y, not too sweet, and served with perfectly chewy tapioca balls. The milk tea is also very good- made with strong, black tea, and not artificial tasting like some other chains in the area.
The place has a pretty good candy selection, too.
Let's support the locals, especially if they're doing a great job!!
BOMB ASS TARO TAPIOCA. Get the fresh purple taro blended and it's all goooooood.
They have candy options here, but hell no, I'm good with the tapioca. I probably wouldn't give them five stars otherwise.
Ask for no ice and they give you way more!
wonderful foods is one of the best late-night options for quick snacks in the sunset.
they make very fresh fruit smoothies (canteloupe, banana, kiwi, mango and taro are our favorites!) for their equally fresh boba. it's easily the freshest boba in san francisco. chewy and springy, never hard.
they also have a small selection of made-to-order hot snacks. their salt&pepper chicken (also known as popcorn chicken elsewhere) is hands down the best to-go snack you'll find! at $5 it's a little pricey, but the batter is flavorful, the chicken is fresh, and they throw in deep fried basil! so much better than quickly's version down the street. (i still love quickly for their 99c milk tea, though!)
It was a beautiful day in the Sunset and I wanted something cold to drink. So I ordered one of their tapioca drinks. Which flavor? Taro...
The worker asked me: "Do you want powder or fresh?"
::: I'm thinking Whaaaat?? I have options?! Sweet!::::
Me: "Fresh."
Worker: "What kind of taro?"
Me: "There's different kinds of taro?? What kind do you have??"
Worker: "White or Purple."
Me: "Purple."
Worker: "Do you want it blended or regular?"
Me: "Hmmm....can I try regular?"
Worker: "$3.29."
WOW! That taro drink was sooo good! But the balls start to get annoying after a while. At one point I had so many balls in my mouth I almost choked. Yes, "That's what she said." And I'm talking bout tapioca balls. =)
Must. Avoid. This. Place. Its also a candy store! You know, kinda like Sweet Factory...
I try to stay away from this place as much as possible. Its dangerous! They have all of my favorite candies! Chocolate covered gummy bears, sour belts, apple o's, Pocky, and tons of other candy that I love! The more I go here, the more I'll end up with a billion cavities! =(
Daniel L., you should definitely hit this place up! I'm sure you'll like it. They even sell taro mochi!
There are few things I REALLY crave for: sushi, raw oysters, cupcakes, and Wonderful Foods. But not just anything my friends, only their lychee milk tea with almond jelly, hold the tapioca please.
I got some disgruntlements with this place though, but when I drink that - life is good and so is Wonderful Foods. For one, when I order tapioca with my drinks, I always get a lot of the syrup that holds it. That's a negative. I always order the same drink, but it's never the same price. I don't argue cause I don't know the real price is. It's more expensive when the boss lady rings you up. How do you avoid being overcharged? Look out for the one talking loudly on the phone stratigically wedged between her ears and her shoulders.
Once, I came here with my friend and her little brother. He wanted candy so he went to get some and ended up spilling a few on the floor. So the same lady comes and sweeps it up without saying anything. Nice right? No, because that swept up, floor germed candy went straight back into the boxes. So the next time you go to Wonderful, think twice before buying the candy. Just stick with the drinks. And hope it's not the boss lady ringing you up.
I don't understand the hype for the tapioca here. There are plenty of other places that uses the same tapioca. Though here it is more soft and chewy. That is good. Then again, other places are the same too, depending on the time you go. Tapioca needs to sit for a while to become "perfect". I drink milk tea everyday to know this. In fact, I always order double the tapioca. Their milk teas do taste good here but it only comes in one size. tut tut! This place is over rated. I had better
I ordered a Kumquat Jelly Tapioca drink. A big mistake! I had specifically told them "I want less sugar.' However, my drink was so so sweet. Kumquat drink is supposed to be like peach color. This drink looks so yellow. Basically, it tastes like sugar water. Yuck!
I also bought some candy and dried fruits. They taste no difference with what you can buy in Asian grocery stores. I spent like ten bucks here here. But, the store clerk didn't even say 'thank you' when I paid.
I have been a regular here for a great amount of time now... probably since my HS days! And if I still been getting weekly cravings... Wonderful is doing something right!
#28 please! (Lychee Tapioca with Coconut Jelly)
And if I really feel like splurging... a soy sauce egg and some salt & pepper chicken.
The candy here is almost always an impulse buy. I don't think many people go in there in the intentions of buying candy or asian snack goodies... most of the time its in the intention of tapioca.
There are a few candy and tapioca shops on Irving, and this one does not have 100 items like Quickly to sell, but it has good stuff!
I had the sesame tapioca and it's rich, creamy with the perfectly done tapioca that is firm in the middle and soft but not soggy on the outside. I think a lot of places have soaked too much tapioca for too long and always have leftover so it's mostly too soft.
I was drawn into this place because of the name: Wonderful! There was no reason to buy anything but to browse around looking at the goodies including the cold drinks and candies.
While resisting to buy some sweets, I noticed a bin for pork jerky ($22/lb) that was screaming my name. Back in the day, I heard it was popular in Taiwan (I think it's called bakkwa) and it had this indescribable taste. My friend explained this delectable which is not available in the US and therefore became my challenge to find it. Was it an urban legend or the Holy Grail of Asian jerky?!? I purchased one slice (about $2) and redeemed it to the jerky expert. I'm still waiting for the verdict but in the meantime, if anyone knows another place who sells it, please let me know. Mahalo!
Wonderful Foods Co truly is wonderful.
Sorry that was lame. But really, they are good. Even though a couple of their candies and snacks can get a bit pricey, their real specialty is in the tapioca drinks.
They have half a wall full of different tapioca drinks. I've had their milk tea, thai tea, and the almond jelly/honey. All three are satisfying treats that give me a little kick in the late afternoon. The almond jelly and honey is very sweet, so just be warned. The tapioca is, in my opinion, very well made. Very chewy, yet they don't all stick to each other at the bottom of the cup.
The service here is very efficient. The cashiers make tapioca faster than any other place I've ever been to.
Delicious + Efficient= WIN
Okay.. So this is my friend's favorite spot to get tapioca/milk tea drinks. Not so much my initial preference, but I wouldn't degrade it at all. This place is legit for its size & ambiance.
Say you go in midday, this place is hella empty. On the left, you have popular candy, ones that look colorful & sweet. The other side, more bland colored, candies/jerkies, none of which are described in English. So I got a Taro milk tea with the boba & it wasn't upsetting at all. The taro was on point, but the boba started to become a nuisance the more I went on with the drink. I wish they had baby pearls. Haha.
If you go late night, this place is swarming with people. Becomes more of a wait to get your drink & becomes one of the more crackin' chill spots in Sunset.
You must try the almond jelly tapioca drink with honey.
Sweet love.
In terms of tapioca, this place is the the best in Sunset. The prices are a bit high though, when you compare it to the Quickly's deals for $1.59. But the quality of the drinks at Wonderful Foods Co. is much better than Quickly's, so you get what you pay for. The only thing I really drink is Taro Milk Tea, which I highly recommend!
The Tea Eggs are good there too but its so expensive that I'd rather make it myself.
Best tapioca joint in San Francisco, hands down. that being said...
WARNING: DO NOT go to any other place for boba such as Verde, Fantasia, Tea Garden or your Wonderful Foods experience will be ruined.
WF used to be #1 choice, after I've had Fantasia it is now my last...I would even get Quickly's over their drinks. I strongly recommend not going south or east if you want to keep your taste buds alive for Wonderful Foods.
I EFFING LOVE TAPIOCA WITH A PASSION.
This place will give you EXTRA.. yeah I MEAN A LOT... when you ask for more unlike QUICKLY'S that will charge you 50cents more for a measly scoop... they do it for free and they LOAD it.
Okay, so I was never a huge fan of Quicklys and tapioca drinks and tapioca balls, to be honest. I barely go to Quickly's and when I do, I find the drinks to be always mediocre and bland (except for their strawberry milk tea). But Wonderful Foods Co has made me fallen in love with tapioca drinks, wow. I got the coconut tapioca and it's so good! They give so much tapioca, like 1/3 of the cup! But yeah, I'd definitely come back, even though it's $3-4 bucks for a drink, I would rather spend that money here than at Quickly's, especially since more high school Asian guys are cluttered around there. lol
BEST TAPIOCA in SF by far!!!! definitely authentic! They get most of their ingredients from Taiwan themselves. I love their Green Milk Tea Tapioca and their Almond Jelly with Honey. Tapioca balls itself are decent, it really depends on the day I swear.
Pretty Pricey but iI guess because they know they are good.
They have really good pork Jerky but it costs soo much more here than it does at other stores, especially ones in Socal.
The tea eggs are pretty darn good but too pricey for those. Share it if your on budget hehe.
Before the fro-yo craze me and my friends would grab these "pearl drinks" and try out new flavors and see who picked the better flavor. Sometimes I'd win and sometimes I wouldn't but it was a great way to taste every single flavor, especially since their menu is disturbingly large.
Trust, I've searched low and high, from the Bay to LA, from the Sco' to San Jo, and I've got to say that this little mom and pop is by far my favorite. The texture of the tapioca balls, the quality of the milk tea itself, it's just quality.
After years of research here are the favorites I came up with.
1. Taro - Not to sweet, but surprisingly good - My alltime favorite
2. Almond - Nice change of pace from Taro.
3. Coconut - A little Malibu and some pineapple = Pina Colada pearl tea
Now stop cheating and create your own top 3.
Plagiarism
Best Tapioca ever to enter my mouth!
There's also a Beautiful girl who makes the drinks super fast. I almost wish she'd take her time.
Only small thing I have against this place is they only take cash.
I love their Watermelon with Boba.
Slushy and they use real watermelon.
I love their Boba here, the texture is just right.
This place is always open and I am always loving it each and every time I come here.
Wonderful foods wouldn't be so wonderful without the company of my good friend Rebecca L. This is our usual spot when we go out for random dessert drinks on an unexpected dinner night out in the middle of the week. You can't go wrong with cheap tapioca milk tea ($2.50 a drink if I remember correctly?). Their tapioca pearls are made just right... better than many other franchises such as Quickly's, Lollicup, or Tap Ex. It's not too chewy, not too hard or tough, and not too jelly. I would give Wonderful foods an extra star if they had crispy chicken as well, but you just can't have it all. ;)
P.S. - Make sure you get yourself a scoop of chocolate gummie bears on your way out.
$5 popcorn chicken started making me poor, so I haven't ordered it in a while. Spicy squid balls are pretty damn good, too.
Chris and I make weekly, sometimes bi-weekly trips to Wonderful. Sometimes I get a little embarrassed going in there...they must be thinking "DAMN, THOSE TWO AGAIN"
We regularly rotate these drinks
- lychee w/ coconut jelly
- fresh watermelon juice
- pineapple juice w/ coconut jelly
- red bean
I need my weekly watermelon juice fixes. Sometimes I skip the balls if the drink has jelly in it, it gets too heavy.
P.S. I agree w/ Dana H.'s wish. I wish they had stamp cards for free drinks, too! We would've had at least 2 free drinks by now.
Spicy popcorn chicken! A little bit of overload on flavoring/msg, but REALLY tasty and… Read more »
I like this place a lot better than quickly's... I just wish it had some tables so you can sit down and chat. Their teas and balls are much more to my liking =). Their teas being not grossly sweet and balls being a nice chewy consistency.
One time i ordered the taro milkshake... it was distrubingly not good and they were nice enough to switch it out for what i really wanted... a taro milk tea - yum. My friend also really likes their jasmine milk tea.
Also, sometimes they have their cute little dog out - a bichon frise that is amazingly mellow =)
Have been on a quest to find the best real taro pearl drink in No Cal and, based on some of the Yelpers here, thought it would be here. But it way wasn't.
I believe they use frozen taro, which would be okay except that my drink gave me brain freeze and didn't particularly taste of taro (though that could have been due to taste-bud-paralysis resulting from the freeze).
But they do have the tapioca DOWN. Gummy all the way through.
Would be more generous with the stars, perhaps, if the service were even remotely friendly.
5 stars for their FABULO-SO Milk Tea!! --I personally don't care for them boba balls though.
Anyways, I wish they had a "frequent sippers" stamp card, I would be so down for that! Definately, their $2.75 milk tea is worth it. I mean, doubt my boyfriend would mind driving me 2-3 times a week (just for it) if it weren't THAT good.
Thank You Wonderful Foods!
Milk tea addictions are THE best!! *nom nom nom*
Drink up!
Want Candy?
Buy some.
Unless you have a van without windows.
Then you are creepy.
$3.25 for a Thai Ice Tea
My go-to tapioca place. It did use to taste better when they were at the old location and there were 2 or 3 guys who made each one fresh in the shaker thing. But now, it's still 1 of my 2 fave tapioca places. Lychee tapioca or with lemon jelly is good! Try it hot, too!!
Tea eggs are also yummy. Sometimes it seems questionable how long the candy has been there, but it depends what you are getting.
One of the best place for Tapioca drinks. I also favor their spicy beef cubes, wished they didn't discontinue carrying them.
I'm very averse to change. Nothing irked me more than when I walked past Tam's Laser and BAM - it was a Verizon Store.
I thought all was lost, when suddenly I turned around and saw the bright green onning. It could only be Wonderful Foods!
So I ran in, got my HoneyDew tapioca and happily had the powdered sugar goodness. The only downside is that now this place has no chairs.
I came here tonight because I was thirsty and wanted a drink. I got the banana strawberry smoothie with tapioca. It's hella good! Way better than Quickly's, no doubt about that. They give you a lot of tapioca also... But I think I'll skip out on the tapioca next time I come here. I don't think the tapioca here is good imo, but the drinks are!
Ordered a hot milk tea with pearls for $2.75 (?). I'm pretty sure it took at least 5 minutes for them to make it, even with only a few other customers that trickled into the store. When I finally got my drink, the pearls were not as chewy as I usually like, and I noticed a strangely strong taste of coffee..
But of course, I drank it all anyway-- it's still milk tea!
Not sure why my experience sounds so much worse than that of everyone else, but I'm just stating the facts! Slow service, not-so-chewy tapioca, and it totally tasted like coffee.
best tapioca place. hands down.
so much better than tapioca express or quickly's.
i drive up all the way from san mateo to get tapioca here sometimes. yup, it's that goooooood.
their tapiocas are the best. very chewy. i really recommend their almond milk tea and honeydew milk tea. really good :)
everything is about 3 dollars. definitely check this place out the next time you're in the sunset area :D
Okay so my old review was for their old location. There use to be 2 or 3 guys who made the drinks perfectly. I guess they don't work here anymore. A couple weekends ago, it took me several minutes walking up and down Irving to find it's new location.
Man.....I really miss their old place and their old workers, since it didn't feel quite the same. Surprisingly I asked several people in the neighborhood where did the Tapioca Drink shop was? Most of them had no clue. Of course the bright green sign...and I found my way....FYI It's across the street a block or so from it's old location. I must have not gone here in a couple years....wow. This place looks smaller and they condensed all the candy goodness. My tapioCa drink was alright, but still way better than most other places.
I completely agree with Anita C. Sorry down graded to 4 stars.
WOOOOOOON-DER-FUL!!!!!!.. .THEIR SIGN DOES NOT LIE....BEST TAPIOCA IN TOWN
This is definitely my…
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First off, i left my wallet on the counter here and they held onto it for me until i finally called them 4 hours later to check and see if my wallet was there. AND IT WAS! safe and sound, untouched. thank you thank you thank you!
and they always put extra tapioca balls in my drink because i love them! and the balls are always the right consistency. and sometimes if you're lucky the balls get really cold. PERFECT!
oh and their snacks are cheap. I love their MINT MALT BALLS. mint malt balls, are you serious? i always get a bunch.
I got the avocado smoothie with tapioca - don't hate, it's delicious and does NOT taste like what you'd think it would (guacamole. I know you were thinking it). The boba was awesome, I'll be back for the pearl milk tea!
But at $4.25, it does not only break the bank, it breaks my pants. A little too sweet and too pricey for my taste.
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