Chicha San Chen - San Gabriel

There was a long line of queue on Sunday afternoon but it moved fast. Took us 30-40 mins from waiting to order to finally getting our drink.We tried 3 different most popular orders and they are all good. Very strong tea flavored boba. The drink is definitely on the pricy side $7 and up but I expect it everywhere nowadays.Whoever took ordered for us needs to do better. She just had this RBF or maybe she was just hangry and tired.There was 3 tables insides, so you likely will get it to go. Parking is hard to find so go with another person, one gets in line and one finds parking that will help!

My first time trying Chicha San Chen's boba, and it's amazing! I had the Bubble Milk Tea, and it struck the perfect balance between tea flavor and sweetness. The boba was just the right level of chewy.

I came on a Friday afternoon around 1 PM. It took about 30 minutes from standing in line to place my order. The parking situation is a little bit hectic due to the small plaza with lots of traffic coming in and out. The inside is quite small with only three tables (side note the ac was broken when I was there) so keep this in mind if you are looking to come here to study or work.Overall, I really enjoyed the drinks. You can really taste the quality tea and I can totally understand the hype. If you are a tea fanatic, I would recommend checking this place out. It was also very cool to be able to watch as they brew each cup of tea to order, unlike the average boba shops.

Best boba milk tea I ever have. Their signature Bubble Milk tea use black tea as tea base, the milk tea is creamy and rich plus the chewy boba. The store is not too big but clean and cute, you can smell the aroma once you get in the store. The brew tea machine is pretty cool, freshly brewed to order. The staff there are extremely nice and tentative. The line is a little bit long on weekend, waited 20min in line, but got the drinks within 10-15 min. It’s not too bad as a busy shop like them. It’s totally worth it once you know how they make the drinks professionally, it’s just different than the other boba shops.

One of those crazy parking lots that you hope to get a spot and we thankfully did!No one talks about dairy options and I found that very frustrating because a lot of Asians are lactose intolerant or sensitive!!! So I will let you know here that I asked and they do NOT have any non-dairy or lactose free options.I took a risk and we got the Lemon Passionfruit with condensed milk (about $8). Thankfully no stomach aches! And, the mix of flavors is actually really good! I normally would not get lemon but it worked well with the other flavors and like someone else mentioned, it is tart-like (the lemon).The boba chewy-ness is good but I couldn’t really taste flavor from the boba (not sure if it was because the lemon was overpowering).Oh and the wait IS long! We waited close to 30min!! Part of that time was spent outside in the 100 degree weather and when we came inside, I noticed they have more space but are using half of their shop as storage!! Terrible use of space. Especially when the lines are long and weather is insanely hot!Some of us could be waiting in the AC if storage wasn’t taking up so much room!!Overall, I personally do not think the wait is worth it (my husband did because the flavors are unique). So make your own choice but you have been forewarned!