Gong Cha - Markham

A few weeks ago, I had dinner with a friend whom I hadn't seen in a decade. He recently moved back to Markham from Singapore. After spending three hours chatting, eating, and drinking, we said goodnight and headed our separate ways. I had a decent parking spot in the plaza and decided to see what businesses were still open at around 10 pm. I saw Gong Cha. I have never been there and felt like a drink to enjoy as I drove home. It's a fairly small place. There were a handful of stools available to sit on. I walked up to the counter, and ordered a large mango green tea with a little ice and no sugar. Service is fast and efficient. I got my order in no time. This place accepts debit and credit cards, and cash. I had no problem paying with my debit card. I enjoyed my mango green tea. It was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. It cost me just under $6. I'd come back here, but I wouldn't do it daily. Otherwise, I'd be broke. (305)

Came on the grand opening week where it was BOGO bbt, but only for specific bbt. We ordered the oolong bbt with two toppings, but they did not have any tapioca. Said we had to wait 10 mins. We said we'll just get the pudding and grass jelly because it is supposed to come with coffee jelly and we did not want coffee since it was late afternoon. I took the bbt and left and when I first sipped it I can taste coffee in the bbt! I was pretty pissed because that was the same in my mother's bbt. We both cannot have caffeine and it's supposed to be TEA, not coffee. Anyways I called them back and they say next time come back I can get free bbt and hung up, but how will they know who I am? Anyone can just say that. Just my two cents about how it is not very well run and not serving the correct things on the menu.

BOGO for their opening. But only specific drinks on their top 10 drinks. So i made the most outta this promo and tried a few different drinks. What Ive tried: Peach green tea with QQ jelly Brown sugar oolong milk tea with 2 jelly Royal milk tea with pearl I usually like my original milk tea. But the peach green tea is my fav outta the three. There is no seating area at this location. So you can only get the drinks to go. Pretty big for a take out place. The line up to order area is big, not so much for the waiting area. And the few times i went i wouldn't say theres a lot of people, but the orders still take a while to come out. BOGO ended today. Not sure when ill visit next LOL Ps. This panda got me tipping every time ;)teehee

Just the strangest service, they're not mean or rude, actually quite nice even but they're just terrible drink makers. My advice to them is to calm down take a bit of time to read and understand the label and than make the drink. It's as if they're not thinking at all and just pouring as fast as they can and reaching whatever container they happen to come upon. And we were the only ones in the store it's not like there was a long line up of people after us. I am paying 7 bucks for tea and water because it is meant to be special and a treat, show some thought. Really the whole experience was kind of odd, Gong Cha head office really needs to provide some proper training and reconsider how sweet their drinks and their sugar levels should be. Asked for no sugar added, guess what Soo much sugar in it. I couldn't even save my drink, tried to make more tea to dilute the drink and it was still too sweet. It's like a concentrated sweet syrup base to make other drinks with. Gong Cha is sourcing the sweetest most undilutable sugar that was ever invented.

With so many bubble tea chains around, I thought Gong Cha would have something unique to offer. Compared to major chains such as Chatime, Coco, and Sharetea, Gong Cha is just another typical place where you could order your usual bubble tea flavours--this isn't a bad thing if that's what you want. Generally, I like when food--or in this case--drink places give you a special twist to the regular. I ordered a black sugar oolong milk tea with 2J at 30% sweet and light ice. I probably should have ordered the drink with 0% sweetness because the jelly and the tapioca made it a bit too sweet for my liking. Also, I felt the sweetness also overpowered the tea flavour; in fact, I don't think I could taste much of the oolong tea in the base, which is kind of disappointing because I really like oolong tea. One thing I did like is the chewiness of the tapioca, which was just perfect. I didn't know what to expect with the tapioca and jelly combination but the overall texture balanced well. My sister got the peach green tea with jelly at 30% sweet and light ice. She told me that the drink had an awful bitter after taste to it. I am assuming the bitterness is probably from over-steeped green tea. This makes me wonder whether Gong Cha knows how to prepare their tea base; regardless, this storefront just opened so maybe they're still figuring out how to properly brew tea--which, I must comment, is an art on its own to make it just right. Service wise, I appreciated how patient the lady at the cashier was as I verified the order that my sister wanted over the phone. However, she did mess up my drink order by putting the sticker on regular size cups instead of the large--even when I confirmed with her that I wanted two large drinks TWICE! The wait for my drink took a bit longer because of the cashier's mistake. On the one hand, I am glad when the workers had to remake my drinks that they didn't just cut open the regular size drinks and poured the contents into the large cup and filled it with tea--I have actually seen bubble tea shops do that before--so I applaud their sincere remake of it. On the other hand, their attention to detail in the remake was kind of disappointing because I had to loudly tell the worker to make sure that the drink is light ice and less sweet. Overall, the question comes down to: would I return to Gong Cha? With the BOGO free offer, most definitely! But on a regular day, $7 for a mediocre cup of bubble tea is just too much for me to spend. I'd rather drive a couple blocks to First Markham Place's food court and pick up a cheaper--and probably similar quality to Gong Cha--bubble tea from there.