The Alley

Illiana Garcia

best boba shop ever!

Please make sure you give the worker yesterday a raise! He was the only one working since 10 am and it was busy. Still was fast and took care of everyone.

Best bubble tea in San Diego. Period! Mixed my order but gave me a new one. Very professional and kind staff.

The Alley in Mira Mesa is the kind of place where you walk in and immediately feel cooler, even if you just got out of your mom’s minivan. The interior is so white and sleek, it’s like they took the concept of "minimalist chic" and turned it into a boba shop. You half-expect the walls to start giving life advice, but instead, you get drinks that make you question every other beverage you've ever had. The Snow Strawberry Smoothie? Oh man, it’s like a strawberry cloud had a perfect baby with ice and sweetness, and you’re the lucky one who gets to sip it. It’s refreshing, it’s smooth, and it’s just the right amount of sweet, like a fruit salad but way better because it’s a drink and you don’t have to chew. The Alley’s got the vibes and the drinks your taste buds and Instagram feed will thank you.

I enjoyed my time there. I bought the Matcha Creme Brulee Croffle with Matcha Brown Sugar Deerioca Milk. It was a perfect match. I'll be coming back for sure! The employee (or Owner/Manager(?)) checked up on me to make sure my Matcha Deerioca was how I like it. Perfect! The employees and the store were very welcoming.

J

Best bubble tea in San Diego. Period! Mixed my order but gave me a new one. Very professional and kind staff.

Jordan667

Delicious Boba shop! No complaints, very quick service and very friendly!

Patrick and Nathalie Goldie

The Alley in Mira Mesa is the kind of place where you walk in and immediately feel cooler, even if you just got out of your mom’s minivan. The interior is so white and sleek, it’s like they took the concept of "minimalist chic" and turned it into a boba shop. You half-expect the walls to start giving life advice, but instead, you get drinks that make you question every other beverage you've ever had. The Snow Strawberry Smoothie? Oh man, it’s like a strawberry cloud had a perfect baby with ice and sweetness, and you’re the lucky one who gets to sip it. It’s refreshing, it’s smooth, and it’s just the right amount of sweet, like a fruit salad but way better because it’s a drink and you don’t have to chew. The Alley’s got the vibes and the drinks your taste buds and Instagram feed will thank you.

Sean Elliott

The strawberry green tea with jelly is delicious and refreshing. The royal number 9 milk is really good, top notch!

Caley Like

I enjoyed my time there. I bought the Matcha Creme Brulee Croffle with Matcha Brown Sugar Deerioca Milk. It was a perfect match. I'll be coming back for sure! The employee (or Owner/Manager(?)) checked up on me to make sure my Matcha Deerioca was how I like it. Perfect! The employees and the store were very welcoming.

Boba was fine and service was fast. I didn’t like how the toppings were included. Next time I’d order without the included jellies. The lychee was very sweet despite only slight sugar.

Going to give this place 4 star because I don't want to hurt it too much. I really like macha drink, so I order one here. However, the person who did my drink either forgot to put in any Macha at all or so little that I could not taste the Macha in my drink at all!!!

Vivian Bentley

Boba was fine and service was fast. I didn’t like how the toppings were included. Next time I’d order without the included jellies. The lychee was very sweet despite only slight sugar.

Skyme

Going to give this place 4 star because I don't want to hurt it too much. I really like macha drink, so I order one here. However, the person who did my drink either forgot to put in any Macha at all or so little that I could not taste the Macha in my drink at all!!!

Dr. Shadi AlAshwal

Elegant and nice smoothies but waiting time is long although no customers except me

drinks weren’t bad but the ube taro smoothie wasn’t the best, the taro was grainy and the royal milk tea was a bit watery. it’s a chill place to loiter at, they have giant connect 4 out front!

It's okay. Classic fake syrup tasting boba. I'd go somewhere else, but it's fine. lychee smoothie

Mari

drinks weren’t bad but the ube taro smoothie wasn’t the best, the taro was grainy and the royal milk tea was a bit watery. it’s a chill place to loiter at, they have giant connect 4 out front!

The food and drink taste fine, nothing remarkable but it was good. However, I waited 30 minutes for a pretty underwhelming croffle. I understand the place was busy and there were only 2 workers, but I saw them leave the croffle on the counter getting cold for at least 10 minutes. Definitely not worth the 30 minute wait, probably not coming back.

Binh Phan

The food and drink taste fine, nothing remarkable but it was good. However, I waited 30 minutes for a pretty underwhelming croffle. I understand the place was busy and there were only 2 workers, but I saw them leave the croffle on the counter getting cold for at least 10 minutes. Definitely not worth the 30 minute wait, probably not coming back.

Crunchy tiramisu milk tea didn’t have any tiramisu flavor, and I couldn’t taste any tea aroma either. Matcha croffle was quite sweet and rich. I took 2 bites and tossed it out. Brown sugar boba cream brûlée milk was just ok, the only good thing is how soft and chewy the boba were despite being in an iced drink for a little while. I was told that they used only flavored syrup for their fruit tea, no fresh fruit. They charged 3% credit card processing fee!!! Shouldn’t they absorb that as a cost of doing business instead of passing it on to customers? Their prices are already on the high side for mediocre drinks, and paying extra fee on top of that is too ridiculous. I’ll take my business to other tea shops that offer good drinks, use fresh ingredients and don’t rob customers.

Tu Ngo

Crunchy tiramisu milk tea didn’t have any tiramisu flavor, and I couldn’t taste any tea aroma either. Matcha croffle was quite sweet and rich. I took 2 bites and tossed it out. Brown sugar boba cream brûlée milk was just ok, the only good thing is how soft and chewy the boba were despite being in an iced drink for a little while. I was told that they used only flavored syrup for their fruit tea, no fresh fruit. They charged 3% credit card processing fee!!! Shouldn’t they absorb that as a cost of doing business instead of passing it on to customers? Their prices are already on the high side for mediocre drinks, and paying extra fee on top of that is too ridiculous. I’ll take my business to other tea shops that offer good drinks, use fresh ingredients and don’t rob customers.

I’ve always enjoyed visiting The Alley for their milk tea. It’s usually one of my favorite spots to grab a drink. The flavors are great, and it’s been a place I look forward to going to. However, today’s visit was really disappointing. The boba was extremely hard and chewy in an unpleasant way, which completely took away from the experience. With milk tea prices continuing to rise, I expect better quality and consistency. Unfortunately, this visit did not meet those expectations. I hope they can improve and maintain the quality they’re known for.

Very disappointed in service. I will make sure to tell people to not go to this location. I always had good service at other locations. Don't know why this location had extremely bad service. On December 28th at around 7:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. My friend and I walk in and the extremely rude, passive aggressive, and condescending behavior was mainly from the guy that made the boba. I do have a couple diet restrictions such as lactose intolerance. I was also hoping to not have caffeine that night. I was asking the cashier about a few choices I wanted and it seemed like the whole menu had one or both of the things I could not have that night. The cashier actually had decent manners but the guy with the multiple earrings that makes the boba kept popping into the conversation and being condescending about them not being able to accommodate what I was looking for. He would just say oh there's milk. Oh there's caffeine but doesn't give me a substitute and he was grinning while he was doing it which was very weird like he took pride in not being able to make a boba drink for me. Another weird thing I recognized him from either the last boba drink place that had that building. Maybe I'm wrong but that location too had a similar guy with multiple earrings that is always rude like he doesn't like to work there. I spent a little over $9 for the drink which was fine because the other alley locations always seemed like they made fancier boba drinks so it was worth it for me then but not this time.

The salesman wasn't at his workplace, so they waited a long time for him to come out of the corner. I had an online order and ordered it in advance. so when I came to coffee, my scab didn't even start cooking

It’s so disappointed when having the first sip! They must use very poor quality tea leaves to serve the tea! I ordered strawberry green tea and it’s very sweet and very bitter at the same time with NO green tea aroma! So weird to have this kind of mix flavor. As a tea lover, you definitely can tell the quality of their tea leaves is really bad!!

All of the drinks my friends and I ordered were sickeningly sweet despite request. One of the iced teas tasted rotten and the replacement drink didn't taste any better. Threw away the drinks. Go to literally any other boba spot

Candace Mason

Very disappointed in service. I will make sure to tell people to not go to this location. I always had good service at other locations. Don't know why this location had extremely bad service. On December 28th at around 7:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. My friend and I walk in and the extremely rude, passive aggressive, and condescending behavior was mainly from the guy that made the boba. I do have a couple diet restrictions such as lactose intolerance. I was also hoping to not have caffeine that night. I was asking the cashier about a few choices I wanted and it seemed like the whole menu had one or both of the things I could not have that night. The cashier actually had decent manners but the guy with the multiple earrings that makes the boba kept popping into the conversation and being condescending about them not being able to accommodate what I was looking for. He would just say oh there's milk. Oh there's caffeine but doesn't give me a substitute and he was grinning while he was doing it which was very weird like he took pride in not being able to make a boba drink for me. Another weird thing I recognized him from either the last boba drink place that had that building. Maybe I'm wrong but that location too had a similar guy with multiple earrings that is always rude like he doesn't like to work there. I spent a little over $9 for the drink which was fine because the other alley locations always seemed like they made fancier boba drinks so it was worth it for me then but not this time.

I-TING CHEN

It’s so disappointed when having the first sip! They must use very poor quality tea leaves to serve the tea! I ordered strawberry green tea and it’s very sweet and very bitter at the same time with NO green tea aroma! So weird to have this kind of mix flavor. As a tea lover, you definitely can tell the quality of their tea leaves is really bad!!

Joseph Lee

All of the drinks my friends and I ordered were sickeningly sweet despite request. One of the iced teas tasted rotten and the replacement drink didn't taste any better. Threw away the drinks. Go to literally any other boba spot