Boba Quest: Bobavise

As part of Boba Quest 2025 🧋, I'm trying and reviewing a new boba shop each week.

It's the beginning of a new month, so it's a good opportunity to visit a genuinely new boba shop.

This week we visited Bobavise in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which just opened in February. At 893 Nostrand Ave., it's easily reachable via the 2, 3, and 5 trains.

The location is a bit unusual though: it's located right inside of a laundromat.

I've never seen anything like this before, it is by far the smallest boba shop I've ever visited. I'm not sure "shop" is even the right term, it's more like a counter.

They currently have a buy-one-get-one free deal, so I went with a friend and O.G. Boba Quest reader, Emmie.

I ordered a classic milk tea with boba, regular sugar and ice. My review:

• Boba: 2/4 the boba was just adequate, it was neither good nor bad. It could've benefited from more flavor and slightly less chewiness.
• Tea: 2/4 honestly, same feeling about the tea. For something that was supposed to be 100% sweetness, it was pretty...not sweet.
• Bonus: 0/1 the laundromat location is cool but it really doesn't lend itself to a nice ambiance. The only seating was a small bench, and that seemed like it really was for people waiting for their laundry.

Total: 4/10.

Emmie got a honeydew milk tea with boba, also regular sugar and ice. She said that it's difficult to find places with good honeydew (and taro) flavors, so she's always on the lookout. Her review:

• Boba: 3/4 the boba was pretty good. Not groundbreaking, but it was solid. It had a good texture, wasn't too hard, and it complemented the drink well. I'm not sure I'm good at gauging boba sweetness, but nothing seemed particularly wrong with it.
• Tea: 2/4 the flavor wasn't amazing, it was kind of just... okay. I talked about it with Kunal, but I wasn't quite able to put my finger on what the issue was. Maybe slightly more sugar could've brought the flavor out? But something about the flavor overall just felt inadequate.
• Bonus: 0/1

Total: 5/10. It wasn't horrible. Emmie said she's had some honeydew or taro which was clearly flavor powder or juice in water, and even if their other flavors were good, the quality of those two would kind of turn her off to the whole store.

I, Kunal, do feel bad giving such a bad review to a new place, because starting a new boba shop is no easy task and I'd like to support them. My current thinking is that Bobavise is a new place and it will take some time to get better (the drink lids said, "Good things take time"). I look forward to trying their hopefully improved boba again later in the year.