The Best Boba in San Diego, California

(In my opinion, clearly.) If you’d like to challenge my opinion, feel free to leave me a comment or a message, or just try these places for yourself 🙂

Now, I compiled this list while I was in San Diego, as I lived there for about ~3 years (2018-2022 era) during my college days. I haven’t been back in about a year (as of 2023), and I don’t see myself going back regularly, so some of the places might be outdated/there might be new places that have popped up since. I think generally everything should still be the same. If you’re a reader, then you’ve probably at least heard of many of these places on my blog. A great thing about San Diego is that the asian food scene is amazing, and with it, the boba scene. Obviously I haven’t had every boba ever in the area, but I’d like to think I got most of the main places down.

Now without further ado, on with the ranking! Rankings were decided on a combination of factors such as menu offerings, boba and drink quality, how much I like the place, and would I chooseto go to one over the other. I did include places I went to that closed down out of memorandum…

1. Camellia Road Tea Bar: The best in San Diego, by far. Boba is amazing, drinks are all so good, there’s nothing to complain about.
2. R&B Tea (has been closed since early 2022 or so due to issues in the building): only went a couple times, but it had amazing boba and drink quality, and an extensive menu. It is a chain though, so hopefully you can get the R&B fix elsewhere!
3. Dayung’s: Large menu, but drink or boba quality doesn’t suffer, and it always hits. Has everything you can want from a boba place.
4. Wushiland/Oo Tea: The king of boba quantity. More of just teas, but they give a ton of boba.
5. Chakaa: A decently sized menu, but they have something for everyone, and boba and drink quality is pretty good.
6. Feng Cha: A good go-to chain for any kind of drink. They have good brown sugar boba.
7. Tan Cha: Slighty pricey, but their milk teas are good and they offer different flavors of foam topping.
8. Tea Station (may have rebranded?): A bit of a personal bias since I have nostalgic memories tied to Tea Station, but they do classic Taiwan flavors, all sorts of drinks, and sell food. They’re open late too! They really inflated their prices though.
9. Ding Tea: A pretty standard boba place and chain, with a variety menu, and golden boba!
10. Happy Lemon: More known for lemon drinks and waffles, their milk tea is decent and boba is good. No major complaints.
11. Arteazen: An independent boba shop that used to be a Ding Tea. Decent quality, though a normal Ding Tea is better I think.
12. Yi Fang (used to be on Convoy, closed due to a fire around 2021): Good drinks, a bit pricey, but would go if in the mood.
13. 85 Degrees Bakery: Not a “boba shop” per se, but they have decent quality boba and drinks for everyone. You can get your Asian bread fix while you’re at it.
14. Guiltea Cravings: Great for late night snack runs, drinks are ok quality, but the menu is pretty big. Boba is fine.
15. Boba Bar: A large menu, boba is ok, but hits the spot if you need it. They sell ice cream if you’re not in the mood for boba.
16. Kung Fu Tea: Boba is fine, and drinks are ok. Like the standard boba shop. Nothing will dissapoint, but nothing really stands out.
17. Milk Tea Lab: Only had it once, but I thought it was ok. My friends thought something was up with their drinks. They have a decently large menu.
18. Tealightful Cafe: Only had it once so maybe not entirely fair, but I thought it was ok. A cute cafe that also serves food, drinks are average, but I wouldn’t be dissapointed if someone wanted to go.
19. Boba Time: It’s a chain, they have a pretty large menu, drinks are ok.
20. Square Bar Cafe: Only had it once so maybe not entirely fair, but boba is just fine, and I think they charged a whole dollar for no ice…
21. Tapioca Express: They have snacks that are fine. Drinks are fine if you really need boba. Should probably go elsewhere though…