I’m giving 3 ⭐️ because the waffle was good. The drink, like other HL stores, was not tasty in my opinion. I probably should think of ditching this brand and its app instead of clinging to it. The drinks were nothing special and the waffle couldn’t make up for it.The store gave off dirty vibe because of many clutter corners as well as unclean table. Also, they didn’t clean off the leftover parts on the waffle machine.Kid-friendliness: Waffle is delicious.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Original Bubble Waffle
Milika Folau
Service was great, but the boba drinks weren’t it.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 5
David Cody
Dirty:(
Justin Chao
Boba is ok. Place is very dirty...
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 2
Valerie C.
One of my favorite spots to grab a drink when I want something refreshing. I usually get a mango lemon slushy or a yakult green tea for something light! Be sure to get your drink 50% sweet if you don't like your drinks too sweet.This location now serves popcorn chicken and egg puffs(waffles)! I love how crunchy it is on the outside but soft and fluffy inside. Will definitely be back to try new things on the menu :)
Thao T.
Came here at 2:45p on a Sunday. Young staff needs to be trained to be more friendly and personable. No greeting, no thank you, no hello, no personality. Young Asian guy with side swept bangs took our order unenthusiastically, & gave my receipt without looking at me/looked away without any thank you. More focused on chit chatting with their friends/other co workers. Seems like they need a manager there to supervise them to treat their clients better. pretty disappointing that this is not the first time we've received bad service from this location. Probably will not be back. The other happy lemon locations have better service, hands down. Or even Starbucks next door. Best of luck to management on better training (if there's any customer service training at all, doesn't seem like it). They're going to keep losing business, for sure.
Priscilla C.
We tend to go here for some of their specialty drinks items and the salted cheese drinks. Yes it's gimmicky. Yes it's still delicious. My favorite is their matcha tiramisu salted cheese drink. I once ordered something else and wondered why I did that. Their shop is in a plaza with other Asian restaurants and close to the Peninsula Jewish Community Center. Outside there's a small curbed section that's yellow in case you have a quick pick up or just dropping someone off. Otherwise, there is a large parking lot with lots of space options.Inside, the shop is fairly cramped. There's some seating but it gets too loud to really relax and have a conversation. I usually go in the evening, when it's more popular so it might be different earlier in the day.The workers there are always really friendly and make sure to get your order correct, even if their face says that they're completely stressed out.I'd recommend this place if you are in the area and are interested in their specific drinks. There are some cons, but not a deal breaker. Oh, and check out my tip about using their website! The Foster City website isn't accurate/up so you can place an order on Happy Lemon's main website (choose Foster City as pick up). They have the full menu there.
Anthony Lam
Showed up at opening and it took them 30 minutes for them to have drinks ready.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Ahmed Elhanafy
This location needs to train its staff on how to make drinks. We ordered 2 drinks and both were flavorless.. we asked the staff to make it again and it tasted even worse the 2nd time! The staff was looking at their phones the whole time trying to figure out how to make the drinks on the menu!When we confronted them the second time the drinks were made they told us that "these are not popular drinks" and that "they're just not sweet drinks" which I think is unacceptable. Regardless of whether the drink is popular or not, it should at least be made well.I even saw one of the workers that was making my drink open up a bottled water and added it that to my drink. I have never seen that in my life!?!!We ended up throwing both the drinks away and walked out. Horrible horrible experience here. This location has gone down hill these past couple months.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Stinky Bot
Consistent with other places. Why are there outside tables with no chairs? Had to find a public area to consume their drinks.
I'm giving a one-star, because there was a piece of hair in my tea (Yuck!). From a sanitation standpoint, this is a big no-no for eateries. When I called numerous times to tried talking to a manager about this issue, nobody ever picked up the phone; and there was no voicemail.In terms of the taste, the teas were mediocre. The snacks were surprisingly good, although a little too pricey compared to other tea stores. No toppings came with the teas; each topping would cost $0.75 or $1.00. The store looked clean. But I think they should change the store name to "Unhappy Lemon"--all the staff looked unhappy (they were courteous but impatient), and I am certainly an unhappy customer.I do not recommend this place.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
James
Like other restaurants in the chain store, this location offers quick, good quality milk tea options. The staff are very friendly, the store is clean, and while there're not many seating options inside, one can walk towards the lagoon and enjoy a drink by the water.My favorite thing to get here is their Mango Matcha Smoothie which tastes quite delicious, but their Tiramisu Salted Cheese drink is also very good
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cathrin P C.
The only reason to get a drink from Happy Lemon is for their salted cheese. This branch is located in a quiet strip in Foster City with ample parking near a bunch of residential buildings -- today we tried:Ube milk tea w/puff cream and bobaStrawberry green tea Matcha latte w/ tiramisu salted cheeseForgot to take a picture of the matcha latte and I added mango boba for extra $1 Prices were fairly reasonable and drinks were made very quickly. They even gave us samples of the salted puff cream because I wasn't sure how that would taste in a drink. However I didn't think the matcha latte tasted all special so I'm going with a standard 3 star rating for an average visit. There are way too many boba places around and being average just doesn't cut it anymore.
K S
Out of boba straws. Dirty feeling in store.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Jr Sun
Used to think it was good until I tasted San Mateo tea places.
I’m giving 3 ⭐️ because the waffle was good. The drink, like other HL stores, was not tasty in my opinion. I probably should think of ditching this brand and its app instead of clinging to it. The drinks were nothing special and the waffle couldn’t make up for it.The store gave off dirty vibe because of many clutter corners as well as unclean table. Also, they didn’t clean off the leftover parts on the waffle machine.Kid-friendliness: Waffle is delicious.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Original Bubble Waffle
Service was great, but the boba drinks weren’t it.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 5
Dirty:(
Boba is ok. Place is very dirty...
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 2
One of my favorite spots to grab a drink when I want something refreshing. I usually get a mango lemon slushy or a yakult green tea for something light! Be sure to get your drink 50% sweet if you don't like your drinks too sweet.This location now serves popcorn chicken and egg puffs(waffles)! I love how crunchy it is on the outside but soft and fluffy inside. Will definitely be back to try new things on the menu :)
Came here at 2:45p on a Sunday. Young staff needs to be trained to be more friendly and personable. No greeting, no thank you, no hello, no personality. Young Asian guy with side swept bangs took our order unenthusiastically, & gave my receipt without looking at me/looked away without any thank you. More focused on chit chatting with their friends/other co workers. Seems like they need a manager there to supervise them to treat their clients better. pretty disappointing that this is not the first time we've received bad service from this location. Probably will not be back. The other happy lemon locations have better service, hands down. Or even Starbucks next door. Best of luck to management on better training (if there's any customer service training at all, doesn't seem like it). They're going to keep losing business, for sure.
We tend to go here for some of their specialty drinks items and the salted cheese drinks. Yes it's gimmicky. Yes it's still delicious. My favorite is their matcha tiramisu salted cheese drink. I once ordered something else and wondered why I did that. Their shop is in a plaza with other Asian restaurants and close to the Peninsula Jewish Community Center. Outside there's a small curbed section that's yellow in case you have a quick pick up or just dropping someone off. Otherwise, there is a large parking lot with lots of space options.Inside, the shop is fairly cramped. There's some seating but it gets too loud to really relax and have a conversation. I usually go in the evening, when it's more popular so it might be different earlier in the day.The workers there are always really friendly and make sure to get your order correct, even if their face says that they're completely stressed out.I'd recommend this place if you are in the area and are interested in their specific drinks. There are some cons, but not a deal breaker. Oh, and check out my tip about using their website! The Foster City website isn't accurate/up so you can place an order on Happy Lemon's main website (choose Foster City as pick up). They have the full menu there.
Showed up at opening and it took them 30 minutes for them to have drinks ready.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
This location needs to train its staff on how to make drinks. We ordered 2 drinks and both were flavorless.. we asked the staff to make it again and it tasted even worse the 2nd time! The staff was looking at their phones the whole time trying to figure out how to make the drinks on the menu!When we confronted them the second time the drinks were made they told us that "these are not popular drinks" and that "they're just not sweet drinks" which I think is unacceptable. Regardless of whether the drink is popular or not, it should at least be made well.I even saw one of the workers that was making my drink open up a bottled water and added it that to my drink. I have never seen that in my life!?!!We ended up throwing both the drinks away and walked out. Horrible horrible experience here. This location has gone down hill these past couple months.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Consistent with other places. Why are there outside tables with no chairs? Had to find a public area to consume their drinks.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 2
Restaurantji Recommends
I'm giving a one-star, because there was a piece of hair in my tea (Yuck!). From a sanitation standpoint, this is a big no-no for eateries. When I called numerous times to tried talking to a manager about this issue, nobody ever picked up the phone; and there was no voicemail.In terms of the taste, the teas were mediocre. The snacks were surprisingly good, although a little too pricey compared to other tea stores. No toppings came with the teas; each topping would cost $0.75 or $1.00. The store looked clean. But I think they should change the store name to "Unhappy Lemon"--all the staff looked unhappy (they were courteous but impatient), and I am certainly an unhappy customer.I do not recommend this place.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
Like other restaurants in the chain store, this location offers quick, good quality milk tea options. The staff are very friendly, the store is clean, and while there're not many seating options inside, one can walk towards the lagoon and enjoy a drink by the water.My favorite thing to get here is their Mango Matcha Smoothie which tastes quite delicious, but their Tiramisu Salted Cheese drink is also very good
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The only reason to get a drink from Happy Lemon is for their salted cheese. This branch is located in a quiet strip in Foster City with ample parking near a bunch of residential buildings -- today we tried:Ube milk tea w/puff cream and bobaStrawberry green tea Matcha latte w/ tiramisu salted cheeseForgot to take a picture of the matcha latte and I added mango boba for extra $1 Prices were fairly reasonable and drinks were made very quickly. They even gave us samples of the salted puff cream because I wasn't sure how that would taste in a drink. However I didn't think the matcha latte tasted all special so I'm going with a standard 3 star rating for an average visit. There are way too many boba places around and being average just doesn't cut it anymore.
Out of boba straws. Dirty feeling in store.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Used to think it was good until I tasted San Mateo tea places.