Zagu Original Crystal & Pearl Shakes

Awesome custor by Jack. He always makes my bubble drink perfect!
Bubble tea is awesomely creamy and always the same.
Every time I know I will be close to ala moan, I always always go here for the bubble tea!

If you want to experience shave ice, don’t go to Zagu. They serve snow cone, not shave ice. I constantly crave shave ice in Michigan, and yet have to find any store there that claims to have shave ice to serve shave ice instead of snow cone. In Hawaii, I thought it would be safe to assume everyone knows what a shave ice is, and would not give me a snow cone when the sign says shave ice, big mistake! If you are looking for shave ice, go elsewhere. If you just want a snow cone with mediocre syrup, this is your place.

So, I don’t usually say this… but I would give this establishment a zero star if I could.
In this day and age, it’s become increasingly obvious that «good» much less «great» customer service is becoming a thing of the past. This was no exception to that.
I went to Zagu because I was craving a bubble drink. I’ve had one from them before… and I have to admit, it was great. So I made the drive out to Ala Moana. I was excited! It was approximately 757P… and they close at 9P. I stood in line for about 10 minutes, mind you, nobody was in front of me. They just literally took this long to get to me. I asked for the drink and the associate said «we’re out of tapioca so bubble drinks, can not».
I was crushed. In a ‘irritated and upset’ kind of way. So I looked over the menu again. Finally, I said «actually, I don’t need the tapioca.» Then the cashier told me the truth…“we already cleaned the blenders”.
So…not only was I there over an hour before closing… but they couldn’t make what I wanted, NOT because they lied and claimed to be missing tapioca, but because with an hour left, they didn’t want to tarnish a clean blender. I’m pretty sure a blender takes all but 2 minutes to wash.
I left without ordering. It was frustrating to say the least.

I don’t know how you Honolulu Unilocalers feel about Zagu. During my previous trip to Honolulu, I was in the mood for a bubble drink. While my colleague and I were at Ala Moana, we decided to get one at Zagu. I got the Honeydew bubble drink. I don’t know but, 5.69 for a small wow! I could get a nice size bento or maybe even a plate lunch for 5.69 hahaha!
It was a little busy at the time we ordered so we had to wait a few minutes. This customer who ordered way after me almost swiped my drink! I was like «whoah hold up, that’s mine!» Haha I grabbed it and I was outta there!
All in all it was refreshing, nice enough to cool the body down. For the price of a small bubble drink, I personally think it’s expensive. If you Honolulu Yeeps got better suggestions for me to quench my bubble drink needs, I’m game!

Good food, but terrible service brings it to a one star. Super unfriendly rude people who work there. Gave away someones order to me because that person was gone for a few minutes, and came back a minute later saying she had been waiting a while. tried to refuse, they said no. Not to mention the cashier looks exactly like a Mii.
UPDATE: right after I got back to my hotel, I got a terrible stomach ache. I ended up taking an enormous dump that was actually very bad diarrhea. I am 99% confident that it was because of some bad ingredient (probably the water) in the food that they served. Unfortunately it was so bad because I had shaved ice which included a lot of this bad water. I definitely urge everybody to never visit this joke of a «café.» Thanks.

Prices have gone up (like everything everywhere else has) but paying $ 6 for a terrible drink? NO. I wish I could have gotten refunded for this.
Paying was straightforward and simple. $ 5.96 for a drink… Almost killed me on the inside.
The wait was kind of long for a lava flow drink? A friend and I spent the entire time just watching the girl blend the drink for the longest time.
When we finally get our lava flows, the first thing out of my friend’s mouth was: is it supposed to taste like this? I try it and my immediately response is: NO.
We basically got sour pineapple juice blended up with ice with strawberry syrup and overcooked tapioca. It was so hard to drink but I forced myself to finish it because I paid $ 6 for it.
Would not return unless desperate for a pricey smoothie.

Service was extremely lackluster on Saturday (⁸⁄₃₀) night. Zagu booth was staffed by 3 young «men», then 2 decided to go on a «date» break together. When they returned, one decide to enter the booth by hopping over instead of using the back entrance. Problem was this boy’s hop was more like a «prance» and his dirty sneakers landed squarely on the counter where customers normally receive their desserts. No attempt was made to clean the counter before continuing to serve customers. Yucko!

Zagu is always busy with a long line to place your order. I have enjoyed Zagu since the very first store opened in the Philippines 15 years ago. I ordered the cantaloupe melon shake with tapioca pearls. I’ve had better, but it was still good after a long hot day at the beach.

Line was a bit long, but getting through the cashier was quick. Many selections from bubble tea, smoothies, and shave ice.
Been awhile I had a bubble tea drink. From all the selection, I ended up with the original. I got the Milk Tea with mochi pearls.
Wow, damn thing brought me memories. It was good and refreshing. Recommend this place to everyone

I wanted a refreshing dessert after grabbing dinner from Aja in the Ala Moana food court, but unfortunately refreshing dessert options are a bit limited there. Despite a number of negative reviews for this place, I decided to try Zagu out anyway. It seemed like most of the negative reviews were for their drinks and I wanted shave ice…
I got their Rainbow Shave Ice for $ 4.97, which means I got to pick three flavours. I chose Watermelon, Mango, and Pineapple. The guy behind the counter (who seems miserable and barely says a word to you) grabbed the three syrups, poured them on top of the shaved ice, and gave it to me. I couldn’t tell the Mango and Pineapple flavours apart – they looked the same (¹⁄₃ of the cup was pink and ²⁄₃ were urine yellow) and the entire area tasted somewhat pineapple-​y. There was no mango flavour at all.
It’s my fault for expecting more, but the shave ice here was just syrup-​y flavoured crushed ice. It was refreshing, in that ice is always refreshing, but it wasn’t delicious by any means. (Thankfully I was able to get better shave ice elsewhere before I left the island.) I found the whole experience to be quite «meh».

Good stuff!

i always go here… but mostly becasue its convienent.
they only use powder for thier bubble drinks, so it kinda sucks. im spoiled and only like bubble drinks made with real fruit.
only reason i give it 3 stars is because i always go there and thier chocolate/​peanut butter is pretty good.

When a bubble drink cost almost as much as a plate lunch you really would want to believe it would be the bees knees of tapioca & smoothie perfection. Not the case in this one. Service is a hit or miss, mostly highschool teens that are concerned more with texting than customer service… they can take forever to make a drink. The only pro i could think of was the fact that theres a bit of ice chunks and weirdly enough, i love to chew on ice. It was cash only last time i went a few months ago and it was around $ 6. I would skip out of this kiosk if you’re roaming around Ala Moana looking for something to drink.

I’m not sure if my taste buds have changed, or if they’re using different quality of ingredients? It just doesn’t taste as good as I remember.
I normally get their mango flavor shake with their crystals. Zagu was the first place I tried crystals instead of the usual Pearls. I love the crystals! To me they taste better than the Pearls, and I’m not periodically choking because one has flown through my straw to hit my tonsils like a torpedo.
The last few times I’ve come here, the drink is tasting more powdery and the flavor is just a little off?
Their drinks are on the pricey side, and it’s very inconvenient that they only accept cash.
I rarely have much cash in my wallet as I’m strongly dependent on my plastic money.
I’d also like to add the workers there are almost always zombie like. No smiles… no thank you… you ask a question about their drinks and you get a short 1 word answer in a monotone voice.
I think this was probably my last time coming to this establishment.

the short story is = expensive bubble drinks with no flavor.
the long story is =
so i’ve been drinking a lot of bubble drinks lately (Bee’s, Taste Tea, Bambu, Paradise Blends, etc…) so i figured i would try Zagu. its pretty central in Ala Moana, and i’ve always wondered if their drinks were good.
i found out they are not :(
tried the Milk Tea and Honeydew Melon flavors, and wow… i’ve never had such bland bubble tea in my life. the boba was BLAND, the drink base itself was BLAND, and not to mention EXPENSIVE… at nearly $ 5 for a small drink, i’m glad i only got the small… i only finished about half of this drink before i decided to stop and toss it.
the milk tea flavor was more milk than tea, and had a weird off flavor to it that i still can’t figure out.
the honeydew was extremely artificial tasting, yet still bland. it was like drinking cold green nothing, with a hint of melon flavor.
not coming here again… can’t believe they actually charge this much for flavorless beverages.
p. s. — cash only if you really want to try it here… .but i’d save my $ if i were you…
p.p.s — they also have shave ice here, but from what i’ve seen, it looks pretty gritty… more like snow cone kine

I’m very bias and loveee bubble tea in all shapes and all sizes. I give it 3 stars because they got the basics down. Decent tapioca pearls with a good chewy consistency, the flavor was a bit on the sweet side, but still hit the spot. I always like the good old fashioned milk tea and when i feel like mixing it up I get melon flavored or taro.
There are usually only two workers there at a time, so if you go during lunch or dinner time– it’s pretty crowded.
My only pet peeve about this place is that they blend the ice into the beverage. I personally haven’t ever experienced that in all my bubble tea experiences except when I moved to Hawaii. It definitely is a Hawaiian thing. I like regular bubble tea with ice in it, but I didn’t sign up for a slushee. (Big sigh.) If anyone knows of a place that DOESN’T give me a slop of slush inside my bubble-​tea… please let me know because I’m still searching! Maybe I’m just too spoiled with NYC bubbletea.
Other than that, the bubble tea is pretty standard. I haven’t tried the shaved ice yet, but they look pretty festive from what I’ve seen!

There are only a couple spots to get bubble drinks here in Ala Moana and Zagu’s the easiest one to find. They are located right in the middle of the food court.
I’ve tried two bubble drinks there and both tasted underwhelming.
Milk Tea — Too sweet. Looks like instead of milk, they put powdered creamer and blended it. Ended up dumping it without finishing it.
Pineapple Bubble Drink — Underwhelming taste. Looks like too little fruit was inside or was made with some pineapple juice.
Not only that, both times I bought drink from them, it took a while for my drink to be ready. It was probably about 4 – 5 minutes on both occasions.
100 Reviews, 1 Day ⁴⁶⁄₁₀₀
January 12, 2013

Decent option for bubble tea in the Makai food court but I’d recommend you go to Shirokya if you have the time. Anyway, I got a green tea bubble tea which was really, really sweet if you like that sort of thing. I got a regular milk tea bubble tea in a prior visit which was alright.
Cash only!

Uh… I’m going to have to echo Kim M’s review that Zagu is NOT a good example of bubble tea in Hawaii. I ordered the small sized Milk Tea for about $ 5 and I was very disappointed in the flavor of my drink. I’ve had Milk Tea dozens of times at different bubble tea shops around Honolulu and this was by far the worst in terms of flavor. It had a grainy texture and a funny aftertaste which is reminiscent of coffee flavoring.
We walked from the food court, where Zagu is located, up to the second level by Lulu Lemon where I proceeded to throw away more my cup which was still ¾ full of bubble tea. I didn’t want to throw it away considering it was $ 5, but at the same time I couldn’t see the point in sipping down something which kept making me «BLECK» as we did our holiday shopping. My daughter asked me what was wrong with my drink and all I could tell her was it just didn’t taste right. Hopefully my experience was not the norm or else I’d likely advise to skip the bubble tea at Zagu and grab something else.

Meeh. It was just OK.
This shop is located in the food court at Ala Moana Shopping Center. It was quite expensive, and not that flavorful. I honestly don’t remember the price, but I remember thinking that I could get better for that price. Then again, maybe it was my frame of mind that day — I was close to my budget for the week.
2 stars because I just wasn’t impressed, and my palate was very unsatisfied. I almost wish we didn’t spend money in this shaved ice.