Hula Boba Kapolei

Pricey, Didn’t like their hard boba, their honeydew smoothie is gross (icey&bland), and their fruit iced tea tasted like soap but was alright. Tea Time is still the best tea place IMO. The only thing they have over any boba place is that you can put your own toppings in your cup to what you would like.

I come here waaaay too often. Haha
I love their macademia milk tea with boba. Its my go-​to drink!
Workers are always awesome, smiling, and working hard! Sometimes theres a line and it blocks the entrance but that just shows how great this place is!
Theres seating inside. Lots of tables and chairs. Clean. Theres a wall of asian snacks for a cheap prices and they have cute stuff that can be given as gifts!
Self serve station. You choose either a small or large cup. The small cup is wider at the bottom and theres a 90% chance it wont fit into your car’s cupholder. Haha! You fill up your cup with your toppings (i like lychee jelly, lychee popping, tapioca balls). Then you order your drink and they fill it up :)))
Its a really cute place thats been decorated quite nicely. Their menu is huge and colorful so if its your first time, goodluck on choosing! Hehe
Thanks Desiree for always smiling and giving such great customer service! And for suggesting mac nut milk tea. Fricken life changing. Haha!!!

Marshmallow flavored tea. Enough said!
I wish I lived closer so I could go here more. Although if I did I would be broke.
You basically go in grab the cup size you want. Fill it up to the line with the types of filling you like. Then they fill it with tea.
They always have good customer service.

First off, these cups are the most adorable boba cups in the island of Oahu. They are large, won’t fit in your car cupholder, and have an adorable plump penguin on the top. The small cup is so big that I’m afraid to ask how many calories are in a cup. You can fill the cup to lines 1 or 2 (for an extra cost), but there should be more than enough toppings if you maximize your line 1 topping. Most small milk teas are ~$ 5.50 and large are ~$ 6.00.
First off, the toppings. My ultimate personal favorite topping here is the taro balls. For one, this is one of the only places I know that even offer taro balls as a topping. The taro balls are chewy and mochi-​like and pairs perfectly with the taro milk tea. They always run out of this, however, so go early!
The drinks are a tad on the sweet side, so ask for less sweet if you don’t want a huge sugar rush. My favorite drink here is the taro milk tea. It’s one of the few drinks that use fresh taro (not powder) and they warn you about this when attempt to order this drink. I like it though because 1) it wasn’t ridiculously sweet like the other drinks, and 2) duh, fresh taro makes the drink extremely creamy and yum!
Lastly, don’t forget to ask for a stamp card if the employees forget to offer you one. Buy 8 drinks, get the 9^th small one free!

This place is easily the best boba place on the west side! This place is known for their topping bar. There are so many topping options. There are different types of boba, pudding, jellies, and much more. Thai walls (condensed milk) is even free! My go to order here is their wintermelon milk tea (the best one on the island imo) with custard pudding, mango jelly, and mango boba. Sooooo goooooooddd. Next time I plan on trying their shave ice.

This is by far my favorite boba place on the island! I love the boba bar and the fact that I can add a much as I want! I wish that there were more boba flavor options, since I’m not a jelly fan. I love when they have the lychee boba, but haven’t seen that in a while. Even without though, their boba is so flavorful that I’m OK without it.
Every boba place I go to, I have my go to drink. At Hula Boba, it is the wintermelon tea, 25% with Thai walls! Omg! Amazeballs!

They need a hula boba in town. The only downside I have is that it’s kinda pricey. But the cup sizes are HUGE (I mean, I guess that could be a downside since it was hard to fit in my cup holder…). So I guess you’re paying for portion size. I LOVE the variety of toppings and that you get to add your own. After seeing them do that, I’m surprised more boba places don’t do that. It’s such a fun idea! I feel like most places only tapioca, but this one had so many options, I didn’t know where to start. They do close at 7pm which is odd since boba places usually stay open late. But maybe it’s because boba isn’t super popular on the west side. Oh well! Glad I got to try this place after hearing so much about it!

I have been here once before and it is still amazing!
The staff is super sweet and I really like the self serve option you have. I like my drinks very sweet and so the extra sweet option works in my favor.
Winter melon is delicious. Thank me later!

Big Mahalo to Kristen-​Joy and upper management for immediately reaching out to me with a sincere apology per my review below. Their service recovery efforts made up for the minor incident and goes to show how much they truly value their customers!
Usually a great experience but walked in today and walked out empty handed because of the service. I was the only one in there, with about 5 employees behind the counter. Not one greeting, and with the cashiers back turned to me she said «be right with you» she looked like she might have been fixing something but no one took the time to greet me or take my drink order regardless of whatever they were doing. Unfortunately that was enough for me to walk out. Nothing against their boba because it truly is delicious…

I feel like this is the best boba place on the West Side, in my opinion. Anyway, I like the idea of building your own drink and adding whatever you want, well whatever the cup allows. Lol. The shop is cute with lost of Asian snacks, and if you spend a certain amount you get free things. One time I got a free pack of those Japanese cheese puffs, and another time I got a free tote bag :)
PROS:
— Casual and laid back atmosphere, with the cute penguin on the wall.
— The drink/​cup portions are enough to satisfy.
— The prices are reasonable.
— Freebies when you spend a certain amount.
CONS:
— They have a card limit.

Boba Boba Booooooobbbbaaaaaa
Love this place!!!
It’s clean, cute and the staff is fast and friendly .That is a lot to ask from a Boba spot.
Step1-​Choose a cup with the size you want (it’s only 50 € more for a large-​Go Big or Go Home)
Step2– Fill the cup with the topping you want. I usally go for boba, egg pudding, & taro balls.
Step3-​Give your cup to the worker behind the counter and choose what drink you want. This is the hardest part for me Do I want a milk tea? a smoothie? what flavor? WHAT Flavorrrrrr!!! Lol
You can also adjust the amount of sweetness. I’ve done 50% sweetness and all my drinks have been delicious.
So Far I’ve had Thai Tea and Taro Coconut smoothie Yummmmyyyyy!!!
Stamp card is available to make sure you pick one up.
Xo,
Soon-​to-​be Hula Boba Princess

The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable because there are so many different choices to choose from. The selection of toppings are amazing and they also have a section for snacks and Candy.
This is my first time in Hawaii and this spot hit it. The Thai tea was very refreshing and you can I just how much sugar you want in each item. Price is very reasonable.

I don’t live on the west side but I admire the good eats I can have when I am! With that said, Hula Boba is one of the places that I need to stop by before heading back to the east side! Parking is free, customer service is good, and drinks are obviously amazing!
My recent visit though was very disappointing & I know you’re probably thinking, it’s just boba.
Anyways, after dinner I thought hey, it’s only 6:40PM they close at 7:00PM we can stop by since its down the road! We arrived at 6:45PM, parked the car infront and the worker flips the sign to close! So shocking! I got out of my car anyway to see they’ll accommodate but while I walked there, they turned the light off!
Too bad! One star for tasty drinks, one for topping bar, and one for service!
I’ll still be back again! But to those reading this, don’t try to go before closing! Looks like they close way before 7PM!

The biggest draw to Hula Boba is the self serve boba bar. They have a variety of boba to choose from, from traditional, mini, popping, and flavored boba. They even have custard. I’ve tried a few, but be warned… too many different types don’t taste good sitting in your drink.
My son likes taro milk tea with coconut jelly and taro boba. That’s a winning combination. My daughter had strawberry li hing mui smoothie with too many things… quite the concoction! I had the Thai tea sweetened only to 75% with regular boba.
Service is good. They’ll make recommendations if you ask, the place is clean, they have adequate seating if you want to stay, and they have a stamp card. After six, you get one free.
Now, the big question: is the drink any different than the other tea shops? No.
My only disatisfaction comes from the size if the cup. It’s too wide to fit in the car cup holder.

I was craving a bubble drink the other day and was in the Kapolei area. Picked up my phone and used my trusty Unilocal app. Typed in Bubble drinks and Hula Boba popped up.
This cute little place is located right next to Chun Wah Kam in Kapolei. **
When you walk in, you are greeted with a smile and a friendly «Hello.»
It was my first time so the cashier started to tell me how it works. Basically, it is like a yogurt bar but for bubble drinks. You choose the size of the cup and the contents you want to place inside. They have everything from Oreos to Lychee Jelly. I chose the traditional Tapioca Balls for my drink. As for the flavor of my drink, I went with the Taro Coconut smoothie. The cashier said it was a popular flavor so I dived in and tried it.
Taste: The overall taste was overpowered by the amount of tapioca balls placed inside. It was if I was drinking straight tapioca juice. The smoothie was ok. Tasted more like ice with a hint of flavor.
The cup the drink comes in is very cute though. Cute little penguin.
Ill give it another try. Possibly try their milk teas. The customer service was friendly so I shall be back.

Finally got to try Hula Boba while in Kapolei one day and enjoyed it a lot! Located by Chun Wah Kam, with lots of parking, this place was easy to find.
There are so many new boba places opening, but this place definitely stood out from the rest. The concept of putting your own boba, jellies, pudding reminded me of a frozen yogurt place where you can put your own toppings. I think this idea was great because you could mix and match whatever you wanted in your drink. They have lines on the cup to calculate the cost of how much goodies you want.
I got my go-​to Wintermelon Tea with pudding, while my boyfriend got some passionfruit tea (lightly sweetened which was perfect). It was a weekday, between 1 – 2 pm so it wasn’t too busy (assuming kids were still in school). The store also sells all kinds of snacks that are in crack seed stores and even asian snacks.
I think for their two options of cup sizes, they should make one more narrow because it could not fit in the cup holder while driving home. Other than that, will definitely be back to try something new when I’m around the neighborhood!

This is our first time to this local spot & I gotta tell you… it is GOOD!
First, it is a boba tea spot, but the catch is you can self serve! In other words, you can put all the toppings you want inside your cup & then they will make the teas/​smoothies to put inside your cup! What a novel idea!
We ordered a kids shave ice with bubble gum & vanilla flavoring. They put sweetened condensed milk on top & it was just too good!!! Just order it… you obviously can’t go wrong with a shave ice!
We also ordered a taro/​coconut smoothie with tapioca balls. The combination of taro & coconut went so well together! We never considered these two as a combination!
The store has 6 tables on the inside with seating for 16. There is also some seating outside as well, but the inside has some nice music playing. It is a little loud with the machines going, but I’d still recommend it!

When the hubs and I first arrived to Oahu, we (ok I) felt it necessary to identify all the culinary essentials on the island stat! Boba/​smoothie/​tea were some of the top essentials we needed and needed fast!
Now coming from California where there’s a boba stand/​shop on practically every corner, the expectations were rather high; however, recognizing that we were 2000+ miles away from California, our expectations were forced to be more realistic. Considering all this, Hula Boba actually hit the spot! Not only did it hit the spot but it actually offered something we, personally, never encountered before: a boba buffet.
So before they even prepare your desired drink which we’ll get to later, you get to load up, in what has to be a big gulp cup, as much boba and fruit jelly as you want! Think Yogurtland treats but boba and boba galore. I don’t know how much they charged for said boba because I was too overly excited about them letting me scoop my own boba but regardless it was worth the trip to the westside.
The hubs ordered the almond milk tea and I ordered the watermelon smoothie. Both were delicious and surprisingly survived the car ride to Waikiki. Between the cute big gulp cups, boba buffet and refreshing drinks, Hula Boba is definitely our go-​to spot on the westside!

This place never seems to disappoint me. Practically customize your own drink in easy steps.
Choosing the size. I feel the size small is a good size for one person. They offer different a variety range of toppings and smoothie. I feel there quality of the drink is very tasteful which gives your mouth that satisfying quench especially on a hot day!
I really love the presentation of the drinks! Although this place can be busy. I really enjoy coming! They really should open up another location. They are really good business!

Super cute Penguin mascot!
Originally this was not a self serve boba joint. however they changed and upgraded their whole venue. and its quite nice! The drinks here varies from Milk Tea’s, to Shaved Ice, to Smoothies, and surprisingly a healthy option with real fruits! I have been here numerous times, and I have yet to have a bad experience here.
The staff is welcoming, and the self serve toppings bar just catches your eye! From a variety of toppings their self serve station is pretty good. It ranges from popping boba (like fish eggs but sweet LOL), to jellys like lychee, and the obligatory small and large boba balls!
I usually get their smoothies here, only because I’m pretty picky with my milk teas (and Im lactose, oops!) Their smoothies are super good, I tried their lychee, Li Hing, etc. and I have never been disappointed. I don’t normally try their non fruity drinks only because Im not a huge fan of their selection of non fruit smoothies.
In the store they have a selection of cute japanese and local snack favorites, and they’re pretty cheap too!
I guess you can say this place is different from other boba joints, only because they have a variety of snacks, and they have a self serve boba station!
Why 4 stars?
Their self serve boba station isn’t well covered, and its pretty wide open, there is a cough protector but it doesn’t really do much, kinda like a bus stop shade that doesn’t even cover you from the sun LOL.
I have been here quite a lot and I keep forgetting to choose my sweetness level, some of the workers pretty much assume you want diabetes (jk, but really they don’t ask you for your sweetness level preference)
EVERY TIME I come here its either they ran out of stamp cards, or their stamp cards are just paper that can easily be broken. maybe an upgrade to a sturdy card?
OVERALL
Great boba place on the Kapolei side, cute penguin, great smoothies, fun snacks, and cool venue.