5 Reasons Why Boba Bear Might Be The BEST Shisha Lounge In Hong Kong

Editor's Review

EDITOR'S REVIEW

7.67

8 Variety

9 Flavor

8 Alcohol

8 Location

7 Staff

6 Price

Shisha and Boba (aka Bubble Tea as we call it in Hong Kong) sound like two things that you’ll hardly ever find together. Boba Bear, a popular chain of shisha lounges in Los Angeles, serves both Shisha and Boba together, bringing a high-quality and revolutionary shisha experience to Hong Kong. They are around 95% open and currently only taking reservations.

1. Modern Sets

Fresh and fancy sets – modern and 100% glass! All the purge valves work too (you can blow back into it!) … and did we mention that they use Drake’s favorite hookah sets too?

2. They use NATURAL coconut charcoal

Photo courtesy of Donna Chiu

Unlike all the other shisha lounges in Hong Kong that mostly use cheap charcoal, they use natural and long-lasting coconut charcoal! With no ash after-taste, they are simply the best.

3. Shisha that can last up to THREE HOURS

Photo courtesy of Donna Chiu

Sick of those mean waiters who never serve you water and spend most of the time pretending they can’t see you when your charcoal sizzles out every 30 mins? Well, shisha at Boba Bear can last up to 3 HOURS so…yeh..totz cool.

4. FROM LA BABY

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Enough said. The best things on earth come from Los Angeles. (We swear this does not have anything to do with the fact that one of our editors currently goes to USC. Honestly.)

5. Countless Flavors

Photo courtesy of Donna Chiu

Boba Bear serves a total of 30-something flavors at the moment is probably the only lounge where you can mix and match THREE different flavors too. That is way too awesome!

Exclusive Interview with Leroy Duarte – Manager of HK Boba Bear

Photo courtesy of Donna Chiu

MadbuzzHK: Why did you guys decide to come to Hong Kong?

Leroy: There was no good shisha in Hong Kong. Everybody had a very low standard (for shisha) including the poor quality of coal and limited flavor options. We want to elevate the shisha experience in Hong Kong. This is our 5th location; we have 4 locations in L.A.. We invested a lot of time, money and effort to bring the best product possible from L.A.. The owner came to visit here [in Hong Kong] and couldn’t find a good spot to smoke so that’s how we came about.

MadbuzzHK: What charcoal do you guys use?

Leroy: We use the best coconut charcoal. Most lounges [in Hong Kong] use insta-lights which are easily fused but they’re very harmful with tones of chemicals. You can always taste the foil, ash and other chemicals.

MadbuzzHK: Where do you import coconut coal from?

Leroy: We import it from California and they’re made in Malaysia and Thailand. Hopefully all the other lounges will start using them too because [insta-lights] are really bad for you.

MadbuzzHK: How did you guys develop the idea of serving Boba at a shisha lounge?

Leroy: Haha. The concept came about a long time ago. The owner loves boba drinks and shisha so when he first opened his business, he just wanted to open a place that offered both things. Normally you need to go to two stores. It picked up really well. First store was in K-town and everybody loved it. Within 1 year, we went from 1 store to 4 stores.

MadbuzzHK: If you had to recommend a drink and shisha flavor here?

Leroy: That depends entirely on the person. My personal favorite is flavor zero but we still don’t have it right now! As far as drinks go, that depends on what the person likes to drink honestly. We have a lot of cocktails ranging from strong whiskey to daiquiri. We have 45 drinks and we also have wine too!

MadbuzzHK: What kind of boba (milk teas) do you guys serve?

Leroy: We are going to do regular milk teas, but are also planning to have alcoholic milk teas.

MadbuzzHK: When will you guys officially launch Boba Bear?

Leroy: To be announced! We’ve been trying to open for 3 months now but we still have last minute things to handle. We live upstairs so we can come downstairs anytime to set up a shisha. Just give us a call and make a reservation!