After Short N Sweet, the best place in Austin to get bubble tea is at Coco’s Café. The milk-to-tea balance is better than at most places on The Drag (although Dharma Joy has a superior array of flavor and milk options), and the fat tapioca pearls are usually just the right consistency—neither too mushy nor too hard. Taro is gently sweet and the gently tannic almond is refreshingly unsyrupy here. You can order all the drinks without pearls if the texture bugs you, and there’s a whisper of a caffeine buzz on the tea-based ones. Perfect for a hot afternoon.

It’s hard to kvell equally for the Taiwanese comfort dishes, which rival the drinks for sweet insipidness. A lovely and subtly flavored tea egg comes on most rice bowls, but the pork is gelatinous, the cabbage decidedly cole-slaw-flavored, and the sauces blandly sugary. Make use of the chili paste, cilantro, and jalapeños on the condiment table for something a little more fun to eat. You can’t really go wrong with the slightly greasy green onion pie (more familiar as the scallion pancake), but veggie dumplings are disconcertingly fishy; tofu curry makes an impact, but not necessarily a positive one. Still, it’s cheap, it’s futurama-fetish-cute, and there’s free Wi-Fi and fruity fun beverages. (Warning: it’s cash only on Research Blvd., but there’s an ATM.)