Bobadochi Will Open on NE Alberta in Portland

I was over on NE Alberta to catch some of December’s special ice cream flavors at Salt & Straw (Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache FTW), and on my way I noticed paper up and a sign affixed to the door a few storefronts to their west: Bobadochi. They offer boba drinks, mochi donuts, and Korean-style corn dogs (AKA K-dogs).

Bobadochi: What’s in a Name?

The name “Bobadochi” is a portmanteau of sorts: boba + donut + mochi. I also wonder it the “do” could be applied to “[K]-dogs,” too. As I mentioned above, boba drinks and mochi donuts are two of the three main things they offer.

The first Bobadochi opened in Salem in April 2024, with subsequent locations at the Woodburn Premium Outlets in Woodburn; and Washington Square Mall and the Pointe at Bridgeport, both in Tigard. Along with the NE Alberta shop, they are also planning to open one in Beaverton in the Beaverton Town Square area.

Sunny Burden, Co-Owner

Sunny Burden has been involved with other food companies that you might recognize: Baja Fresh, Golden Corral, Subway, Starbuck’s, and Boston Market. But before that, she worked at her family’s Chinese restaurant, established after they immigrated from Taiwan to the U.S. over 40 years ago. She and her late husband operated a Chinese restaurant and a diner—Sunny’s Family Diner in Milwaukie—together.

But her start with franchising happened when she acquired and operated a handful of Baja Fresh restaurants in the metro area (Clackamas, Gresham), which then led to a partnership with Ramsay Zawideh, who was also a Baja Fresh franchise owner at the time (Lake Oswego, Salem). Their first collab was opening Sunny’s Diner on SE 82nd Ave in Happy Valley 2016. They went on to operate the Vancouver Golden Corral together in 2018. She and Ramsay co-own Bobadochi.

Bobadochi: Know Before You Go

They like to highlight the self-serve aspect—you select your donuts much like you do at, say, a Paris Baguette—pick up a tray lined with wax paper, get your tongs ready, pick your donuts and put them on the tray.

At the counter you order your drinks and/or K-dogs, both of which you can customize.

Bobadochi Menu: Drinks

What I found interesting was that they make the tapioca pearls in-house, prepared in small batches with help from a machine. The springiness quality of the pearls is important to them. They offer four flavors of boba: brown sugar (original), strawberry, matcha, and ube taro.

The flavors of drinks to choose from are many, and it would take a lot of space to list them all. They range from a Classic Milk Tea with boba, to a Dalgona Mocha, to an Okinawa Brown Sugar latte. Lava milks (a mix of evaporated and condensed milk flavored with chocolate, matcha, or taro, making for a richer drink), blended drinks, and fruit teas are also available.

Note: They use ceremonial-grade matcha for their matcha drinks.

With each drink you can choose the drink size, amount of ice, type of milk (including plant-based), the sweetness level, and the wide range of toppings. You can also specify no boba, if that’s not your thing. Toppings/additions include jellies, popping boba, pudding, mochi puff, purple rice, and red bean.

You can see the entirety of their drink menu on their website.

Bobadochi Menu: Mochi Donuts

These donuts are made rice flour (mochiko), and tend to be chewier than conventional Western-style donuts. At Bobadochi they offer standard donut flavors year-round, and seasonal offerings, as well. As it is the holiday season at the writing of this article, their seasonal offerings reflect that. Peppermint Mocha, Ginger Snap, and Egg Nog are rather Christmassy, and the other specials include Dubai Chocolate and Pistachio Cranberry.

Standard flavors include flavors like glazed, ube butter mochi, chocolate, candied maple bacon, and black sesame crunch. They also have a line of gluten-free donuts with flavors like matcha, ube, and chocolate.

The full menu of mochi donuts is on their website.

Bobadochi Menu: K-Dogs

For me, this is the most exciting of the three pillars of options at Bobadochi, mostly because K-dogs are less familiar to me. I do love a good hot dog.

Also important to know is that these Korean-Style corn dogs do not use cornmeal. Instead, they have developed a yeasted batter made of a mix glutinous rice flour and all-purpose flour. Apparently it yields a lighter coating than you’d get with cornmeal—with an extra added chewy element from the rice flour.

They have the Original Dog, which is fried in their batter; you can add sugar to it, something I did not anticipate. There’s the Flaming Hot Cheeto: a corn dog dusted with Flamin’ Hot Cheeto dust and spicy cheese sauce. And then there’s this: the Ginormous Pickle Dog. It’s a jumbo pickle stuffed with a hot dog, dipped in batter and fried, and served with peanut butter. You can see the full K-dog menu on their website.

The Space

This location used to be home to GrindWitTryz, which has moved over to Cully Blvd in the old Nico’s Cantina/Beeswing space. Before that, Bunk Sandwiches was in this NE Alberta location. The building was built in 2012, and I believe Bunk was likely the first tenant there, which means Bobadochi will be the third.

The space has a big garage door setup in the front, so they’ll open that in the summertime, with seating outside. Inside there will be table seating, and order bar, and full view of your drinks being made. There will be a little production kitchen, too. There’s a door in the back that leads out to a “gorgeous patio.”

As of this week they are still under construction, and a recent update indicated they are waiting for equipment to arrive (paint and some decor is up).

Look for them to open in the new year.

Bobadochi [projected opening early 2026]
2017 NE Alberta Street, Portland
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