Yaya Tea Garden
“I got the 'First Love', a mango and peach white tea with the 'pop mango', and a cooked salmon onigiri/rice ball.”
“My personal favorite is the First Love tea (which has Peach and Mango White Tea) served cold with Mango Stars.”
“I usually get the spam, chicken and tempura riceballs, but they all are good!”
Yaya Tea Garden
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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This review is based solely on the Takoyaki
Stopped in for a snack and ordered the Takoyaki ($4 i think?). Not good at all. The exterior was squishy and not fully cooked, barely any octopus in takoyaki. Also whatever sauce they used on it, it had a vingery sour taste… Not a fan of the takoyaki. I'll come back next time to try the other food item snacks.
I do think this is a great place to buy small gifts for friends though! They have lots of international asian snacks
Nice spot to chill with friends. Their rice balls are pretty good and filling. $2.50 for a small and $4 for a large. Their drinks and toppings are unique with many flavors and its accompanied with a quote which can make your day. It'll either be something sweet, cute or funny but it's definitely a mood lifter. They have a lot of snacks there which I think is overpriced. They still have one of my favorite Japanese candy though which you can't really find anywhere else! The brand name is Chelsea and yogurt scotch flavor. It is my favorite! I definitely recommend. That's what I usually get with my rice balls and drinks. Minimum $10 in order to use card so I would suggest bringing cash if you only order one or two thing like I always do.
My boyfriend and I came here to grab a quick bite after our afternoon jog. Their rice balls are just delicious and well flavored. We got 2 large Japanese rice balls and it tasted so good. Damn! should've order more but oh well we will be back next time.
I have the occasional onigiri craving and I'm so glad Yaya opened in Brooklyn. If you want onigiri, this is the place. They have a good amount of choices for onigiri so there has to be at least one that you want, given that you eat rice. You can order small or large for the onigiri so you can feel a little less guilty when you eat more of the small ones, am I right? My favorites are the Yaya shrimp, Yaya chicken and the Japanese. They also offer other kinds of snacks, but I like to save my stomach space for the onigiri. Service is fast and pretty friendly which is always nice.
They have a nice selection of tea drinks (fruity flavors based) and you can't go wrong ordering from the best sellers list. You would think that with drink names like "Better Life" or "Clean Clothes," it's all kinda gimmicky. However, these drinks are good combinations of flavors and they're decently priced. They also stick quotes on the bottom of the cup, cute! A plus for me is that they offer popping boba here in different flavors. This might be the hangout spot for local high schoolers, so there hasn't been seating the last couple of times I've been here; more a grab and go kind of place. Overall, a great option for a quick snack, lunch or dinner.
Overall, this is quite the cute one stop place for tea, food, snacks and potential gifts! If you're a fan of tea tea like drinks (not the typical boba flavors) I recommend making a stop here. There is an extensive menu on the tea drinks alone and quite a broad selection for onigiri, small rice plates and appetizers.
For the tea, I ordered the Aries which was a blend of jasmine with chrysanthemum with honey tea as a base. Absolutely refreshing and fragrant. The honey tea lends a bit of sweetness to the drink while the aroma of jasmine and chrysanthemum fills your senses up.
For the onigiri, tried the spam, spicy crawfish and the takoyaki. If you order this, do make sure to read the instructions on the package on how to unravel it! The takoyaki was my least favorite since it lacked any real takoyaki taste to it. As for the crawfish, it was a little heavy on the mayo like sauce but it tasted decent. The spam onigiri was surprisingly the most yummy. The rice was flavored with some kind of broth and the spam wasn't too salty.
Finally, the rice dish with Japanese curry, baked potato and shrimp tempura. Simple hearty meal that is definitely filling and good 🙂
After your meal, I recommend checking out the store for various Asian snacks and teas. If you're looking for gift ideas, this place sells tea bottles, hoodies and other misc items.
First tried Yayas in chinatown and they are known for their rice balls. Glad that they opened one in brooklyn. I've never ate here but did come to order to go. Their Japanese rice ball is my favorite. They sell other rice balls such as salmon, shrimp tempura, tuna, etc. You have to remember to ask for soy sauce and spicy mayo (if u dont kno what it is, try it!!! Its yummy!!!) they sell snacks and drinks here but i havent tried yet. Definitely a spot to grab a snack!
The ability to feel "young at heart" and "old" at the same time… Step into YaYa Tea Garden!
Young at heart: YaYa Tea has a variety of your childhood fav Asian snacks! Shrimp chips, green tea kit kat, ramen noodle chips, marble soda pop (where you push the glass marble to let the soda through! Hope it's FDA approved!). It operates like half the store is an Asian type snack shop and the other half, drinks (mainly a variety of teas) and rice balls (seaweed wrap rice balls stuffed with… More seaweed.. And other stuff… Like spam, octopus, chicken…). This really brings out the kid in anyone… Even my retiree self! Ha Ha
Ok – the old part comes when their regular customers rode in "bmx" bikes (OMG these bikes still exists?!?!) and talks to each other in codes… Mostly slang I'm no longer privy to… As I do not have any friends younger than 27! Also they seem very excited about their Summer plans as in free the whole Summer… Yep, sucks to be a working adult (but I can legally drink! Ha Ha… Not my proudest moment… smh).
Food & drinks: We got the Lychee Tree (lychee/strawberry/white tea) – refreshing and quite good! And a boring cold milk tea for my retiree buddy, something you cannot mess up! We also got the Japanese/octopus/seaweed rice balls to go. They were decent but we weren't in love with it. (The other Taiwanese snack places does a better job in flavors).
I enjoyed a "tea drink" down memory lane but will most likely not return unless it's a class field trip for the kids!
Happy feasting Yelpers!
After raving about the rice balls at a Manhattan staple, Cafe Zaiya, for years it was finally brought to my attention that this neighborhood spot existed in Bensonhurst. My source told me that the rice balls were wayyyyy better here than anywhere else, so I had to do one thing – come here fast and check out the hype for myself!
I swung by on a random Sunday afternoon and the shop was rather empty and pretty inconspicuous. There was nothing flashy about its appearance and, in fact, it looked more like a snack shop than a place that served ridiculously awesome rice balls and bubble tea. There was a huge variety of asian snacks on the left wall and a few tables and chairs on the right side. The menu hung right above the cashier and it consisted of drinks (hot/cold bubble tea), appetizers and, the ONLY thing I came here for, onigiri/rice balls.
There was a huge selection of rice balls to choose from, about 19 from my count! Yes, 19! In addition, they served them in Small and Large sizes with some flavors costing more than others. I was told that the Japanese rice ball was one of their best so I had no choice but to go with a large version of it. In my head, for $4, it better have been LARGE and insanely good! It took about a few minutes for them to prep it.
When I received it, it was very warm and smelled real fresh. It had the typical rice ball wrapping around it, which I ALWAYS screwed up when opening. It's like a puzzle for me. However, I was able to successfully get this one to open perfectly. I bit into the rice ball and the rice was SO SO soft and warm. The rice was very flavorful and I hadn't even gotten to the filling yet! There was tons of crab meat, seaweed and some egg inside. Everything was excellent about it! And best of all, it was filling for $4! Honestly, I couldn't eaten 2 because it was so good, but I was feeling the effects of how large it was.
For $4, it was well worth it and it definitely trumped Cafe Zaiya's rice ball by a mile! Dare I say its the best rice ball I have ever had? Yes I do!