Yaya Tea Garden
“Yaya Tea Garden is an great place to get delicious Onigiri (rice balls) and unique tasty sandwiches.”
“(Sugar levels, etc) Good place for a cheap eat, they have a good variety of riceballs and simple dishes such as yakisoba, ramen, fish balls.”
“I've been coming here since high school and the yaya riceball is still my go-to snack when I'm in Chinatown.”
Yaya Tea Garden
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
A place I visit quite often. I'm not a fan of their drinks because I find them bland but the names are awesome. They have the most ridiculous names that you can't help but love.
I am a huge fan of their rice balls, specifically the Japanese. My boyfriend loves their yaya chicken.
It gets pretty crowded during lunch hours because of high-school students, but going there a little earlier to avoid the crowd isn't that much of a hassle for me.
They used to use Belly, in which I had the card and app for, but as they were in the process of canceling the usage, it was kind of annoying. I didn't get to redeem any of my points. Although they urged customers to use their points before it was over, every time I visited, their iPad was either off or nowhere to be found.
Wandering around Chinatown at around 9:30, looking for a boba place, I trusted my handy yelp app to lead me straight to Yaya. It's a tiny hole in the wall and easy to miss, but inside there are a few tables and chairs. It was nice to see that in addition to serving tea and coffee drinks, Yaya also offers a wide variety of Japanese packaged snacks and musubi! Since we had just eaten, I didn't get to try any of their musubi, but if I'm ever in NYC Chinatown again, I might have to stop in for some snacks!
There is a large menu of beverages to choose from and if you're at all indecisive like me, it's very helpful that Yaya provides a "most popular" menu. I tried the "I love Yaya" with lychee jelly. Yum! My brother had a regular milk tea with boba, probably because he was put off by all the girly names for the fruity drinks. The drinks were rather inexpensive and the girl working behind the counter was friendly enough. I'd definitely recommend Yaya over dragon tea, which I'm glad was closed so early in the morning because I was forced to discover Yaya.
I came across this gem looking for a quick bite for lunch yesterday on Eat24. Decided to check it out since they have bubble tea. I decided to order pickup after work since the $15 delivery minimum wasn't worth it, considering Yaya's low prices. I ordered:
Shrimp tempura + crab meat onigiri (small) – absolutely delicious, it was my first time trying onigiri and I was eating it on the go, so I THOUGHT it had to be dis and reassembled, so I did that. Wasn't difficult to eat and didn't really fall apart when I was holding it with both hands. Really enjoy the rice to filling ratio and that it comes warm.
Fried chicken onigiri (small) – It was okay. The chicken didn't seem fried and seemed barely there. I wouldn't get it again.
Spicy mayo (large) – They completely forgot to include it in my order, and apparently I forgot that they did as well. Until today -___-
Sunrise w/ lychee jelly & tapioca – Again, it was okay. I think I just made the wrong choice. I'm not usually a fan of anything strawberry that isn't milk based, so it tasted kind of harsh mixed with mango. It wasn't terrible, just not for me.
Of course I had to come back again the next day. I ordered:
Shrimp tempura + crab meat onigiri (large) – Again, absolutely delicious. Portion was great again, but fell apart easier possibly because of the size. Not that it won't stop me from ordering it again. I as able to sit down while eating this one and realized that it's really easy to get the packaging off without having to "reassemble" the whole thing. It was easy and I was nomming in seconds.
The Hulk w/ lychee jelly & popping yogurt (small) – Soooo yummy! I actually found this combo in a review here and boy was she right. The popping yogurt compliments the flavours of everything else really nicely.
Shumai – Eh, not terrible. I'm used to delicious moist, flavourful thai shumai with garlic chips and shouldn't have went into this with many expectations, granted it's a $3 Japanese appetizer.
Spicy mayo (large) – I ordered ahead of time (before the shop opened) and scheduled the pickup for 30 minutes after the shop opened. When I arrived, I was told by the woman at the counter that she just opened and hasn't made my tea yet, which was completely fine with me because I'd rather it be freshly made and wasn't in a huge rush. My tea was complete in maybe 2 minutes. I had to remind her to put my spicy mayo in the bag. I figured they forgot to add it yesterday because of how insanely busy they were but maybe it just slips their minds often; the place was empty and it was printed on my order paper.
So 4 stars for excellent Asian snack variety, great prices, delicious food and drink. Minus one for forgetful staff. I will for sure be back and will go out of my way for those delicious onigiri.
While meeting some friends for a L.E.S. jaunt a few weeks back, we decided to make Yaya our meeting spot to start out the day. Upon entering, I was pleased to find a shabby-chic little store with, luckily, a few places to sit down! (Rare at a lot of bubble tea places I go to…) Their menu is long to peruse, that is for sure. I eventually ended up ordering a Sunrise, because I felt awkward asking to order a Better Life or My First Love. 😉 The tea was good, and I loved the variety of boba I could add to it; better than just regular ol' black tapioca pearls. One friend ordered herself an onigiri; it looked delicious, a real life emoji, indeed. Ha!
I don't venture down to this part of the city often, but if I'm ever down there again, it's nice to know I can stop into Yaya for a drink or a snack.
Deeeelicious! I had the fried shrimp one, spam, chicken, and shumai and they're so good! If it was closer to my office I'd go everyday because 2 large ones are so filling and it's fairly cheap too. Bubble tea isn't so bad either! Comes with a little inspirational thing with each drink too. It's cute!
I think the onigiris here are pretty awesome, and I like the varieties they offer here. I don't like the way the onigiris are wrapped though. It's not that hard to make the shape with regular seaweed, and I feel like it would probably be cheaper that way too. I don't like disassembling my food and putting it back together.
I have tried most of the onigiris here, and have yet to try one that I didn't like. I like trying special flavors when they offer it. Does anyone remember the lobster roll onigiri?! YUM! Obviously, not the same as eating a Maine lobster roll, but still good.
I have tried the chicken yakisoba here. Not sure how authentic it is because I've never had yakisoba before, but I thought the noodles were yummy.
I just wish I wasn't the oldest customer in here every time I come 🙁
This place has one of the best rice balls/ onigiri in NYC.
They main customer demographic are teenagers, making me feel like a senior citizen when I go there. Ho ever, the service is relatively fast so I dont have to wait long.
I do not recommend buying any of the packaged Japanese/Chinese snacks they have in store as they are highly overpriced. You can get some of them for cheaper in Chinese super markets around the area.
I had been craving a good onigiri for a while now. I assumed there would be raw salmon and tuna options but there were only cooked items on the menu.
Per Yelp reviews, I ordered the Yaya Chicken onigiri ($4 w/ seaweed salad) and it was so good! The onigiri was hot but the seaweed wrapping was crispy. Definitely could have eaten two.