Yaya Tea - Chapel Hill

The service was acceptable, but unfortunately, the boba was the worst I've ever encountered. I visited on an early Thursday morning and ordered an Oolong Milk Tea with boba and almond milk. Unfortunately, the tea tasted quite watered down, and I was disappointed to find out they used vanilla almond milk without mentioning it beforehand, which made the drink less appealing to me. They do offer one free scoop of boba, which I added, but it turned out to be only a half scoop. At first, I was let down by this, but after trying the boba, I was relieved it wasn't a full scoop. The boba was quite unsatisfactory; it was overly soggy, gelatinous on the outside, and lacking in flavor—definitely not sweet at all. It had a clumpy texture that honestly tasted like it had been sitting overnight (which I suspect was the case). My sister tried the mango tea, and unfortunately, it tasted like cheap artificial syrup. On a positive note, the vegan chicken onigiri and seaweed onigiri were really good, and I've returned for those recently. However, I definitely wouldn’t order drinks here again.

The reason I gave it only 3 stars was due to the rice ball. While it was quite large, most of it was just rice. The rice was a bit hard today, possibly from being made the day before. I ordered the spicy crawfish rice ball and was EXTREMELY disappointed to find very little crawfish in it. I didn't expect it to be packed with crawfish, but I hoped to at least see some. I even searched through it with my fork and only found one small piece. Since this was take-out, if it were closer to my home, I would have gone back for a refund immediately. Overall, the food and drinks were good, but I feel really let down by the crawfish portion. I would consider returning, but I'll always have some reservations.

I'm quite certain that their matcha latte is made with matcha syrup, as this 25% sugar latte tasted like dishwater. I couldn't even finish half of it and I won't be returning.

Yaya Tea Chapel Hill was a great partner for our catering our International Food Festival! The catering manager was helpful to work with via email and the students LOVED the riceballs!

Everything was excellent and fresh. Personally, I wasn't a fan of the salmon roll because it tasted a bit too fishy for my liking. I've been a fan of Yaya since they first opened on campus, so I was excited to dine here again. The Milk Taro was amazing as always!