Yaya Tea Chapel Hill — Restaurant in Chapel Hill

I'm very disappointed and here's why. I've only been there twice and the first time I ordered the riceballs and I loved it so much I came back months later to order the same thing but on my second visit the result was completely different. The riceballs looked the same however the ingredients inside were a major disappointment. I ordered to go a spicy tuna, a salmon and a squid riceball but instead of fresh raw fish they put what seemed to be canned tuna, canned salmon and canned squid inside the rice balls. It seemed to be mixed with some type of mayonnaise or mayo like sauce, it looked and tasted exactly like a canned tuna salad spread you can make yourself at home from a tuna can. Also they barely put enough protein in there, it's mostly rice with a small layer of their canned tuna/salmon spread without any veggie items such as seaweed or other green ingredients like they used to it. I was extremely disappointed and felt completely ripped off. Furthermore they don't have real pictures of the food on their menu anymore, just a bunch of "emojis" looking cartoons leaving your appetite for imagination. I won't be going there anymore. I had high expectations for this place because I liked the concept but when you remove the main fresh ingredients for canned ones, it's a big fail for me. I'm not sure what happened to this place but they lost their mojo....

The first time I went here, ordering was slow, the menu was confusing, the payment screen was cluttered (perhaps even unintentionally deceptive), and my food and drink came out at different times. Three people ordered after us, and all of their drinks were ready before my friend's. Today was my second time at the restaurant. This time, I was informed of a $10 credit card minimum (completely unreasonable for a tea café across the street from a public university), my order was incorrect (I ordered 10% sugar and no ice, but instead I was given 25% sugar and lots of ice), employees disagreed amongst each other and contradicted the menu when it came to food/tea offerings, and the (incorrectly made) drink I ordered was given to the wrong guest. The restaurant isn't all bad, though. The rice balls are pretty good and filling, and the tea is decent (better than Tama Tea's bubble tea but worse than Cha House's). I also appreciated the unique menu and wide variety of authentic Japanese snacks. The glaring deficiencies on the service side, however, unfortunately overshadow this restaurant's positive aspects. Fix everything but the food, and I believe this could be a solid spot...

I just ordered here for the first time today. We got 2 teas, takoyaki, and their crawfish riceball. Personally, we enjoyed their fruit and milk tea. It was sweet and flavorful. After reading the reviews I was scared the boba was not going to be good, but for us today, it was cooked well. The takoyaki was good, especially given their price. The reason why I only gave 3 stars was because of their rice ball. It is a hefty size; however, most of it is filled with rice. Today, the rice was a little bit harder, it may have been from the previous day. I ordered the spicy crawfish riceball, and was EXTREMELY disappointed to find that they put none-little crawfish. I didn't expect it to be filled with crawfish, but I would have hoped it would be visible. I even dug my fork around to find crawfish, and was very upset to only find 1 piece. Because this was take-out, if it was closer to my house, I would have immediately went back for a refund. Again, the food and drinks were good, but I feel extremely cheated out from the crawfish. I will go here again, but will always...