I’Milky 沐白 - Midtown — Restaurant in New York

I’Milky is a chain of cafes serving boba and a couple of small Japanese dishes. It has 43 locations throughout Southeast Asia, and three in New York City. I have visited the one in Midtown South several times, and have thoroughly enjoyed myself.

As soon as you step in, you are greeted by the quaint and homely atmosphere. It is quite a small space, though it feels comforting and safe rather than cramped. The decor is very simple and pleasant, and the layout allows for non-awkward, smooth movement even when it’s filled with people. The whole place feels very warm and inviting.

You order at a counter, and sit down until your food and drinks are ready. This takes very little time, even when they are quite busy. Service is quite efficient and the process is easy to go through. The staff are incredibly kind, helpful, and patient. They make the experience quite pleasant and welcoming, guiding newcomers through the menu and process. They make jokes and provide interesting information about the products, while still taking your order very efficiently.

At I’Milky, I have tried the edamame, the roasted pork belly rice ball, the brown sugar boba, and the strawberry milk boba. The edamame was pretty standard; delicious but not any better than what you could make at home. The pork belly rice ball was absolutely delicious, and I am dying to try the fried chicken version next time I go. The meat was tender, juicy, and really well-spiced with a sauce that was just the right amount of sweet. The amount of rice was well balanced with the meat and complimented it very nicely.

The brown sugar boba was very flavorful with just the right balance of syrup to milk, and didn’t just taste like sugar as it has at other boba places I’ve been to. The boba was deliciously coated in the sweet syrup, and was perfectly chewy and smooth. The strawberry milk comes without boba, but I added some in, as I’Milky makes their drinks very customizable. The strawberry flavor was delightful, as they use real, fresh fruit in their drinks. It was very refreshing and had the perfect balance of the tang of strawberry and milk. The packaging of the boba is also very nice. The cups are rounded at the bottom, have a less dramatic slant upwards, and are short and wide, making for a very pleasing aesthetic. It makes the drinking experience better knowing that they put a lot of effort into designing their cups.

In conclusion, I’Milky offers a very pleasant experience and delicious food. I absolutely recommend this to anyone in the area, as it currently stands as my favorite place for boba...

This is a small shop on a busy venue. I made the mistake of coming around the hour after classes and there is a huge line. There's three cooks and one person manning the cashier and orders, so their wait times can be pretty long. The food is decent for the wait they make a majority of their components fresh to order, including their boba. Their lunch combos are probably what I recommend most since you can change the size of the drink with it and you can get fried chicken and a riceball. I got the pork belly riceball, fried chicken, and the barley milk tea with boba (costs 75 cents extra for toppings). The riceball was good. It is made with a thinner cut pork belly that was sautéed, so it is not soft, but rather chewy. The fried chicken has a taste similar to that of ViVis fried chicken, and uses dark nuggets. The barley tea was also good, with a reminiscent barley flavor and creamy milk taste. The boba was a good and soft texture, not too chewy. Overall, it's not a bad place for lunch in the area. The bubble tea is what makes it a bit more filling, since the food portions are a bit small, but that's because it's meant to go with,...

If I had to give one word to describe this place, i’d probably just say “fine.” Honestly, that’s really what this place is. Fine. OK. Passable. But not memorable or great or anything. I think this comes down to them using fresh ingredients and all that kind of stuff. Because of that, it didn’t really satisfy my craving and had I know that, I would’ve opted for one of the many other places serving up sugary, artificial, delicious drinks. I got a medium classic bubble milk tea with 70 percent ice and 50 percent sugar. I didn’t expect the tea to be earl gray tea, which is a really strange choice in my opinion. It was overpowering in a bad way. The drink itself was kind of watery and overall just subpar. The boba were a great consistency, though. Chewy and tender and soft. My honest opinion is to skip this place unless you’re on some sort of health journey where you can only drink farm fresh milk or something. Not the best, and I was going to say not the worst, but this might actually be the worst bubble tea I’ve ever had now that I think about it. The service was great, though! But save your 8 dollars and go...