Chum Chum Onigiri — Restaurant in Richmond

I normally like this place, and visit it every time I'm in Richmond, but I had a very frustrating experience with a Sunday night crew. There was no leadership or initiative demonstrated by that rotation of employees. My partner and I waited in the lobby for over 30 minutes for drinks and onigiri. There was no attendant at the front desk to think it was weird that customers were aimlessly standing there for that long. Finally, an employee comes to the front and another customer asks about the status of his drinks. The employee says their internet was down, and some orders didn't go through. My order did not go through, either. This would have been nice to know 40 minutes prior.

The professional thing would have been for an employee to come out to the lobby and announce to people that the internet was down, and to collect orders personally. I said as much to the employee, and she just said she had no way of knowing about orders if the internet was down. That was Not the point I was making. Someone should have told customers about the issue and discouraged them from using the kiosk tablets. I am under the impression that those employees took the internet being down as an opportunity to hide behind the wall and relax. Nobody had a clue about how many customers were in the lobby and what any of them needed. I left after getting a very unenthused apology. The crew needs to be present up front and help manage scenarios like this. Even before that, it took three tries to find an employee that knew anything about an item's allergy info. I'm hoping future crews will be trained to be more proactive. To be clear, Multiple customers encountered this issue and had their time wasted while we were there because employees did not care to...

I've been dying to check this place out because I loved the menu, and the branding is so cute. We ordered a few things and it was disappointing. Prices are very expensive for what you get. We ordered "for here" and everything came out in to go boxes, which made it hard to eat at our table. Would have been nice to have plates for this reason. They didn't have chopsticks available, but we could buy them next door which seemed shady. Chicken Katsu onigiri was bland and the chicken was so tiny i wondered if they forgot it. The chicken inside was flabby and and not crispy or seasoned. Rice not seasoned or sticky enough to hold it together. Same issues with the pork belly onigiri and bulgogi onigiri. Takoyaki portion was small, octopus so chewy we had to spit it out. Probably the worst item was the hot chocolate. Incredibly bitter, not stirred, and not even filled to the top of the cup. No whipped cream and a few lucky charms marshmallows on top. The positives were the Shrimp Tempura (super crunchy, hot, great sauce) and the Cutie-Patootie fruit tea. Ordering was easy on their ordering tablets, but they forgot to call my name and we sat a while waiting. The cafe is located inside a cute market with lots of interesting Vietnamese foods and quality pantry staples, and the music was good. I understand Carytown has expensive rent, but we spent over $40 on food that was mostly...

KAWAII AT A COST - Chum Chum Onigiri wins points for atmosphere and originality, but somewhat disappoints in flavor.

If, intrigued by the name, you step inside, you’ll be greeted by a rosy pink aesthetic and a bustling interior - after its move into the farmer’s market, the cafe is a bit crowded, but there are plenty of French and Vietnamese wares to browse and a shady garden patio for slurping down boba.

We were excited to try onigiri, or rice balls, for the first time and ordered the salmon and pork belly. Both were simple, dry, and a bit underwhelming. The brown sugar milk tea was syrupy sweet and the boba was chewy and dense.

However, the bingsu, or Korean shaved ice, was the highlight of the meal.

We opted for a build-your-own bowl and were delighted by the range of toppings and syrups. The sweet, creamy base paired beautifully with a tangy strawberry syrup and plump mochi. At eight dollars, it was on the pricier side for an icy treat, but the generous portion was more than enough for two.

On a hot day in Richmond, I’d recommend first time guests skip the onigiri and boba and make a beeline for the bingsu, sit back in the leafy patio, and imagine - if only for a moment - they’re at a...