Yaya Tea Hicksville — Restaurant in Town of Oyster Bay

I had been curious about this place for a while. It’s an Asian store that sells boba tea and Japanese food. This place seemed good, but I wasn't really sure. Boba tea places can often be hit or miss. So, in order to find out, I went on this expedition to try out one of the Japanese snacks, drink a boba tea, and eat some of the Asian foods offered. In order to quantify how good the dishes were, I rated them from 1 to 10 – 1 being dog water and 10 being peak excellence.

Peach flavored rice cake (comes with 8) (snack) Presentation: 10 Texture: 9 Flavor: 7 Worth price: 6.5 Price: $6.00 Notes: The presentation for this snack was awesome. The taste is alright, but it’s not really my thing. Perhaps a different flavor like banana would’ve been better. The texture made it worth it, though. It’s squishy on the outside and it was an interesting first bite.

Large Shrimp Tempura Rice Ball (Food) Presentation: 10 Flavor: 10 Texture: 10 Worth price: 10 Price: $6.25 Notes: this was the best dish on the menu. The presentation was so cute, the texture was fun to chew, it’s pretty cheap, and the flavor is… chef’s kiss!! Honestly, I didn't know it could be this good. It’s very filling, though, so I saved half of it for later.

Large “First Love” with Pop Strawberry (Drink) Presentation: 10 Flavor: 9 Texture: 8 Worth price: 9 Price: $6.25 Notes: This is probably the best fruit tea drink I’ve ever had. The flavor isn’t overbearing but it’s definitely there. The pop strawberry really adds to it, but I bet it tastes good without it too. The presentation was absolutely amazing – I can’t believe it looks better than in the picture. And the packaging was, as always, top-tier.

Total price for everything listed: $18.50 (+tax)

Overall, it was a great experience. I didn’t know there was such a high-quality Boba Tea place so close to where I live. The girl working there was very kind and the food was superb. I’m...

EDIT response to owner: You should update your COVID knowledge then because it is transmitted through the air, and your store worker wasn't wearing a mask if you are so concerned with protecting people, which is what is actually needed. Plus you're selling your own reusable bottle. Onigiri: I ordered off your video board which didn't have descriptions, but looking at google images of your printed menu, there isn't a description there either other than "shrimp" and "fried". The rating stays the same.

Original: I wanted to like this place, this have a variety of teas to choose from beyond green and black teas like oolong and earl grey. I asked for them to put my drink in reusable water bottle I brought, but they said not their policy to do that. Which is weird because they sell their own branded reusable cup, so not some sanitary thing unless they won't refill even their own cup. I ordered two Onigiri, one said fried chicken, but I got some weird diced up chicken. Other was shumai, but had mayo, which was unexpected and made it gross. Prices were bit high but kinda the norm now. Due to their purposeful increase of preventable garbage, I won't go back to this store again. There are four other bubble tea shops nearby and never had problem with using my own bottle. They are a chain so hopefully corporate changes...

They have plain , seaweed, citrus spare rib, ginger chicken, Gong bao chicken , and ume six types of vegan options

Their spring roll even label as vegan but contains egg in the roll skin so be careful

I tried the ume and gong bao vegan chicken this time, gong bao is spicy so if you don’t like spicy this is not the one for you,

I’m surprised that the ume is actually salt based, I thought it’s sweet based but it’s the plum sauce Japanese style so it’s salt based and very sour, it’s different than how I remember the traditional Japanese sour plum sandwich, I remember when I was a kid they will bury the whole plum with pits that is fermented inside the rice ball and I always have to find the pits out when I ate it lol, this one has no pits no worries😄they are well processed and nicely prep

Thank you so much😄

Ginger chicken is not spicy and has the fresh ginger taste in it

Spare rib has black pepper in it

Gong bao still taste the best because there’s seaweed in it

Updated from previous review...