Yami Yami

Elite '08

123

222

Francesca L.

Garland, TX

Why is it that something as simple as a drink can sometimes be so difficult to order? I guess cuz everyone goes out of their way to be special and name their stuff differently etc. Anyway, I figured out the way to order and had a green tea milk tea (they call green tea with cream) with tapioca. The tea was tasty and creamy and perfect. The tapioca were way tooo soggy. Overall, cute place and friendly staff.

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4

16

Su K.

Laurel, MD

Fine. The bubble tea is pretty good, with my personal fave being the pineapple smoothie with boba and lychee jelly, but the service is so ridiculously slow. Yes, they have a lot of flavors and add-ins, but that can be a bad thing in that most people in front of you have no idea what to order and usually go up to the cashier and ask, "So what's good here?" I once parked in front and put in a nickel, which I think gets you 8 minutes now in College Park, and had to run out to re-feed the meter when I saw the meter maid approaching my car. Thankfully, after 8 minutes of waiting for the cashier to run through what she thought was good to the umpteenth customer, I hadn't moved up at all and could clearly see my car outside.

Food - Rolls are average at best. Their crunch roll is pretty good and their teriyaki chicken bowl is edible. I think the food is fairly priced but their menu is REALLY confusing. What's the point of ordering by a number if the cashier doesn't even know what comes with the number you order?

Service - SLOW!!! There's no such thing as running in to grab a bubble tea real quick.

Decor - The seating is also fairly limited.

3 Stars for great bubble tea. Minus 1 for how long it takes to get said bubble tea.

*sigh* How I long for a good strawberry yogurt bubble tea from lollicup.

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33

31

Jono S.

Silver Spring, MD

The latest incarnation of a little restaurant that could still serves the best bubble drinks around.  Formerly Bubble Bubble Cafe, the shop was once a Lollicup, a popular bubble tea franchise with shops predominantly on the West Coast.  Bubble Bubble Cafe had evolved into a Korean fast food restaurant that allowed you to select which combination of more than 30 flavors* you wanted in your bubble tea or smoothie.  Despite changing owners several times, the bubble tea at Yami Yami retains the same personal choice of cocktail-mixing goodness.  

The drinks can be served hot or cold; creamy or not; over-ice or smoothie-style with blended ice.  The fruit flavors all contain real fruit blended in, though only the in-season watermelon and the fresh avocado have no extra artificial flavors.  Besides regular-sized or mini tapioca balls, you can also add flavored jellies or egg pudding.

I love being about to create my own bubble tea or smoothie concoctions: blueberry / grape / ma-cha (Japanese green tea), taro / black tea, strawberry / coffee, or red bean / green bean / banana...of course, not all the combinations always work.  However, my all-time favorite is the grape smoothie with cream, which I think is analogous to my love of orange-cream Dreamsicle.  You should try the much-better-tasting-than-it-sounds avocado with chocolate stripes, which was apparently popularized in Indonesia.  The avocado bubble smoothie also gained popularity in Vietnam, albeit sans chocolate.  Ask for strawberry and cream with chocolate stripes, and you'll think they should have named the restaurant Yummy Yummy instead of Yami Yami!  

Instead of Korean fast food, the restaurant now serves passable Japanese including chicken teriyaki, seven kinds of sushi rolls, and...well, French fries--you can't get more fast food than that.  Since Yami Yami's grand opening a couple weeks ago post-renovations, I was excited to try out my favorite bubble tea place.  Being a bit leery of fast food raw fish, I went with the California roll and chicken teriyaki.  The pieces of maki were huge and the teriyaki was actually grilled not sauteed unlike the Chinese fast food carryout next door but was otherwise unremarkable.  

Notwithstanding the fast food, five stars are for the incredible amount of bubble tea choices available and the ability to tweak drinks to your exact taste.

*FLAVORS:  Juicy flavors include blueberry, cantaloupe, grape, grapefruit, green apple, kiwi, lychee, mango, mixed berry, orange, passion fruit, peach, pineapple, strawberry, watermelon, and yogurt.  Creamy flavors include almond, avocado, banana, chocolate, coconut, coffee, green bean, honeydew, lemon, ma-cha green tea, papaya, red bean, and taro.  Tea flavors (other than ma-cha--see above) include black, (Chinese) green, Thai, and flavored tea.  I usually add cream to the non-creamy flavors because of my love of all things Dreamsiclesque.

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