YAMI TEAHOUSE Organic Tea & Coffee

What keeps me coming back? Them TAKOYAKIS!!! They are so addicting! oh, and I usually order the Wintermelon milk tea and I like the fact that you can choose your sugar level. :) I also like the ambiance of this place. it’s so relaxing.

Who can say no to matcha milk tea?!
I was craving for a little pick me up in the area and I came here for dessert. The brick toast is really yummy and a must-​try for those who have a sweet tooth. The matcha milk tea is very refreshing. I got it with half sugar and it was just sweet enough for me!
There’s plenty of tables and chairs, which makes it a good place for board games as well as studying. Prices are decent and the drinks are of good quality. Plenty of parking. I would definitely come here again!

Lots of people working on laptops or studying on a Sunday night. Looks like a good place to get some work done. Appreciate they have organic milk option for their milk teas. Got my green milk tea without any sugar syrup and it was fine. Peppered popcorn chicken is your best bet on Appetizer menu.

Yami Teahouse is one of places… the drinks are OK, but recently the place is very cold in hospitality. if you are charging $ 4.50 for a drink, pay your guys accordingly so they carry the place in a warmer manner.
Otherwise just open up a takeout window and save yourselves on the cost of keeping such a large place open.
By the way, no soap or paper towels in the bathroom, right after one of your employees used the bathroom.

This spot has alotttta plus sides, at least for my case: a 2min drive/​walking distance from my house, enough seating for me to be able to snag a spot without waiting for someone to leave, outdoor seating available as well, a few snacks such as popcorn chicken and fried fish balls take up a small section of the menu, and aside from their hefty (and delicious!) selection of coffees & teas to choose from, BEER IS SOLD HERE TOO! :D My friend has a Stella and I’m half way through a Sapporo. Also available is Corona, Modelo, Heineken and some domestic beers — all bottled. (*note* $ 3 for a beer outside of the comfort of your sofa is very hard to find at 11pm on a Saturday night)
Everything is really clean, tables are perfect to do work on; if you want your privacy there are 3 tables in the far back next to the bathrooms. If you must have the comfy sofa seats, stay towards the front in front and to the side of the front counter.
Only reason I deducted one star is because the noise level fluctuates frequently; the café don’t even play music most of the time so you would assume it would be a quiet, nice place to reed a book inside. Wrong. The students or kids that come in groups to «study» are actually gossiping or socializing away as if nobody else is in their vicinity. Have some courtesy… I really don’t care to hear about the girl who told the guy who used to like you that your hair is fake… but thanks for the update.
Overall, a comfy, laid back boba/​tea/​coffee shop with a plethora of food chains in the same plaza if you’re looking for some real food.

I’ve been here a few times. They don’t offer meals anymore just snacks like popcorn chicken. Prior and today I tried the honey green tea with grass jelly at less sweet. It’s pricey at $ 5 but the tea quality was pretty good. Slightly foamy, bitter, and smooth. The grass jelly was acceptable, but lacked the soft yet chewy texture. It was a bit too hard and probably out of a can (not homemade). I am overlooking it because of the stellar tea. Plus they offer alcohol including mixed soju drinks and bottled beers. I’ll check it out next time and update this review. For the South Bay, Yami does the trick for your boba and tea cravings.

Since the management changed, they’ve been alright. It’s not the YAMI’s that I brought my friends with confidence in taste. Also their workers have changed (along with the new menu). They seem like they are forced to work there, because when I ask questions they don’t even look at me. No greeting, no smile, no nothing. When I asked which toast was the most popular one, he answered ummm ummmm everything? (While looking away)
Prices went down for drinks with no boba and taste is still good, but Yamis is not my to go place anymore
Sunday: open til 6pm (not 10pm)

It’s a 4 because it’s a decent place to study but about 3 for pricing. I like the atmosphere but the prices are steep. My regular coffee was $ 2.25 and it was filled about 2 inches from the rim. That’s quite a bit even if I were to add the two creamers that were provided. I hated seeming cheap but I asked the girl to add a bit more coffee and she did. It’s just that if I pay that much for a normal black coffee, I kind of want it almost full. But the lemon pepper chicken is pretty good. It was $ 4.85 for a bag of it that comes with a sweet/​sour type sauce. They do have wifi to sign in with the phone number so that’s nice. And it’s not freezing in here like Starbucks and Coffee Bean so you can study and not shiver while doing so!

What happened? Huge cuts to the menu… now not open till noon… all the magazines, for sale items, and atmosphere has totally changed. Thankfully most of the employees seem to be the same people. I hope they can make the place cozy and personal again!

So if it weren’t for the fact that they use actual Matcha powder for their Matcha drinks, I may have even given this place less than 2 stars. I visited the place on a Friday afternoon after grabbing lunch in the plaza with some co-​workers. We wanted to grab some «quick» (emphasis on the «quick») drinks before heading back to work and let me start by saying the experience from start to finish was disappointing:
— My co-​worker ordered one of the iced yogurt drinks because it sounded interesting, but after we paid and were waiting for our drinks, we were informed they didn’t even have any yogurt available to begin with.
— My other co-​worker ordered a sea-​salt coffee… but I don’t even know what to call it because I couldn’t even describe the coffee. it tasted like leftover coffee that was brewed hours ago and not salty at all? I’m so confused about this drink. Partly my co-​workers fault because she didn’t try her drink until we got back to the office, which by that point it was too late to return.
If they were super busy, I can understand the mistakes, but it was practically empty. The employees looked like miserable and as if they did not want to be there at all. They seriously took their sweet time in preparing our drinks as it took over 15 minutes. For those that want to study and have the time to sit and wait for drinks, I don’t think this place is all that bad, but I don’t think I will be coming back here again as there are many other similar drink places nearby.

A cool spot for friends to hang out. Offer various cold drinks. Not many choices of hot ones, but good enought for me. I love the hot brown suger milk tea. (Half suger is sweet enough)
We ordered popcorn chicken rice, beef stew rice for meal. Taste is good. Rice is a bit hard, but its ok if you mix it with the stew. It will soft up a little. The popcorn chicken seasoning is good not too salty.
Nutella Marshmallow Toast for dessert. DELICIOUS!
Lots of seats, clean place, not noisy, located in a plaza so plenty of parking. Reasonable price.

I’ve tried a couple of times but realized that I should stay away from low quality drink: (

Similar to the my review for the Torrance/​Lomita location, the quality of this place and their food dropped significantly ever since management changed. On my most recent trip, the cashier messed up my order and for some reason, he over payed me back as change. I didn’t realize until I got back in my car that he messed up. Whoops
People would come here to study! Used to come here often with friends but not so much anymore lol.

Sami house is like my other guppy house… but it has its own flavor of teas… I’ve tried other stuff and they are okay, but if you must have something nice, try mango black ice tea or for voter version that have peach black tea… i usually get ½ sweet, light ice, easy boba… and it has a good amount sugar, not too much or too little… seating here is great because there are multiple tables and ports for someone to study… or a group gathering… the staff is really friendly and most of the food is pretty good…

I’m probably not going here again. This time, bf and I ordered takoyaki, chicken with curry, Taiwanese sausage and tempura. I didn’t like any of the dishes.
Takoyaki had tiny tako pieces. The tempura was fried fishcake?

As much as I keep this place as a go-​to spot to catch up with friends, nothing is amazingly yummy or tasty to me here. I prefer the Lomita location over this one for food and drink because they have the snowflake dessert there. This place has two decaf options, the honey lemon and the chrysanthemum tea. There is an outdoor patio and fairly good amount of space inside so we will always come here for a quick catch up sesh.

I really like this yamis than the Lomita one because there are more outlets and I feel like there’s more space. This location does sell alcohol, but you can only drink it there. The drinks and food taste the same as the Lomita location too. The outdoor seating area is nice too! Cool lights at night time. This is probably one of my go-​to places to study if my school library is closed and I don’t like to study at Starbucks/​Coffee Bean. Drinks can take a while to come out sometimes. I once waited over 30 minutes for my drink and it wasn’t busy. thankfully I didn’t notice how long it was taking because I was so into my homework.

Similar to the one in Lomita.
Although it seems like this one is less crowded than the other one, especially during night times.
Regular sweetness can be too sweet, but I always get their Honey Milk Green tea with boba!
It’s the best drink for me, and I always loved their boba!
The service was okay, got all our drinks pretty fast.

Strange customer service.
I came here with long time friends. My friend ordered a strawberry smoothie. My typical drink is an ice blended almond milk tea w/​boba, so that was what I ordered as I approached the cashier. The cashier mentions that they don’t have almond milk smoothie. So I explained to her it’s an almond milk tea, just ice blended.
She asks the barista and he said they can’t do it. That barista asked another barista, and he too denied my request.
I am completely baffled at the fact that this business has blenders and a list of smoothies on their menu, however they can’t blend my milk tea.
Perhaps if they were to give me a reason I would have been more understanding. I am now left with the question floating in the air. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

We tried this location after our flop of an experience at the Lomita location. My bf was insistent that we give them another shot.
This location is aesthetically better, but the milk tea is still way too sweet. Why bother making a sign that says you should order half-​sweet if you want normal sweetness? This makes no sense. Plus the levels for sweetness are not the standard half/​quarter/​full they are fractional percentages. Good thing it wasn’t crowded or I’m sure I’d get the staredown while trying to calculate how 33% sweet would register in my tastebuds.

I came here randomly for lunch when my lunch plan for Pollo Inka did not work out. (Worst experience ever at Pollo Inka. I have posted a separate review). Yami Teahouse is located in same plaza as Curry House, Pollo Inka, etc. There is plenty of parking and it never seems very busy. Even though we came at lunchtime on Friday, it was relatively empty. Once we got inside, we ordered at the counter and they brought the food out to me. They have patio and indoor seating and I opted for the indoor seating as it was a VERY hot day in Gardena.
I opted for the lunch special of beef bowl and peach green tea with boba. My tea came out first and very quickly. I thought at the peach tea was WAY too sweet. I actually got it 75% sweetened and it was still way too sweet. Next time, I am going to get it less sweetened. I also thought that the peach tea was a little watery and the boba was not as fresh. But, since it was a cool drink on a hot day, I drank most of it. My beef bowl came with a egg, corn and veggies. I thought that the food was just average. The beef bowl and the side dishes were just OK. Nothing spectacular but not too bad.
I am not sure if I will come back here again. But, on a day where all the restaurants in the plaza was packed and I had a bad experience in another, Yami Teahouse pulled through with no wait and good service. However, if the food and drink was a little better, I would for sure put this as a place in regular lunch rotation.

SERVICE
No issue in this area. Popcorn chicken takes a little long to come out, but it’s OK because that probably just means that the chicken is going to be hot and crispy when served.
STUDY
This is the perfect study location. They have plenty of outlets along the walls, lots of tables, both comfortable and uncomfortable chairs, and fweeeee wifi.
FOOD & DRINK
* Iced almond milk tea (⁵⁄₅) I always get this. I love that I can taste tiny little chunks of almond in the drink.
* Popcorn chicken (⁵⁄₅) I think it’s impossible to do popcorn chicken wrong. I’ve had the lemon pepper and curry flavored popcorn chicken, and both were super good. I think I might prefer the curry though.

I’m from Taiwanese so it’s hard to find a place that has good boba or a simple tea drink, but this place is pretty legit!
My friend told me about this and it’s close to Mitsuwa and the freeway. Stopped by on the way back from dog beach and the tea maker immediately asked if my dog will like a bowl of water (my dog was in the outdoor seating patio). Kudos for doing that!
What I highly recommend:
— Boba Milk Tea: quarter sugar with fresh milk
— Lemonade Peach Iced Green Tea: quarter sugar (it’s sweet enough with the peach syrup by itself)
— popcorn chicken: with some spice
Haven’t tried the other stuff just yet, but I know I finished the boba quickly enough where I ordered seconds.

Dropped by on the road to Disneyland and we were craving some tea! I love tea houses so I always jump on the opportunity to try some place new. This spot is pretty big because they’re kind of half restaurant/​half tea house. They have lots of yummy eats and a huge tea list that includes fruit iced teas, milk teas, sparkling teas, and blended teas.
I decided to keep it simple and ordered the kiwi green iced tea with less sweetener and my best friend got the almond milk tea. My iced tea was good– kiwi isn’t a flavor I see offered too often and I loved that I could still taste those herbal notes from the green tea. My best friend said her almond milk tea was alright; she orders it everywhere so she knows how she likes it.
This place was fun to try and our drinks were good but there wasn’t anything I would go out of my way to try again.

I came in here to try out a different coffee taste. I ordered their hazelnut iced coffee, with a quarter sweetness and no boba. The drink tasted a bit off, so I asked what they put in there. Not liking the ingredients, I asked for black coffee with regular milk instead. That last order came out pretty good.
Since this is a non-​traditional coffee house, many of their drinks are usually sugar bombs. While that appeals to many people’s tastes, it doesn’t so much with mine.
The employees here were very friendly and willing to help me pick out a drink more to my tastes. Their level of customer service earned them four stars. The place is very nicely decorated and clean. They have WiFi as well, so I may post here in the future to knock out school work.

I’m a big fan of this location of Yami Tea House. First of all, it’s cigar friendly. You may sit outside and light up a cigar while you enjoy their lovely drinks. I’ve been joined by other cigar fanatics at Yami Tea House to enjoy our smoke. This is rare, because it’s hard to find a place that’s cigar friendly in the South Bay. Thankfully, Yami has our back!
My usual go to drink would have to be the yogurt green tea with half sweetener. It costs almost $ 5 for a large, but I’d gladly pay that amount to be able to enjoy it while being able to smoke outside. The only other thing I get off their menu is their Taiwanese fried chicken. I get it lemon pepper flavor, and also ask for an extra container of lemon pepper dust on the side to dip it into. I’m not going to lie, one of my favorite things to do after a hard day’s work is to drive to Yami Tea House in Gardena, light up a cigar and drink my yogurt green tea with a side of fried chicken. Heaven…

After what felt like a never-​ending week to me, I decided to check out this teahouse on Artesia between Western and Normandie on a Saturday evening. My sister recommended the teahouse mainly because of the boba, but she also likes the food there. I’ve only had boba maybe once in my life, and it was so long ago I didn’t remember the taste of it (not even the tapioca balls). So why not give it a shot?
Even though my sister would recommend Yami Teahouse, I’m not so sure I would.
I spent a good amount of time perusing their menu on their website, but the images weren’t too clear, so I had to go to Unilocal and look up photos. The food actually looked pretty good just from looking at the Unilocal photos, so I thought I would be pretty satisfied regardless of what I picked there. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite meet my expectations.
I ended up getting a milk tea as well as beef stew noodle soup. I was given my milk tea almost immediately, which was great because the wait for the food was quite lengthy… about a quarter of an hour I would say. I finished my milk tea maybe about a couple of minutes before the food came. The milk tea started to taste good (probably because it was my first milk tea in years), but then slowly declined in taste with every sip I took.
We ordered our food to go, and the beef stew noodle soup came with the oddly-​shaped noodles in a small black container and the soup in a relatively tall styrofoam cup. That was it; I had to eat the soup in another bowl not provided by the teahouse. The soup was filled almost to the top of the styrofoam cup that I had to be careful in dumping the soup onto my bowl. Unfortunately, I accidentally spilled some of the soup over the table and floor. Le sigh… at least I got most of the soup in the bowl; that’s a plus, right?
The beef stew noodle soup consisted of a few large sliced carrots, some napa cabbage, the beef, and the oddly-​shaped noodles. For the most part, it was good, but I thought it was too salty for my liking. Between my mom’s beef noodle soup (which is less saltier) and the one from Yami, I would give the edge to my mom’s soup, but not by much. The saltiness of my ideal beef noodle soup would be somewhere between my mom’s soup and Yami’s soup, but closer to what I could get at home without having to pay $ 8.85 to enjoy it.
I also had a few pieces of their popcorn chicken. It was good, but way too dry for me. It would have complemented my beef noodle soup so much better if it were more tender and juicy. Unfortunately, it felt like the popcorn chicken was sitting on a plate for an hour before it was served to us.
The rice plates looked pretty good, but since I didn’t order one, I can’t really comment on them other than the fact that some rice plates (key word: some) have a sunnyside egg in them. I think the next time I go to Yami (if I ever go, that is), I’ll get a rice plate and see how salty it is compared to the beef noodle soup I had. I generally like noodles better than rice, but I think I would have liked the rice plates better than the beef noodle soup.
Overall, not a bad restaurant, but don’t expect anything out of the ordinary.

DRINKS:
Drinks are good and I can’t complain. I always get the same thing and it’s hard to mess up. I love the green milk tea and I get it everywhere I go. My green milk tea was good but I’ve had better elsewhere
SERVICE:
What really makes me upset is that they have all these signs around the store that say «CHECK INTO Unilocal» or «SHOW STUDENT ID» to get an upgrade for $ 1. So I checked in, presented the offer at the cash register and they said oh sorry we can’t use that, it’s only for ice cream. Okay first of all, I understand that you must follow what your manager says but if that’s the case the manager just remove the sign or add details in. It’s not the employees faults and I’m not blaming them but there is no detail on the sign that says that it’s only for ice cream. The sign is everywhere and if they can’t even abide by their own offers why is it even up in the first place? It is very misleading to customers!!! I even took a picture to show the sign.
WOULD I RECOMMEND IT? No. Go across the street for boba. Same drinks.

I few days ago some of my office friends and I were brainstorming for lunch locations. As is customary for our group, we all named off what we didn’t want and places we won’t go to and work from there.
This particular day we had initially agreed on pizza when one lone voice begged everyone to go to Yami’s with promises that the food was fabulous. Ultimately, it was a shorter drive and with a limited time frame in which to eat in we all agreed to try Yami.
I ordered the grilled salmon plate with a hazelnut milk tea. My friend’s orders ranged from ramen to the pork stew.
We took a table outside and our food was brought out to us relatively fast. Now the earlier promise of great food was about to be harshly broken.
As, my plate was being place before me I got the strongest fish scent floating across my nose. I’m no seafood expert but I do know salmon and salmon is not a fishy smelly fish at all, at least fresh salmon isn’t. The odor was deterring me from eating it but I put on a smily face and hoped that the fishiness was limited to the smell and not the taste.
I took a few bites and I was sadly disappointed. The taste was very pungent and it tasted just as fishy as it smelled. Again, no expert here but salmon has a very distinct mild flavor, which was completely non-​existent in this particular dish. The rice it was served on tasted like fish, the side «salad» tasted like fish. The horrible fish taste had permeated every item of food on my plate. It was horrid.
As far as my friends go, they couldn’t finish their dishes either. They all had complaints about the flavors and were just not happy with their selection.
The one positive was my hazelnut milk tea. It didn’t taste like fish… thank goodness! And it did have that wonderful earthy flavor that is common with milk teas.
In all, our one friend is banned indefinitely from picking lunch locations. But, again on the up side I can see myself coming back for the milk teas but only for the teas. Food is completely out of the question!

Unilocal Challenge 2015 ⁶⁰⁄₃₆₅
For the first time in a long time
Unilocal has let me down
For the first time in a long time
I was unpleased.
Yami, must be a place for milk teas, not coffee. Because my iced Hazelnut coffee with Boba was weak, as weak can be, with very little ice. I am used to my coffee being strong like the type of man I like, with a good ice to coffee ratio and this had no popeye power, it was more like Pee Wee Herman punch. It must be because I down quad expressos, French roasts and the stuff that gives you Ninja power like nothing. Im hard to please. The Boba was the only part I enjoyed.
The strong man in my life, who Unilocal but doesnt Unilocal it however, did like his Vanilla coffee. BUT that was because he likes them sweet like me, and it was ¾ sugar. Even if he didnt like the coffee, he sure liked the sugar.
Service was nothing special. I had some questions, which were vaguely answered, by the counter boy that should of had his veins hooked up to a IV of coffee to increase his energy. I asked if there was milk in the iced coffee, he said non dairy creamer. Turned out its just flavored coffee mate. Asked what was in the sea salt coffee, he said sea salt. Asked if the coffee was like a coffee milk drink, he said sort of. No excitement, no enthusiasm, no pom poms, just bench warmer type energy. *SIGH* Come on, give me a reason to drink. Or at least know your drinks.
Two drinks cost me just over $ 10.00. 2.5 Stars. Had service been more welcoming and alluring, I could of happily gave it a 3. Had the coffee had more kick to it, I would of been happier.
Parking was plentiful and easy to find. A few outside tables make it dog friendly which is always a plus.
Review 563