Maruko Sushi & Tea

This place is pretty cool. Nice little bar in front facing the window and a bunch of wooden tables to sit and eat ramen, sushi, dumplings or edamame. Their bubble tea is very good. Like most bubble tea joints they have a ton of options. The beef in their ramen has a lot of gelatinous stripes in it, which I didn’t like, but the rest of it was tasty.

I stop by this place every time in the area and their dumplings became a favorite of mine long time ago. Drinks-​wise I’ve tried several of the bubble teas and personally I think they’re as good as it gets. Service is fast and the employees are very friendly and polite plus the music they play is nice. (Note: I think this and Vivi bubble tea are in fact the same place on the listings)

Ramen noodles, steamed pork dumplings and bubble tea for lunch… 粵 (waa4) in Cantonese.
All for $ 20.00. Long wait time as the cook (s) take a long time to prepare while there are too many servers/​cashiers chit chatting in rapid fire Mandarin behind the counter of random off-​the-​job nonsense. My measly half hour lunch time is over when it was served for takeout. Despite the long eternity waiting time for cooking/​preparing Ramen noodles, steam pork dumplings and bubble tea were all good and served piping hot. Vivi Bubble Tea is shared retail space with Maruko Sushi & Tea in Chelsea– Flatiron. Seating is limited. The Vivi Bubble Tea life size mascot stands to the door.

They have some very authentic Japanese technology here. You gotta love that machine that seals the drinks, very cool. I had the dumplings which were 8 for $ 5.50. They weren’t large but that was a decent prize for what you got. They have a lunch special where you get a role and a miso soup but its before 2pm. I was here after 2 and they had run out of the pork & shrimp dumplings. I had the pork ones which were pretty good. Nothing fancy but fairly satisfying. It took about 10 minutes for my order to be ready though.

I was confused at first — this used to be Vivi bubble tea, with awesome characters on their labeling. Now, it’s the same set-​up, by a different name. But the product is the same, at least for me: bubble tea! A great variety of bubble tea with reasonable prices and a loyalty card program to land you a free medium drink after purchasing five drinks (awesome loyalty program!). The flavors are great, with one really worth mentioning: matcha green tea. A lot of bubble tea places use jasmine green tea, which tastes too much like perfume for my wife’s taste, but the matcha is perfect.
You can choose your level of ice, bubbles, and sweetness if you mention it, but otherwise they’ll whip you up a standard version that is really great. The bubbles are always perfectly done — not too mushy, and not too hard, with plenty in the cup until your last sip.
Also has sushi and ramen for food, but I’ve never ordered anything but the drinks.

I am addicted to bubble milk black tea! Also great value for fresh, great quality box sushi. Only complaint is that sometimes the employees can mix up orders and there is a $ 5 credit card minimum! It’s annoying when most items on the drink menu are $ 4.50 or less. Bring cash and don’t forget your loyalty card! Free medium drink after purchasing 5.

SUSHI LOVERS BEWARE!!!
Worst sushi I have ever had. I got the easiest thing anyone could ever make, spicy tuna. It was completely bland and had the fishiest odor and taste EVER. On top of that, they charge $ 8…wish I had thought twice before wasting my money.
I had 3 pieces and was forced to throw it out!!! GROSS.

Love this place. The $ 3 special is a steal.

Good

I have come here a few times at night for the sushi on a bit of a special discount. Shrimp Tempura roll normally $ 6 or $ 7 for 40% off. I liked it, I am not gonna lie. i CAME here yesterday and tried some kind of Japanese cake (interesting to say the least). I met some cute black girl that strangely looked like paris hilton as I went to buy my stuff, we small talk for a bit and I got her number so that was cool too. Vivi Bubble Tea is the Tea that is used here.
–There is sushi here and Alot of Bubble Tea selections. There is the Bubble Milk Black Tea that is $ 4.00 for a large. Green Apple Flavored Tea $ 3.00 for a small. Kiwi Ice Jelly looked interesting also $ 3.50 for a small. I have been here in the past and tried the Passion Fruit Slush that cost $ 4.00 for regular size and $ 5.00 for a large portion. Regular portion is the 16oz version. I also get the drinks 30% sugar instead of the ton they put in sometimes, to me that works better. You could also go half sugar or 70% sugar. I would definitely come back, more for the Bubble Tea than the sushi though.

Best Taro Bubble Tea hands down. They have a rewards program (buy 5 bubble teas and get the 6^th one free).
The girls here are so cute and friendly.
I have had their sushi too which is good as well, but the bubble tea takes the prize!

Great place to pop in for a quick bubble tea.

Well, it’s a place to get sushi when I need it fast. The selection is ok, and the bubble tea is awesome (especially with their new rewards program). But the people who work there just seem aloof to my existence, like they want to push me out asap. When I tipped no one noticed let alone said thank you… so I just stopped tipping. But aloof Asian employees at sushi restaurants appear to be the norm in New York City. And the food and tea here aren’t bad so it’s worth going back.

The bubble teas are very good. They just don’t get 5 stars cause they don’t have that big a selection.
Black tea and mocha cappuccino bubble teas are as good I’ve ever tasted! :D

I ordered a taro bubble tea ($ 4) here and it was watery. I was excited to see that they had a cold case that served mochi ($ 2) and picked one up. I dont thin I would come back for the bubble tea but I would for the mochi.

Wow, I can’t imagine a worse experience. I bought a $ 4 boba tea for my 8 year old and when she put the straw in the cup cracked and spilled everywhere. Not only would they not replace it, they told me I would have to pay extra because of the mess I made.
Even worse, it wasn’t even what I had ordered. I had asked for a milk tea and they gave me a regular tea.
The sushi sits all day in a cooler and it tastes pretty old and stale.
The customer after me stormed out because she was charged more than the menu. They told her the prices went up.
I asked to speak with a manager (there were 7 employees and all claimed they were not managers). They gave me a cell phone number for someone who claimed he had nothing to do with the store.
Too bad, it is a cute place and a cute idea but the service is so incredibly rude and the food sub par and pretty expensive there is no reason to go here.

I just spent 14.62 on a lunch which literally just made me throw up. No, really, I just came out of the bathroom about two minutes ago.
Here is something positive — their bubble tea is pretty good.
I got the chicken teriyaki bento box which wasn’t fantastic but I could think of a lot of other places in the immediate area I could have gotten better food for lunch.
The tuna & scallion was what lead me to the beginning of this review. My first bite I thought it was just a little too fishy — I thought they might have used some kind of oil to «enhance» the flavor… and stupidly I swallowed it. I tried to eat the remainder but then I could tell that the fish was off and I would be paying for this later, and well… I did/​still am.
My stomach is having pangs of pain now.
When I went to look up this place based on my receipt it is called HHK Sushi & Tea, not Maruko Sushi & Tea, which I find to be really odd.
Thanks you (insert string of expletives), aka Maruko Sushi & Tea, aka HHK Sushi & Tea, I’m sure I’ll be paying for this one for the remainder of the evening.

Maruko Sushi & Tea… *sigh* I gave you guys three tries because I was so excited to have a new neighborhood place to hang out… but sadly, that is not the case.
SUSHI
individually wrapped and color coded pricing, its mix and match your own plate, there is a good variety available. the refrigerator display for the sushi just doesn’t feel cold enough and each time my sushi has been at room temp. while i understand it needs to be an open case, maybe you could turn on the air for the space so it helps to keep the sushi chilled (instead of leaving the doors open)
BUBBLE TEA
given the location and the rent, I can understand why the charge is more than other places. so my question is, to encourage customers to purchase from there, why not offer the same rewards program — buy 10 and get one free
SERVICE
there is usually 3 girls behind the counter and 2 guys making sushi — yet no one seems to care. instead of a hello, i’m greeted with «what’s your order?» — - just not feeling it
Maybe it is just new store opening bugs to work out…

Maruko Sushi & Tea is a great joiner to the Chelsea neighborhood for «fast food» sushi — but at greater quality and decent prices. They only have counter space with about 3 chairs to sit if you want to eat there — so it is a primarily take out type place.
The concept is interesting — sushi is individually wrapped in plastic and you can basically pick and choose what you want and fill up a box with them. They do different specials every day (most recently they had a $ 8 for 8 pieces of sushi deal). Otherwise, they charge each type of sushi differently using a color coding.
The sushi is very fresh and they do a good combination of rice and sushi so that its not all rice.
The place also has bubble tea– with a variety of selections — i was very lucky because i checked in on Unilocal last week and guess what? Free medium size drink with $ 8 minimum purchase! So i got 8 pieces of sushi and a bubble tea for only $ 8!

Very quick and easy to pick individual a la carte sushi. Really cheap but still very tasty.
They have a large number of pieces laid out, all generously cut in size. One bite and you will want to spend all your dollars here for your lunch.
They also have side salads and special pieces to choose from. Fresh quality fish.
There is also the popular Vivi bubble tea located right inside the sushi shop. What more can you ask for?