Yum Asia Reviews 

I bought the Sakura rice cooker and yes it's been amazing.

I can't remember when I bought the bamboo, maybe about 5 years ago but did not buy direct from YumAsia but from Amazon. Both were priced at same price but I could get it next day with AZ.
Don't get me wrong - this is an amazing rice cooker and about halt the price of the zoshi whatevers and the rice is perfect. What isn't good to like?
Well for a start, the rubber plate with the seal around it in the lid. For about a year it was easy to remove to wash and put back on as it works on a latching mechanism with the catch built into the lid of the cooker. However one day I went to put the plate back into it's place after washing and drying it and it would not latch into place. On closer inspection it appeared to me that the latch was loose and would not engage with the tapered latch on the vent plate. I shook the cooker and heard rattling inside the lid. I realised the return spring within the lid mechanism was rattling around. I'm an engineer and have fixed many appliance things that aren't supposed to be fixed but I normally get stuff going that others would throw away. Given the bamboo was juist over it's guarantee period, I got the Torx set out and started to remove the inner lid to get to the problem. On removing the lid there is an area withing the moulding of the lid that actuall houses the mechanism so really there is nothing you can do for the sake of a 5 minute job to replace a spring excepting to break the whole moulding apart to get to the mechanism to fix the issue. I did not want to do that as I dont know hoe the mechanism is mounted and if I break anything off, if its mounted to the moulding I'm bust. Remember this is the spring that holds the latch open and not the return spring.
Instead I emailed YumAsia for advice. The email I had back told me that the outer lid is non serviceable. When I asked whether I could buy a new lid, they told me it comes with the whole machine - i.e. it has ribbon cables from the machine to the lid and I have to buy another product. At £299. Brilliant.
I love that rice cooker and I have found a non user friendly work around. you have to use your middle fingernail and use that to pull the catch from deep within it's slot to the open position while at the same time align the platein it's bottom hosing and try to engage the catch with the vent in 250 milliseconds while the catch is returning to it's home position. I have a success rate of 1 in 5 to get the engagement, sadly my wife can not do this - or anyone else in the family for that matter.
I've googled this problem for over 3 years and I get zip, it seems I am the only one. I know the cooker has been religiously looked after but I cannot be absolutely certain, as my Son and his partner used to live with us and they are rice heads too, but none of them every complained of encountering the problem or forcing the catch closed. It's a good 'un, a mystery. Maybe I was just unlucky as there seems to be no issues out there in the forums.
If YA have stealthily fixed the issue, or mine was just a dog, then if you are considering this cooker don't take my bad luck as a reason not to buy, I cooked some amazing umami rice last night using my patented middle finger technique the quality of the rice is bar none for rice cookers twice the price, but yeah, I have a bad taste as it's not through misuse but it's just failed. For me. One star sorry YA

EDIT - having read the reply from YA and thanks for responding so quickly, appreciated - but I don't ever recall ever having closed the lid without the seal disk in or having incorrectly fitted it inside the bottom recess then closing. I can't speak for rest of the family having done it in the past though and if so they would probably not even remember.
I would argue though that it IS a design flaw because the recess allows you to put disc thingy or inner lid in either way, unlike more well designed connectors that will not allow a particular component to be incorrectly fitted - take a simple kettle lead for example you cannot insert in in the kettle the wrong way - but this is just one example, same as electrical connectors on cars, or on computer motherboards there is no way they can be physically mis-inserted. We're not just talking electrical parts,the lint filter on my tumble dryer (akin to your inner lid) will not allow idiots to mount it in the incorrect way.
It's not acceptable to say it's mis-use as it's been put in the wrong way round - I have taken my dog-eared Bamboo manual out and tried to find any warnings whether emboldened or not to suggest you could seriously damage you cooker by trying to fit the lid wrongly. Page 18, para 1 seems to be the only part of the manual that describes care of the inner lid and there is absolutely no suggestion that if you incorrectly fit it you can wave goodbye to your cooker.
An an engineer I can't accept the latch mechanism being non-repairable good design should always take into account weak points

Kotori has completely changed my lunch routine.

Then Louise arranged the swap of the cooker without any cost to me. I appreciate the fast turnaround because of my idiocy. Thank you

Excellent customer service! They quickly replaced the defected inner bowl of my rice cooker. I received my new bowl in 3 days.

We had a very good experience with Yum-Asia customer service. The service was provided by very prompt responses to e-mail inquiries. In most cases less than 24 hour response time.

We had ordered the Yum Asia Panda from Amazon and had problems with the shipment. I wanted to inform the company that the product received was damaged or possibly a used item.

Here’s what I wrote to Yum Asia:

“1. Upon receiving the item today, the product box seemed to have previously opened evidenced by the bent cardboard tabs and lack of sealing tape and a removed label from the product box.
2. The styrofoam shipping material supporting the Panda was cracked in multiple places, it appears the box was mishandled during shipping. The cardboard Amazon shipping box is not damaged.
3. The interior of the ceramic Ninja bowl coating is scratched and scuffed.
4. The parting surfaces between the molded plastic upper and lower cases shows dirt, possibly from use?
5. The upper case half shows an exposed tab, indicating that the unit may have been damaged or misassembled

We request Yum Asia send us a factory fresh Panda from your own warehouse, not Amazon. We will return this item to you for examination if that would be helpful. If you don't need to see the item, we will return it to Amazon.

We purchased this to replace a rice cooker gift item made by another manufacturer which we returned immediately upon receipt because it had a PTFE/PFOS bowl. We chose to order the Panda because of the ceramic PFAS/PTFE/BPA free cooking bowl. There were also many positive reviews of the quality, design and value of the Yum Asia products.

Please let us know of you need more information and advise us on how we should proceed.“

I received a very helpful and pleasant response from Yum-Asia customer support:

“ Thank you for your message and photos.

I'm sorry to hear Amazon has shipped this Panda to you, to clarify, our boxes are not sealed in any way as we have EU packaging laws that we have to comply with and it is easier to apply this to all marketplaces in our production.

It looks like Amazon may have sent a previously returned unit to you, but as Amazon is 100% responsible for the shipment - they shipped it from the stock they hold in their warehouse, you will need to return the Panda to Amazon for a refund. Please log into your Amazon account and request a return, Amazon will provide everything necessary for the return and will refund once it's received back.”

Yum-Asia Customer service also verified that orders placed to their Web site were fulfilled from their US warehouse in California. I placed the order for the Panda cooker and received it in less than one week. It was properly packed and no damages occurred during shipment. I was further pleased because the Panda model is now delivered with a stainless steel steamer basket, an upgrade from the plastic steamer basket previously sold with Panda.

I did have some problems during online purchase at Yum-Asia’s web site using my US credit cards issued by my local credit union triggering fraud alerts on one and rejected payment on the second. I realized that I needed to use a verification service, Link, which sends a verification code to verify identity. This wasn’t clear on the Web site when placing the order, perhaps Yum-Asia could add some information to their websites explaining the payment process.

I started using the cooker after carefully cleaning the cooker and following the instructions. The first batch of rice made is a small one, per instructions, and is discarded after cooking. Perhaps to remove any manufacturing residues or odors released during the first heating cycle? I then made a batch of steel cut oats for breakfast, results were a creamy with a nice “al dente”-like texture.

Received a rice cooker with significant scratches to outside of rice bowl, within machine and some on inside of bowl due to poor packaging. Contacted hello@, no response, chased up and hello@ advised that it was ok to use. I have asked for a return label as it is clear that the product has been damaged in transit or previously used and no response as yet. Very disappointing customer service.

Dear Yum Asia,
I first contacted you on 5 February 2026 regarding a faulty/damaged rice cooker received from my order dated 29 January 2026.
This was within 30 days of delivery. However, due to delays in your responses, this issue has not been resolved within that timeframe.
The product is not of satisfactory quality, as the inner bowl is scratched and shows signs of damage or possible prior use. This is not acceptable for a new item.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, I am exercising my right to reject the goods. Your response that the item is “safe to use” does not meet your obligation to provide goods of satisfactory quality, nor have you offered a repair or replacement.
Given that I reported the fault within 30 days, and resolution has been delayed due to your lack of timely response, I am requesting a full refund.
Please confirm within 7 days:
Acceptance of the return
A full refund
Return arrangements at your cost
If I do not receive a satisfactory response, I will proceed with a chargeback through my bank and escalate the matter to Trading Standards.
Kind regards,

As long as you don't mind the 3 day wait for delivery to Sweden, everything was good. Even the riceberry which e had never tried before was worth the purchase.

I bought sakura rice cooker and its never stopped making good rice.

I ordered the incorrect item from them and immediately emailed to cancel. It took me chasing them email a second time for them to acknowledge it. I tried to return the item and they told me I had to pay £12-15 for the return shipping despite me emailing them literally 2 minutes after placing the order to cancel (during office hours I might add)

We recently upgraded to an Hotaru induction rice cooker.

We have had a string of bad luck with rice cookers lately everything we bought seemed to fail within a few months. Sakura was the clear winner by a country mile.

I have eaten yum asia rice for years. I love it, but their packing is shocking! I have had two orders from them via amazon that have been rattling around in a box without any inside protective paper or bubble wrap so arrived split with all the loose rice in the packing box! I had to return it and re order on both occasions. Reviews showing photos on amazon say the same thing, split bags and loose rice! Today, I received an order, direct from yum asia site. One large bag and two riceberry packs which are suction packed and sealed. But no inside protection once again and coming all the way to the UK! Riceberry bags with stiff edgings had split the large brown rice bag! What's wrong with this company? They sell fantastic rice and don't seem to know about inside paper packing to protect the order? It's very annoying to wait for the delivery only find it all loose in the cardboard box! It's been going on every since I've been buying it! It's a considerable purchase although a great product, and it deserves good packaging!

The bad reviews are very common experience of Yum Asia of which just seem to be out to deceive and defraud customers.
Very very poor customer service, blame delivery companies they used for non delivery and claim they cannot do anything or it is under investigation.
Please DO NOT BUY from this company.
They will not deliver and they will take your money.

I attempted to purchase from Yumasia using multiple physical cards (Revolut and AIB) on different devices. All payments were approved by my bank, but the website returned errors like “unable to authenticate your payment method”. I also successfully used the same cards with other merchants, including international sites, before and after.

I contacted customer support and provided screenshots of the failed transactions. Their response was:

“As it's our payment administrator that's blocking the payments, there is literally nothing at all we can do. We cannot provide practical assistance or an alternative solution because there isn't one — we only accept payments via our website and we are completely dependent on Stripe processing payments. If they aren't accepting the payment, there isn't anything that we can do to override it unfortunately.”

No alternative payment method was offered. I was unable to complete my order and decided not to purchase.

I share this review to inform other customers of my experience and help them make an informed decision.

I can only comment on the customer service experience, as the company was unable to deliver the product. Yum Asia sold me an item (Fuji rice cooker) that was actually out of stock.
After four days, when the order status still had not changed and I had received no update, I contacted them. The information and refund were issued only after I emailed to ask what was happening.
I expected the product to arrive on time and had planned a sushi night, assuming the company had proper control over its ordering process.
The response to my complaint was similar to many replies posted here: no responsibility taken, no apology, and no compensation offered.
The product itself may be good, but based on this experience, I am not sure I want to deal with the company again.

Updated with more information since they asked for it.

Can't recommend them, bought the Sakura, the build quality was terrible to the point of the inner lid locks falling apart when used because the locks are full of plastic residue from bad molding and quality control. This means tiny metal springs shoots out at any time since they're not attached in any way other than pressure and might end up in your food.

DO NOT BUY THE MODELS WITH THOSE LOCKS IF YOU DONT WANT METAL SPRINGS IN YOUR FOOD

I contacted the support, they asked for photos of the problem and the order ID. I provided photos of the defective locks on the lid and said I will provide the order ID at a later time. I got ignored for 48 hours until I contacted them again at which point they said they won't respond until I give them the order ID even though I've sent pictures of an issue that they're aware of and that has happened to others. You'd think that they'd give some sort of response to a clear problem rather than ignore it.

I figured I'd give them another chance and asked if they would give me the 5% discount and free shipping that I had on the Sakura from Black Friday if I instead order their newer more expensive model without those locks because I don't want metal springs in my food and since they screwed me on getting any other deal on Black Friday by sending me a broken product. They said that's impossible, they can't even give free shipping for the replacement model.

Apparently their stance on this is that it's fair to send some customers defective products and then require them to lose their discounts and pay shipping for the replacement model because they don't want the product that has shown issues. That's a very interesting take on fairness.

For anyone looking for a quality product I'd recommend Cuckoo twin pressure models. You get double the value with a better quality rice cooker from a company with 40+ of experience with more rice cooking options that also comes with a pressure option for pressure cooking rice or other things.

I've received a faulty product that does not power on. I reached out to customer service and no response in 48 hours, no way to return. Please can someone get in touch urgently and I'll update my review.

I bought the Sakura rice cooker and a metal steam basket, since the rice cooker itself comes with a plastic steam basket (this is mentioned on their website) and i do not want to use a plastic steam basket. To my surprise the rice cooker is delivered with a metal basket, so now i have an extra basket that I have no use for. When contacting Yum asia about a return for the extra basket, I was denied a free return even though they are the ones who placed misleading information on their website.

Worst experience!!! I ordered last November 28. Received email that my package was on its way December2. Until now I haven’t received it yet. I called UPS and tehy told me that they haven’t picked up it yet and should call the yum asia. But when I called the yum asia they said they will call me once they will verify it with the warehouse. No news from them for more than 48 hours after our conversation. So disappointed . Finally after 2 weeks I received the refund as I have requested it. Order number Eu115824.