I for one like the material minimalistic menu items we get now. (Assuming they use standard material design icons) it makes it quickly recognisable and accessible.
If you use them constantly. For example, most of my Gmail use is on an android device, which has a radically different UI than the web mail. When I use the web mail, probably once a month or so, I have to use tool tips every time because I've forgotten which tiny grey on grey button is reply, which is spam, etc.