Yauatcha

Reviews for Yauatcha

• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by sue
  sue

  23rd August 2008

  It's true what they say about the Venison Puffs

  Current

  Why did it take me so long to visit Yauatcha? I think because I thought it was some sort of pretentious, expensive place where only the 'beautiful' people could get a table. I was so wrong, well they let us in didn't they!
  
  Booking in advance, we got a table at Yauatcha for a Sunday lunch. After some serious browsing in Carnaby Street before hand we were ready to sample what we hoped would be some pretty special dim sum, and happily our experience lived up to expectation.
  
  We had booked a table on the ground floor, and I'm glad we did. The downstairs, whilst interestingly decorated, looked a bit cramped and dark, especially on a sunny day. The service was friendlier than I was expecting and I was impressed with their efficiency considering how busy the restaurant was.
  
  Knowing the menu was going to be large, and not being dim sum experts, I did some research in advance to see what dishes others recommended. This did indeed make the ordering process easier, though we still took our time, starting with a couple of interesting sounding cocktails - the Kumquatcha and the Lalu (or something like that), neither of which I was too keen on.
  
  The food we ordered was:
  Har Gau
  Scallop and Kumquat Dumplings
  Baked Venison Puffs
  Prawn Cheung Fun
  Pork, Prawn and Tofu balls
  Pork and Century Egg Congee
  
  My favourites were the Prawn Cheung Fun and the Venison Puffs - those tasty little venison parcels were as good as everyone says. The congee wasn't something I had had before - a type of creamy, rice soup with pork and preserved egg, the latter tasting better than it looked!
  
  Can't believe we didn't have room for dessert, as they have amazing looking cakes on display which you can buy to take away too. My next visit may well just be for tea and cake sampling. And perhaps a cheeky serve of Venison Puffs too...

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• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by chrisp
  chrisp

  12th August 2008

  Exciting and unique

  Current

  It's certainly been a month or two of ups and downs around these here parts. I had barely got over the shock that the once-great Fox and Hounds gastropub on Latchmere Road seemed to be no long able to cook duck properly when my other favourite restaurant the Food Room was taken over by a semi-celebrity chef who constructs dishes out of a revolutionary new ingredient called "bland". It was all very upsetting, and coupled with my new self-imposed budget I could see no easy way of the restaurants of London redeeming themselves any time soon. And then, out of nowhere, a delightful meal at an unpromising location in Parson's Green got the whole thing back on track, and this weekend the successful streak continued with a pleasing and pleasingly inexpensive meal at Yauatcha, Soho.
  
  The word for the interior is "glamorous" - Yauatcha is a stunning room, all blue glass and tasteful lighting with a huge aquarium along one wall. And, hilariously, glamorous is the word they used themselves when we called to make the booking and enquired about a dress code. "Casual glamorous" they specifically replied - presumably this doesn't apply in quite the same way to the male diners, although this is Soho after all so who knows. Perhaps they just felt they couldn't get away with saying "no riff raff". I managed to sneak in under the radar anyway.
  
  The menu was huge and baffling, but fortunately we had with us someone of Chinese heritage (who had also scoured the internet for tips beforehand) to guide us through and I was happy to leave most of the ordering up to them. I won't describe every dish in detail as there were about 100 of them, but highlights included crispy venison pastry puffs which I think had chocolate in there somewhere, impossibly light and silky prawn dumplings, astonishing scallops topped with bitter kumquat and some superb Cheung Fun (sort of a long floppy ravioli - that's them at the back of this shot):
  
  Once the dim sum were over with we were presented with a rather more prosaic Chinese dish of beef noodles, although even this had its merits. Also I should say that the jasmin tea-smoked spare ribs were a bit tough although the flavour was good. But the best surprise of all was that the whole kit and caboodle (including a cocktail and a few beers) came to little over £25 each including tip. Considering the effort that must have gone into each individual dish, this is very reasonable - and particularly in comparison to Hakkasan where I spent twice that on food which wasn't any better.
  
  Desserts - and apologies for the lack of photos but I was probably too busy eating - were very pretty and the best by common consensus was one involving passion fruit. Another tasted like Southport public baths and was somewhat less successful but at least they looked the part. All the desserts, along with a mouthwatering selection of macaroons, are displayed in the front window and the takeaway service appeared to be doing a roaring trade throughout the evening.
  
  So add in smiley and attentive service (itself somewhat of a minor miracle in a Chinese restaurant in the UK) and you have yourself a great evening out. Yauatcha, along with Barrafina and Busaba Eatthai, has just been added to my list of places to eat in Soho, and is probably the best Chinese restaurant in London at the moment so you can do at lot worse than mosey on along and check it out for yourself.

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• 3

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by gogmagog
  gogmagog

  14th July 2008

  Dim sum fans will love it

  Current

  We went for lunch and were seated downstairs in the sumptuous basement. Sleek and stylish but without being stuffy. The bar with in-built fishtank is great. Possibly not the best place for a lunch on a sunny day - it is one of those rooms that you could happily emerge from hours later, half-cut and wondering what happened to the day.
  
  Other reviews below have mentioned bad experiences with waiting staff? There was no sign of this when we went. None of us at lunch were experts on dim sum so we asked the waiters to suggest dishes for us. They were helpful and polite, even though, out of a table of four, there was one vegetarian who did eat fish and one meat-eater with a serious allergy to seafood. A tricky situation when eating dim sum. Not only did they advise us well, they also remembered to point out exactly what was in each dish as it came to the table.
  
  So, is it expensive? Yup. It is. But it's supposed to be a step or several up from your standard Soho dim sum house and that's what you're paying for. Was it value for money, though? Well, I guess my view is coloured slightly. I'm not a huge fan of dim sum, as a rule. It's easy for it to end up greasy and stodgy and although Yauatcha's food was never either of these things, I can't say that it was a Damascene revelation for me. It was beautifully cooked and very tasty, but ultimately rather unmemorable.
  
  The venison puffs (as mentioned by other reviewers) were fine, but not to die for. Various prawn and chicken dishes went past, although it's now 2 weeks later and I'll be damned if I can remember anything about any of them. There was nothing wrong with them; in fact I remember them as being nice, but nothing stood out for me. An ostrich chow mein was interesting, but mainly because it was a first try of ostrich, rather than because it was an incredible dish. There was also crispy duck, but it was no better or worse than one you could get on your local high street, unfortunately.
  
  Take a fan of dim sum and I'm sure they'll love you for it. It's a beautiful restaurant, with friendly and attentive staff. And the food is, well... fine.

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• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by MartyDiBergi
  MartyDiBergi

  11th January 2008

  Excellent Dim Sum

  Current

  It's crazy to say Yauatcha is expensive - what do people expect to pay for some of the best cooking in London, certainly of its kind?
  
  When put into the context of other similarly feted places - River Cafe, Nobu etc - it really is not expensive at all. Ok so it's more expensive than Busaba but the quality and obvious care and attention is much higher too.
  
  I've eaten there on many occasions and the best advice i would give is to just try various things off the menu that you like the sound of, you will rarely be disappointed.
  Having said that, the Venison Puffs are a must.
  
  Other Prawn (and indeed all the other) Cheung Fun, prawn and date dumpling, salt and pepper squid, jasmine smoked ribs, mango spring roll, Shumai, duck and shitake dumpling, prawn toast - are all excellent and i would go on if i could remember them!
  
  Just try it - it's great.
  
  When busy service can sometime be variable but on the whole they are very prompt and the little desserts in the tea parlour are great too. In spite of the much famed 90 minute table time, i've never yet been asked to move on and i must have been 10 times now.
  
  Also best to go in a number divisible by three as almost evry dish comes in 3's.
  
  And anotehr tip - a lot of the wine list can be pricey but there is a very reasonable fizzy pink whose name escapes me for about £26 a bottle i think? Good value for London and brightens up the meal without costing the earth.
  
  Enjoy
  
  
  
  
  

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• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by russ9595
  russ9595

  26th December 2007

  Delicious and filling

  Current

  Excellent service, delicious food, and reasonably priced given the quality.
  
  After some last-minute Christmas shopping on a late Sunday afternoon, I popped in here because I felt like indulging myself. It was relatively quiet here at this time day and time, and was seated immediately on the ground floor.
  
  I ordered the pork and Century egg congee, kumquat scallop dumplings, pan-fried turnip cake, mango spring roll, and Dragon Well green tea, which came to £30 including service.
  
  I have a large appetite, and I had been shopping on an empty stomach, so you can imagine how hungry I was. Regardless, I have to say that my appetite was definitely satiated by the end of my meal.
  
  The portions here were welcomingly larger than expected. The congee is deliciously flavoured and appropriately garnished. The turnip cake was definitely a dish to share for two and was just like the ones I had in Singapore. The scallops were okay, a little tough for my liking, and I felt the mango spring rolls could have done with 30 seconds more in the oil.
  
  The atmosphere on the ground floor is calm, and perfect for people watching. The chairs are nicely designed, with an arm rest on one side, which I thought was a nice touch. When you sit back, the angle of the back of the chair is just right so that it supports you without falling into a slouch.
  
  I've read a lot of negative reviews about the service here ever since it opened in 2004. In almost all of the reviews, these people came on a Saturday evening. My advice: come here on an early Sunday evening, order the congee, turnip cake, and tea, and you will have a enjoyable experience. I know I did.

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• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by lenalouise
  lenalouise

  30th November 2007

  Tastiest dim sum in london!

  Current

  I've been wanting to go to Yauatcha for ages and was put off by how expensive everyone claims it is...oh why did I listen? lol. This place is great! I'm not sure I like the decor though, it feels like sitting in the jazzed-up courtyard of a church and the fishtank set into the bar is too brightly lit up.
  
  The food is spot on. The dishes that I tried that I haven't had elsewhere were delicious and the ones I have regularly in other places matched the level of dim sum in China. Plus the accompanying chilli sauces were mouthwateringly divine. For me, a good chilli sauce is something with flavour as well as being fiery and they certainly managed to achieve this. I ended up just eating the chilli sauce by itself :p
  
  We had pork and prawn shu mai, prawn and enoki mushroom dumpling, pork and century egg congee, prawn cheung fan and fried taro cake. We were trying intentionally not to order too much because I usually do but we knew the dishes were more expensive. However, this amount was actually enough to fill us up.
  
  One thing I was surprised about was how big some of the dishes were. The fried taro cake was one big square (about the size of 2 normal portions) and the dumplings were huge. They crammed so much prawn into them that they were well worth the £4.80 we paid really. The congee was more flavoursome than the watery stuff you usually find in Chinatown and I was glad to see they had some authentic toppings on it. For those who don't know what congee is, it's basically rice cooked for ages in loads of water until the rice grains break down and you end up with a sort of porridge. (It's also what the chinese eat when they're ill lol).
  
  They don't have any desserts in the restaurant (I was disappointed to see they don't do egg custard tarts) but we were allowed to go upstairs and choose some cakes to eat downstairs because there was a private function on in the teahouse. They look so pretty! I didn't really want to dig in and ruin it. They were nice but they tasted quite similar to each other. Both of them were some sort of mousse with a raspberry coulis centre. I definately think that they look better than they taste.
  
  Anyway, all the food with green tea came to about £50 which is not bad for a 1 star michelin restaurant! It is twice as much than your normal dim sum but it's probably twice as nice in the majority of places. Will be back to try more of their exciting menu!
  
  P.S. Almost forgot to add that I've tried their scallop shu mai at taste of London and it's highly recommended!!!

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• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by nikosk
  nikosk

  8th November 2007

  Excellent food at reasonable prices

  Current

  I was surprised to see people suggest Yauatcha was expensive for what it is...sure, prices are higher than most Chinese restaurants in China Town, but then again none of the restaurants in China Town have a Michelin star... When compared to other places in its league, I would say that, if anything, Yauatcha is quite reasonable. And with pots of tea starting at £3-4, one could get away with less than £30 a head without wine, for fine dining quality food.
  
  As far as the food is concerned, Yauatcha is excellent. The traditional dim sum dishes are made to perfection, and the menu features a wide range of more unusual options that are well worth trying. I would recommend trying the following dumplings:
  
  steamed plain prawn
  fried prawn and date
  some of the cheong fun
  venison puff
  crispy duck roll
  the one with lobster and something else
  
  I would normally not bother with the noodle dishes. Not that they were bad, but they never impressed (and were always far inferior to the dim sum).
  
  Also, the cocktails are very good. Try the kumquatcha (there's another really good one but can't remember the name...something with "lai" in it).
  
  Finally, the cakes at the tea room upstairs taste nearly as good as they look. Although not for daily consumption (due to their price being somewhat higher than a block of cadbury's), the chocolates and truffles are also really good.
  
  Table-turning can be a bit annoying, service is sometimes on the cold side, the basement can sometimes be a bit noisy and I still don't get why they insist on not serving the upstairs cakes in the basement. The quality of the food though in my opinion more than compensates these relatively minor problems. Have been there numerous times and I expect I will continue to visit yauatcha semi-regularly.

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• 4

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by ramanauskas
  ramanauskas

  23rd October 2007

  Beautiful and reasonable value

  Current

  Go for:
  - the steamed venison buns
  - the cocktails
  - the very cool slate sink in the ladies loo
  - the aquarium bar
  - the sticky rice
  - a box of chocolates from the shop on the ground floor
  
  Do not go for:
  - a night out with the lads
  - the beer

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• 4

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by cpque1
  cpque1

  7th October 2007

  Dimsum pockets of delight

  Current

  A treasure find of all the dimsum places in London I have eaten so far! Snazzy exteriors and even more impressive interiors, this place with a weird-sounding name serves up equally matched fine dimsum cuisine. Until Yauatcha, I never knew dimsum could exist in the form of little pockets of delights and oozes from heaven ;) Interesting menu options cater to the more adventurous types that wouldn't mind a spin to the traditional dumpling (with a twist of venison, crab or lobster) but good ole traditional dimsum fare nevertheless also secure a firm place in the menu. I didn't quite get a chance yet to try the beautiful pastry, pretty tarts and maccaroons that line the display counters next to the entrance, but judging by the doses of delight the dimsum brought, I am already blown away by it before I even make my next visit back to sink my teeth into it. Mind you, this place may set you back above the average dimsum joint, but it's well worth the money spent.
  

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• 5

  Yauatcha

  15 Broadwick Street London W1F 0DL uk
  

  More reviews by sblow
  sblow

  13th September 2007

  Nice restaurant, good food.

  Current

  I had the pleasure of attending Yauatcha last night. Having read the reviews from many different sources I did wonder how the service would have been. There was no wait when we arrived, we were seated quickly and efficiently. The waiting staff were attentive but not on top of you all the time. All you needed to do was make a point of getting their attention when you needed them.
  
  The food itself was absolutely first rate. We had one dish that wasn't really to our taste but that was more down to personal taste than anything else. We took advice from the staff on the choice of foods and they really do know the foods well. I can understand why it got the Michelin Star rating and I'd definitely go back again!
  
  This venue is not a cheap chinese restaurant but it is great quality. There is only one thing to really bear in mind, make sure you book and expect to be asked to go after 90 mins if you are seated before 8:45. However after that guess what... there's no limit on the time! We found that out by accident.

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