I want to give this place 3.5 based on the dim sum. But, the price and their other dishes made me round down to 3.
I grew up on dim sum. Most Sundays and sometimes even Saturdays growing up, my family would head out to dim sum in the Bay Area. Thus, I definitely still get those cravings living in London! I've only had dim sum two other times in London and the first was so forgettable and expensive and the other was OK (AYCE dim sum... what do you expect?). Thus, when Yauatcha opened in Broadgate, I didn't think too much of it. High end Chinese is a no-go for me. Maybe growing up on it and know what the price point should be (even for the "nicer places") has made me shy away from the more Westernized and high-end Asian options (looking at you, Sushi Samba).
So, what happened? There was a deal for Yauatcha, £25 for 9 course tasting menu plus a cocktail, and I love a good deal. Plus, for the price of eating out in London, £25 felt reasonable to give it a shot. Once seated, we were presented with two types of chili sauce. One was a ginger and chili sauce - some chopped ginger in a Sriracha type chili sauce: too sweet for us. The other was XO (dried shrimp, scallop and fish) chili sauce - we both love XO sauce so this was a nice touch as you don't usually see it due to it being more expensive than regular chili sauce. We definitely took advantage of the free refills of the XO chili sauce as we love our food spicy. We were also presented with some pickled cucumbers. These were pretty unremarkable as due to how long they were brined, they were quite... limp. Plus, the brine was a bit too sweet to our liking. But, where can you get a free appetizer these days? So it was a nice touch. Soon after, the steamed dim sum started coming. The standouts were definitely the
- har gow: shrimp was fresh, large and cooked perfectly. The wrapper wasn't mushy and overcooked. Additionally, the wrapper was strong enough to hold up to the weight of the shrimp without being too dense. I've eaten way too many har gow that just fall apart due to bad wrappers! Maybe it's just my pet peeve
- venison puff: I didn't think I would like this since I usually only order steamed options at dim sum but this was incredible. We loved how light the puff pastry was. The venison was well spiced and no gaminess at all.
- Shui mai: really good rendition of shui mai. Can't tell you how many I've had in my lifetime but these were memorable
Each item came to our table freshly steamed or fried. The other items (xiao long bao, spring roll, cheung fun, sticky rice and macarons) were all fine to good.
Due to our good experience, we've come back for their Supreme Saturdays menu (£49 - take a look at my photo for the menu). With this menu, we got to try even more of their fried and steamed dim sum as well as two of their mains. I didn't find anything special with the mains, definitely a skip... especially if you're paying the regular prices! From this menu, the sesame prawn toast was definitely a highlight. I could have eaten a whole plate of these! Also, the cocktails were on point. We loved our Thea martini, Negroni and Manhattan. All not too sweet with the right balance of alcohol to mixers.
We have been back one other time not due to our own accord and when ordering a la carte... wow, those prices are ridiculous. £7.40 for one serving of hot and sour soup?!? Also, one of the worst bowls of hot and sour soup I've had. Way too much cornstarch leading to a gloopy mess. The egg white fried rice was fine albeit a bit bland... but for the price of £10 definitely wasn't worth it. I will say that the spicy soft shell crab with almond (£13.80) was really delicious due to the light but flavorful batter and the fresh crab. Hate to be a broken record but even though it was tasty... it was super expensive for the portion.
I know the prices are due to the location partly but I can't really justify this going into our regular rotation. I will say that the service at Yauatcha is some of the best we've had in London. They are always there to refill water or chili sauce even before you say something - a rarity in London. I'm sure having the amount of servers they do on any given day also ups their prices. Thus, while this place definitely has some standout dishes there are plenty of (expensive) missteps through the menu. Due to how pricey everything is, I would highly recommend coming in for one of their deals. read more