Yauatcha

Lobster

Hello everybody! Been a while I'm afraid due to writers block & general laziness but raring to go with some new foody items! First off is Yauatcha on Broadwick street, http://www.yauatcha.com/soho/. It's a contemporary Michelin starred Dim sum restaurant & pretty tasty I hasten to add. It's also one my brothers favourite restaurants so we go quite a lot!
Me & Tony (my bro) bowled up on the 2nd of January so fairly quiet. We were shown to a pretty lame table right by a column so we asked to be moved to which we were given 2 different tables to choose from. Not a problem you might think, but quite integral to the plot for later.

We started on a couple of alcoholic grape cocktails. Not much flavour but definitely one of those drinks that creeps up on you then ordered what I have to say was incredibly fine food.

We started with "Crab shuimai, Lobster spinach dumpling, Chilli fried squid & Chicken taro croquette". The croquette was lovely & crispy on the outside, just like a yam paste dumpling from other old school dim sum restaurants! The Lobster was juicy & tender & the fried squid tender & perfectly cooked. Wasn't sure about the crab dumpling, only in the sense I thought it tasted of mackerel & didn't even realise I was eating crab until the waiter said so! But I still ate it so couldn't of been that bad.

Mongolian Venison

Then we moved on to the main dishes which were "Mongolian venison" which was so tender & tasty, "Steamed Halibut" which was really spicy & invigorating! We had some "Pak choi with garlic" as a side & I had a "Yebisu" beer which is a lovely Japanese beer.
So far all very good & possibly one of the best meals that me & Tony have had there. For dessert I had a "Raspberry delice". Not only did it look beautiful but it tasted delice-ous. Chocolate & biscuit going on inside, one of my favourite desserts I've ate there. I think Tony had a "Milk chocolate praline", I can't remember because mine was so good but he said his was good.

Delice-ous

We followed these up with 2 Irish coffees which were very nice & seeing as we were having a nice time decided to order 2 more. It was then that we were told we had to move tables because a previous booking that had cancelled had now decided to turn up! Tony didn't take it to well which I thought was fair enough & said that if we were to move then they should take the service charge off the bill. A couple of minutes later a waiter said this was fine, so we moved to a different table & then basically Tony thought we should leave anyway. There was a bit of an heated debate about the whole of the moving issue with a Maitre'D & a couple of the waiters & I heard Tony saying it was a disgrace a few times seeing as we are regular customers. We then left & Tony popped back in to have a go again whilst I hid outside a column so I don't think we will be going back for a while. Overall though the food is amazing but they really do try & feed you & get you out as soon as possible which can be a little stressful when it's not that busy & you're spending money! Oh & I did notice they do a £28.88 tasting menu for 2 People with 8 dishes & tea, Mon-Thurs 2pm until 630pm!

Hakkasan Mayfair

So I met up with my brother last night who also has a love for food. Especially fine dining. He is a massive fan of Alan Yau's restaurants. If you don't know who he is, he opened up Wagamama in the early nineties then sold it off & opened up Hakkasan Hanway Place, a Michelin starred chinese restaurant off Tottenham court road & has since opened up a string of amazing restaurants http://www.alanyau.cn/.

Salty Crab

So anyway we went to try the new Hakkasan Mayfair branch. First impressions when walking in is it's very darkly lit & I keep on thinking I'm going to walk through a glass door. Everyone is very friendly & we get shown to our table which is not unlike the old Hakkasan. We only order glasses of white wine because of heavy nights the night before & we both decide to have the soft shell crab as a starter. Unfortunately when it comes it's a little disapointing. The Crab is cooked very well but it's very salty & can't actually taste much apart from the salt! My brother couldn't finish his crab.

The mains came not to far behind & were a lot better. We had the grilled wagyu beef with enoki mushroom which was deliciously tender & flavoursome, Steamed New Zealand lobster wrapped in glass vermicelli was beautifully fine & fragrant with a hint of chilli just giving it a little heat & the sweet & sour duke of Berkshire pork with pomegranate which was really tangy & sweet which is what it's supposed to taste like I suppose. My brother thought the pork tasted to vinegary & wasn't as refined as the other dishes that we had ordered. I have to say I enjoyed it though & finished the plate off. 

For dessert I had a Grand marnier mousse concoction. Unfortunately I can't remember the full name of it but it had a chocolate disc at the top of the glass that i had to pierce in to which then revealed underneath a mousse & ice cream with some sort of apricot jam dollops here & there. It was amazingly tasty! My brother had the petit fours  which came in 3 different sections containing mini ice cream cones, madeleines & fruit jellies. It looked very impressive.  

Petit

The service was a little lax & I did have to wait for 10 minutes for my glass of wine & that was after reminding the waitress but overall it was a very good meal, not excellent but good & I would definitely go back as there are lot's more delicious dishes to be tried.