Yauatcha City

I’m not a fan when it comes to oriental food but this restaurant made me change my mind ! I really enjoyed eating Chinese food in this place.
Especially sticky rice made with seafood or chicken
Cocktails are really nice as well !
And the terrace is amazing

I normally order a la carte from Yauatcha Soho so I was a bit sceptical about Yauatcha City’s £25 for 9 courses + cocktail deal.
All 8 bite sized treats were just as good though with delicately thin wraps and juicy fillings. We ended with 4 macaroons to share between the 2 of us. Surprisingly the popcorn one turned out to be my favourite!
Yes Yauatcha is pricey and you can find similar dishes for cheaper around London but when dim sum goes wrong it goes really wrong and at Yauatcha you’re guaranteed the best dim sum in London. And also some pretty incredible desserts. Oh and some awesome cocktails.
It’s the whole package really (but Yauatcha soho is defo the better of the two)

Definitely around a 2.5*, but I’m reluctantly rounding up because some of the dim sum dishes were fantastic and I really liked the desserts we had. It’s reluctant due to the bad service, which I find unacceptable given the high prices.
I’ll try to keep this short. So, what we liked:
scallop shiu mai — nice and juicy
lotus leaf glutinous rice — really delicate preparation
chicken shanghai dumpling — perfect texture on this, good taste as well
spicy soft shell crab with almonds — nice kick to it, good execution too
What we didn’t like:
pork buns — nothing special
egg fried rice — ditto, and not much flavor
lobster roll — couldn’t taste the lobster at all AND also completely bland!
XLBs — a lot of people talked these up here; I didn’t think they were good. Skin was a little too thick and texture was off, and the broth was not particularly tasty
As mentioned, what we really didn’t like was the poor service. Our waiter wasn’t helpful with dish selection advice, we rarely got refills on our water nor did our waiters check back on us often, and drink orders took forever to get to our table (which I suppose is Yauatcha’s loss as much as ours, since we wound up ordering far fewer rounds than we would have).
Given that some of the dishes were really good, it’s not like I’ll avoid this place — but it’s also a tough proposition with so many negatives especially in the context of the high prices. It’s not even a value issue; I just don’t think it’s reasonable to charge £10 for dim sum and offer such a Jekyll and Hyde experience.
On the other hand, I think I’d visit the patisserie just to pick up some desserts. We had the lemon gianduja and the passionfruit mango dome and I loved both. Really reminded me of the many great little patisserie shops I’ve been to during my travels in Taiwan and Japan.

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.

Came here for dessert on a Saturday evening after dinner at a nearby restaurant. Even though we had not booked for our large group there was space to accommodate us at the bar. There is a wide selection of desserts all well presented, one would expect no less given the pricing.

I booked in for the 9 course taster menu at Yauatcha and was really looking forward to it. Sadly I felt a little bit let down by the whole experience.
The main issue I had was the feeling that they were trying to rush the service to get through as many covers as possible even though each reservation should be for 2 hours. The next course was literally placed down as the preceding dish was taken away. That is definitely not conducive to an enjoyable experience.
The food itself was ok. The prawn dumplings and macaroons were the stand out highlights and the last course of prawn and beancurd cheung fun was not enjoyed by anyone at my table. The rest of the food was so so. Definitely nowhere near the standard od dim sum that you can find elsewhere in London.
The tasting menu is actually very close to A Taste Of Yauatcha and this is definitely all you will get so don’t go on an empty stomach

Was taken here as a birthday treat for their ‘Supreme Saturday’ set lunch. (If you want this option, make sure you mention it when booking a table, as the waiter informed me that they normally don’t allow people to just order it otherwise.) Also, I think you can only order it if you’re an even number of people — and have at least two in your group.
This is not for amateurs. In total, the set menu involved (per person) 1 pre-​dinner cocktail, half a bottle of wine, six steamed dim sum, four fried dim sum (the wagyu beef roll was exceptional), a main course (we opted for the lobster vermicelli pot and the foie gras beef to share), a vegetable side dish, jasmine rice, a dessert (loved the jasmine honey dish: milk chocolate, caramelised honey and jasmine) AND an after-​dinner cocktail. Suffice to say, don’t eat anything before you come here, and I’d be pretty impressed if you managed to stomach anything after.

This quite possibly is the worst value dim sum I’ve ever had in my life. Granted, I wasn’t expecting much from a Chinese place in Broadwick Circle, but I certainly didn’t think that I would hate myself for even stepping into the place. I came with two others and between the three of us we ordered 5 dishes with a total bill including one glass of wine 65 pounds.
Beginning with the best, the hand-​pulled noodles with shimeji mushroom were inoffensive, take-​out standard fare. There was nothing wrong with this dish, apart from the price tag (10.50), but come on, I’ve literally had the same thing in a little white box from hole-​in-​the wall Chinese restaurants straight out of the 80’s in America. Our duck spring rolls were also edible. Nothing to rave about, especially for 7.50. That’s 3.75 for a spring roll…
From the noodles and spring rolls, the quality dropped off quickly. Never again would I order the sticky rice, which was chalky and seemingly uncooked in parts and overcooked in others. In a similar vein, the dumplings with pumpkin and pine nut had spent too long in the steamer leaving a overly sticky skin surrounding a bland ball of mush. The shrimp were also overcooked, instead of tender, they were uncomfortably firm, kind of like biting into a piece of beef.
The redeeming factor of this restaurant was the service, which was consistent and attending. However, usually I’m not going to eat dim sum for the service… There are much better Chinese eateries, but if you feel the need to be looked after by the waitstaff, then Yauatcha might be the place to come when you’re in the City.

Full disclosure: this is my first posh dim sum experience. I am used to California low-​key dim sum restaurants where ladies wheel carts around with delectable goodness, and you try to strategically time your reach to get the dishes you want. But my colleagues graciously offered to take me here, so I had both the a la carte and the course menu. I don’t know if the course menu is reserved for work-​related events as I can’t find it on the Yauatcha menu, though.
The space is wonderful — natural lighting everywhere upstairs and not a bad seat in the house. I don’t know what is downstairs, though as both times we’ve been led immediately upstairs. Less natural lighting, more club-​lights downstairs.
The a la carte menu was just ok — nothing special to make me want to write about. But the course menu was excellent that I got excited enough to write this review! I think there were about 10 dishes total, which left me quite stuffed at the end even though each dish had only one bite per person.
The most memorable dishes were the crispy duck, green bean salad with crab, seafood soup, curried calamari, and venison puff. The venison was enveloped in a toffee-​like filling that was so full of umami flavor and stuck to the roof of my mouth. The duck was de-​boned in front of you so that you could wrap the crispy, juicy duck in rice paper. The seafood soup came with what tasted like a scallop dumpling, and it totally warmed me up inside. The curried calamari was so interesting, as Yauatcha rendered the curry into an almost peanut texture with the smokiness of garlic. It contrasted so well with the soft calamari.
One star off because the service has been SO slow both times we were here, not to mention a bit awkward. There is always a lot of movement in dim sum restaurants, I know. But I felt that there was a lot of reaching over shoulders, interrupting conversations, and etc. I know that this location is also new, so I understand that they are working out the kinks. That being said, be weary that our lunch took 2.5 hours, even with attempts to rush the service.

Having been to Yauatcha in Soho, I had extra high hopes for Yauatcha City and I was not disappointed. The service here was excellent and the food sublime.
The menu is the same as in Yauatcha Soho. Having come here after just having had an unsatiating dinner nearby, I only ordered one savoury dim sum dish and one dessert. I had the king crab and pork dumplings ‘Siew Long Bao’, which were served piping hot, satisfyingly soft and with plenty of the meaty juice within the dumpling. As soon as you order something from the A La Carte Menu they also automatically serve you with a side of pickled cucumber (which I find very tasty) plus generous dishes of chilli oil and chilli sauce.
The dessert I had was the ‘Citrus Tart’ — which may be a seemingly ordinary name but the dessert sure was exquisite to the very last bite. Here was a combination of a hint of grapefruit with lemon flavoured creamy filling encased within a perfectly sturdy yet melt-​in-​the-​mouth crumbly pastry with a citrus layer on top as well as pieces of grapefruit and the Yauatcha signature. This was accompanied with a small dollop of beautifully oval shaped and subtly grapefruit flavoured ice cream, alongside a citrus sauce.
Another feature I have come to appreciate is that here you can ask for tap water or hot water and they will happily provide it to you with my hot water being served in a proper tea set. It is worth noting that there is a significant difference in ambience between Yauatcha Soho and Yauatcha City with Yauatcha City having more seating and a more spacious layout giving rise to a more relaxed and open atmosphere in contrast with the more vibrant, noisy and twilight feel of Yauatcha Soho.
Having been blessed enough to taste three different Yauatcha desserts in my lifetime, one thing is blatantly apparent to me, that heaven itself would not be complete unless it has Yauatcha dessert. It gives me great pleasure to know that Yauatcha City is available as another outlet for Yauatcha’s brilliant food and dessert.