Yauatcha Soho — Restaurant in London

Big thank you to the kitchen and service staff! After eating here I'm OK to die because I'm quite happy :) I guess that's the meaning behind "food to die for"? It wasn't my first time here so I already had high expectations. The moment we entered Yautcha we were greated very professionally. The staff is obviously well trained which is a great pleasure. We order drinks, our whispering angel rosé was a delicious way to start and keep us company for the food as well. The menu was explained to us in a sophisticated and polite way. Mario was simply a pleasure to have as a host. He was patient and knowledgeable, kind and funny, we received perfect service. We each ordered what we absolutely wanted and were free to order more later should we need more food. Exactly as it should be with dim sum. Har gau (shrimps) is a great way to start. It's one that you can easily buy frozen but boy... These are incomparable to the bought ones. The bite is just wonderful, springy fresh shrimp and very thin rice paper. Pure umami pleasure. The soft crab was sooo soft and well spiced, we contemplated ordering another plate, sooo good.. We were a party of three, 2 out of 3 loved the crunchy wagyu puff. I did like them but in my opinion I wouldn't spice wagyu so much as it could be cooked this way with normal beef as well, wagyu I'd rather have pure like har gau, but that's personal preference and not criticism. If you don't tolerate spicy food, har gau, wagyu puff and also duck roll are a great option. The duck roll as well was crispy and the filling so rich in flavour, I'd order it any day again. Really recommend it. I normally love bao, however with the delicate other dim sum the char sou bao felt more like street food (which I do eat with pleasure). So, another good option if you don't want to eat spicy or are simply hungry as the bao is quite filling. Of course I had to order the shrimp bean curd cheung fun. To me it was absolutely delicious, others were scared as they thought they wouldn't like tofu but honestly, it's far from the generic bland tofu sadness and you mostly taste crispy shrimp. The chicken prawn wanton was pure perfection, perfect dough, well spiced and I think high quality sezchuan pepper or similar was used. I ended up keeping the sauce and dipping other things in it, so scrumptious. Even though we were well fed in quantity and of course quality we could miss the beautiful desserts! You shouldn't miss out the ube mandrin dessert, it's so precious to look at and really tasty. Only downside here, it really is too loud and very difficult to have a good conversation. Again, big thank you to all the staff, see...

I visited Yauatcha on 09/03/2019. The food was very good. Unfortunately, like many other negative reviews here, I received service that was unacceptable at this price point (more than £150/person) and for a restaurant boasting a Michelin star.

Amongst other problems, my wife and I experienced the following:

• Aperitif cocktail took approx 15-20 minutes to arrive, eventually came only six minutes before the first course.

• The fried dim sum and steamed dim sum were served only four minutes apart, but we then waited 40 minutes for our main course.

• Waitstaff didn't take main course order when we ordered (the fixed menu was supposed to come with one from a choice of three). • Waitstaff brought wrong main course (the one we wanted least out of the three). • As I was discussing this with them, a second main course arrived, also unordered. • To be fair: waitstaff agreed to bring us the third main course, as an extra; we were not charged for that. • However, the fried rice side dish mentioned on the menu never arrived.

• I went to the bathroom, left my napkin on the table; while I was gone the desserts came and my napkin was taken away; hence I had no napkin for dessert.

• The dessert plates were left in front of us for over 15 minutes before being taken away.

• Multiple waits of 15-20 minutes for our water glasses to be refilled (even after asking several times on one occasion); after desserts were served, my wife's water glass was left empty for 30 minutes.

• We raised these issues with the floor manager at the end. He responded by subtracting the service charge from the bill.

It was peak time (late Saturday evening), which may be a factor, but at the prices Yauatcha is charging I feel these service issues have to be a deal breaker. And from reading other negative reviews I see these are not isolated issues. I would advise you to give this one a miss. I do not plan to return.

Edit 28/3/19: following the "contact us" request from Yauatcha (see below), I was offered an apology and a free bottle of champagne if I return and try them again. I am still very unlikely to go...

Under Hakkasan umbrealla but FAR from Hakkasan.

DOOR MAN - abrupt.

WELCOMING STAFF: warm, friendly,engaged, but also busy doubling up as closet runners to hang your jackets.

AMBIANCE/AESTHETICS: people were VERY very casual. I was furious, mY partner & I dressed up to celebrate her birthday - upon arrival I realised we could’ve just arrived in jogging set and trainers.

Maybe the staff recognised the “disappointment” on our faces when they saw us panning the room, but we were ushered quickly to the “bar” which was length of about a Volvo estate and about as wide… (it was narrow and crammed).

From there we were taken to our table - downstairs, and placed right beneath the stairs in view of back and forth traffic - suffice to say we asked to move. The staff were accommodating and moved us as requested.

Downstairs is slightly nicer than upstairs, but as they say first impressions count, and ours were very low by the time we were seated. I was fuming.

FOOD: Good, tasty, priced reasonably for what you get, (it’s soho after all).

WAITERS: Unkept, nor refined. No different to going to Nando’s. They were rushed, no elegance or flair to their table/customer experience etiquette.

ETIQUETTE: Throughout the evening we encountered about 3 different waiters and they all had a knack of leaning very intrusively into our table when serving, it wasn’t pleasant, one even reached over my partner’s head to place her food.

ALCOHOL: We didn’t drink any alcohol on this occasion, but I did order 2 mocktails BUT whatever we were given was flavoured water with ice. Charged at £10ea. I was vex for sure.

SUMMARY: Cramped, far cry from Hakkasan/fine dining experience for a date night, more like “I’m out in soho with friends , where can I get good food from and chill “.

POINTLESS DRESSING UP: You’ll have wasted your time. Lower your expectations. And given that there are not many #yauatchaSoho pics on IG - take heed!

“BIRTHDAY” ACKNOWLEDGMENT: A miringue biscuit with a candle. lol.

My parter didn’t even want to take a picture ON HER BIRTHDAY...