In a nutshell:

Loved dining out here as the food reminded me of my numerous days in China over the years – as authentic as it cud get I guess, in a restaurant in Delhi. Chinjabi lovers beware…… there is seldom anything that has typical ‘tadka marke thick gravy’ that is born in India but labelled ‘made in china’.

Address & other details: Yauatcha

Meal for 2: Rs. 1500 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

We came to know about this restaurant from the waiting staff of one of our favorite restaurants in Vasant Kunj Ambience. Unusual, coz people usually do not praise other restaurants. So we thought – Let’s give it a shot. Once we tried to get info on the place we realized this is a Global chain restaurant.

Let me admit, I am very biased against Chinjabi serving restaurants coz I have stayed in China for long & have eaten there at roadside restaurants, mid level restaurants, 5 stars , factory canteens, street thelas & so on. It takes me a few seconds to get the authenticity thing while eating at a restaurant in India.

Here at Yauatcha the food was as close to authentic as it cud get. The food options were not restricted to chicken & paneer as in most other places. Options in sea food were many & there were different meats & veggie options as well.

The interiors were very simple but nice. Furniture consisted of chairs with colorful seats on metal frame, simple brown wooden tables. The bar area is a bit more glitzy but that I guess is due to the colors of the miscellaneous bottles & not necessarily for the way it is made.

The staff were better than many other restaurants but have a very long way to go to represent such a nice restaurant. In terms of behaviour, efficiency etc they were good. In terms of product knowledge they failed miserably.

Examples – We asked what is blue tea. The answer was ‘It is a kind of green tea’!!!! There were 3 kinds of blue tea. I asked what is the difference. Answer was ‘ they are actually the same but *****’. I did not understand a word of the ****. Maybe the idea was ‘If u cannot convince this nutcase, confuse him.’

Went on to food menu. Asked what is the difference between prawn cheung fung & crispy fried prawn cheung fung. Answer was ‘first is steamed , second is crispy fried’. I asked – Is the cheung fung fried / is the filling fried? Answer was wobbled. After 2 -3 sentence exchanges I gave up & ordered the prawn cheung fung.

Loved the food in general & wud surely get back to try more.

Detailed Description – In case u have the Time to NJOY reading:

We started our lunch with Chilean seabass Mooli roll. This had a super soft layer of thin mooli as the external cover, wrapped around with a herb. Inside was an excellent flaky fish that was super tasty, had intense flavors but overall subtle & not on the face. Juice wud trickle down as I bit into the roll. Loved it. Rate it 4.5/5

Post this we moved on to Scallop sui mai. I took a bite and tasted prawns, another small bite, still tasted prawns. Last bite towards the top was scallop. 1/3 the size of the entire suimai was scallop. Classic case of setting wrong expectations. The suimai was topped with caviar. Now this one exceeded expectations.

Excellent dimsum, perfect texture, juicy, soft, very tasty. As authentic flavor as possible. Rate it 4.5/5

Next dish we ordered was Prawn cheung Fung. This was a bunch of understated but good prawn filling in the center & steamed rice based slippery outer layer. Once again, very subtle, juicy dish that was full of flavors. Rate it 4.5/5. People used to strong tastes only might not find this dish as good.

Post the cheung fung we ordered Braised seafood in spicy sauce. Thos was erved to us in a basket made from rice!!!! There was assorted seafood that were quite good. They were soft, flavorful & tasty. Not at all rubbery / chewy. The sauce used was a bit less authentic but nevertheless very good. Rate it 4.25/5

We ordered a soup pretty late in the day & it arrived after we had done part of starters. It was Seafood dumpling in supreme stock. There was something in the two words ‘supreme stock’ that attracted us & we went for the soup.

The stock based soup was indeed supreme. It had a character of its own. That was surely from the stock that acted as the base. Once again the food was so simle yet so good. Intense, tasty, flavorful. Seafood dumpling was excellent as well. Loved every bit of it. Rate this 4.5/5

For main course we ordered Steamed fish in black bean sauce. Black bean sauce is characterised by a pungent fermented feel. That part was a bit toned down here. The taste was good but nowhere as great as the rest of the dishes. Rate the sauce 3/5.
The fish itself was very nice & enjoyable. Rate the fish 4/5

Overall rating for the dish averages out to 3.5/5.

We also tried Emperor rice. This was served on a minced seafood sauce. The sauce was excellent. The rice was jasmine rice, a bit sticky, very aromatic & soft. It tasted great just as it is & with the sauce at the base. Rate this dish 4.5/5

For drink we went for Tsui Yu Oolong Blue tea. It was subtle, flavorful & good. Rate it 3/5.

For dessert we ordered Blood orange cake. This turned out to b a rich dark chocolate cake topped with two slices of blood orange & blood orange jus. Simply loved the cake as it is & with the combo. Rate it 4.75/5

For the uninitiated, blood orange is a variety of orange blood-colored flesh. The fruit is smaller than an average orange; its skin is usually pitted. The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanins, a family of pigments common to many flowers and fruit, but uncommon in citrus fruits. The flesh develops its characteristic maroon color when the fruit develops with low temperatures during the night.

Overall rating of food at Yauatcha averages out to 4.22/5. I wud surely revisit to try out more options & also to get nostalgic about my days in China……