There’s one trend that has been everywhere this year restaurant wise, and as I believe I may have alluded to before, it’s one I’m very much in favour of.
Small plates.
Not sure what you fancy? Order a little of everything. Restricted diet and need to be picky? Here’s the opportunity. Want to explore all that a menu has to offer? Here you go.
It’s the best of all worlds. And is perfect for sharing with friends and family. You’ll all have your favourites and sure, you might have to order a second plate of something if it’s so good that everyone likes it, but everyone’s tastes are catered for.
It also, if you’re like me, allows you to be completely greedy all whilst using the argument that you’re sharing. So you can have the extra ones that you fancy, and not look like you’ve ordered the entire menu all for yourself (which you might actually have done).
Which was of course the tack I employed when myself and my date headed to Yuu Kitchen.
Yuu Kitchen is a small but perfectly formed venue, offering small plates with a South East Asian and Pacific Ocean theme. Think Hawaii, Vietnam and Tokyo. Think sticky pork, fresh seafood and crisp tofu. For it is all those things and more.
Yeah I confess. Before we get much further I was already entranced by the Manga and graffiti-esque cartoons on the wall. But the food holds up to the vision. There are a couple of little curious touches that seem a little out of place – but they work, so no argument here.
Let’s start with those.
Sweet potato fries. Delicious, and they came with a fantastically spiced mayo, but not maybe top of my list of obvious Pacific Rim choices. The same with Padron peppers (though I love them with a passion, so all is forgiven) and chicharron – pork skin that is devoid of any fat, dried and then deep fried until it forms crisp clouds of porky goodness, served with a sharp, spicy dipping sauce. So again, all is forgiven. They’re not obvious choices, but they are tasty ones.
Away from that, we are very comfortably in the home of Bao buns, poke bowls and seafood. And we indulged in as many as we could.
We managed not to fight over the sticky chicken wings in a Philipino adobo marinade – with it’s rich umami notes. Ditto with the tofu – which was creamy and well spiced. Just delicious (and my date didn’t like tofu til he tried it).
We did however have to slice the softshell crab bao bun in half (and next time it’ll be one each – but different ones obviously, so we can share again because that’s not being greedy).
Perhaps our two favourite dishes were seafood based. The octopus – barbecued with sake, and mirin was perfect. Charred on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside.
And the poke. A Hawaiian speciality – this bowl was full of octopus and mixed raw fish, tossed in a citrus dressing and served with corn and tortilla chips. Fresh, clean, tasty.
I’d like to say there was a weak dish. Something I was disappointed in, but obviously I need to go back and find it. Going back has nothing at all to do with the dessert.
Nothing AT ALL to do with chocolate filled spring rolls and praline ice cream, served with just a smidge of dulce de leche.
OR the rumoured sweet bao buns.
No sir. Nothing at all.
Yuu Kitchen is bloody delicious. And a little birdie tells me they do some rather decent lunchtime offers and are accepting Christmas bookings.
Anyone fancy covering my train fare?
This meal and accompanying drinks were supplied for free by Yuu Kitchen. As ever, this doesn’t guarantee a positive review (if anything, I tend to be a harsher critic).
In this case the experience was just delightful. The staff were great, the food delicious and I have to say, it’s high on my list of revisits. Just as soon as I can head back down!