Yauatcha

I have walked past this place many times on my way through Soho and have always thought that the deserts looked very beautifully designed. I often have dim sum for breakfast on a Saturday in Chinatown and thought that I would give this place a try based on the five star review here.

It is a wonderful looking restaurant with fairy lights on the ceiling and a long fish tank running along side the bar. The waiters were attentive, but in a kind of robotic fashion, in that they knew they had to be polite, but didn't quite understand why.

The food itself was very well presented and very nice in a sort of messed about fusion food kind of way. The Cha siu pork buns were standard roast pork buns albeit about twice the price of most restaurants in Chinatown and much smaller. The Cha siu cheung fun was nice if a little salty. Pine nuts seemed to feature in quite a few dumplings and may be responsible for the fairly high cost. I really liked the roast duck fried dumplings which looked like little Christmas puddings.

The bottom line for me though is that this costs more than double what I would pay in many Chinatown restaurants and albeit it looks nice I'd rather have a honest tasty slut that I can eat than an overpaid bored painted whore who just lies there thinking that aesthetics are all that matter.

Very nice place and good food but I wouldn't go there again.
This is because it was so thriving and busy that I couldn't hear myself think, so forget having a conversation... at least when it's busy anyway

I went to Yauatcha four years ago based on the delicious food and recently decided to opt to return for dinner with a group of about a dozen friends. Big mistake! In the intervening years it has become the sort of place where the female clientele look like they tried but failed to get on Footballer’s Wives. There is now a burly bouncer on the door which made me feel like I was going clubbing on Brighton seafront rather than out for a meal. And don’t even get me started on the music. I mean I like house music but, really can you have a chinese meal to house music?? Everything just seems so cold and clinical. Now the prices though were the real clincher. I wouldn’t recommend going here as a group for the £65 a head meal. I actually left hungry, they decided to charge us £100 extra for fish (which if it hadn’t been there we would have got 2 bowls of green beans to share between the twelve of us), and when it came to the payment they clustered the slightly menacing management staff round our table as if they knew that we were being taken for a ride. The only upside was our waitress who seemed like the only decent person in the entire establishment. The only thing I would recommend about this place is giving it a very, very, very wide berth.

My husband and I had a lovely time at the restaurant yesterday night. It was a good choice to celebrate my birthday. The staff was very helpful (from reception until desserts), the interior is completely different to conventional Chinese restaurants, very modern (I suggest the lower ground) and the dim sums are delicious. I would definatelly reccoment and return.

Very very cool looking place and crowd. Great service and food. Prices are reasonable although drink prices (except cocktails) are high. The only problem is that it was incredibly loud in there and I couldn't hold a conversation with my girlfriend sat opposite. That was at 10pm Friday night, maybe it is different at other times.

Love this place, have been a few times and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience- from the amazing cocktails to the wonderful food and sweet service. Highly recommended.

had a fantastic lunch here, beautiful tea and one of the best desserts i've ever had. bought some macaroons for my grandparents and took them home after leaving london---they went crazy for the jasmine flavor!

had a fantastic lunch here, beautiful and one of the best desserts i've ever had. bought some macaroons for my grandparents and took them home after leaving london---they went crazy for the jasmine flavor!