glamgirlgonegourmet: Right back at Yauatcha

Whenever I have a food craving, it's almost always for an Asian type dish - something with noodles, some dim sum, some wasabi peas ( I love wasabi peas). The beauty of dim sum is that you get to try loads of different flavours and textures, and it's food that justifies a restaurant visit - if justification were needed! - as most Westerners wouldn't dream of making at home, myself included.

Last night we sampled the delights at Yauatcha, Alan Yau's modern Chinese tea house on Berwick Street in Soho. The restaurant downstairs is the perfect chill out zone after a crazy week at work, all soft lighting, a fish tank that runs the length of the bar and twinkling 'stars' above your head. We ordered a modest selection of dim sum, as we wanted belly space left over for the legendary puddings afterwards.

We shared 3 different types of shui mei (pork and prawn, beef and blue swimmer crab), which are open top steamed dumplings so you can see the filling poking out the top- the pictures below give a better sense of what I mean. The pork and prawn and beef were good, but the blue swimmer crab shui mei was outstanding, rich, chunky, meaty crab on delicate dumpling, just yummy. We also had crystal dumpling wraps, which were a little bland, I'm not sure butternut squash stands up to the flavours that accompany dim sum, but perfectly acceptable. The prawn and mango rice paper rolls were delicate little parcels of true deliciousness - prawn and mango just works so well together. The Char Sui Cheung Fun was a cannelloni style wrap of beautifully cooked pork meat, served covered with soy and was heavenly.

Having savoured our dim sum, we moved on to the dessert menu, and were encouraged by the staff to go upstairs and have a look at the desserts in the small patisserie on the ground floor. We discovered upstairs that they sell chocolate and tea, as well as the desserts to take away. My dining companion decided that rather than have dessert, she would nibble at some chocolates and we agreed that we would share these (I cannot watch someone having food without wanting to try some!) and the milk chocolate praline cake. That cake was superb. Light, with a mousse like texture, but not so light that you feel you've been short changed. Deeply chocolatey and utterly fabulous. Just typing this is making my mouth water. Accompanying the pudding were the selection of chocolates that we'd chosen upstairs. I may going into ranting and raving territory now - the chocolates are sublime. Luxurious tasting with a range of great flavours, they rounded the meal off perfectly. My favourites were the mango and balsamic, the green tea and the vanilla rum. I brought some chocolates on the way out (buy them in a bag by weight rather than in a box, unless money is no object toy you) and am heading to my fridge to scoff these now. If I finish them all, I've got the perfect excuse to go back!

Note - My only minor quibble about the restaurant was that the staff, whist very sweet, were a bit scatty, not really acceptable in a half full restaurant with a reputation such as Yauatcha. It was sometimes hard to get their attention, they forgot our blue swimmer crab shui mei so we had to ask for it again and we also had to ask for the remainder of our wine (in an ice bucket away from the table) to be served to us. But these are only minor complaints and they certainly wouldn't prevent me from going there again.