Name: Saturday Supreme Menu at Yauatcha City
Where: Yauatcha City, Broad Gate, London, EC2M 2QS, http://www.yauatcha.com/city/supreme-saturdays/
Cost: On Saturdays, Yauatcha City offers this great value set-price menu at £49 per person, inclusive of a pre-lunch and a post-lunch cocktail, half a bottle of wine per person, and a four-course meal between 12pm and 6:30pm. There are two house wines to choose from in the Supreme Saturday menu, an Italian red and an Alsatian white.
About: Regular readers will know that I regard Yauatcha, both Soho and City branches, as the best dim sum venues in London.
Yauatcha City is packed during the week with a mainly work crowd, but I was surprised to find, arriving on a Saturday lunchtime, that this Liverpool Street eatery was packed with Londoners even when the City types are away for the weekend.
The Supreme Saturdays menu at Yauatcha City is available from 12pm until 6:30pm on Saturdays, for a minimum of 2 guests. There are four courses on this menu – two courses of dim sum (fried and steamed), followed by the main course (a choice of three dishes with each person choosing one), ending with the dessert course.
Yauatcha’s open-air terraces are now open to the public, with great views over Broadgate Circle, they are ideal spots for dim sum and after work drinks.
What We Ate: The menu starts with a platter of 4 fried or baked dim sum items. The venison puff, with unctuously tender venison in a richly flavoured sauce encased by a buttery and super light pastry, was definitely a treat.
Equally good was the mushroom spring roll which had a delicate truffle aroma, while the lobster roll came in a snow-white crisp rice-flour casing around a rich, velvety lobster filling - quite a technical feat.
The sesame prawn toast was an accomplished version of a dish which has been a British favourite since the 1970s, with the tail of a whole king prawn beautifully presented, emerging from the top of the dumpling.
Moving on to the platter of 6 steamed dim sum dumplings – the pork and prawn shui mai and the har gau prawn dumplings were both excellent – light, flavoursome and so fresh.
There were two steamed dim sum in striking jade green casing (the colour coming from Chinese chive extract) - the black pepper and Wagyu beef dumplings were scrumptious, while the vegetable wrap had great textures (crunchy but also soft) was deliciously scented with a slice of fresh truffle.
The mushroom dumpling was filled with a rich variety of aromatic wild earthy fungi while the crystal dumpling wrap with pumpkin and pine nut had a vibrant orange casing (coloured with carrot juice).
The main course offers a choice of three dishes, we opted for the lobster vermicelli and the pork belly. The lobster was segmented, wok-fried with vermicelli, the meat was sweet and so tender, making for a deliciously luxurious main course.
But my favourite main course was the truffle pork belly served on the rib, and beautifully presented with a topping of Shimeji mushrooms, aromatic diced truffles, and with a side serving of baby asparagus and an edible nasturtium flower. The meat was very tender, coming off the bone, it was sweet and totally scrumptious.
The main courses came with a portion of jasmine steamed rice and stir-fried pak choi with garlic.
Included in the Saturday Supreme menu is a selection of desserts from Yauatcha's famous range of patisserie. One of our choices was the delectable apricot yoghurt, with honey cream, freshly baked orange madeleine, and almond.
The other choice was the jasmine honey dessert – a milk chocolate dome filled with jasmine cream and caramelised honey, served with a quenelle of honey ice cream. Stunningly presented as might be expected, both desserts showed off the skills of the patisserie team at Yauatcha. We were also impressed by the size of the desserts – they were surprisingly generous.
What We Drank: The Saturday Supreme menu includes both a pre- and a post-lunch cocktail, and while making our food selection on the open-air terrace, I had a well made, strong Negroni that really hit the spot! Dr G chose the Thea martini - a refreshing an appetite-stimulating concoction of Zubrowka vodka, ginger juice, vanilla and chilli sugar, apple juice and lime.
With our meal, we chose the house red - a Cabaletta, Rosso delle Venezie 2014 from Veneto. This oak-aged blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Sauvignon was medium bodied, with prune and cherry fruit flavours and very soft tannins. Enjoyable in its own right, it worked surprisingly well with many dishes on the menu.
We also got to try and a glass of the Sauvignon Blanc on tap which is available at the open-air terrace at Yauatcha (this is not part of the Saturday Supreme menu). This was a fresh, herbaceous and young Sauvignon Blanc, easy drinking and ideal for the English summer.
For our post lunch cocktail, we opted for the Manhattan and Espresso Martini. Combining sweetness with astringency, these were the perfect accompaniment to our desserts.
Likes: great value set menu, fantastic cocktails. Stand out dishes for me were the truffled pork belly and the patisserie desserts.
Dislikes: None
Verdict: The Saturday Supreme menu at Yauatcha City is one of the best value menus in London right now – four courses of exquisite food, boozy cocktails and wine all thrown in. I have already been twice, and cannot wait to return! Very highly recommended.
