Yuatcha, Bangalore

What does Chinese cuisine mean to you? Manchurian? OK. What does Indian cuisine mean to you? Naan and Chapati or Idly and Dosa? Vada paav or Biriyani? Chettinadu chicken gravy or Butter chicken masala? Since China is a bigger country that India, how can there be one cuisine? However, Chinese cuisine is foreign to India (though it has been around long enough to be called Indian in most small restaurants which is essentially our Indo- Chinese), but Chinese cuisine itself has four major varieties. Yuatcha serves the Cantonese version of Chinese and is essentially a dim sum bar. No, there is no chicken manchurian.  Uniquely, the restaurant which was started in London has three outlets in India!!!

After a meeting in Bangalore and before taking our ride back to Chennai, the three of us decided to while away the two hours at 1MG Road and I remembered that Yuatcha came with a lot of recommendations! Being in the vicinity, I dragged the other two along and within no time we were seated and were discussing the menu. The irony is that one guy was a vegetarian that day and the other was on a diet! To experience the cuisine, they suggest that you go with two or three dim sums, a soup, a rice with sides and a dessert! Clearly they were in no mood for that, so after letting them order single dishes, I asked for the Yuatcha tasting menu which has the perfect balance to experience this restaurant and so I am going to be talking about that for the most part. After placing order, the manager of the restaurant showed us the open kitchen and explained the concept of Yuatcha.

I have had sweet corn soup in a lot of places, but this one was slightly yellow! And tasted the same, yet different. Very familiar flavours with one added flavour and I was not able to make out what it was. The soup bowl was dry within a few minutes. This was followed by a tasting selection of dim sums; a piece each of Chinese chive dumpling, chicken and prawn shui mai, golden fried chicken puff and a friend turnip cake. Each and every one of them were different and I specially liked the puff and the turnip cake which had three pieces, so the 'vegetarian' had that and the diet was forgotten for a brief moment for the other guy! Of the four, the chicken puff had the distinct Cantonese flavour which may not suite all tastes.

The main course then arrived with the egg fried rice which had the distinct Cantonese flavour and that went very well with the Spicy Ian Ching Chicken, the closest to Manchurian that you can expect, but still quite far away. The chicken was a hit and the diet was briefly forgotten again. There was a portion of bok choy, stir fried in Garlic sauce and since I personally love bok choy,  I loved this dish. The meal finished off with two scoops of a fantastic ice cream and, yes, diet was briefly forgotten again. His defence was that a piece of each is OK, but if he had the whole meal, diet would have gone for a toss and I fully agree. They should have a diet watcher version of this meal with just dim sum and dessert and I believe if people like the flavours, it will be a hit!

The other two guys ordered a portion of dim sum, which was the same chicken and prawn dim sum, but the noodle that the vegetarian ordered was fantastic and I don't remember the name!!! Beware, this is not your usual Chinese and the flavours are quite different and some dishes may take time to grow on you, but the restaurant, is brilliant. The setting is minimalistic and elegant and by the time we left, the restaurant was starting to get full.

The set meal is priced at Rs. 998 plus taxes and the whole meal including service charge, VAT and service tax was Rs. 2250 for the three of us. The man who started Yuatcha in London is now in charge of the Chine XO and Leela Palace, Chennai, so, I really need to take a look at this place!!!

Yuatcha is located on the 5th floor of the 1MG ROAD, mall!