Last updated: 30 July 2023
Updated – 8 April 2023. Yuu Kitchen is situated on Commercial Street, a busy thoroughfare in London’s Aldgate East. Serving up South East Asia and Pacific rim fusion with sharing style dishes small plates. It’s like tapas, Asian style.
[lwptoc]
The Interior
Yuu Kitchen provides a casual yet cool dining experience with the décor featuring many nods to SE Asia. The timber bird cages that hang from the ceiling and prominent art throughout the restaurant is a Manga storyline from Hong Kong based artist Lun Wong which follows a young yakuza member who embarks on a night of adventure.
The Exterior
If dining al fresco is more to your flavour then you might be interested to know that Yuu Kitchen offers a small selection of outdoor tables which is perfect for the warmer weather in London. However, with the interior décor looking as fab at it is, it’s hard to go past an indoor table.
The Menu
If you’re planning a visit today then we recommend checking out the Yuu Kitchen website to access the latest menu offering to see what is currently being served. Here’s a sneak peak of the current menu as of April 2023.
The Tables
At capacity, the restaurant seats 60 at sharing-style tables with timber high chairs, seating between 4 and 22 per table. Places are set with side plate, sauce dish and black plastic chopsticks, all you need for the meal ahead. Meanwhile, the air is thick with delicious quintessential Asian smells of soy and sesame.
The Dining Experience
My dining experiences was from a previous menu so not all the dishes covered below are available on the current menu but quite a few of them are so you’ll be able to experience these when you visit Yuu Kitchen.
Behind the open kitchen are two large ceramic charcoal BBQ’s known as Big Green Egg where most of the grilling takes place. Perched on high chairs at the kitchen table, we have a front row seat to the sights and smells of the Yuu Kitchen.
We started with Grilled Broccoli on the Egg followed by sticky and tender Baby Back Ribs with Asian BBQ sauce topped with spring onion, chili, string paprika and sesame seeds.
I have to be honest, I find myself turning my nose up to vegan dishes, questioning how anything can be tasty and flavoursome without meat or meat products. Well, I stand corrected. The sticky sweetness of eggplant with a white miso glaze is simply divine. Texture of the eggplant is squishy, topped with crunchy shallots and sesame. It’s a top selling dish at Yuu Kitchen and it’s not hard to see why.
Our eggplant is accompanied with Pinoy special, Cassava Fries. Thick cut chips, topped with hot-smoked paprika and served with a tangy adobo mayonnaise. We devoured these alongside the soft and smooth yellow fin tuna with pickled radish and spring onion with the crunch of the tortilla chip, Spicy Tuna Tostada.
Time to choose a bao. A tough call, decision based on recommendation I opted for the house special, a 7UP braised pork belly bao, served with BBQ sauce, cucumber pickles and peanuts.
We also ordered Soy & Buttermilk Crispy Chicken bao, with super spicy carolina reaper chilli mayo and daikon pickle which was far too spicy for my palette.
A neighbouring diner ordered the crispy soft shell crab bao with wasabi mayo, lettuce and red onion, which looked superb!
Lechon Kawali 12 hour braised pork belly, the pork was tasty, moist and flavoursome. I preferred it without the accompanying mama sita’s sauce.
The Drinks
The bar is stocked with in-house beer, wines from Europe, Australia and South Africa and a steady cocktail list utilising Asian flavours like yuzu and lychee. I opted for a couple of cocktails to get the night started and took recommendations from the staff.
The Drunk Calamansi is rum based with blue curaco and a medley of citrus flavours including pineapple and calamansi juices and apple syrup.
Highly recommended by the staff was the Oolong Mojito. Served in a white ceramic teapot topped with fresh mint, the oolong tea is infused with white rum, and married with zesty lime and apple juice, topped off with the sweetness of sugar syrup.
Desserts
The dessert menu is small by comparison to the rest of the menu. Flavours of banana and coconut dominate the five options.
We opted for one Banana Turon with spring roll with cashews and your choice of ice cream. The house recommendation of coconut was a good tip and culturally on point.
Citrus mochi board provided a refreshing way to round off an overall pleasant meal. Mochi plate flavours of sesame, zesty yuzu, mango and a creamy vanilla.
The Essentials
– Yuu Kitchen –
- Where: 29 Commercial St, London E1 6NE
- Price point: The meal in this review would cost circa £70 for two people, excluding drinks
- For More: Yuu Kitchen is listed in the top 40 restaurant in London
- Who to bring here: The sharing tables are perfect for a catch up evening with some friends. Single seats can easily be accommodated on the kitchen table which is ideal for business traveller dining solo mid week
- For Reservations: Yuu Kitchen
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Looking for more London Restaurants?
Are you looking for some other London restaurant suggestions? You might be interested in checking out our review on OKA Marylebone or perhaps Frog by Adam Handling restaurant in Covent Garden. Let us know your thoughts if you go visit because we’d love to hear about your experience.
This was amazing to read, I can not wait to visit
Wow!! What a delicious post and mouth watering food you shared. Love all pictures. Thank you so much for sharing this post.
Ooh this is near one of my fave gin bars – I’ll need to check it out as an option to soak up the booze!
Oooo a GIN BAR! Now you’re talking! Which one it?