Yi Ban, Royal Docks, Dockside Road, City of London, Greater London E16 2QT

Whenever we feel like having dim sum (and it's always one day before we actually eat it, that's how it is), there is an important decision to make - do we go before the crowd, or after the crowd. Where we go to depends on whether or not we're eating with friends. If we're dining alone, Yi Ban is our first and usually, only, choice.

If we're dining with friends, then it's usually somewhere in town where it's easier for everyone to get to. I think the last time I had dim sum anywhere aside from Yi Ban was at Pearl Liang (near Paddington) which was pretty good, though the portions weren't as pleasing as they could have been.

What I really like about Yi Ban is the amount of natural sunlight in this place. Dining here at lunchtime feels like I'm sitting outside in the sun, and the loud chatter from the tables around us means that it's OK for us to talk as loud as we like. The building housing the restaurant is a weird one (don't get me started on the location) as it's shared by both the restaurant, and a canoe club. Because of that, the atmosphere here on a sunny Sunday afternoon is one of happy children squeaks, tanned rowers, and families waiting for their bellies to be filled with dim sum.

Going up the wooden stairs, the first thing that usually greets me is a long queue of hungry diners waiting patiently to get a table. As the restaurant opens around 11am, getting there for 12pm usually means you're just in time to get a table before the 'yum cha' crowd arrives. As it's traditional for families to spend all afternoon sipping tea and enjoying dim sum, getting there right after everyone's got a table usually means a long wait.

So, if you miss the 12pm slot, try getting there for about 3pm which is when I've noticed most people leave (restaurant closes at 4pm so there might be a slight rush if you get there at 3pm).
We usually request a table by the window, as the husband likes watching the rowers and the stuff going on at City Airport which is just across the river. On a warm sunny day, this is the perfect place to sit around enjoying some Chinese tea, watching others do some rowing (similar to watching TV, but without the info button).

Back to the subject of food. I've blogged about this place before (here), and as with most dim sum places, placing your order is almost like doing an exam, where if you shade outside the box, you ain't getting the Har Gau. We've tried almost everything on the menu now, and what we haven't tried is probably not very good (or so I tell myself).

Favourites here are the Har Gau, and the King Prawn Cheung Fun. Recent favourites include the dessert Sesame Paste Ball (fab stuff, make sure you order it early as it takes 20 mins minimum to steam).



Century egg and pork congee (rice porridge)

One of the must-orders, this is perfect comfort food. Smooth, silky rice porridge flavoured with the meaty pork slices, and for a touch of difference, sliced century eggs. One portion is a bowl big enough to feed 4 as a taster.



Deep fried crullers (yau char kway)

Served as an accompaniment to the rice porridge - the ones here are served hot and crispy.



King prawn cheung fun

Another dish done consistently well here - as in, every time we've had it, it's been excellent. The best quality king prawns (crunchy, tender, juicy) wrapped in silky smooth, translucent rice noodles, steamed and served with a soy-based sauce.



Deep fried cheung fun

Kinda like the dish above, but without the prawns, and deep-fried. So, not really like the dish above at all, but I'm running out of adjectives.



Seaweed roll

My mom's favourite - fresh king prawns wrapped in seaweed and deep fried. These prove surprisingly crunchy and juicy when bit into, providing for a burst of flavour (literally) and textures.

Char Siew Pau

While it seemed OK to me, apparently this was no match to the ones in Malaysia. I see where it's lacking though, as the portion of filling was quite insubstantial. The bun was light and fluffy, but wasn't balanced off that well by the filling.

Prawn dumplings (har gau)

By now you must have guessed that the king prawns here are very fresh indeed. This dish is one of our favourites. Something about translucent rice paper skins wrapped around prawns. Mmm.



Scallop dumplings

Like the prawn ones, but with a different twist on the wrapper, and with scallops.



Pork and crab dumplings (siew mai)

If you've not had this before, it's minced pork with prawns, wrapped in a chewy skin.



Prawn wantan

We ordered this as my folks thought it was something else, but it was pretty good anyhow. King prawns (we love king prawns) wrapped in wantan skin, deep fried, and served with a salad cream sauce.



Steamed beef balls

One of the new orders - each beef ball is quite substantial, and consists of minced beef with something else in it to make it chewy and bouncy. Served steamed with peas, it's a nice balancing texture to all the prawns.



Mushroom and pork rolls

Finally, another one of my favourites. Described on the menu as mushroom rolls, these bean curd skins are wrapped around a minced pork, prawn and mushroom mixtures, steamed and served with a delicate gravy, and some straw mushrooms on top.



I like the fresh, fuss-free taste and really enjoy the textures in this dish.

What can I say about this place aside from the fact that we come here time and time again for dim sum. I really like the ambience and atmosphere here, and the best thing about it is, the quality of the food here has been consistently good, every time we've been here.

Asakusa, 265 Eversholt Street, Camden, London, NW1 1BA

If you’ve never heard of this place before, you’re subscribing to the wrong newsletter, my friend.



We’d been wanting to come to this place for about 2 years now. Ever since I heard about this place from a friend who was in a Japanese club (whatever that is, because she sure wasn’t Japanese) and she said that they all really liked this place, I decided that I had to try it out.



Then, I read more about it on the internet, and people only ever had nice comments about it. Then, as we tried to book a table there, time and time again, it became apparent that this was no ordinary Japanese restaurant.



This one required booking in advance. Like, lots in advance.

If you want to have dinner here at the peak times (ie Friday or Saturday dinner), best make your booking a week in advance because there are about 7 tables in total, so unless you’re a regular, I don’t reckon you’re gonna get a table that easily.



Anyhow, I made the booking a week in advance for a table for 2, at 7pm, on a Saturday. That was OK, but when our 2 friends said they’d join us for dinner, I changed the booking to a table for 4, and could only fit us in at 6pm.

They open at 6pm. So, at 5.45pm, like overly excited hungry people, we arrived at the place, found a parking spot very close to the restaurant, and waited for the restaurant to open.

It seems a few people were doing the same thing. Now, I’m not sure how many people make a habit of eating dinner at 5.45pm on Saturdays, but there sure were a few people waiting outside the restaurant. I think people were just plan afraid of having their precious tables given away, so decided to just camp outside until they were let in.

On the way in (all of us were looking at each other in a somewhat victorious manner), in the space of 5 minutes, they’d actually turned away 3 groups of dinners (who didn’t book!) so booking is highly advised.

The people who were turned away were so desperate to have something, anything, to eat in there that they actually pleaded and bargained with the waiting staff to let them have a table.

‘We’ll be out of here by 7pm, we won’t be more than half an hour …’

Blink blink.

‘We only want something quick to eat and we’ll be out of here by 7pm.’

Blink blink.

Nope, sorry, no booking, no eating! (my words, not theirs, they were much more polite than me)

15 minutes after opening, the restaurant was nearly full. All 7 tables of it.


(The world’s smallest fan. On the ceiling.)

And because I’ve waited so long to eat here, I was gonna take as many pictures as I could. Usually, when I take pictures in a restaurant, especially a small one, the waiting staff are usually quite suspicious of me, and tend to give me suspicious little glances. Here at Asakusa, they were nothing but nice, and the smiles continued throughout the entire meal. Everyone who served us were nothing if not polite, taking the time to explain things to us slightly ignorant, non-Japanese diners, and even went to and from and kitchen trying to get explanations from the chef if certain changes could be made to the items on the menu.

Totally exceptional service from the waiting staff, and totally deserving of the 12.5% service charge included in the bill.



I’d read from other reviews that the best thing to do at this restaurant was to order as many little portions to share as possible, instead of ordering one big main meal individually. So that we did.



Agedashi tofu £3.50 (deep fried tofu in special sauce)

Because we really like this dish, we usually order it in most Japanese restaurants we go to. Kinda like a benchmark of how good a restaurant is, I guess. The cubes of silken tofu were light and very soft, with a batter equally as light befitting its soy interior. Once I’d taken the first squishy bite, the delicate sauce trickled through, moistening the fluffy yet soft tofu even more. Excellent first dish.



Buta no kakuni £4.50 (simmered belly pork in special sauce)

I’ve always wanted to try this. I’d heard a lot about this pork belly dish, and was curious to see how it’d compare to the Chinese version of ‘tau yew bak’ or stewed pork in dark soy sauce. And I must say, to our delight, this dish was excellent in its own right.

The description on the menu (in brackets above) does not do it justice. Special sauce is not good enough a description for this amazing, out of this world, best sauce there is, sauce.

The pork could have been slightly softer (I think it’s because it was lean pork), but aside from that insignificant point, everything else about it was amazing. The taste can only be described as ‘umami’, being sweet, more-ish, salty, meaty, and everything else in between at the same time.

It would have been perfect eaten with some steaming, fluffy rice, but we had more to try, so upwards and onwards we went.



Nasu dengaku £4 (deep fried aubergine with sweet soy-bean paste)

Another favourite with us – we know the one at TenTenTei is excellent, but how would this compare?

2 of the diners proclaimed this to be the best version of this dish they’d tasted, and 1 said that it was comparable to the one at TenTenTei. I thought that it was slightly better than the one at TenTenTei, which means that it was the best version I’ve had so far.

3 to 1 for this being the best version of the dish. Ever.



The aubergine was deep fried, making the skin crispy and the inside of the aubergine all soft, warm and lovely-mushy. The miso topping was a perfect blend of sweet and salty, and how anyone would not like this dish, I don’t know.



Ebi furai £6.10 (4 prawns deep fried in breadcrumbs, served with special sauce and salad)

You know how when you have a table full of excellent dishes of all kinds, and you’re wowed by each one in succession? Well, when we had that many top-of-the-class dishes in front of us, this one was the only one which perhaps wasn’t that … ‘wow!’

Don’t get me wrong, it was good, and perhaps, most restaurants would have been proud to have been able to serve something like this, but in Asakusa, this was only so-so. The prawns were big and crunchy, the batter was light and flavoured well, but nothing about the dish stood out from the other dishes. Maybe it’s because it’s meant to be a mild-tasting dish, something to be eaten on its own rather than in between many strong-tasting dishes. Whatever the case, while it was good, it wasn’t excellent.



Wafu steak £6.30 (beef steak with grated white radish served with salad)

Someone wrote a review about how they really liked the wafu steak from Asakusa so I decided we should try it out. The beef was tender and cooked rare (although we asked for it medium, but I like it rare anyway, so I wasn’t too bothered), although I perhaps should’ve eaten this before trying any of the other stronger tasting dishes.



On its own, as a perfectly-cooked piece of meat, this was a very good example of how good beef should be cooked. Each piece was seared on the outside, yet pink on the inside. Taste-wise, aside from being beefy, I couldn’t taste much else, so if you order this on its own, it should be top notch.



On the specials menu – deep fried sardines, about £4

After we’d spent about 15 mins deciding what to order, and then finally settling down to the 9 dishes or so, I found the green specials menu hidden underneath the main menu.

Oh no.

I can’t NOT order something from the specials menu, can I, so we did. Again, I’d read somewhere about the sardines being really good here, so I decided to go for the deep fried version of the fishy fish. While I really liked this, another friend who doesn’t like strong fishy-tasting fish didn’t.

I thought it was a fantastic example of what could be done with fish that’s usually deemed to be poor man’s fish, as not only was the fish so delightfully succulent, but the batter and combination of tangy salad actually made this dish a good, solid main meal on its own. I loved the strong fishy flavour that accompanied every crunchy, juicy bite, and could have easily finished it on my own.



Tako sashimi £6 for 6 pieces

This isn’t on the menu, but we asked the (very patient) waitress if we could have an order of just octopus sashimi and after a few trips to the kitchen, she returned with the affirmative answer that yes, we could have six pieces of octopus for 6 squid (ha ha).

The octopus was served very cold, and very thick. Each piece took a good few chews to get down, which, to me, is the sign of a good, fresh piece of fish.



Yakitori £2.50 (2 skewers of grilled chicken and onion with special sauce)

I would have more of an opinion on this if not for the fact that the fiance ate (almost) all of it while I was busy taking pictures of the food. I think, in fact, he spat out the last piece just as he was eating it, when he realised that he hadn’t left any for me. The chicken pieces were very juicy and tender, and that was probably because they used a combination of dark meat, and some skin, which grills really well. Compared to other yakitoris I’ve had, this one was possibly the best version of them all.



Maguro nuta £4.30 (raw tuna with special vinegar and soy-bean paste)

I’d never had something like this before, and I’m so glad I’ve now tried this. I don’t usually like tuna, because to me, the texture is kinda in the middle of nowhere. It’s not squidgy and creamy like salmon, neither is it chewy and firm like squid (my absolute favourite sashimi of all time). I don’t quite like the taste of tuna either, as it tastes of nothing (to me anyway).



I really like this version, though, because not only was the tuna cut up into thick, succulent chunks (making it absolutely meaty), but the lovely sweet and salty miso paste made the tuna actually taste of something. Like my friend said, you couldn’t taste the tuna underneath all that miso paste, but that’s how I like my tuna!

Tuna-lovers might not appreciate this dish too much, I don’t reckon. Salmon-lovers, tuck in.


Tsukune £2.50 (grilled chicken meatballs on skewers with special sauce)

I’m not entirely sure what this ‘special sauce’ is, as it seems to be popping up on most of the dishes. I’m pretty sure it’s not the same special sauce being used throughout, but whatever the case is, either the chef is being mysterious about it, or just can’t be bothered describing it in too much detail on the menu. So, I’ll do it.

It tasted like chicken meatballs with teriyaki sauce. Slightly sweet, a little sticky, and it had a hint of plum-like sauce to it. While entirely pleasant, it wasn’t anything too different, and made for a pleasing starter.



Green tea and black sesame ice-cream £3.40

We don’t usually order dessert at restaurants, but something in the air that day made us feel quite generous (and hungry) so we did just that.

The green tea ice-cream wasn’t green enough, if you get what I mean, but texture-wise, it was creamy and delightfully thick. Everyone at the table preferred the black sesame version, which tasted like black sesame, and if you don’t know what that tastes like, you should go try some out because it’s one of those things I just can’t describe. Eaten together, those 2 flavours are weird. Good weird though, as I finished off whatever the others couldn’t.



Japanese sweet £3.20

When we asked the waitress what this was, she looked slightly perplexed and tried her best to describe it to us. Because I kinda had an inkling as to what she was trying to describe anyway, I yelled ‘pancake?’ and was rewarded by a huge beam from her. Her happy nods and ‘Yes, yes, pancake!’ convinced me to order a portion despite knowing what it’d taste like anyway, and I was glad I did that.



I’ve had this before, but not had it warm, and the gloopy red bean paste sitting snugly inside a fluffy, spongy pancake made for a delightful round-up to the meal.

To sum it up, this restaurant, to me, is the best Japanese restaurant in town. Some restaurants only do sushi well, some only do cooked food well. This one is a front-runner in all categories of the menu, and they do what they do spectacularly well, at a very reasonable price. The service here was attentive, and efficient. The food is fresh, absolutely impressively fresh, and if I manage to book a table here again, I’ll most definitely be making a return visit to try out the other things on the menu.

M’sian home cooking

(Been searching through my draft posts and decided to post this so it's from some time back.)

My mum has transformed from someone who couldn’t cook to someone who actually has a secret stack of recipes, all hand-written and crumpled with the many times she’s referred to them. Whenever I’m home, she’ll try to bring out all the new dishes she’s learnt and it always amazes me how good her cooking skills have become.

Some of my favourite home-cooked dishes are shown below. Alot of them are plain and simple dishes as I remember them from my childhood, but as you all know, sometimes these are the best types of meals.

Different lighting from different meal times - also partly due to rubbish photography skills

Tung choy cheng chu yuk (Steamed pork with preserved vegetables)

Bits of pork minced with some tung choy, seasoned with salt and pepper, and steamed. That’s all. Easy. When I was a kid, I used to have plate after plate of rice with just the gravy from the dish alone. Just gravy and rice, lots and lots of it.

Lou kai kiok (Stewed chicken feet)

This is another one of those home-cooked favourites that can’t be found in restaurants. Chicken feet is stewed in soy sauce (and other sauce mixtures) till cooked, and hard boiled eggs added in to absorb the flavour. Eaten with rice, the gravy alone can can take me through plates of it.

Salted fish meat patties

I specifically asked my mum to make this dish while I was home. It’s not like I can’t make this in London, well, maybe the salted fish is quite expensive so I don’t buy it here, but it’s different, you know? Eating this at home makes it taste a little better.

Dark soy sauce sweet chicken

I used to call this ‘Teem Gai’, or sweet chicken, as this is how it tastes. First the chicken pieces are fried (not deep-fried, but fried so preferably the skin should be left on to allow the chicken to be nice and crispy) and then the sauce is made, and the chicken pieces thrown back into the work to absorb all the lovely flavours. The sauce is made with thick, dark soy sauce, soy sauce, a little oyster sauce and quite a bit of sugar. When cooked, the sauce (because of the sugar) thickens up (and sometimes tends to stick to the bottom of the wok), but this ensures that the chicken pieces are coated perfectly.

It’s almost like biting into a boiled sweet, where the shell first cracks and then the tender chicken piece inside is revealed.

Steamed lap cheong and lap ngap (Chinese sausage and waxed duck)

This has traditionally been a Chinese New Year dish with us, as waxed duck is one of those things we get during the festive period. I’m sure there’s something on Wikipedia as to why this is so (but I’m not going to research that just now).

The taste of this always reminds me of when I was in school, as this was one of the simplest dishes that could be made for dinner. Chuck a few pieces of Chinese sausage and waxed duck onto a plate, put that on top of some rice in the rice cooker, and half an hour later, a lovely meaty smell is wafting around. We usually drizzle some dark soy sauce over the dish and that blends quite well with the oil that is steamed out of the duck and sausages, really lovely gravy for hot, steamed rice.

(OK, a tiny bit of flash photography coming up ...)

Claypot fish with Japanese tofu, baby sweetcorn and vegetables

This is a new dish in that it wasn't one of those I had when I was a kid. My mom tried something similar when she was in London, and tried making it at home and it turned out really nice! Not sure what fish she used but it's a white fish, and the chunks were deep fried before being stewed in the claypot together with the tofu and vegetables. With the hot gravy over steamed rice, absolutely perfect.

Aubergine with dried prawns (har mai)

This is another one of the new dishes learned from restaurants, and mastered through practise. Pieces of aubergine are coated in a light flour batter before being deep fried (this is one looooong process, believe me) and once that's done, they're removed from the wok. The small prawns (fragrant, and used to add a new dimension to dishes) are sauteed in hot oil, with some seasoning, before the aubergine is thrown back into the wok for one more thorough stir and the dish is ready to be served.

Fish and vegetable curry

There have been a few version of this curry dish through the years, but they are largely similar in that this is a slightly sour curry (fish curries in Malaysia tend to be) flavoured with assam skin to give it the limey, tangy taste, and the vegetables used are usually a combination of ladies fingers (okra), aubergine and green beans. This is one of my favourites because it doesn't feel that heavy like curries usually do, mainly due to the limey lift from the assam skin. A plate of steamed, fluffy rice drenched in this gravy, with a crumbling of poppadum (and a fried egg) is possibly one of the nicest dishes I've had.

Stewed pork in soy sauce (lou chu yuk)

Now THIS is definitely on top of the league of childhood dishes, and I can understand why. Aside from it being so unbelievably tasty, it's also not a difficult dish to cook once you've got the seasoning and ingredients right. The pork is stewed in a sauce made from soy sauce (light and dark), star anise, garlic cloves and white pepper. Once cooked for a few hours, the meat and sauce almost melt into each other, resulting in a stew with the most tender, flavoursome meat. Fantastic with rice (you're beginning to see a trend now, aren't you).

To round it off, one of my favourites of all time (I was craving this a few days ago).

Baked beans with fried egg and sliced onions

Yes, possibly a combination of items guaranteed to give your social life a decline, but who cares when you get a dish that good in return? When I mentioned this recipe to my friends, the most common reaction I got back was one of slight suspicion, mixed in with curiosity.

If you like all these 3 ingredients separately, how can you not like it together? It's the ultimate in comfort food and if you know you're not going out (for the next few days), throw these 3 ingredients together and you'll have a warm, tomatoey, beany dish perfect for ... guess it ... white rice!

Mmm I'm hungry.