The Yuu     一遊日本料理  

When I was being asked to think of a dinning place with the following criteria, The Yuu somehow pops into my mind. Criteria: a) low crab b) non-raw food c) no seafood d) TST and e) comfortable. It was my second visit to this place but I was actually excited about trying some new items on its menu. Contrary to my own belief (or what it used to be), I actually enjoy trying new things; not just relating to food, but all sort of things. I would not say I am an adventurous person (... yet ... ) but I think I am one step closer than yesterday. There is a saying that the more you study, the less risk you are going to take because you have been informed or educated of the potential risks on every actions you take or decisions you make. But I have recently learned that to have a so-called meaningful life, it should be filled with risks. Life is all about risk, there is no point to be staying within the box or trying to make yourself fit within the box so to avoid or minimize risks. Think out of the the box, stay out of the box and live out of the box. There can be challenges as well as fun to out of the risks you are going to take. Anyhow, let me get back to the food items.

(1) Omelet with crab meat 蟹肉厚燒玉子
This is one of the famous items and since I enjoyed it last time, I ordered it again. However, it was rather disappointing. It was very watery for some reasons and the flavors were not as rich as last time. Maybe it was due to the busy hour on a Sat night? Whatever the reason was, the fact was that it was very watery and it somehow showed the inconsistency in the food quality. Revisiting a restaurant provides me the opportunity to review on the consistency factor of a great restaurant.

(2) Soft-shell crab Maki 軟殼蟹卷
This dish, on the other hand, maintained its quality. The soft-shell crab was fresh and crispy and the maki was tightly wrapped. No new surprises here.

(3) Robatayaki Selection
(Grilled Minced Chicken, Grilled OX tongue and chicken Soft bones) This order was another proof for its consistency in terms of food quality. The grilled ox tongue and minced chicken were under-grilled (and a bit cold as if placed at room temperature for a while). These set of skewers seem to be pre-grilled, possibly due the busy hour and that these items are popular items.

(4) Grilled Tofu
How I wish we did not order this dish! It was very dry and if it was grilled for a bit longer, it might turn into bean curd. I am used to grilled tofu or fried tofu to be crispy on the outside and very soft in the inside. Maybe it was the way it was but I personally did not enjoy it at all.

(5) Ginger Beef with Fried Rice in Hot Stone Pot
This dish I liked very much. The ginger mixed very well with the sliced beef in terms of flavors and when you mix them while the stone pot was still hot, the savoring smell would just make you very hungry.

(6) Kimchi Pork with Fried Rice in Hot Stone Pot
Another nice dish but the kimchi flavor was a bit weak. It the kimchi used was a bit more spicy, it would have been way better. I guess tonight was not a good night to go on a low crab diet with all the tasty stone pot rice.

Likes:

* Hot Stone Pot Rice
* Service remains great

Dislikes:

* Inconsistency of food quality (Omelet and Robatayaki Selection)

Previous visit date: 22 Jul 2009

Original Blog: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/08/yuu-revisited.html

My first impression of this place was that the overall decor resembles very much like The Mon @ CWB. Once I looked at their menu, it just further reinforced my assumption due the the series of similarities between them. (I am still not sure by the way.) Let's go back and talk about the decor. The environment looks very much Japanese in my opinion and the ambiance (ie: lighting) was great as well. Not too dark but very soft and mild. Such an atmosphere is great for light meals after work with a few friends and chat over a few beers.

(1) A very fresh fish / Sashimi (Daily Special)
I forgot what was the name of this fish but it was very fresh indeed. (I only know it was not 池魚) There were various condiments in the center of the plate for you to mix with the very thinly sliced sashimi but I personally preferred it the way it was, plain fresh sashimi with just a bit of the sauce.
(2) The Yuu Salad 一遊沙拉
Interesting use of ingredients for this dish. In addition to the normal greens, there were tapioca (those bubbles form in Bubble Tea) and plain mini dumplings (aka "tong yue") as part of the ingredients. These two items provided an interesting texture to the salad. However, the dressing was a bit too watery in my opinion.
(3) Yellow Tail Belly Sashimi (Hamachi) with Geoduck 油金魚/象拔蚌
According to the staff, both the yellow tail and geoduck were daily special and arrived that afternoon. The staff explained in such detailed on their freshness that we might as well give it a try. The Hamachi belly was very nice, the fish oil / fatty part of it slowly melted in the mouth. Of course Toro is still the best in terms of the melting effect/sensation but the one being served was above average already. The geoduck on the other hand was very disappointing. Not only was the portion smaller than expected (we order a whole geoduck expecting a bigger one of course), but it was not that fresh at all. It was chewy but crisp but taste -wise it was not very appealing because it did not taste very fresh in my opinion.
(4) Robatayaki Selection
(Grilled OX tongue 牛舌 / Grilled Salty Fresh Eel 鹽燒鰻魚 / Grilled Minced Chicken 免治雞肉 / Grilled pork with Eggplant 豬肉茄子 / Grilled Quail Eggs 鵪鶉蛋) We ordered a selection of various grilled items. The ox tongue was fair, would be better if grilled a bit longer. Salty Fresh eel was surprisingly delicious but seemed to have too many tiny fish bones in my opinion. (I know eel has many but there were too many ... ...) The grilled pork with eggplant was another surprise. The softness of the eggplant together with the tender pork slices wrapped around was a good combination both in terms of taste and texture. As for the Minced Chicken and Quail Eggs, both were alright, no surprises.
(5) Omelet with crab meat 蟹肉厚燒玉子
I mentioned it many time, whenever there is anything similar to tamagoyaki, I would order it. There was not difference this time. I am not 100% sure if these are traditional way of doing it in terms of having different fillings for the tamagoyaki, but I enjoyed it very much. The egg has been slowly cooked / grilled but not being overcooked. The texture and taste of the crab meat complimented the texture of the egg nicely. I only wished the egg layers were thicker to give it a better "chewing" sensation. One thing I really liked was the way how it was served. The entire tamagoyaki was served as a whole piece without being cut into slices. Thumbs up!
(6) Soft-shell crab Maki 軟殼蟹卷
A fair dish with freshly deep fried soft shell crab but flavor-wise was a bit weak. I think the hand roll option might be a smarter choice but hard to share.
Likes:
* Atmosphere & Decor
* Omelet with crab meat 蟹肉厚燒玉子, very good.
* Grilled pork with Eggplant 豬肉茄子 robatayaki, the combination of these two ingredients is worth a try

Dislikes:
* Service was a bit slow in general
* Very disappointing "fresh" geoduck (象拔蚌)
Original Blog: http://jason-bonvivant.blogspot.com/2009/07/yuu.html

had a dinner with colleagues, our first time of coming to this restaurant.

not sure due to the rain or not, it's quite cold in the restaurant. >.<

5 of us, we ordered a lot of food!

really a lot, some of them are:

- 燒牛舌: tender and juicy, tasted okay!
- 燒corn: very good!!!! grilled taste, strong butter favor, very very good, highly recommend!!
- 燒chicken wing: very crispy, nice!
- 池魚sashimi: very very thin, so thin that i couldn't tell about the taste. maybe i didn't eat it the right way la.
- 油金魚sashimi: okay. overall, the quality of sashimi was so-so (with such prices), better to try for cooked food, esp 串燒.
- tuna salad: this one was quite funny, raw tuna with veggie and heavy sesame sauce. good taste
- 清酒煮蜆: big, i like this one!
- beef udon: good, beef was good in favor and udon was soft.
- desserts were weaker. we tried 4 different things from the dessert menu, so-so. ice-cream should be better.

we had a lot of other food....

it's expensive, happy that we didn't need to pay (and thanks colleague!)

overall, enjoyed the food. yet, given the price range, i'd expect something nicer.

Had dinner here. I havent been to this knutsford area for quite awhile. Seems that the area has changed quite much and also improved. At least the building where this restaurant was has been major renovated giving it a sharp outlook.

This restaurant is dark and demonstrates a place for peoples to have some cosy talk. Probably it is the atmosphere for a real Japanese restaurant. As most Japanese would love to have a drink afterwork. They like to airout their dissatifaction about work and also other greviances. It is rather negative right, why not speak something happy? Anyway, back to the food here.

We ordered quite many bbq sticks. We ordered a large prawn wrapped with chicken skin, asparagus with pork, green pepper and quail eggs. We also ordered a rice with eel in stone bowl. A traditional japanese egg and a avocado and crab roll. The large prawn wrapped with chicken skin was very nice. It was nicely bbq. The prawn was fresh. Of course it wasnt a healthy choice as chicken skin has high cholestrel. Too bad, usually yummy food is not good for health. The asparagus with pork was also nice. This one was rather too salty. But asparagus was very fresh and it was still crunchy when served.

I also like the rice with eel in stone bowl. Of course this was not a traditonal Japanese food, but still okay. But I wonder why there was no burnt rice at the bottom of the rice bowl. It seemed that the stone bowl was not burnt long enough. But anyway, it was still a good choice as the eel was quite fresh and lovely cooked.

The traditional Japanese egg went well with the minced radish. It was rather sweet (concurred with the previous comments here). If it was made using Japanese eggs, it would be passed. If not, then it would be too expensive and also not as tasty as it should be.

If you havent tried this type of restaurant, it would still be worthwhile to go and try this one.