Yummie Yum Cha - Review - Footscray

If you are Chinese every now and then you feel like having yum cha. There are poor, average, good, great and everything in between when it comes to quality. It sort of also depends on your background or own personal benchmark. I've been to a few places where lots of newbies will be satisfied and I'm more - it's okay. Nothing wrong with that as really as long as the diner is happy its a good meal.

Anyway, a local yum cha establishment in Footscray is Yummie. Yummy is probably stretching things as I will not be going back there in a hurry. I was hopeful but too be honest I could almost tell by looking at the place. It has that low-fi appearance that you have in many Chinatown restaurants. This can be good, ie, for prices, and can mean little in relation to the quality of food that is served. Some are excellent quality for the price. Unfortunately this restaurant is probably average to poor. 

To be honest I was left feeling that I could have got some frozen dumplings and steamed them myself and they would probably have tasted better. I'm going to stop now and let you peruse what was eaten.

Congee

A classic is congee. This is Chinese rice porridge. It may not sound that tempting but if you've grown up with it its kind of a comfort food. The congee with preserved egg lacked flavour. Like any type of clear soup, stock or broth, congee should should have as its base a natural broth. This could be chicken, pork, seafood, beef or even vegetarian. It should ooze flavour in the congee. Unfortunately, this seemed like water with a bit of msg (mono sodium glutamate). Passable but only just and that's being generous.

Steamed rice roll with Prawn

The steamed rice roll with scallop is one of my all time favourites. It looks nice enough but needed to be steaming hot and the flavour was average. The soya sauce that was used is sweet soy and I am not a big fan of this. However, depending on your own taste buds you might actually like it this way. This dish comes in many variants and depending on what you like you can get prawn, beef, bbq pork, or chicken. Its still one of my favourites but alas not here.

Prawn dumplings

The prawn dumplings are another favourite as are shark fin dumplings.  If you are worried about the environmental considerations given that the one set of dumplings is meant to be shark fin. Don't be worried. Its highly unlikely any shark fin is actually used. Maybe in a high end Chinese restaurant but not here. These are again functional and a bit subpar. Neither were hot enough and this affects the enjoyment of the dishes. When they are not piping hot the dumplings get very doughy. In the case of the shark fin dumplings they are almost coarse as the dumpling skin is still quite hard.

Shark fin dumplings

I enjoy having chicken glutinous rice. There are many variants on what ingredients you can get in the glutinous rice. Another favourite combination is with Chinese sausage, Chinese mushrooms or chestnuts. This is probably the most satisfying of all the dishes that were tried.

Glutinous Rice

Finally, the pork spare ribs in black bean sauce. This is another classic. However, my taste buds just are not attuned to the use of sweet soy. It just tastes way too sweet for me. Again, if you are a bit of a sweet tooth, this version may satisfy. For me, never again.

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Yummie Yum Cha
Food Type: Chinese
Telephone: (03) 9078 8878
Address: 193 Barkly Street, Footscray VIC 3011

Rating: 3 stars
Would I go again: No
Would I recommend to a friend: No
Reviewed By: Howie Be