Yum Yum Thai Restaurant

I've eaten a few times here with friends and the odd work function. The food is really good! I think what stops this place from being in the upper echelon is the consistency of the quality of the food. I've had some really good meals here, other times average. Once you do get a good meal it is really good believe me! The food isn't that adventerous, just cooked properly! but sadly this isn't the case everytime.

What really makes this place shine though is the cocktails, they are wonderful!! i've been to quite a few places around London for cocktails and this place is up there!

Ambience and staff are all good and can't be faulted,if they could only get that food right every time..
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Jasye boy
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The most ridiculous and incompetent waitstaff: I ordered a papaya salad and was served shredded carrot. Told them this isn't acceptable -are they trying to rip me off? So they took it away and brought another -this time shredded celeriac- which isn't even orange like papaya and the waiter is telling me it is papaya?! Absurd. Perhaps if they knew English -and what papaya is- there could have been some understanding of how this ruined the rest of the evening. They did not suggest any discount or free drink for their mistake, so we went without starters and were not satisfied with the quantity of the main courses and were still hungry leaving the restaurant. Will never go there again.
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michelle
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, September 20, 2011

I was recommended this restaurant by a close friend who generally has great taste and I trust, he had a great night at Yum Yum so I expected also to have a great experience with tope thai food and a nice atmosphere. Iwent with my wife and parents as a special occasion so I wanted this to be a real treat.

On arrival I wasn't disappointed the venue looks the part and we started our night by having a cocktail at the bar. I must say the range of cocktails was very impressive and we enjoyed them extremely....So far so good.

After our initial drinks we were shown to our table and thats when things went down hill. as we wanted to try a variety of dishes and just share we went for a set menu, £26 per person seemed like decent value. The started arrived consisting of a selection of fried things, such as spring rolls, battered pawns etc. I honestly think they were on a par with something you would see Kerry Katona advertising for Iceland. I should have expected the worst for the main dishes but for some reason mainly because of my friends glowing review I was still confident we would be please.

The main dishes were better than the starters but still very poor for the amount we were paying. I have experienced much better food in smaller and cheaper thai restaurants in London.

The other main issue was the service that was terrible we had to wait a long time for drinks and also the empty dishes were left for longer than what is acceptable for a restaurant.

Overall I felt let down by YumYum and I wanted to love it so much. The cocktails were excellent, the venue looks great but the food and service need improving.

I wouldnt visit again not in a city with so many other options.
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3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, August 23, 2011

As someone who has eaten Thai food in many parts of the world, including Thailand, I was excited to finally get the opportunity to eat at yumyums, in particular, following the coverage it received on the master chef show.

I arrived with a friend and ordered chicken satay and fish cakes as a starter (the fish cakes are supposed to be their speciality according to Gordon Ramsay) - in addition I asked for a Thai Iced Tea. When the tea arrived, it was anything but Thai tea – it tasted more like iced English tea with crème in it. A disappointing start – equally, when the starters arrived, they were also disappointing. I began to wonder what the hype about this place was all about. Finally, when the main arrived, chicken with thai basil and chillies, I had to send it back as it completely lacked the flavours that make this dish one of my favourites – no basil in the dish, barely any chillies and at best, tasted very bland. In addition, my friend had to send his back as he explicitly requested no red wine sauce on his chicken which arrived soaked in wine sauce.

Overall, as a Thai food connoisseur, I would rate YumYums food a 3 out of 10. I can only guess that the food prepared on the master chef was completely different than what is served at the restaurant.
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kelly garrett
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Very disappointing. The atmosphere was lovely and upscale for the area but the food was not authentic, and in served in such small portions for high prices, I felt ripped off.
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5 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 1
Friday, July 22, 2011

I will say its still at its best and yes they have maintained the award winning status.

The food here is absolute fresh and very authentic, I was surprised by the reviews of some of the people around.

Yum yum never disappointed me so far...I still love to dine in whenever I am around

I just love it :)
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dton - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Saturday, April 30, 2011

We booked yum yum after hearing the good reviews and the fact it had appeared on tv, we phoned and booked a table for that night, we turned up on time and were kept waiting for 45 minutes so we were kept at the bar and had cocktails which were probably the best thing in the building, however they were quite expensive, after getting a table we were seated at a table for 4 next to a window which was freezing so we moved to the inside seats away from the window, we ordered our meal, starters came, my prawn/fishcakes were nice but a bit rubbery and my husbands thai spring roll was just awful, it came cold which i assume is how they serve it was one spring roll and was tiny and just tasted of fennel i think when you order something like that they should explain it will come cold, we would never of ordered it otherwise, mains were ok i had a thai green curry, which was nice, my husband ordered i think sweet and sour and said it was ok and nothing special, we have had better from takeaways, didn't have desserts just ordered tea and coffee, my tea never came at all and when we checked the bill it hadn't even been added on so she never even wrote it down all in all a big disapointment, if your after a romantic meal please avoid at all costs, they think because they have been on tv they can overbook and keep people waiting , i have had better meals from buffet places.
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3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 14, 2011

I'm afraid I'm still reeling slightly after taking my Mother here for her birthday. Had heard of the 'award-winning' status of Yum Yum & had been looking forward to going for some time although was entirely disappointed by the food, service & was embarrassed that I'd chosen to take others there as a 'treat'. In fact, I've only just found out about the Gordon Ramsay / Masterchef links & I'm dumbfounded.

Here's a couple of the features of our evening:- first drinks - 2 arrived with the others taking another 5 mins to arrive & so the birthday toast came after a rather long & awkward wait. Main meal - half of dishes served with 2 mains & the rice taking another 10 minute to be served. The food was already just luke-warm but was cold by the time we could all eat. The (now cold) sea bream also had an odd smell & taste & so I stopped eating it.

Dessert - again, half of our orders arrived without the others. Had to remind the waiter after quite some time we were still missing desserts. As the others had long finished theirs, we went to cancel the order just in time for the remaining desserts to arrive, of which we then had to gobble down so as not to keep the others waiting.

No interest in us throughout, no-one comes to check if you're ok and even says goodbye & so if you want to encourage them to improve their service, you'd better get up from your table and find a member of staff yourself.

It also felt like our quiet but consistent protests fell on deaf ears & the only reason I didn't make a more formal complaint was to avoid embarrassing my Mum & causing a scene on her birthday. The restaurant was busy but it was obviously too busy for the serving staff and kitchen to cope, which left me feeling Yum Yum are possibly more concerned with incoming revenue than with your experience & with a supposed 'award-winning' status to fall back on, why would they care? If you fancy eating eastern in Hackney, there are a number of really decent Vietnamese restaurants down the road who put far greater care into the quality & service of their food to the average customer & much less into the shiny decorations & sucking up to celebrity chefs. You'll be surprised to hear I won't be heading back.
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Red
1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Ordered a takeaway from Yum Yums last night and it arrived after over an hour, my crispy fried tofu was completely stone cold and tasted of old oil, and the delivery guy hit me with a hidden charge that hadn't been mentioned when I ordered. I live just over a mile away so according to the website I'm in the free zone. The charge was only £2, but I think hidden delivery charges are terribly bad practice. I rang the restaurant to complain and the bloke said I lived 0.1 of a mile too far away (I don't) and what's more, "well, you could have refused to pay it - lots of people do" and "the charge goes straight to the driver, not to the restaurant". So it's a sort of semi-enforced tip? "You can tip as well if you like". Er, great.

If you don't enjoy such unedifying wrangling, you could eat in. You'd be rewarded with lovely, suspiciously-expensive-looking surroundings and OK-I-suppose cocktails with prices that suggest they'd been made by a professional at The Player. Your glass of lychee Rubicon with a shot of vodka in it will quickly disabuse you of this notion. Still, last night's crispy tofu mishap aside, most of the time the food is fine, although a little low on the exciting flavours and piquancy of really good Thai food. Considering everything is about 20-30% more expensive than a standard Thai restaurant, it's certainly not 20-30% better. But, um, it's got nice furniture, so it's swings and roundabouts. Now that there's a Busaba in Old Street with even nicer surroundings and better food you'd be better off hopping on a bus. But then if you were in Old Street you could go to Cay Tre...

They're like the Starbucks of locally run takeaways. I bet I end up going back but I hate myself for it.
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Tessa
4 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, January 05, 2011

After hearing so much about the Yum Yum Restaurant in Stoke Newington N16, I thought I’d give it try, went there on the 19th December 2010 with my wife and a friend.

Once seated, no one came back with the menus, I had to call a waiter and ask and there was no drinks menu with it so had call another waiter and ask for the drinks menu which he never bothered to come back with so had to ask again. Finally we placed our order along with the drinks.

Our starters arrived! Satay Chicken, Fish Cakes Chicken Soup and prawn spring Rolls. At this point no drinks arrived so half way thru eating our starters I had to ask about our drinks and only then the waitress finally brought them to us. All our starters were luke warm, fish cakes were nice but the rest awful especially the chicken soup, it was cold and bitter , the satay chicken was dry and it seemed that it was kept on the shelf 15mins before it was served.

Our main course arrived,! Coconut Rice, Spicy Scallops with basil, lamb, chicken green curry.All our main dishes were again luke warm as they seemed like they’ve been sitting in the kitchen for a while before it arrived at our table. The lamb was tough and it seemed like it was just boiled and covered in sauce, the scallops were all different shapes and sizes and had a bad smell (frozen) they were cold full of vegetables and hardly any sauce to make up the dish itself, the chicken green curry was tasteless.

As soon as we finished our meal we asked for the bill, paid in cash and got up to leave, no one came up to us to say thank you or ask us if we wanted any deserts, as leaving I complained at the door a staff member.

The service was rubbish along with the food, it’s like cafe food which cost me £80.00 (expensive) I don’t really understand how this can be an award winning restaurant and that Gordon Ramsay can say that this is the best Thai restaurant. He clearly doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. I myself or my friends would never visit this place again unless I want to through money away. I’d rather go to Busaba or Thai Square which are far much better for service, quality and price.
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arif
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 1
Monday, December 20, 2010