Yellow River Cafe (Islington)

Ate at Yellow river by accident, The sushi bar next door was closed. We had a great meal, starters were fresh and tasty and the main meals were perfect. FANTASTIC
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Rob - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, March 11, 2006

I ate at this place last friday. Unfriendly waitress and the food is really less than average. I ordered a "beef" and oyster sauce and got a lot of mushrooms, big chunks of onions and literally five pieces of beef. I recommend avoiding this place. Ken Hom should be worried about putting his name to this place.
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Minh
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, February 12, 2006

Never been in but ordered a few takeaways. The food's OK, probably not quite as good as Thai Square down Upper St which is just a mid-range eatery really, but I don't have any major complaints. Wouldn't particularly go running to book a table in there, its never exactly looked like the most wonderful place. Its just a bit blah, and there are lots of better places around.
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Declan James
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Friday, February 03, 2006

yellow river; middle of the road. We took a bit of a wander along Upper Street looking for somewhere we hadn't tried before and found ourselves at yellow river. When we stepped inside from the cold, there was a blast of warmth and an audible buzz although as tables emptied out this fell away to a near eerie silence. Our meal got off to a good start with a complimentary glass of champagne to celebrate Chinese New Year - not fantastic stuff by any means, but not bad for a freebie. Our waitress too, was very friendly. Now to the food – to start we had duck spring rolls which were quite good but the spare ribs and the sauce they sat in was hard to distinguish from a supermarket ready meal and they weren't quite warm enough. While we waited for our mains, our lovely waitress disappeared, we’re not sure where, and then we fell between the cracks. When we finally got someone’s attention (suffering the ‘not my section so I’m not making eye-contact’ stride of several other waiters) our mains arrived – just about 55 minutes after our starter dishes were cleared. They were very good; duck curry with just the right spice and a hint of sweetness and a spicy prawn dish with plenty of fat prawns. The rice was, well, rice-like but the roti was luke-warm. We were also given a bowl of tofu and veg. to apologise for the late arrival of our dinner. To sum it up, the food was not bad but not a world beater, and the service was really poor for a ½ full restaurant.
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Garry
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, January 30, 2006

The restaurant was celebrating its eighth birthday the day we called in (Friday, Jan 13, 2005), and was having an £8 two-course special. Now, to us, these sorts of promotions are a chance to blow our minds with great food so we'll come back and spend more next time.

No such luck here. The serving staff appeared to be in disarray and my spare rib starter was left sitting plated up for several minutes before arriving at the table. The waiter would walk past the kitchen, look like he was about to bring it over, then get distracted and wander off before returning, fiddling around a bit more, then wandering off again. As a result the ribs, although very tasty, were fairly cold when they arrived. Lenny's won ton soup was bland. The won tons were mushy and tasted like leftover seafood.

As for main courses, my chicken cashew nut was okay but unimpressive. Lenny's chicken chow mein was a similar story. Presentation was poor in both cases. Overall, nothing better than what you'd find at a cheap noodle joint just about anywhere.

The serving staff got in a bit of a flap when we declined to pay the full "optional" service charge but we stood our ground. Also, the green tea they served us was the worst we've had. It tasted like tobacco.

In summary, don't bother with Yellow River - head to Soho/Chinatown instead.
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Lenny and Waz
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Saturday, January 14, 2006

We had a meal here 21/11/05 and it was just great.

The staff were really friendly and very attentive.

The food was cooked to perfection and we had a thoroughly good time.

It's got to be some of the very best oriental food in all of London.

We will definately be returning.
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Mr and Mrs Gray
Monday, November 21, 2005

Very underwhelming. Looks great from the outside, but once we were inside we were met by an extremely bored and disinterested maitre'd who plonked us at a table and ignored us for the rest of the evening. It was a shame as we were actually the only diners in there. The wine list was grossly overpriced.

The waiting staff huddled around the outskirts of the restaurant in groups, whispering and giggling. We had to get out of our seats and approach them to check if our wine was coming, and where the water we'd ordered half an hour earlier was coming.

The noodles were fine, if a little bland. We ordered a panacotta to share for dessert. It was frozen solid, actually harder than the ice cream it was served with.

The total lack of interest by the staff at this restaurant was really disappointing. I won't be rushing back.
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005

I have visited this restaurant a number of times and have never been disappointed. The staff are extremely helpful and friendly. If we need more space when our food arrives, they always pull up another table to accomodate us. The food is delicious, well presented and the cocktails are fabulous. It has a lovely atmosphere and the prices are quite reasonable. Definately worth a visit.
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Rachel
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

I visited recently and was a bit underwhelmed.

I really wanted to enjoy this place - it looks nice enough, people seem very friendly, its got some funky lighting, and the prawn crackers were terrific. But then the rest of the food arrived and a cloud of disappointment slowly enveloped the table. Some Tom Yum soup was tasty enough but the monkfish cooked in orange zest tasted like a nasty chocolate licquer (and turned up in a drab bowl rather than sizzling on a skillet), and the house fried rice was more like a supermarket boxed paella.

bit of a shame.
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KL
Thursday, July 28, 2005