Alan Yau

[Kikujiro]

Looks like the founder of Wagamama and owner of Hakkasan and Busaba Eathai has plenty to be getting on with. I noticed last night that there's a new Busaba (presumably ... Eathai) going in on Store Street, just off Tottenham Court Road. And for some time now a place called Yauatcha has been under preparation in the Ingeni building (the Richard Rogers office block on Berwick Street). The latter's sign is reminiscent enough of the Hakkasan one that it was easy to guess at the relationship. According to Car Design News (thank you Google) it'll 'be situated over two floors, with the lower ground floor featuring an all-day Dim Sum restaurant and the ground floor housing a Tea House and Bar.' So Hakkasan without the evening menu? No news on when either of the above is scheduled to open ... anyone?

[edit disclosure: seems it's Yauatcha, no Yautacha]

[Thomas Secor]

The Busaba Eathai on Store street was scheduled to open in Mid-September, so now its anyone's guess. I was walking by a few weeks ago when the door was open and the inside still looked pretty gutted.

On a similar note, does anyone know when the new Nando's flagship on Frith street is supposed to open? Or whether its open already?

[Kikujiro]

On a similar note

I think that's a tiny bit unfair to Busaba

[Thomas Secor]

On the contrary, I thought it was an undeserved compliment.

[camp_dick]

In Oxford Street the other day, I noticed that work is going on at the site of Busaba 3 in Bird Street, which has been hoarded since before Christmas. Perhaps this means that the Yau posse are finally looking to finish their fit out after a leisurely four months on site? Anyone seen any recruitment ads?

On the other hand, has anyone been offered a cannily designed Thai concept with two and a half outlets at a knock-down price?

I also noticed, in Great Marlborough Street, a hoarding that announces a new venture called Ping Pong which, I learn from The Caterer, is to be a dim sum restaurant launched by former Nobu general manager, Kurt Zdesar. I guess this is the market's first repsonse to Yau@Cha? Apparently, it'll seat about 220 people with spend averaging about £10 for lunch and £18 for dinner with wine.

So long as Mr Zdesar knows where to recruit a decent Dim Sum chef, I'd say this is bound to be a hit. The new venue is expected to open in May. What are the odds that it's up and trading before Busaba 3 gets around to opening its doors?

[camp_dick]

Against my odds, Busaba 3 is now trading and I visited early yesterday evening. Characteristically for a Yau enterprise, the food was more than acceptable and the service was utterly clueless. I guess the place has been open only a week and the staff are green, but that's a poor excuse since they (just about) outnumbered customers at the time of my visit.

I notice that Liagre's interior has been coarsened in this (presumably cheaper) interpretation, with not so sturdy looking benches instead of stools and no awkward Venetian blinds to attract dust. I didn't see a menu displayed outside (thought that was a legal req?) but overheard a pair of tourists admiring the joint from across the street, speculating on the cuisine. They reckoned it's probably Japanese

Yau has retained the exterior electronic display, which has become so abstract now as to be pointless (or maybe it's just me who doesn't get it). I never did understand why he prefers to waste money on what amounts to trivial electronic art, rather than build a web site which might serve some useful purpose.

Speaking of which, Ping Pong has managed to get a front page up on its web space, incorporating a crap Flash logo and a sign up facility for further announcements...

[Kim D]

We had dinner at Busaba on Wardour last night after a very short wait in line. Best cheap eats I've had in ages. (I wouldn't have considered it cheap in Chicago, but this is London after all.) Before tip, our meal was 40 quid. (If I knew how to put in a pound sign, I would have done.) Goodly amount of food. We left feeling very satisfied.

Two fruit drinks (jasmine smoothy, guava collins), three appetizers (Thai calamari, Pomelo in Betel leaves, Chinese Broccoli, two mains (jungle curry and something with cod), plain rice and coconut rice.

It was my first experience with Jungle Curry and it was wonderfully warm. I can't wait to make this at home. The calamari was bland but tasted much better after being dipped in the Jungle Curry. Maybe we should have squirted on Sriracha or Squid brand fish sauce but that never entered our minds because we liked the jungle curry sauce so much.

My husband loved the Pomelo in Betel leaves. I liked it but it was too sweet for my taste. But I liked the coconut rice and he thought that was too sweet. Go figure.

I had been afraid that we had ordered to much food but it turned out to be the perfect amount.

The service was what I've come to expect. My husband gets very friendly attention from the waiter and I get much less attention .

I would definitely go back. A friend of ours says she eats there once a week for lunch. Now I understand why.

- Kim

[camp_dick]

Anyone seen any sign of the Alan Yau recipe book, the October publication of which was announced when Yau took over the recipe column in The Times, back in February? Perhaps the great man has been too busy with his various International projects to manage to deliver the manuscript for this proposed book. Or, perhaps, the reality of a recipe book for domestic cooks produced under the auspices of a restaurateur who proudly states that he has never done any cooking himself ('I have people to do that for me') transpired to be rather less exciting than the idea first appeared over lunch @ the Four Seasons (the Park Lane hotel, natch, not the Chinky in Queensway...)

Edited November 8, 2005 by camp_dick (log)