Lunch Some teething problems but there's potential
For more than 30 years, number nine Cotham Hill was home to the Friary Café, a legendary greasy spoon that served up its last full English last year.
The closure of the Friary Café was partly due to the changing eating habits of its clientele. Very few of us can get away with starting the day with a life-shortening plate of bacon, sausages, eggs, fried bread and beans on a regular basis.
-
It therefore seems appropriate that such a legendary greasy spoon should be replaced by the much healthier, low-fat option of YuMe, an all-day Japanese café/restaurant that specialises in sushi.
Despite being set across two floors, it's a fairly modest little place with a handful of tables and window seating in the upstairs room where you order at the counter. Downstairs, it's a little soulless and it was cold enough to keep my coat and scarf on. The battleship grey walls are broken up with a few brightly painted pink flowers.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Friday, May 31 2013
It's not just sushi that is served here. There is a range of hot meals including noodle dishes such as pork ramen (£6) and spicy seafood udon (£4), teishyoku trays of chicken katsu (£7).
I ordered the beef teriyaki (£6), which arrived on a tray with an accompanying bowl of miso soup. The eight bite-size strips of grilled beef were tender and coated in a tangy, sweet soy sauce marinade but the rest of the dish was a little one-dimensional, consisting of merely sticky rice, a layer of shredded white cabbage, a few snippets of spring onion and ginger and three pieces of what appeared to be aubergine.
The small bowl of miso soup was only lukewarm and the flavour was underwhelming. The tiny pieces of tofu bobbing around in the murky grey liquid had the off-putting look of a blocked kitchen sink. Still, it was a timely reminder that I needed to pop to the hardware shop next door afterwards to pick up a plunger.
A pretty china mug of green tea (£1) was also lacking in any real flavour, but then I have never enjoyed this outrageously healthy drink. I should have gone for the more interesting matcha latte, which was advertised as the special of the day.
I've eaten in a number of Japanese restaurants in London, some with Michelin stars and sushi chefs who probably spent 12 years learning how to cook rice, so perhaps my expectations were simply too high.
Comments
by T M T Accounting Ltd
Thursday, February 07 2013, 8:14PM
“I'm a vegetarian and I ate at Yume last week for the first time. I really enjoyed the Tofu Katsu, something that I had never had before. It really hit the spot. Its interesting that you say the Miso reminded you of a blocked drain. For me, this was quite an exciting mix of stock and tofu. I was given a pot of ground chilli, which had some nice herbs in it. I though it made a change to the normal crushed chillies that you get in Asian restaurants.
I spoke to a lady about how nice I thought the food was and she turned out to be the owner. She took a cake dessert off the fridge and give it to me, this I think was called dorayaki and it blew my mind. It had the sweet taste of pancake and red bean sauce but was blended with soft cheese. It was sweet, but also savoury at the same time.
I agree that potential is the word here, it seems to serve no nonsense good tasting food at a really reasonable price. I will be returning every so often to see how things are evolving.”