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Yummy House
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- None
18 reviews for Yummy House
Normally I'm big on ambience, and ambience Yummy House does not have. As in none. There isn't even potential for ambience. Yet, the service isn't half bad and the food is simply amazing. Tea, too.
My personal favorite: braised tofu. Mandatory veganism sucked, but with the braised tofu, it was actually pretty fun.
Yummy House will change the way you think about Chinese cooking, plain and simple.
From the looks of it's strip mall location and unassuming dining room (with it's mini boom box in the corner), I was expecting from-the-can, over-salted sauces, bits of questionable things in my food, and a general lack of distinction between dishes...you know, Chinese Food.
Instead, I was treated to a complex, yet streamlined menu, amazingly prepared food, and depth of taste that I haven't experienced before. My partner and friends all got vegetarian options (veggie lo-mein, which was AWESOME and not on the menu, and Budda's delight, which was a plethora of steamed and lightly sauced veggies). We also ordered some stellar shrimp fried rice and XO Seafood Chow Fun.
The XO dish was amazing and had little bits of chunk bacon/ham interspersed...typically I'm a vegetarian who also eats seafood, but I bent the rules a bit and was treated with a smokey, multi-layered dish. Very nice.
The amazing thing: the food wasn't salty and I didn't feel like my blood pressure was going through the roof afterwards. The only complaint I had was that some of the food was too oily (but the oil tasted clean, clean, clean, thank god) and the service was a tad slow at the beginning. Also, they never seem to answer their phone, so takeout is an iffy proposition.
Overall, I highly recommend the Yummy House. I can't wait to go back and try something new.
(NOTE: It should be known that Yummy House is the only Chinese restaurant I know of playing The Shins, Sia, The Knife, and Tegan and Sara in the background.)
Whatever Yummy House lacks in style and ambiance, fortunately, it more than makes up for with AMAZING food. My favorite place for Chinese in Tampa!
SURPRISE! Yummy House is good.
It's true, the salt and pepper tofu is great. As is anything in XO sauce. The fried rice comes by the wheelbarrow-load.
I would love to bestow Yummy House with the honorable Robert S. Five Star Review, but the seating situation kind of sucks. Yummy House is gaining huge popularity from the local dining community and should try to fit a few more tables in there to try to prevent the line out of the door or seating parties together. That shit's lame. They'd get much more business that we all WANT give them if they would make their capacity a little less incredibly finite.
Still, go here.
Another great Asian diner. Very small though on the inside but you can look past that once you taste the food.
I finally got to eat here today after having dreams of how yummy the Yummy House would taste. I arrived to a somewhat crowded and small establishment that was buzzing with business, people in the restaurant all seemed like local Asians, probably recognizing the places authenticity.
The service was like that of a diner, with friendly waiters who are crazily swarmed with business, you can sense the sincerity in their attempts to handle all the business, and even if they are not as on their A-Game as at a more generic restaurant, you excuse them because you know they will treat you well when they get to you.
I ordered Orange Chicken and my friends order Beef with Noddles and XO Seafood Special, all were tasty, and totally original from what you would have anywhere else. The Orange Chicken was a little too sweet for my liking, the beef was good and the noodles were good, and the XO Seafood Special was just alright. I suppose I really don't know what Chinese food should taste like since I was raised on Panda Express. This is probably what authentic should taste like though, it taste good and different and I think I could really go for some more rounds of it, though I wasn't instantly in love with it. We also had some potstickers that were alright.
What I was in love with was the calamari that my friend ordered, OMG best calamari I have ever had in my life. I would go back there just for the calamari and then go grab some boba at Got Tea in the future, because it was just that good. The onions and garlic that they added among other spices made it have such an original and amazingly delicious taste. We devoured that more than anything else. Definitely try and have it if you visit.
I used to live in this area, and I really wish I still lived here so I could visit more often. It was a very worthwhile experience.
I was incredibly excited to try this restaurant on the recommendations of many friends, but was, instead, very let down.
We were just wanting take out and walked in on a Sunday evening - it was packed! A very good sign. Plus, the restaurant itself looked pretty authentic, slightly grimy, lots of round tables, simple chairs and lazy susans. Their menu was also impressive with a lack of typical Chinese fare. I was excited!
We got the Orange Pineapple Shrimp, Beef with Chinese Broccoli and Spicy Eggplant. The Orange Pineapple Shrimp was WAY too goopy and slimy and the "Beef" was of subpar quality with a strange, insanely disgusting smokey flavor. And the eggplant! Oh god, the eggplant. Watery and bland and again, so gross. We basically threw it all out, I couldn't even eat it.
As many have noted, the service is kind of crappy. Definitely something I could overlook if the food had blown my mind, but since I could barely eat it... ugh! Also, I was pretty upset that when ordering, the guy taking my order never noted to me that rice was extra. Honestly, what kind of Chinese restaurant makes you pay for white rice?! And even if that's the case, tell the person ordering *when they are ordering*!! If I'm getting 3 entrees, maybe you should mention it to me. Pathetic.
The experience left me disgusted and I will never go here again. Ever.
We have only been able to actually eat here five out of ten times having tried. They turned us flat away once when we went in for lunch. They closed at two. We showed up at one. They said they were too busy and that they were closing early even though we called to verify their hours before showing up. Other times you show up and they are so crowded and the wait is long and uncomfortable because there is no room and we had to leave. Either show up early or don't bother. Go to China Yuan- there is better atmosphere and it is easier to get a table and the food is just as good.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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7/27/2009
XO sauce with shrimp and crispy snow peas with tiny bits of ham and lots of garlic, the cilantro… Read more »
Yummy House has totally redeemed itself. I don't know what happened in the past, but the food is great here. The service is a little pissy, like the three teenage boy waiters that hated us for being there, but the food is so good that I will continue to come back ignore the attitude just to eat. The food did come out fast.
I have had a few dishes at other restaurants that claim to have XO sauce, but Yummy House had the real deal. Their Shrimp and Scallops in XO were amazing and full of rich caramelized flavor, and the little bits of ham are a great touch. The Hong Kong Style Duck had crispy skin this time and was juicy with generous amounts of meat.
The only dish that I was not too fond of was the Spicy Eggplant, because it was a bit too tangy for my taste. There was a large amount of vinegar in the sauce as well as the canned bamboo shoots adding to that.
My favorite dish was the Salt & Pepper Squid. In fact this dish was so amazing that we quickly ordered a second serving of it. The batter tasted like fish and chips batter, which was kind of strange, but the topping is so delicious. The topping is flash fried chopped garlic, cilantro, hot pepper flake, green onion, and shallots that you could put on anything and I would eat it.
We will definitely be coming back soon.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/16/2009
Whenever I ask someone out Chinese food in Tampa, they always recommend Yummy House. When we ate… Read more »
You'll be very happy to know that It's simply not worth your time to go anywhere else for Chinese in Tampa or St. Petersburg.
Go for: salt & pepper tofu, whatever greens are fresh and stir-fried with garlic, a soup and a chow fun dish.
I swear, you'll be thrilled, and you won't feel like you missed out on too much as innumerable, enormous, steaming plates are carried past your head and delivered to other tables.
My favorite kind of dive- great food at a low price in a nondescript unpretentious restaurant.
I felt as if I were in NY Chinatown. Not much decor, menu and specials in chinese as well as english.
The food was perfectly seasoned and not the usual strip mall pseudochinese stuff. The waiters were friendly, but the food came out when it came out, not well coordinated. You can't have everything, though.
Come early if you don't want to wait.
Well, I have to give this place its props because it really is one of the best Chinese places to go in Tpa. My worst nightmare has come true though, I've turned into a food snob!
I prefer the food and prices in LA, but for the TPA and dare I say Central Florida area as well (yes that includes YOU orlando), its definitely the place to go! Ergo the high rating.
The food is a little bit oily and you have to pick the right dishes. My recommendations? Salt & Pepper Calamari, Roast Duck, & Seafood Tofu Hot Pot.
Most authentic you can get and service is decent/friendly. Place can get quite packed though on the weekend.
Food is pretty good, been a while since Tampa has place like this. The food actually taste like it's Chinese, not some red or black sauce that is sweet and food actually taste different than the place down the street. Dishes that were ordered by my party were all authentic, which was great since I been wanting authentic food for a while. Atmosphere is sorta nice, only thing that kind of bothered me was sometime the cooking for the kitchen gets into the dining room, making it little foggy like? It's like when you first put steak on the grill and that sizzle and smoke that comes out. Also, the service can slow down quite a bit when they're busy, I been there a few times now. Sometimes food is fast, other times it's very slow. But if you have the time and want good chinese food, this place is the one to go.
Food is pretty good and authentic. The restaurant is has pretty much the same feel as any other chinese restaurant. Sort of no frills approach to dining. I agree with Coty S. though, those kids serving prolly need to be slapped upside their head.
Overall, Yummy House was awesome. I really liked the salt and pepper calamari. And the cashew chicken was really good. The atmosphere and seating arrangement could use some help, though. And the people who work there are kindof rude.
Excellent food all around -especially the Salt & Pepper tofu - we lived in HongKong so, have some experience. Very crowded on Sunday nights, can get quite hot inside and the service at times is at best very sluggish - but once you get your food that no longer matters. You can bring your own booze and they get you the glasses - no corkage.
Clearly one of the best authentic Chinese restaurants in Tampa.
We are still visiting this restaurant monthly - still consistent food. Recently they started requiring reservations or certain dates but the phone is either busy or switches to their fax machine - a lot of work to make a reservation but we put up with it because the food excels. 4-11-09
I have been bemoaning the fate of the sit down and order off the menu Chinese place. This one proved to be even better than expectations. We went on the advice of a client of my wife's and we were not sorry. This is some of the best stuff I have had since I stopped going to Hong Kong. Let me put it this way, our group contained a couple Chinese, a couple Vietnamese, and a few Koreans. Cream of Sum Yung Gai is not going to fly with this crowd. A totally satisfying experience. There is always a wait, and it's not close to anything but Tampa Sprawl, and the decor is plastic and vinyl so you know the only reason for so much business is the food. The may not even have some of your standards from the "chinese" buffet but do yourself a favor, order one familiar dish, and one that is new. I'll bet you will be pleasantly surprised. Check the address before you go though. Yelp has it on Waters Ave but I could have sworn it was north, north Dale Mabry, past Bearss. Oh, and they don't serve any alcohol but regulars in the know bring their own- no corking charge.
Yay!! Another authentic Chinese restaurant. They have fresh roasted duck and chicken. And many dishes for those who are not interested in items like sweet and sour pork and are looking for something more authentic. They actually have a special where you can order 3 items from a special menu for only $19.99 which is a great value. The a la carte entrees are not expensive either - starting at $7 and up. I definently think my favorite was the Seafood and Tofu Hot Pot. The Tofu was fried perfectly and the inside was still soft and delicious. Overall a very pleasing experience :-)
