A while ago, I went to Luyu & Yum Yum (Level 1, 196 King St, Newtown) for a friend's birthday and I've been wanting to go here since seeing photos on Instagram but I completely forgot about it until the birthday girl decided to come here and I was ecstatic to try it out.
It's an EFTPOS ONLY restaurant, so make sure you have your card with you to pay~ not that this is a problem these days anyway~ It might be a bit hard to find since you have to go upstairs for this restaurant but as long as you look out for the sign, it shouldn't be too hard. it's quite dim in the restaurant though and the proximity of neighbouring tables can be quite uncomfortable when you're trying to sit down or get up since you really need to be wary of smacking some other person in the face. Once you sat down though, it was fine. Service was prompt and nice.
Manga Dumpling *Hedgehog* 3pcs ($12.80)
King oyster mushroom, Chinese mushroom, fungi, carrot, coriander in flour dough baked
Aren't they superrrr cute?! I've been wanting to try this! Sadly, it doesn't taste as good as it looks. Maybe because I was looking for something meaty and it turned out to actually be a mushroom dumpling (I obviously wasn't paying attention to the menu lol), I actually think the dough was a bit thick as well considering the amount of mushroom filling in proportion. Definitely just a looker. Oh and it's supposed to only come in 3 pieces but we added one more since we had four people.
Flying Seafood Dumplings ($14.80)
Scallop, fishball, prawn, asparagus & Flying fish roe in rice dough steamed
Look at the fish roe!! Well, actually I don't really care for fish roe so this was a rather average dumpling for me as well. It didn't help when it fell apart when I was trying to pick it up either. Overall, very average dumpling with some crunchy asparagus. I think the ratio in all these dishes are like loaded with veggies with a bit of meat :(
Roast Duck ($25.80)
served with hoisin sauce and plum sauce
I'm not really a fan of dipping my duck in different sauces especially hoisin sauce since it just makes me think of peking duck lol but plum sauce is okay. I don't think the duck was anything great either and the pieces weren't exactly the most meat friendly. I think these are one of the times you should go to Flemington for your dose of duck instead if you really want it.
Mr Luyu Fried Rice ($17.80)
Duck ,egg, asparagus, shallot, coriander, baby corn & mustard seeds, stir fried
The portion is bigger than this but we just dug in since we were hungry ahaha! You're going to get annoyed with me but I wasn't a fan of this either, mostly because I absolutely dislike baby corn and every spoonful of this had it, it didn't help that they seem to love throwing asparagus in their dishes too and just made this fried rice seem more like crunchy veggies mixed with a bit of rice. Not my thing.
Egg Noodles ($17.80)
King prawn, king oyster mushroom, chives, baby corn and carrot
I guess this would be one of the more 'worth it' dishes since the prawns were nice and good since you can't go wrong with that and it was accompanied with soy sauce drenched egg noodles. It was quite bit on the salty side so that wasn't very good for my cholesterol. The main thing I didn't like was that the ingredients don't mix well, you're either eating salty noodles or a plain prawn. Oh and the baby corn and the carrots...nope
Salt & Pepper Squid ($24.80)
Squid, spring onion, garlic, Serrano chilli, fried
My friends really liked this and thought it was the best one and I guess it was but I still wasn't very convinced with it. It's more a matter of taste though, they like that their squid isn't chewy but I like mine at least a bit chewy. This wasn't chewy at all so it just felt like there was no substance to it for me. The salt and pepper mixed seasoning was good though, wasn't too strong or light making it a very enjoyable dish taste-wise, just didn't satisfy me texture-wise.
Overall, I don't think I'd come back simply because of the excessive asparagus and baby corn that I did not enjoy but I guess most of the dishes are just simply not to my tastes and it's not the cheapest thing ever either so I can't think of a reason to revisit it. Maybe the other dishes are better but quite frankly, I'm not impressed and don't think I want to try again.
