I am always actively looking out for good Yum Cha places. We have recently been to two major Yum Cha places in Hobart: Me Wah Restaurant and Asian Gourmet On The Pier. Here are what we think.
Availability:
Mewah: Lunch only
Asian Gourmet: Lunch & Dinner
Selection:
Apart from rice and noodles, Mewah offers 32 Yum Cha items
Asian Gourmet offers 36 items on the menu, plus extra 7 items during the weekends.
Price:
In terms of price, Asian Gourmet has most dishes $1 to $2 cheaper than Mewah, though Asian Gourmet has $3.5 per head of tea charge (children excluded). Also to noted that, Mewah has minimum spend of $20 for Yum cha.
Food Quality:
Yum Cha is very labour-intensively handmade food. The freshness of the food highly depends on how quickly they are sold (i.e. more customers consume the food, less shelf-time and more freshness of the food). Some restaurants will freeze them for later use to have more flexibility.
Personally, I like Mewah’s food a bit more. The steamed Prawn dumplings tasted very fresh and came with whole prawns in the fillings. They were the best ones I have had in Tassie. As you may know, steamed Prawn dumplings key indicators of quality in Yum Cha. It is easier to tell if they are freshly made or frozen.
Service:
Both restaurants were quite busy when we were there. But in Mewah only, our teapot always got refilled in time before it went empty without asking.
Conclusion:
It all comes down to personal preference on which one you prefer to go to. Personally, I may probably go back to both. I love Mewah’s service and freshness. But I also like to have more selection (Beancurd rolls, Black pepper beef ribs, black bean pork ribs in particular) and cheaper price that Asian Gourmet offers.
