Yum Cha at Me Wah

Yum Cha desserts (Custard tarts and a Mango yummy) pictured above at Me Wah

Bad, bad Hobart. You are letting me down big time. Five tables were all that were eating Yum Cha today at Me Wah – and we need way more takers than that to allow this wonderful Chinese tradition to continue in Hobart.

The food was fabulous, and the cost, in comparison, minimal. It cost us $138 for four (2 normal Aussie blokes, and 2 good female eaters) of us to eat as much as we could physically handle. That’s great value I reckon, especially if you look at the amount of prep that has to go into those tapas-style portions of Chinese food.

For those not familiar with the Yum Cha concept, Yum Cha is a popular and acknowledged form of eating Chinese-style, whereby trayfuls of freshly prepared and steamed food contained in small bamboo steamers are bought out continuously from the kitchen by the waitstaff, and offered to each table, along with a verbal description of what’s contained in each steamer. You point out which you want; the waitperson marks the priced docket that remains on your table (so when you go to pay, all the menu items you selected over the course of your meal have been ticked, thus you can just take your docket to the counter and pay for what you’ve eaten) then you select from the next tray of goodies to arrive at your table.

It’s a form of eating out which our family have loved (whenever we have been on the mainland) for at least 20 years. We religiously have Yum Cha at least once every time we dine out when visiting relatives on the mainland. The beauties of Yum Cha for me not only incorporate the food itself, but also the fact that it makes for an easy way of dining out in a group, and allows the easiest way for public mealtime conversations to take place.

My favourite Yum Cha city is Sydney, which wins hands down for me. Countless times have I left our favourite restaurant in Chinatown, or Manly, clutching my engorged stomach and praying for Hobart to get Yum Cha so I wouldn’t have to capitalize on it quite so fervently whilst in Sydney! In Chinatown, every restaurant does a Yum Cha, and people queue up outside their preferred restaurant waiting for a table to leave so they too can have their Yum Cha. So now we’ve got it here in Hobart, and the novelty has obviously already worn off for the general dining-out populace, and really, for the amount of people there today, were it my decision to make I’d have to think twice about continuing it.

But please, Me Wah owner/s – for Rita’s sake, don’t stop. The food there today was typical Yum Cha with all the usual plates coming out at regular intervals. It was gorgeous, and I want to return now. They have two sittings on Saturdays and Sundays – 11.00 am and 1.00 pm, and naturally you MUST book. For something a bit different; to eat in a top notch restaurant; for excellent value for money – my highest recommendation is Yum Cha at Me Wah.