Yu: Burswood Entertainment Complex

My stomach was getting particularly excited as I made my way into down the dim lit cave-like entrance that is Yu, at Perth's Burswood Entertainment Complex. I frequented this "grand", "world class" entertainment precinct multiple times in a week back in the days...before I decided to do something about my gambling problem.

Just joking :) I used to frequent Carvers a lot. For work. *shudder* So so so happy I only visit Burswood now for leisure purposes! Makes the place appear a lot more friendlier.

Admittedly I had never dined at Yu after its major transformation from when it was formerly Genting Palace. The critic in me always believed I could get better tasting, more scrumptious fare in a less classy and posh restaurant for like, a tenth of the price charged in restaurants situated in a "grand" and "world class" entertainment complex.

I seem to like using quotation marks today! No implications attached...

And so tonight, I had this breakfast at around 7.30pm. It was my first and only meal of the day, not counting the chips and lollies and cookies after dinner or the pack of oreos we routinely devour at badminton before dinner. And after 3 hours of sport earlier on an empty stomach, yeaaahh I know I'm not the best at looking after myself. Which explains my over-reliance on others and also on 24 hour McDonalds drive thru's.

Choosing a banquet between 2 people occurred to be a no-brainer. This gave us exposure to this whole mixture of deliciousness, as opposed to only choosing 2 dishes (or maximum, 5 dishes) to share between 2 people. After waiting like what seemed like an hour, happiness was FINALLY served, one after another, with hour gaps in between. Think I just get delusional with the time when I am starving my ass off.

Spicy Sea Salt Squid

Surprisingly after the long ass wait, I did not dive my face into this when it came delivered to the table. As much as I wanted to, I held that impulse in as I reached for the camera and fiddled with lighting for as long as 5 minutes to try and get a decent shot of the food to come in this limited-use-of-lights dining room. Just like many of the other premium restaurants at Burswood, where dim and dark suggests intimacy and classy.

By the time I tucked into this starter, it grew colder and that is purely my fault. But that's ok, squid that is cooked right is still tender and still has that right amount of chewiness I enjoy gnawing on. Although not hot, the batter was still crunchy and tasted so golden that I didn't mind eating it. So much so, that I sneaked in alot of batter bits, which I neverrr do because of my condition.

One thing I never learn is to properly tell the difference between a green circular piece of spring onion and a green circular piece of FIERY HOT CUT CHILLI before I stuff it in my mouth. Ooh I always pay for that by crying my eyes out.

Sweet Corn Soup with Crab Meat

Sweet corn and crab meat soup was served next, with limited sweet corn and crab meat. Sad :(
I already expected the limited crab meat part but I would have appreciated more corn though! That's two posts in a row where I am left craving for more corn. What is it with corn and I?!


From memory this was served just warm, which is good for drinking it without needing to worry about blowing to let some steam escape from the liquid before you proceed to shove it in your mouth. I'm used to scalding hot soup, so this lukewarmness made it less enjoyable for myself. Still nice and sweet though.

Pancake holder

This next thing was very much a teaser for about, ages. The wooden steamer basket sat atop a very golden and shiny "stove", sporting a low blue flame burning away to maintain the warmth of whatever was hidden inside the basket. This trolley was wheeled next to our table, and it sat there, waiting, patiently, for the next 20 minutes or so while I sat at our table, waiting, impatiently for a long 20 minutes.


Being in your sight but out of reach just makes your curiosity climb. I hell wanted to get up and sneak a peek but alas, we were at such a restaurant and such acts of embarrassment would probably not be tolerated by my friend and you know, I don't like to make people uncomfortable around me :P So I stayed put.

Peking Duck

Turns out they were housing a couple of layers of these pancakes, forming part of our next dish - Peking Duck. It was a nice gesture but the warmth didn't REALLY come through to make a huge difference. Preparing these wrapped parcels usually happen in front of you, and it really is like watching a form of art. Intricately placing a single item of each ingredient makes you savour it more cause you know, scarcity is the problem here. Some things just stay with you from high school Economics... sorry for being a geek! :/
It makes it that much more special cause you see it in front of you, instead of it being done in the kitchen.

Explains why I'm so much more inclined to buy Subway as opposed to ready made rolls from display cabinets!

Peking Duck - innards

After being presented with a delicately wrapped parcel, I then ripped open the wrapping paper to reveal the contents inside, as you do with any normal present. Took a picture, re-wrapped it and re-gifted it, straight back into my stomach :D


Yu's version of Peking Duck I like very much indeed, as the piece of duck you get comes with a decent portion of meat still attached to the crackly skin. I can't eat skin so to me this dish is nothing when I painfully give the skin to someone else while I chomp on the remaining vegetarian pancake. Here the dark, caramelised honey roasted skin is crispy while the meat's tenderness is preserved, with the usual accompaniments of spring onions, cucumber and sauce in a light and still warm! wrap.

Deep fried Patagonian Toothfish

Looked at this and immediately thought, holy crap I can't eat it! Why must you be covered in deep fried deliciously crunchy and golden batter?! But that's okay, I'll just have to spend a little longer time peeling it all off and soaking excess oil away, blotting it on tissue paper. It's quite crazy looking at the now-see through tissue paper and realising how much oil intake you shove inside you.


The toothfish here was cooked to a state of DELICIOUS, smooth and slippery flakes of pure white flesh encased with a lining of crispy skin. Oh man. Who needs that sweet soy sauce it's served with when it might potentially rob the crunch crunch away from the skin? Cause the skin is oily, I ripped off all the skin and formed a little rubbish pile, only to find myself eating back that own pile of rubbish. Mmmmm.

Special Fried Rice

I always wonder how normal average fried rice managed to join up with the word "special" to heighten its superior status in Chinese cuisine. It does sound specialer but you know, it's not really! :P Back when customers asked for special fried rice, specifically not wanting the fried rice already in the hot baine marie, we said, alright, and threw in whatever we thought would make it more special.

We got a plate of this, fried rice fried with specks of barbeque pork, prawns, egg and spring onions. Usually with Chinese food I NEED plain steamed rice to balance out the oiliness/heaviness of the food, but this was tasty and light enough to go with the meal. But still, we needed a Coke by our side to get us through our feast -


M: "Urgh there's sand in these vegetables!" *gulps down Coke to wash it down*
Me: eww, I can't just swallow sand like that 
*bite down hard on sand - gulps even more Coke*
"omg wash it down wash it downnn"
-That was my only reason needing a Coke I guess.

Sauteed Fresh Scallops with Vegetables

This was a winner for sure! I couldn't stop blabbering on about OMG HOW GOOD IS THIS SCALLOP, omgaah this thing is HUGE, MMM its so bloody sweet, and look how shiny they look! These were by far the biggest scallops I've come across, or maybe I just don't have the $ka-ching enough to come across big scallops very often.


But boy were these scrumptious :D Cooked just right so they tasted sweet and springy, no fishy flavour around at all. Paired with mushrooms, carrots, snow peas, crunchy asparagusesssss and Chinese vegetables that needed a bit more of a wash downstairs.

Chinese Fillet Steak with Spicy Szechuan Sauce

This was another stunner of the night that left me speechless. Actually no, quite the opposite, I couldn't stop praising it! They left the good stuff til last, which was pitiful as my stomach was already filling up fast.

I think this may be Yu's signature dish from memory, and it could certainly pass as being it. Albeit not looking very flash or fancy, the bed of spinach was indeed average but the marinated and grilled fillet is sooooo soft and tender. I couldn't stop eating it even when I really ought to have stopped eating everything. A bowl of Szechuan sauce came with it but I felt it didn't enhance the flavour all too much so I went without.
*I very nearly mistook the sauce to be a bowl of soup and gulped a spoonful of the stuff before I'd realised my stupidity. Do not follow in my footsteps! :(

Coconut Pudding with Sago

After waiting around for half a decade, we were absolutely certain that we had been forgotten. We were waiting on our dessert plus tea/coffee, which took its sweet ass time to come out after all the other dishes. Or maybe that was purposely done so that our food could be half digested before we stuff this finale into our fat selves.


Alas, our tea and coffee never actually made it to the table, but at least we got our dessert. This particular banquet included a very refreshing coconut pudding trapezium with translucent little sago balls on its roof. As coconut pudding is, it was sweet but not too sweet, smooth but not too slippery, as it's just a little dense. Much like this description :/


Sure the strawberry makes it look better, but a sour face was pulled with every bite! Didn't really add a welcoming flavour to complement the pudding, so wasn't really a great combination...

Lobby Christmas Decorations

Went on a little walk after dinner, allllllll the way to the Lobby situated outside Yu which takes around 30 seconds to get to on foot, which probably burned up a grain of rice or so.

No, Burswood doesn't leave Christmas decorations way past the festive season, I am just rather late with my posts. Too much food, too little time, life is too short to eat crap food!

...

Overall Yu is quite a contemporary Cantonese restaurant offering the usual plus more and is a good culinary experience. It adopts quite a dark theme that echoes through to its surrounds, where you have limited lighting to guide you, right from the entrance all the way to when you're even eating your food. The displays and decor within are decorated to give off a lavish and wealthy type of feel, but all too ostentatious for me.

Yeah, I had to Google that...just to be sure :P

Yet at the same time, this fanciness you dine in is sure different to the usual, late night eating establishments that also feature Chinese cuisine but in a much more casual, relaxed and dare I say hobo atmosphere with quite a different group of patrons. All the waitresses float around wearing Cheongsams, traditional Chinese costumes that make the job quite impractical in my eyes. But...it goes a great way to promote a whole air of what Chinese culture is depicted to be.

But you know, it stands as a high class Chinese dining restaurant, and every dish that is presented is enhanced and made unique with the service and method it is presented with. This isn't really worth the long ass waits however, the time between being seated and the first dish coming out tested my patience. And umm, you really shouldn't do that cause...I might kill you.


And, heads up, no eftpos facilities. Yeah I hate it when customers give me attitude and be all like "its the 21st century, get eftpos" and I'm just thinking yeah **** off, but in this case, it's Yu, it's Burswood, you Yu SHOULD really get some eftpos. And considering this banquet was $78 per person, minimum 2 persons - might make you think hmm, this isn't really worth the $156 I'm paying. But you do have to remember the sort of establishment and reputation Yu has prided itself upon, and you're paying pretty much the dollars to eat that reputation.


But that big reputation comes with a big price tag that makes it a bit hard for me to swallow without choking on it first! =(