Yum Bun - review

You've got China in your hands at this new Hackney hatch, says Victoria Stewart
Victoria Stewart20 April 2015

In New York, David Chang has popularised the pork-filled Chinese steamed bun at his Momofuku restaurant. In London, self-taught cook Lisa Meyer is doing a very good job of following in his footsteps.

A few years ago, after her brother returned from a trip to Manhattan raving about these Changtastic snacks, she decided to give the recipe a go. In 2010, she began her own street food stall, Yum Bun at Hackney’s Broadway Market, and two years later she had won the People’s Choice and “Best Snack” trophy at the British Street Food Awards.

Meyer is currently taking a break from the street cart — which will be back in the spring — because she has moved into bricks and mortar, this being a takeaway booth attached to City Road’s latest addition, Rotary Bar & Diner.

On a Tuesday lunchtime there were smiling cashiers and a queue of eight or so people at any time — and ours moved fast. We took seats on a high stool just inside the restaurant next door (this is fine so long as you don’t venture too far in). We were in and out within the hour with minimum fuss.

The menu is pleasingly simple: four bun options (£3.50 each), a Bento box (better value at £7.50 for two buns, miso soup, gyoza and salad) and a dessert (£3). The contents of our Bentos were guzzled at speed.

The pork bun was faultless: spongy white bread cushions, unctuous belly meat touched up with sweet hoi sin sauce, crunchy cucumbers and a final spring from the onions. Another bun encased a juicy Portobello mushroom doused in a miso glaze and more cucumbers and spring onions. The addition of toasted walnuts gave this a light smoky crunch.

Of the last two, the namban chicken in tartare sauce was bland and required lots of dipping in accompanying sriracha chilli sauce but I loved the salmon.

Sticky ginger sauce and juice from the fish had seeped into the bun, making it slightly less starchy than the others, while the salmon itself was yielding, sweet and hot.

Miso soup was filling and flavoursome, the vegetable-filled gyoza dumplings were fine (more hot sauce) and I enjoyed the final crunch of rainbow salad made up of carrot, cabbage and cucumber. We probably didn’t need pudding (crumbly coconut meringue with oversweetened strawberry ice cream).

This is a good example of London street food moving forward. Incidentally, just around the corner is a Chinese-run café selling pork stew-filled steamed buns for £1.50. Here the buns are stickier and the meat stringier. I much prefer Yum Bun.

31 Featherstone Street, EC1 (07919 408221, yumbun.co.uk). Open Mon-Fri 11.30am-2.30pm, evenings Thurs-Fri 5pm-10pm, Saturdays 6pm-10pm. Lunch for two without drinks between £7-£15

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