Yummy House in Tampa

January 03, 2008

Yummy House in Tampa

So this will be my first restaurant review for the site, and I'm happy to say that it will be about a yummy meal from Yummy House - a chinese restaurant in Tampa, FL. As with nearly everything down here in the sunshine state, Yummy House is in a small strip-plaza, and is fairly unassuming, but the food inside certainly lives up to the name on the sign. So let's get

down to it - our meal: We started with an appetizer of the salt & pepper tofu, which was definitely the highlight of the evening. Crispy-fried cubed tofu, soft and creamy in the center, and topped with a type of salt and pepper crunch, made of garlic, chives, cilantro, jalepenos, and of course salt and pepper - we didn't stop until the plate was clear. We also had a pot of green tea, which seemed to have a hint of seaweed that my friend didn't like, although i have to say it made for a compelling flavor. We finished the evening with two entrées - the tofu-fish bowl, and the vegetarian buddha's delight. The tofu-fish bowl was basically a large soup, warmed by flame in

a unique metal pot, with large slabs of silken tofu, cabbage, onion, whole cloves of garlic, ginger, and big chunks of white fish, served with a side of rice. Tasty, but a whole lot of soup for one person, and a bit lacking as an entrée. The buddha's delight was a typical vegetable stirfry, with baby portabellas, baby bok choy, onions, carrots, baby corn, and water chestnuts, covered in a light, slightly sweet sauce, over thin rice noodles - simple, but good. With the lack of good Chinese food in the Tampa Bay area, I will certainly hit up Yummy House again, and the menu invites multiple visits, with a number of unique dishes available. Service was certainly a bit abrupt, but we got what we wanted fairly quickly, despite the lack of open tables. I think we both would have liked to finish the meal on something as tasty as that salt & pepper tofu though, and walked out to the cold with those smiles that the appetizer brought to our faces at the beginning of the meal.