* ~ * ABOUT THE RESTAURANT/INTERIOR * ~ *
Yumi Yumi is a Chinese restaurant and take-away located in Farnborough, Hampshire. They are open 7 days a week with various different opening times. You can choose to either sit in and have a meal at the restaurant or they have a take away menu which you can ring and collect your order and you can go into the restaurant and order the food and wait whilst they cook it. The restaurant itself is quite small, and it does get fairly busy so it's best to book if you want to eat in the actual restaurant. The interior of the restaurant is neutral with pale painted walls and some large Chinese pictures on the walls with low key lighting. The tables can be organised to sit a number of different people and occasionally when I eat in here the tables are in different positions every time. Towards the back of the restaurant is a small bar area with a ladies toilet located to the left of the bar and the men's toilet which is located to the right. On the wall near the bar there is a small section of photographs of different people whom have celebrated different occasions in the restaurant. They play relaxing, calming music which isn't too loud and it makes the general atmosphere and feel of the restaurant very nice and relaxing. The tables are often covered with a thick table-cloth, where there is a white china plate and black chopsticks which sit on a small ceramic stand to ensure the ends of the chop-sticks stay clean. Quite often when the restaurant is busy or has special occasions such as Mother's day they tend to have white paper table-cloths and paper napkins, which is quicker for them to clean up, ready for the next customer.
* ~ * PRICES/FOOD * ~ *
During the week you pay just £15 for an all you can eat menu in the restaurant which includes over 130 different dishes. This includes starter food such as seaweed, chicken satay skewers, prawn skewers, ribs and more. You can then go on to choose something to eat between you started and your main-meal which includes duck and other dishes. The main meals include a great range of chicken dishes, noodles, and rice, sea-food and pork dishes. There are vegetarian options; how-ever there isn't really much choice. They have a small range of beers, wine and spirits available to buy in the restaurant, along with different juices and soft drinks such as lemonade and coke. The beer is quite price at over £4.00 for a pint of fosters beer. The alcohol in the restaurant is pricey how-ever this doesn't really bother me too much when I go in here. When you first take your seat in the restaurant they put a basket of prawn crackers on the table for everyone to share whilst deciding on their starters and ordering drinks. The waiter/waitress will take your orders and you never have to wait too long for the starters to come out.
* ~ * THE FOOD * ~ *
As I have been here a number of different times I have tried many things on the menu. All the items come out warm and are presented on the plate nicely with enough food to share between the number of people in your party.
They lovely decorative plates for the food and there is always a flower carved from a carrot which is presented on the plate as well. I think this adds a lovely touch to the look of the food on the plate. As soon as the food is ready the waiter/waitress will bring the food over and will ask you if you want anything else to drink. Some of the food I have eaten here is as follows:
Satay Chicken Skewers - There were 3 of us eating at the restaurant and we got 2 each. The chicken was lovely and warm and was juicy and cooked very well but not over-cooked. The sauce on the chicken was mouth-watering and really tasty. Although a lot of the sauce fell off onto the plate, this was easily put back onto the chicken. These are one of my favourite things on the menu as every-time I have had them they have always tasted really good.
Crispy Spring Rolls - Some may find these boring as they just contain vegetables, how-ever I love the taste and the texture of them when eating them. The spring rolls are a nice size and you can easily bite into them. They are crispy but not over-cooked and there's a delicious filling of vegetables inside the spring roll, which don't all fall out when you bite into it. These are really yummy and are also great as a vegetarian option.
Crispy Seaweed - There's not much to say about the seaweed as it is just seaweed, how-ever I love the seaweed here as it's always very crispy with a lovely taste to it.
Crispy Duck - This is one of my favourite things on the menu. This comes with pancakes, spring onion, cucumber and a choice of 2 sauces which is Hoi Sin or plum sauce. The duck never taste's dry but it is crispy which is very nice. The duck is easily put into the pancakes with the spring onion, cucumber and then topped with Hoi Sin Sauce and then wrapped up ready to eat. You get to put the duck into your own pancakes so you can choose how much you want in there. The sauce comes in separate bowls which has their own spoons and the pancakes come in a saucepan type thing (with no handle), to make sure the pancakes don't dry out too much. I much prefer the Hoi Sin sauce to the plum one; how-ever both taste nice rolled up in the pancake with the duck.
Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls - When these came out on the plate I was quite surprised as they weren't really balls but more of a rectangle shape. They came out on a small plate with a separate bowl which contained the Sweet & Sour Sauce. This was good as I could just dip the chicken balls into the sauce rather than pour it over the chicken balls. The chicken balls tasted very good, and the sauce gave it more of a taste. I really enjoyed these and would have them again.
Sweet & Sour Pork - This came on a plate with a few vegetables mixed in with the sauce which included some green pepper and also some pineapple. The pork was very nice and extremely tasty as it was covered in the sweet and sour sauce. There is a lot of sauce which comes on the pork; how-ever this makes it really tasty.
The pork was cooked very well but not over cooked, so it wasn't dry or hard to chew.
Rice - I have had many of the rice dishes here, including egg fried rice, and pork fried rice and some other rice dishes on the menu. The rice is always warm and fluffy and tastes delicious. There's particular rice here which contains prawns, chicken and a hot sauce. This is my favourite rice dish on the menu as although it says hot sauce, this isn't hot at all but gives the rice a lovely slightly spicy flavour.
* ~ * FINISHING YOUR MEAL * ~ *
If you are here celebrating a birthday and they know you are celebrating a special occasion you will get banana fritters and ice cream free for your table. Otherwise if you want this you have to pay for it! Quite often they may stick a candle in the middle and they will put a happy birthday song on their stereo and sing happy birthday. Once you have finished your meal the waiter/waitress will come and give you a small warm hand towel fresh and very warm from a wrapper to clean your hands and wipe your face. After this has been done, the used towels will be taken away and you will then receive your bill which you can buy using cash or card. Once this has been done you will receive your receipt and a fortune cookie each. I love receiving the fortune cookies; this is my favourite part of the meal as I always love reading what fortune is inside my cookie. If you don't eat this at the restaurant this can be taken away with you as it's sealed in a foil wrapper. You will be thanked for your custom before you leave the restaurant.
* ~ * STAFF * ~ *
All the staff in here are of course Chinese. They are very nice and police and are very welcoming and friendly. You may not get the same waiter/waitress throughout your whole meal, and may find this changes depending on how busy the restaurant is. The members of staff are always well presented and look very neat and tidy. Although they are Chinese their English is very good and they are very easy to understand and to talk to if you have any questions about any of the food on the menu or problems with your food.
* ~ * TAKE AWAY MENU * ~ *
I can't comment on the take away service because I haven't yet ordered take away from here. The menu is very similar to the main menu when you sit in the restaurant, with maybe slightly more selection. The prices are reasonable and are about the same price as my other local Chinese take aways. I always see people come in and order or pick up take aways so I'm guessing it's very good quality food as is the food in the restaurant.
Address: 177 Lynchford Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 6HD
Contact us: 01252 515400
Opening hours: Mon: 5:30 - 11:00
Tue - Thu: 12:00 - 11:00
Fri - Sat: 12:00 - 11:30
Sun: 12:00 - 10:30
* ~ * OVERALL OPINION * ~ *
I love going to this restaurant, as it's very local to me and I can get here within about 5 minutes of walking from mine and my boyfriend's flat. We always book tables here as they do get busy and they can't always promise you will get a table without a booking.
I have been in here during the week and at weekends and both times have been quite busy. Me and my boyfriend took his mum here for mother's day and the restaurant was fully booked (luckily we booked). The restaurant was very busy and quite packed; how-ever the staff kept on top of everything and served customers in a quick amount of time. There was only one issue with our food which was that we didn't receive one of our main courses, until we had finished the others, how-ever this wasn't too much of a problem as we had this afterwards anyway. The staff tend to leave you to eat your meal and if you have any problems or need a refill on your drink you do have to try and grab their attention which is easily done as it's such as small restaurant. The food is very good quality and tastes delicious every-time I have been here and I've never been disappointed. The food always comes out lovely and warm and has so much taste and flavour to it. The staff could do with telling you what the things are when they bring them out as some things look similar and we couldn't tell the difference between the 2 plates of food until we asked a member of staff what they were. I have to give this restaurant 5 out of 5 stars as the food is fantastic and it's also really good value. I will continue to be a regular customer of this restaurant, and I'm sure I will enjoy it thoroughly every-time.
(review also on dooyoo)
Yumi, Yumi Chinese Food. 
Great review. E.