Yummy House: Great Expectations From the Name

Growing up in the Philippines, a country no one really knows about on the Southeastern part of Asia, I have been exposed to different cuisines from the neighboring nations. And for some reason, Chinese food was one of my father’s favorite cuisines to pick for a family night out so, I pretty much have intoxicated my body with then-MSG-infused dishes. Thankfully, Chinese restaurants don’t use this that much to flavor their food anymore. They at least give tell you if it contains it. That is if you ask.

First stop: Yummy House.

Knowing that this restaurant was on Waters Ave., I knew it was going to be tricky finding the place due to the reason that there are thousands of food junctions and other stores that line up the busy street. We went about an hour and a half before the store closed. Surprisingly, it was not that hard. One can see the humongous bright sign that says Yummy House. There weren’t really any people in the place. The only customers present were a table of four and another table of Chinese people who looked like they were regulars of the place. I was skeptical. This restaurant has been raved about by so many, but the number of people eating at that moment does not add up to all the hype.

I was like, whatever, I’ll be reviewing the place anyway. Maybe it would be better off that way since it was not busy at all. The servers greeted us in a not-so-friendly way. They pretty much just showed us to our table and gave us the menus, not even asking how we were and such. I wanted to take in my first impression of the whole place, feel the ambiance. However, it was like I just couldn’t. It looked like a very cheap place. The interior was extremely bright. Personally, I think the place was not inviting at all. Even the tables were covered with a plastic tablecloth. Yes, easy to clean. No, not much of a “I will take my other half to eat here” place to eat.

I look over the menu. I believe I am kind of obsessive compulsive, and lo and behold, there were so many typos in it. I’m not saying that they’re bad spellers, but come on. It has been an established restaurant and no one changed the menu since then. Their selection impressed me though. Well, fine. It impressed me and discouraged me at the same time. They had pots, appetizers, soup, seafood, sizzling plates, fried rice, chow mein, beef, chicken, pork and everything else you can imagine in a Chinese restaurant. They even had a page for tofu and vegetables. For vegetarians and people who don’t want to add to their cholesterol, I presumed. However, it was like everything had the same exact ingredients, just one or two others added or removed from it. They should have just called it mix-and-match meats or something.



With the bashing aside, we ordered Cream of Egg Drop soup first. I am not really a fan of cilantro. I eat it if I have to, especially like in a Mexican restaurant where all the things they serve include chopped up pieces of the green leafy herb mixed in. I’d rather not make my tummy growl at me, than whine about taking each cilantro bit out. Fine. I complain sometimes. But shockingly, I didn’t even care about it being in the soup. It worked so well with the other ingredients that I slurped it like crazy.


Cream of Egg Drop Soup

Our main course consisted of two viands. One was the Szechwan Chicken, and the other was the Eight Treasures Pot. Sounds interesting. I love spicy food. I live for spicy food. The Szechwan Chicken was perfect for me! This for me was the best kind of chicken I had in a long time. Even the vegetables with it were exceptional. The celery and cucumbers were just so crunchy that you would know they’re freshly cooked. Every bite was just pure orgasm for me.


Szechwan Chicken

The Eight Treasures Pot was great as well plus a little dissatisfaction for me. The squid was cooked just right. It was not gummy at all. It was like soft, but crunchy at the same time (I actually had to fight over the squid pieces with my best friend because he wanted to have them too). It was phenomenal. There were also scallops and chicken included in the pot. The downside to this dish was that the beef was kind of chewy. The vegetables were pretty mushy, maybe due to the great amount of sauce in it. Lastly, I felt that the tofu was undercooked. It was like an explosion of watery goo in my mouth when I took bites of it.


Eight Treasures Pot

All the dishes had a huge serving. I even had a box to take home. All in all, it was worth every penny that I spent. It’s just sad that service was really bad. The girl sitting at the table across us even had to drink from her boyfriend’s glass since she was waiting like ten minutes for her glass to be refilled. I understand that they were about to close and they were preparing the dinner for the employees, which made me assume that this is a family-run business. However, this is not an excuse to forego the needs of your customers. They made us feel that they wanted us to leave already. I didn’t care much though. My stomach was already happy. That is all that matters.

I went to creativeloafing.com and found a review that was made years before. I can say that I agree and disagree with the last person who commented on it. One person, with the alias name of DL, states, “The absolute best Chinese food in the Tampa area. The absolute worst service in the Tampa area. Superb food for the price, but I wish they would charge more and put some money back into the restaurant--avoid the bathrooms.” While DL is probably wrong when he or she claims that she wishes they would charge more and put some money back into the restaurant, he or she is right that they have ridiculously good food, and that the price is so affordable for the quality and quantity of food you eat. In my opinion, they should invest more into the interior and exterior of the restaurant, but I am definitely against them making their prices higher. Lastly, stay away from the restroom. DL is definitely right about it.

Should the exterior and interior of the place discourage you? No. Does Yummy House truly live up to its name? Yes, I believe so. It’s more than worthy to be called that.

Yummy House
2202 W Waters Ave., Tampa, FL 33604
Phone 813-915-2828

      Extra Thoughts on Ms. DJ’s WWFF:

          “The second secret is that reviewing is difficult and time-consuming, even if all you do is write reviews. You may go out several
          evenings in a week. As a freelancer, I went out three to four nights per week to write one review per week for a weekly paper.”

      Can I just say that that is probably the most redundant part I’ve read in a published book? Anyway… I agree that making restaurant
      reviews is extremely difficult and time-consuming because my experience of attempting to do the same thing confirms it. Notice the
      fact that I added “extremely” to what she had already stated. I cannot emphasize how complicated and hard it is. In addition, if she
      says it’s time-consuming even though that’s pretty much all she does, more so is it for me, since I am a full-time student and I work
      not just one, but two jobs. There is so much effort that one needs to exert to do some restaurant reviewing. It’s crazy. Period.