Yummy house lives up to its reputation

OK, so you’ve had a busy day, there’s nothing in the fridge worth bothering with and, anyway, you want something nice, fast.

The Yummy House in London Road, Sheffield understand the concept of fast food and when they say those reassuring words “Ten minutes” in response to an anxious inquiry about how long your order will take, you can rest assured that you’d better find your car keys and get your shoes on pretty quickly to pick it up.

This is a Chinese takeaway but, like most of their rivals in Sheffield, they also offer Thai and Malaysian dishes as well as Cantonese favourites and some spicy Szechuan offerings.

Or you can have steak and chips, nestling sheepishly at the bottom of the menu at number 175.

The Yummy House is a fairly new establishment and we haven’t yet had an extensive exploration of the menu but so far, so good.

I like Chinese-style duck so I went for duck with plum sauce with just a little trepidation.

Last time I tried it the dish contained about a tin’s worth of pineapple chunks and it was way too sweet for me.

I suspected that they’d got it mixed up with duck with pineapple, which is the dish above it on the menu.

My partner Andy ordered and he felt sure that the member of staff who took the order had it right this time.

We also had his favourite dish, beef with green pepper and garlic in black bean sauce.

I say favourite but, since he invariably orders it, I don’t know what he compares it with. Still he’s happy with it, bless him.

I decided we needed a small nod towards healthy eating and so we had Thai style mixed vegetables. Oh, and chips.

Egg-fried rice completed the set.

There’s plenty of choice for those more adventurous than my beloved: the usual range of chicken, curries, beef, king prawn, satay chow mein, foo yung and beancurd options.

We thought starters would be overdoing it but they have all your Chinese menu favourites, including assorted appetisers for two (5), and you also get a massive bag of prawn crackers thrown in free.

Sadly, my duck was sitting on a bed of pineapple but this time the sauce was slight sour and tangy and I enjoyed it. I didn’t take up Andy’s suggestion of pineapple chunks for pudding, though. The duck was very tasty, although a bit chewy.

The big hit of the night was the Thai vegetables, which were cooked with noodles in a nicely spiced coconut sauce. Excellent stuff; I might order it and definitely on the re-order list.

The beef in black bean sauce was good but the expert tells me that the sauce is usually a bit thicker, which he prefers.

The chips are top quality and the rice was fine.

We did overdo it a bit but the leftovers were tucked up for the night in the fridge, waiting for another day.

So the Yummy House did live up to its reputation but less pineapple, please.

Julia Armstrong

TAKEAWAY FACTS

n Address: 450 London Road, Sheffield, S2. 0114 255 0888.

n Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 4.30pm to 11pm. Thursday to Saturday, 11.30am to 2pm and 4.30pm to 11pm.

n Parking: On side streets.

Atmosphere: Basic. You can watch the fish tank.

n Quality of service: Friendly and speedy.

n Delivery service: Free for orders over 8 within three miles.

n Range of menu: Vast.

n What we had: Beef with green peppers in black bean sauce (3.20), duck with plum sauce (3.60), Thai style mixed vegetables (3.20), egg-fried rice (1,50), chips (1).

n Waiting time: Ten minutes.

How did it taste? Great, apart from a couple of small grumbles.

n How much did it cost? 11.80. Cheques accepted with a 50p surcharge.

n Your verdict: Yummy indeed.