I ate in a little Chinese restaurant called Yuen Shan on Saturday. When I had finished my meal, I was all *_* [sparkly sparkly]
My boyfriend and I walked up London Road looking for a good place to eat, undecided where to go, looking for somewhere inexpensive that would sell good, tasty food, suitable for one person who wanted something interesting that they can't easily cook themselves, and one vegetarian who wanted something less adventurous. This place fitted the bill really well.
It's fairly new, and I hadn't seen it there before. There were menus and advertisements posted on the windows - a recession-busting 20% off everything, special offer. All you can eat buffet. Special Hot Pot. Then the menus had the general individual things you could order, including some really speciality exotic dishes that you don't normally see on offer, like dishes using chicken feet, cow lungs, pig ears, etc. Menus were in both English and Chinese.
As we were waiting outside, I could see that the staff were anticipating us, which scared me off a little bit. We tried to see what was on offer at the restaurant next door but the windows were steamed up, so we came back to the Yuen Shan. No regrets!
The interior is not flashy at all, it's like a little café or canteen. It seems clean - they clear down and spray clean tables immediately after customers leave. There is one big room, with a counter to the right, and toilets to the back. As we sat down, they gave us a huge pile of menus, along with free Chinese tea and prawn crackers. There are... maybe hundreds of dishes to choose from, hehe.
"Yay! Free tea! This is the best place ever! And free crackers! Oh! And they supply chilli oil as well as soy sauce!! Wow! I like this place!!" ^__^ was my reaction.
The "Eat As Much As You Can" buffet costs more than at most places in the area, and is not actually a buffet - it's table service. You choose whatever you would like on that menu and they bring it to you. That seems quite nice and far more hygenic than how it is done in most restaurants, but it seems... I dunno, embarassing to individually order so much food rather than take it. It's got a far larger vegetarian menu than most all-you-can-eat buffets.
I decided to order a "Big Plate" of boiled rice, mixed seafood and tofu. My boyfriend opted for a tofu dish and boiled rice separately. The food arrived quickly, far quickly than in most restaurants I have been to. The "Big plate" really is big! I was very impressed. The selection of seafood was good as well - great big king prawns, squid, scallops, and fried tofu. There were large slices of ginger on top which made the dish hot, and I added some of the chilli oil (which seemed to contain crushed shrimp) as well. Oh, it was gorgeous. Really well prepared. ^_^ My boyfriend's meal was a large plate of tofu and (I forget what) sauce which contained water chestnuts and peanuts and celery, together with a small bowl of rice. He seemed to enjoy it. ^_^
Around us, there were lots of Chinese patrons - who had all opted for the restaurant's speciality hot pot. From 2 people to 6 people parties, that seemed to be what everyone was eating. For this, they brought out a huge pot of boiling water over a little hot plate to keep it boiling, and put it in the centre of the table. Then they brought out plates of raw vegetables and meat and seafood and noodles, and placed those plates around the table. Each person chooses what they would like and they put the food into the pot, put the lid on and wait for it to cook. It's also all-you-can-eat, I think. Looks great, a very social way to eat, but I guess some people wouldn't like to eat with raw meat in front of them, and you risk giving yourself food poisoning if you don't cook it all properly!
So, we had a good meal, and everyone around us seemed to have a good meal as well. My dinner - a large, filling, plate of rice and seafood, and a pot of chinese tea, came to £4.80. My boyfriend's meal came to a little more due to ordering rice separately and his soft drink, but it still came to a total of under £12 for both our meals together. Really good value for money!
Are there any downsides to the Yuen Shan? well, my boyfriend tried to order a drink and it was quite troublesome - first of all the man who appeared to be the boss of the place didn't seem to understand what my boyfriend wanted at all, then he called over a waitress who also had trouble understanding what a "soft drink" is. The staff are attentive, but their poor English communication skills let it down. Also, I think you might be stuck if you can't use chopsticks, it's hard to tell whether meals will be spicy or contain nuts from the menu, a dish with oyster sauce is in the vegetarian section (unless their Oyster sauce doesn't contain oysters?), and there are no desserts on the menu. None of that really affected me, though, and I had a great time. ^_^
There are several good Chinese restaurants in Sheffield; the Wong Ting, and Mei's Restaurant are both favourites of mine which sell really excellent food, but the price is twice what you would pay in the Yuen Shan - perhaps more. This is more downmarket but is a very authentic small-scale Chinese restaurant experience with a huge range of meals to choose from, and is very good value for money. And they give you free tea! *_*
