Review: YYTime Delivers Endless Options, Endless Fun

There’s no such thing as “a simple cup of bubble tea” at YYTime. The available selections occupy their own massive menu, with more than 60 different blends of milk tea and fruit tea combined. Choosing drinks like Thai milk tea ($6.49) and jasmine green tea ($6.25) is just the start of the process. Boba fans can add chewy crystal pearls, amber pearls or fruit-filled popping pearls. Then it’s on to the toppings, including various foams, puddings and jellies. Finally, sippers choose their sugar levels, which can be dialed in from 0 to 100 percent, and ice levels, ranging from none to plenty.

In our case, at least, it takes less time to prepare the drinks than it did for us to order them. Like most items at this breezy new AsiaTown eatery, the colorful beverages land on the table with surprising speed. If the bubble tea menu gives diners pause, the food menu – a two-sided affair – might stop them in their tracks altogether. Dozens and dozens of items are spread across categories of cold appetizers, hot appetizers, vegetable skewers, seafood skewers, meat skewers, whole roasted fish and large-format noodle soups.

The best way to attack a menu like this one is to just dive in. YYTime’s digital ordering system, via QR codes, makes it easy to go at one’s own pace. We punch in orders for pork belly skewers ($7.99) and grilled eggplant ($5.99) while we ponder next moves. Almost immediately, a server comes to the table to confirm our order, a pattern repeated with each additional selection. A trio of skewers threaded with belly arrives straight off the grill, hot, crisp and dusted with tingly spices. The eggplant is lush and pudding-soft, heaped with garlic, scallions and spices.

It took Sheng Long Yu nearly two years to convert the former National Tire & Battery property at E. 30th and Payne into a sun-soaked dining room filled with blonde wood furniture, Chinese decorations, and an open kitchen. Yu’s original plans for the property called for turning the space into a food hall featuring a handful of independent operators slinging things like buns, dumplings, noodle soups, kebabs and bubble tea. In the end, the owner opted to run the operation himself. What didn’t change was Yu’s commitment to building something completely unique to the bustling neighborhood.

“A lot of AsiaTown restaurants are pretty much outdated,” Yu explains. “What I want to create is a place with a fun atmosphere where friends can hang out and have a good time.”

Over the course of two visits, fun was indeed on the menu. Thanks to the efficient ordering process and lightning-quick preparation and delivery, we sampled tons of dishes, while barely making a dent in the overall offerings. Those melt-in-your-mouth pork belly skewers were followed by grilled pork intestines ($7.99), jumbo head-on shrimp ($5.99) and mussels ($5.99) cooked on the half shell with garlic sauce. Meaty king oyster mushrooms ($5.99) and bone-in lamb chops ($10.99), both hot off the flames, illustrate the range of the grilled items on offer. The only thing missing was cold beer, a gap that Yu intends to close in the coming months.

More familiar Chinese starters like spring rolls, Sichuan beef tripe and spicy cucumbers ($6.99) are joined by snacks like a thin, crispy fried chicken cutlet cut into fingers ($6.99). When we visited, the equipment needed to prepare the buns and dumplings had not yet arrived, but likely will have by the time you read this.

YYTime is the new home of Dagu Rice Noodle, the noodle shop that Yu opened down the road in 2019. The famous “crossing the bridge” soups made the journey, arriving in the same super-hot earthenware bowls. Alongside the crock is a collection of small plates containing ingredients like tofu, corn kernels, scallions, ham, bean curd, lettuce and hard-cooked quail egg. Those items get tossed into the soup along with the rice noodles, which also arrive on the side. Broth varieties include the pork, spicy pork spicy ($12.99), tomato and kim chi. Other soups, like the aromatic coconut red curry with chicken and noodles ($14.99), arrive fully assembled.

Yu is one of those restaurant operators who is unable to stand still. Since opening Shinto Japanese Steakhouse in Strongsville 20 years ago, the Chinese-born entrepreneur has opened two Kenko Sushi locations, Hell’s Fried Chicken, a second Shinto location in Westlake, Dagu Rice Noodle and Lao Sze Chuan at Pinecrest. At YYTime (which translates into quality time spent with friends and family), Yu has room to expand. His plans include launching a production and distribution facility for wholesale foods like buns and dumplings.

YYTime
3004 Payne Ave, Cleveland
216-291-7533
yytimecle.com

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed