Yauatcha’s New Menu Recreates 1960s Hong Kong Across Three Indian Cities

Yauatcha India’s One Night in Kowloon menu is live from November 1 through December 15 at the brand’s rooms in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata. Hospemag and Local Samosa both list those dates. The board borrows the language of 1960s Kowloon street cooking and shared neighborhood tables, then runs it through Yauatcha’s modern Cantonese kitchen. Two plates carry the Hong Kong story: Typhoon Shelter Prawns in Spicy Crispy Garlic and Stuffed Chicken Wings with Glutinous Rice.

Alan Yau opened the original Yauatcha on Broadwick Street in Soho in 2004 as a dim sum and tea house. The London room held a Michelin star from 2005 until 2019. KA Hospitality brought the brand to Mumbai in 2011 and later to Bengaluru and Kolkata; Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality now runs the India business. The current promo sits at Raheja Tower in Bandra Kurla Complex, Level 5 of 1 MG Lido Mall on MG Road, and the fifth floor of Quest Mall in Park Circus. Hospemag lists service from noon to 10:30 p.m. Confirm hours before you go; Mumbai’s Zomato page sometimes runs later.

Typhoon-shelter cooking starts on the water. A typhoon shelter is a harbor basin where fishing boats ride out storms. For much of the twentieth century, boat-dwelling Tanka families lived and cooked there. Wikipedia’s entry on the style describes seafood flash-fried, then tossed with a mountain of golden garlic, dried chili, and often fermented black beans. Causeway Bay’s floating restaurants later made the garlic crab and prawn versions a Hong Kong shore classic. Ming Pao Culture ties that garlic-forward wok habit to Tanka pantry logic when fresh vegetables were scarce on the boat. On Yauatcha’s India board, the prawns land as Typhoon Shelter Prawns in Spicy Crispy Garlic. Mumbai’s Zomato lists them at ₹1,295. The Nod Mag’s November roundup puts the plate among the first things to order at BKC.

The stuffed wing is a different Hong Kong craft. A cook debones a whole wing, packs it with sticky glutinous rice, often mixed with dried shrimp or preserved meats, then fries it until the skin shatters and the rice stays chewy. Farm House in Causeway Bay made 古法糯米雞翼, old-style glutinous-rice chicken wings, a house signature. A 2009 Eat Drink Man Woman profile credited founder Deng Sai-on with popularizing the plate from childhood memories of teahouse sticky-rice chicken. Yauatcha’s Zomato copy calls its version an authentic Kowloon classic from the 1960s and prices Stuffed Chicken Wings with Glutinous Rice at ₹725. In Mumbai, Bengaluru, or Kolkata, that wing arrives as banquet technique on a share plate.

Around those two plates, the brand restyles the rest of the board for rooms that already sell polished dim sum. Black Truffle Seafood Shui Mai (₹925) and a Pear with Avocado Fruit Bao (₹465) use teahouse play and luxury garnish. Crispy glass-noodle spring rolls sit at ₹495. Sautéed chicken with shimeji on a crispy rice crust (₹995) nods to neighborhood rice snacks that caramelize in the pan. Wok-fried noodles with shredded chicken in supreme soy (₹895), crispy pumpkin with nori salt and pepper (₹565), and poached greens with shiitake in superior broth (₹695) fill out the table. A creamy custard tart at ₹355 closes like a bakery stop after yum cha. The South China Morning Post and a recent New York Times T Magazine piece both place Hong Kong’s egg tarts in a Cantonese adaptation of British custard tarts that spread through cha chaan tengs after the mid-century, separate from Macau’s Portuguese-style tarts.

Hospemag’s release also lists Kowloon-night cocktails, among them The Neon Street, Dirty Chai, and Typhoon Highball, plus zero-proof drinks such as Spicy Gunner and Hongkong Street. Press materials lean on Kowloon Walled City and tenement communal pots. The prawns and wings still point to older harbor and banquet habits that Hong Kong kitchens kept cooking long after the boat restaurants left Causeway Bay. Order those two first if you want that history on the table. The menu runs through December 15.