When you’ve lived somewhere for several years, and have fallen in love with the city and the experiences you had there, it is very hard to let go. This is why I still spend an awful lot of time thinking about York, reminiscing with other people about York, and wondering when I can next go and visit York. Whilst I was staying with James over New Year, we started discussing the range of great restaurants in York, including The Yak and Yeti which had been one of our favourites. I haven’t seen a Nepalese restaurant since. However, when I was researching somewhere to eat in Bath after our trip to the Thermae Bath Spa, I stumbled across Yak Yeti Yak and there was suddenly no question about where we would be going.
When a restaurant is pretty full on a Wednesday evening after the Christmas period, it can only be a good sign. We hadn’t bothered booking a table as we were expecting it to be quiet. Whilst there wasn’t any difficulty in finding us a place to sit, the restaurant was still fairly busy (and continued to be – a huge group arrived just after we had left!). The service was pretty quick, and the staff were all very friendly. I was also pleased as food was made fresh to order, and therefore we were encouraged to order the level of heat that we would most enjoy. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to spicy food, but we had one mild dish and one that was more medium, and I found them both fine. There was also plenty of choice on the menu, so much so that we actually didn’t realise there was an additional specials board until we had finished our starter!
We started off the meal with vegetable momos, which are lightly spiced steamed dumplings that we knew from previous experience that we would enjoy. We had a plate between us as we weren’t sure how large the main courses would be, but we probably could have managed a helping each.
James snaffled one before I could take the photo…
For our main course we had been tempted to get a set and inclusive meal each, but decided instead to just pick a selection of dishes and share them between us. We opted for a portion of Bhuteko Bhat (Nepalese-style fried rice) as our rice dish, and one was plenty between us. We also had Aloo Channa (potato and chickpeas stir-fried with cumin and a mix of spices), Maasko Dal (black lentils simmered with mild spices, refried with herb infused ghee), Yak Yeti Yak lamb (tender pieces of lamb stir-fried with cumin, peppers and their own masala blend) and Chicken Chilli (chicken stir-fried with fresh green chillies, peppers, tomato and spring onion).
We thoroughly enjoyed each of the dishes we had picked which were full of flavour, but without being too spicy. We wouldn’t usually have opted for the vegetable and lentil accompaniment, but the waitress was concerned two dishes wouldn’t be enough between us and we were keen to try something different too. They went incredibly well with the meat dishes and I think we’d make the same decision if we went again. Whilst it looks like a lot of food, the plates each dish came served on were quite small and we did manage it all between us.
We probably could have found room for dessert but decided not to have anything else at Yak Yeti Yak, instead opting to go back to No.15 Great Pulteney and treat ourselves to some honeycomb ice cream from the larder. If I was returning to Bath for a meal out I would probably go somewhere different as I want to see what other culinary delights the city has, however I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Yak Yeti Yak and would more than happily return.
