Yum Sa Restaurant Review: Bottomless Grill & Grapes Saturday in Putney

Putney for me is one of those places that I’ve seen so many restaurant go through it. I can’t even count how many new openings there have been in this area over the last few years and just how many of them have not survived. I think partly it’s because Putney is rather mixed market and so getting that balance right can be hard. Though perhaps one restaurant has finally cornered the market, offering a place for not just couples and families, but somewhere which is still young, vibrant & full of fun.

Located in North Putney, opposite East Putney station – Yum Sa is a family owned business serving up modern Thai cuisine to feed the soul with delicious food, art and on a Saturday – live music! It also looks gorgeous inside with a lovely bar at the entrance, outside terrace and beautiful open kitchen which is looked after by executive chef Jai Shaikh.

For just £45 and held every Saturday, Yum Sa are offering a “bottomless grill & grapes” concept which is served for 2 hours between 12-4:30pm. Expect free-flowing wines & bubbles, excellent service, live music (which was great) and as many dishes from the set-menu as you like. So come hungry! We started with a glass of white wine, two refreshing Thai salads (the Som Tam was our favourite) and watched the live entertainment begin to unfold. To our surprise it was a previous X Factor contestant!

From the grills section we started with some juicy plump prawns smothered in a garlic sauce and zesty dipping sauce. Each very well cooked and they tasted very fresh.

We continued on with the most magnificent lobster tail which is well worth the £5 supplement you can add on top of your meal to enjoy these beauties. Size wise the tail is absolutely gargantuan, cooked absolutely perfectly and the pad cha sauce went great with it too – adding a little spice and lots of flavour. A dish I highly recommend.

For our meaty dishes, first out was the succulent beef sirloin steaks which were full of flavour and had a lovely rich smokiness from the grill. Oh-so tender pork spare ribs which had been marinated in a tamarind, ginger & soy marinade was my favourite dish from the entire meal – while the chicken satay with peanut sauce shouldn’t be missed. The chicken could have been a little more moist here actually, but once dipped into the sauce we hardly noticed.

Accompaniments to our grills were some really lovely tempura broccoli, crunchy potato wedges with a Thai twist and my favourite – som tum fritters. So good in fact we couldn’t resist ordering another plate to go with our second helping of those juicy prawns.

While the music was still playing and the wine was flowing, we finished up on our on some very addictive coconut spring rolls which were accompanied by coconut ice cream. The latter was honestly one of the finest coconut flavoured ice creams I think I’ve ever eaten.

We had such a lovely time here at Yum Sa and living close to Putney in Chelsea, we’ll most definitely be returning. The food is lovely, the wines are actually very good quality considering they’re free-flowing and when the sun is shining it’s a really great place to spend a long afternoon. When the sun isn’t shining then at least you have those pretty interiors to enjoy inside. Yum Sa – we’ll see you soon!