Yeeha? Nah

Five reasons we won't be rushing back to Yeeha Texas BBQ & Sports Bar

Back in August, we told you about Yeeha, the Texas BBQ/American Chinese Food restaurant near Jing'an Temple with specious connections to Yao Ming's restaurant in Houston (the two restaurants apparently share an investor). Well, it took us four months to get around to visiting the place ... and it will probably be more than four months before we go back.

We didn't have high expectations for the place — from what we had read there didn't seem to be any actual people from Texas involved — but when we walked in, we have to say we were impressed by the decor. It was kind of like going home (in an Anytown, USA kind of way). There were fire places, wood walls, some longhorns, lots of sports memorabilia and and a dozen or so flat-screen TVs. It was like being in a well-outfitted American chain restaurant, something you might find at a mall — and believe it or not, we mean that as a compliment. We are hicks at heart.

But then the food came out, and we noticed these five things:

1. The barbecue sauce is simply not good. Very bland. And there is only one option. We added several drops of Tabasco to make it bearable. Not a good BBQ joint if it's BYOB and the second 'B' stands for barbecue sauce.
2. On the menu, they claim to live up the the "Everything's bigger in Texas!" motto. But the person who prepared our three-meat Combination Platter (RMB 72) didn't get the memo. While the meats (pork, beef brisket and pork ribs) were tender and tasty (before BBQ sauce, of course), the portions of each were small.
3. Our BBQ Pork Hamburger (RMB 28) was also a disappointment. It looked big (see photo) but actually a lot of the space was taken up by the salad with Russian dressing that occupied the same bun as our barbecue pork. And the bun was sweet! Who does that? Certainly not anyone from Texas.
4. While many of the dishes come with your choice of side dishes — a good thing — the side dishes are also very tiny (like one of those little condiment dishes). And our baked beans were cold. Yuck.
5. Did we mention that the barbecue sauce was bad? (Almost as bad as the name of the restaurant.)

Two things that might bring us back to Yeeha sooner (other than addressing the above issues ... all of which are very easily addressed, by the way):

1. If the Shanghai Cowboys start playing regular gigs there. (We had heard they were having some Friday sessions.)
2. To watch sports. Not a bad atmosphere for that. But the beer selection sucks (get some Shiner) and the staff had a really hard time working the remote controls when we were there.

Hey, Bubba, when are you opening up a spot closer to downtown?

Yeeha, No. 2 Huashan Lu, across from Jing'an Temple. Tel: 62489988.

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