It was Saturday lunch and hubby decided to take me out to eat! He's a good one :) So we got in the car and I was whisked into town for a spot of dim sum at Tattu Restaurant in Manchester. This has been somewhere that we have both wanted to check out now for some time but just I guess never got round to it - plus the reviews have been very mixed and so maybe we were a bit wary too.
To be honest, the venue was beautiful. There was a lot of attention to detail and the environment was great. The staff were super friendly and you could see a lot of effort had gone into making the place really stunning. I can imagine this place is 'poppin' on a Saturday night and is probably a great alternative to some of the other bars and clubs out there.
We had a really nice seat with the view of the restaurant. I know these pics aren't too great but the lighting was a bit random in there so please accept my apologies for maybe not the best pics!
We decided to go for the dim sum lunch menu so we could try lots of different things. Although I'm not eating meat, there was plenty of vegetable options and also lots of seafood too so we could get a good idea of what the food was like.
We ordered around 6 dishes I think. We had a mix of gaus (chinese dumplings), baus (chinese buns) and some fried rolls. We had some Jasmine green tea to drink too...
Now, I wouldn't say that I was some kind of 'Chinese food connoisseur', but being Chinese and knowing good Chinese food gives me a good idea what I'm looking for. I'm sorry to say this place really didn't shape up. I was so so disappointed, we both were! The venue was really gorgeous and the Cherry tree inside the restaurant really does look lovely, but the food... sorry no. Just no :(
WILD MUSHROOM SPRING ROLLS
SWEET POTATO GAU
PRAWN & CHIVE GAU
SALT & PEPPER AUBERGINE
SINGAPORE CHILLI CRAB BAU
MUSHROOM BAU
Oh dear, I hate being critical and anybody who reads my blogs regular knows surely I'm a pretty positive person. All the food was either lacking in seasoning or just wasn't quite right.
The spring rolls were ok, they just didn't taste of much. The sweet potato was far too sweet for my tastes. Don't get me started on the prawn dumplings! Super thick outer and a teeny tiny prawn inside (you would never have this in a traditional Chinese restaurant! Good Dim Sim restaurants can easily be judged on the quality of the prawn dumpling!). Aubergine - meh! Didn't taste of much. The aubergine wasn't seasoned properly and so just tasted a bit mushy and with the batter being quite thick we ended up leaving most of these. Then the two buns, the crab one was okay I guess, but the same as the other things - it just didn't taste of much. The best thing was the mushroom bun, but by this point, I had lost all interest. I hate to be a negative Nancy and I love reviewing restaurants for you all but this just wasn't great. £44 for the meal and to be honest, I could get food tasting 10 times better in Glamorous Restaurant or Ocean Treasure (the BEST prawn dumplings in Manchester!) for more than half the price.
Positives... we need positives! Okay, so the food was presented lovely. It did look so much prettier than what you would get in a traditional Chinese style restaurant. Not that the food doesn't look nice there, but you could see the plates of food looked like they had a designer or something. There was a lot of detail in the presentation and you could see the effort they go to.
The place was lovely, the staff were really friendly and it looks pretty damn cool - maybe a little pretentious but even so, it was cool!
My favourite part...? I guess the cute little jasmine flower floating in my cup. Such a small thing but I love little details like that. It's something I've not had before and it looked cute. What can I say, I love a bit of kitch!
I also loved the tatooed ladies all over the show, quite cool images and gave the place some kind of 'meaning' - being called tattu and all!
Would I go again? Erm, maybe?? Not for food, but a drink with a friend perhaps? Somewhere different on a Saturday night? Yes definitely! I can imagine it's a nice bar to go to if you like a cocktail or two. There were a lot of people drinking cocktails whilst I was there and they cocktail menu was pretty big - I know I only had tea (I can only drink Chinese tea which Chinese food, just a weird thing - Has to be Po Nee Tea too!) but the drinks looked pretty nice so if you're into your cocktails maybe give it a try. Unfortunately what we expected was true though, beautiful place but very mediocre food.
Hopefully next time I can give you somewhere nicer to visit... watch this space!
Thanks so much for reading
Emmaline x
No comments
Post a Comment