Zouk Tea Bar & Grill

we went to Zouk Tea Bar and Grill on a saturday night not really sure what to expect but let me tell you it is a restaurant that you must visit. It is indian restaurant which has a really amazing menu, with reasonable prices. the food we ordered was top quality really fresh and you get to see the chefs cooking as the kitchen is all open to the public. the waiters were really attentive and made the experience really enjoyable. you must try the Lamb nehari its fantastic.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Monday, March 22, 2010

Not a good experience.

To be honest, with Akbars and Zaika nearby, I struggle to think why one would want to go to Zouk?

The lamb chop starter was laughable, when compared to the stellar version of the same dish at Akbars. Tasteless, in fact. Akbar's version is obviously marinated for quite a while and bursts with flavour....Zouk's version tastes of very little indeed. A tiny nan bread, inferior relishes with the popadoms.........we really weren't pleased. The mains were better, though the service, despite an almost empty restaurant, was slow and inattentive.

And of course the beer rip off. I would guess that the average British male who goes to a curry house has what.....two pints of lager? Places like Zouk have decided to gouge you by ONLY serving small bottles of beer (at £3.00). A pint would normally be £3.00 in a restaurant, so they have cynically worked out that they can get you for £12 (four bottles) instead of £6 (two pints) for virtually the same amount of beer. Maybe they aren't as clever as they think, as I certainly won't go back, and based on the nearly empty restaurant we witnessed, we aren't alone. Stick with Zaika or Akbars.
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Adam Roberts
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, March 17, 2010

this has to be one of the best indian restaurants in manchester. the food was amazing. we went on saturday night 10 friends it was very busy so we had to wait for our table in the bar after we had drinks we were taken to our table and presented the menus whcih not only looked fantastic but the dishs were very original this was refreshing. all the food tasted amazing all of us agreed that it was the best indian we have had in manchester. the restaurant looks really good but the food is the best.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Thursday, June 11, 2009

Quite possibly the worst restaurant I have ever visited!! It started badly when the taxi driver said that he hadn't heard any good things about this restaurant and that we should have gone to Akbar's. But we were willing to give it a try! Table booked for 12 people at 8 o'clock, after waiting half an hour at the bar to get a drink we were shown to our table at 8:45.

The menu is so mixed up its unreal! I have never been to a restaurant that has chicken tikka massala on the same menu as lobster thermidor (Gordon Ramsey would have a field day). After ordering we had starters which were fine. Then came the main courses which were of such poor quality. The poor ingredients were disguised by way too much spice. When 10 of the 12 people complained the waitress did her best to compensate us. By now it was 10:15 and we wanted to go home, so we said we were willing to pay for our drinks and starters and were prepared to leave it at that. After going back and forth several times, the waitress came over with a young manager who basically wanted to start a fight with us. We were a mixed group of friends ranging from 23 to 42, and in no ways confrontational.

We left, walking past a few more tables who were not happy and were complaining. The owner spoke to me on the way out of the restaurant and refused to apoligise for the managers actions by saying "what do you expect he's young". The manager was in his early 30's!All in all a terrible experience, and topped of by the worst customer service I have ever experienced. One good thing about Zouk, is that the naan bread is excellant, but otherwise if your planning a trip here, do what we should have done and listen to your taxi driver!!
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, June 03, 2009