We all know where to go if we want a decent curry in Manchester and the majority would say it isn’t in the City Centre. Rusholme is full to the brim with fragrant delights, Ziya being one of my personal favourites for the twists on classic dishes as well as an impressive cocktail selection. Somewhere hoping to pull the hoards of curry lovers from the Curry Mile is Zouk Tea Bar and I popped in to see if they were close to taking the curry crown.
Unusual for an Indian restaurant, there is a full cocktail menu as well as an impressive wine list to look at. I chose the Blackberry Fruit Cup whilst my friend ordered the Tamarind Margarita. Both were garnished simply which is lovely to see in a city full of extravagant drinks. The Blueberry Fruit Cup sees vodka and Chambord mixed with ginger ale and lemon before being topped with champagne. It was much sweeter than it sounds and could have done with more lemon and champagne to add a little dry and sourness to the flavour. The Tamarind Margarita doesn’t actually contain any tamarind which was a bit of a surprise. It mixes tequila with Cointreau before adding orange and lime juice. As you would expect from the ingredients it is quite sweet when the name would suggest the opposite.
Onto the food and we opted for a Popadom and Pickle Box which is pretty much a basket of mixed poppadoms and a selection of chutneys. I love having different poppadoms as they all compliment the different chutneys in terms of flavour and crunch. The chutneys aren’t dissimilar to what you will find in most Indian restaurants and started our menu perusal perfectly.
Service was very slow during our visit and we waited a good 15 minutes to order our food, and then we had to ask if we could order. Once ordered our starters came quickly. The Houmous was a thinner consistency to others but it had a lovely kick of garlic and, considering I am a total houmous-oholic, I really enjoyed it. I would have liked to see more crudites as these were gone in seconds whilst there was still a good amount of homous left in the bowl. No one should waste good houmous in my opinion. The Paneer Tikka was slightly overdone when chargrilled meaning some of the edges were burnt and, in turn, caused the paneer to become rubbery and hard. Such a shame for a classic dish. The Punjabi Lollipops saw chicken wings slightly butterflied before being chargrilled in their marinade. The flavours were beautiful with an Indo-Chinese tasting marinade that was slightly sweet yet spicy. Once again the chargrill had caused some areas to burn and char a bit too much.
Mains we stuck to the classics with my friend choosing the Butter Chicken and me opting for the Chicken Kerahi. Unfortunately both curries look similar and our server got them mixed up. It was only after a few mouthfuls I declare the curry surprisingly creamy and mild for a Kerahi! The Kerahi, when I did get to try it, was still surprisingly mild although the spices came through in a fragrant way. I think the best way to describe them is ‘ok’. They were no different really to what I have eaten elsewhere and I did expect a little more from Zouk for its City Centre location and the competition it has from the Curry Mile.
As with the start of the meal we had a lengthy wait to get someone’s attention to sort our bill before heading out into the night. To answer my initial question, for me, Curry Mile is still winning. Our meal was fine, I just expect so much more from an Indian now. Perhaps I have been negatively spoiled by other establishments but I will be back should the other options on the menu be a better choice over the classics. To be continued.
I was invited to dine as a guest of Zouk and was not asked to pay for food or drinks.
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