Zouk Restaurant Reviewed

WE'VE been raging and a ranting about this through 2012. It's become an 'issue'.

We first noticed it with Chinese food at the Great Wall on Faulkner Street and then with an Asian take-away and cafe off King Street West - click here.

Being a pedantic sod I pointed out with the other dish - the Paya (£7.95) - that sheep don't have 'trotters' but 'hooves'. Given the food was so good I might be prepared to change my mind, who cares.

This is the two menu ritual. Different menus for different Britons. One is for those who share a cultural and ethnic background with the owner and another for those who don't. The second is a poor relation to the first. It's food that is much looser, sloppier, less finely spiced and less heated, it's counterfeit food.

What you have to do is insist, and you might have to insist hard, for 'apna' style. You'll spot the difference the moment the food arrives.

Given that dishes will often bear the same name and the restaurant will advertise itself as say, Pakistani or 'Indian', there's possibly a case for action from the Trades Description inspectors. What we're getting is not what we think we're ordering.

Zouk, on Chester Street, off Oxford Road, has always been an exception in that they state that all the dishes are 'apna' - although I'd still specify you want it cooked like this for extra emphasis and reassurance.

Zouk interior

What you'll immediately notice is the flavours are tighter in 'apna' style, more bound together, more refined and more shot through with colour and heat from the spices and herbs. You also get more unusual dishes, or rather, more variety than with the generic 'Asian' menu.

More choice

Two of the absolute winners on the review visits appear at the bottom of the mains list - see the picture above.

The brains - Megaz-  for £6.95 was magical, sort of an Eastern haggis, but with the heat from the chillies and bucketloads of edge and character from the gound spices in the garam masala. The picture below shows it off. It was my favourite dish of September.

Brain power

Being a pedantic sod I pointed out with its neighbour dish on the menu - the Paya (£7.95) - that sheep don't have 'trotters' but 'hooves'. Given the food was so good I might be prepared to change my mind, who cares about the name when it packs this amount of flavour.

The flesh fell off the bone, fat and all, into a broth that was full, lush and palate-liftingly zingy. You need naan bread to help add weight and then a spoon to clear the plate. Marvellous that one.

Sheep's 'trotters'

Not that you have to go to extremes here.

The sea bass, the humble, ubiquitous, inescapable sea bass, the foot soldier of fish supplies, has received a wonderful boost at Zouk.

It's £10.95 and comes with a weird barbeque sauce affair (fortunately on the side) but also with wonderful colour and a surface alive with flavour. The secret to the yielding yet defined consistency of the flesh is apparently cooking it over a 'water-grill' - the pani sigri which steams and grills. 

Sea bass

The falafel starter (£3.50) and the Punjabi lollipops (my-oh-my aren't prawn and chicken lollipops just the very thing at the moment?) at £3.25 were good. The falafel were as hot and dry as the Arabian desert but worked well when softened and moistened with a smooth runny hummus. The lollipops had a subtle coating of pomegranite but came alive with the glorious yoghurt, mint, coriander and chilli dip. 

Chicken lollipops

All very satisfactory, all very lovely. Good service too. A bonus with Zouk is its location close to the universities which ensures one of the most polyglot crowds in the North. Fine people watching potential.

Another strength is, of course, that willingness to cook 'apna' for those with no familial connections to Pakistan and India.

It seems this may be catching on.

The take-away mentioned above does 'apna' as standard now after our article. 

Meanwhile with Malai, the restaurant opening in Rusholme with its rickshaw idea (click here) we asked the question and received this response. 

'The food will all be apna style food, and there will be no variation of food served whether the diner is Indian, Pakistani or English. All of the dishes served will be as intended and as per family recipes.'

Excellent. 

Discrimination is not needed. This is 2012.

The 'apna' choice is the right choice. As we've said previously, who would ever advertise their restaurant as providing, 'inauthentic, just as mother never used to cook, totally 65% Indian food'? 

You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield

ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE. 

Zouk, Unit 5  Chester St, Chester Street, Manchester, Lancashire M1 5QS. 0161 233 1090 

Rating: 15.5/20 

Food: 8/10
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4/5

A landscape of naan

Falafel