Zouk Tea Bar & Grill

Great service, great food just not spicy enough! We can handle it trust us ;) plenty of choice, big menu. Goan fish curry was amazing. Nice homemade naans and friendly service.

It hurts me to say this, as I know so many of my esteemed colleagues are fans of Zouk — but I just didn’t like it. Service was scattered and the food was just ok, it really didn’t wow me.
We had a booking but our table wasn’t ready when we arrived. So that was annoying. We had a drink in the bar while we waited. I could actually see that our table was empty, it just needed re-​setting which took them longer than it should once we arrived.
Once we were seated, I had a good look at the menu. It is LONG. Too long, for me but I guess that’s what this place wants to offer. Ok sure. I decided to have chicken biryani and a side of daal and cheese naan. In the meantime we were munching on the poppadoms and sauces which I quite liked — although why a bunch of them were served as broken little pieces, I don’t know.
While we were waiting for food, we ordered a few more drinks. Booze was delivered quickly to the table, but trying to get water? Nearly impossible. We asked 3 different waiters for water before any arrived, and then it was just one jug. That really frustrated me as I really need lots of water when I’m having a curry!
The food arrived and I was pleased with mine — the biryani was nicely flavoured but a bit stingy on the chicken, and the cheese naan was lovely. I tried my friends butter chicken and all I could taste was tomato purée — definitely out of whack in terms of flavour. For me, this place just didn’t deliver on flavour like I was expecting. I don’t want to be *that* person but the curries in Glasgow (at Mother India) are a lot more flavoursome than this and I just wasn’t impressed.
So yeh, service was frustrating and the food was just ok — so that’s a 3 for me. (I do need to point out that most of our group has given this place ⁴⁄₅ stars!)

Zouk Zouk Zouk! I just want to sing it from the rooftops. I literally cannot speak higher of the food in this place! I’ve been going now for around 4 years and have never had a negative experience.
The layout and atmosphere just screams relaxed, authentic and laid back and when you walk into the restaurant you are literally hit in the face with an amazing aroma of spice and authenticity.
We were greeted at the door and politely asked to grab a drink and wait in the bar whilst they prepared our table — obviously more than happy to do so knowing this food is so worth the wait.
Once sat we quickly (and excitedly) ordered our dishes — 4 of us decided to share 4 different dishes, 2 vegetable sides, rice, chips and nan. YES, we were going all out! We were also asked how hot we would like the curries (mild, medium or spicy), for me this shows straight off that the curries are cooked fresh and that care is taken
And then the poppadoms arrived! YEY. I love the way the poppadoms are set out in a box and already pre cracked, making them perfect for sharing and of course dipping into the all important chutneys. For me, the green chutney (not sure of the name) is just delightful — a sharp taste among the cooling mango.
Now to the curries — the stand outs were:
Butter Chicken — it was my first time having this dish (yes, I know I know, how is it the first time but it was so let’s move on!). The chicken was cooked perfectly and the sauce was creamy, buttery loveliness! Very flavoursome and definitely not a disappointment.
Goan Fish Curry — this was actually a really pleasant surprise! I’m not usually a big fan of fish in a curry but the fish literally melted in the mouth and the sauce that accompanied it was just bursting with flavour! It’s hard to explain a curry sauce but what I can say is that it was a thick tomatoey sauce, beautifully spiced and just bloody delicious!
and last but not least:
Lamb Nihari: for me this has been a constant stand out for the last 4 years. GET IT! You will never taste lamb curry like it again — GET IT! GET IT now!
I also want to give a shout out to the peshwari nan — this sweet nan is just that sweet both in and out!
I could go on and on but I’ll save it for my next visit — all I can say is that I will continue to visit here and bring family and friends here forever more!
TIP: The staff can be busy and grumpy but I don’t think they’re being intentionally rude. This may not be the case BUT to be hones I’m so obsessed with the food that I don’t care!

Zouk was a tasty Indian dinner. We came here with a big group and were seated at a nice long table. It’s a giant and beautifully mood lit restaurant. The menu is long and filled with options and you really want to try everything.
We started with the popadoms and damn they were good, well sauced, light and crispy, yes, more please. I then did the chicken tika masala which is boring I know, but it’s what I like. And it was good. Not the best I’ve ever had but they give you a lot of chicken for your buck and it was nice and saucy.
The service was on point though. Lots of people constantly checking on us, making sure we had everything we needed.
If you’re looking for a good Indian option in Manchester, this is the one.

What a place this is! Bravo Zouk you hit curry supremacy!
The décor, the service, the food all exceptional and I’m struggling to think of anything that went wrong!
We started with some Cobras (obviously) and some Popadom trays which tied us over adequately until our mains came out!
I went for the Chicken Tikka Masala with pilau rice, garlic naan and gun powder chips, it was as good as it sounds (and looks if you’ve seen my photos).
Now key part to the review, I went for Medium spice and noting that normally I opt for Korma at Indian restaurants this is a big step for. Now then consider I absolutely loved my curry, and you get the message about bloody good Zouk is!
Albeit, my mouth was on fire but nothing a Mango Lassi can’t solve!

Everytime I go for a curry I end up thinking why have I left it so long! Its always something i really enjoy but just don’t do enough. Last night we tried out Zouk in Manchester.
The restaurant is modern and contemporary with an open kitchen which is always a nice touch. As we walked in I could see the chefs preparing the food which instantly made me even more excited to eat. Note to self… when I think it’s a good idea to have salad for lunch it more than likely is not…
We started the meal with popadoms and dips moving onto a selection of curries rice and naan bread. All of the dishes were perfectly cooked and had just the right amount of heat. It was that kind of chilli that sneaks up on you after you finish eating which is always a welcome thing with me.
A great experience and one I would go back for if I am ever back in the city. It’s great to see curry houses breaking away from the old school traditions of being places you dive into at 3am with a group of mates after a few pints. This is somewhere I would be happy to take friends I was visiting Manchester with and even the parents :)

Will the argument over the best curry house in Manchester ever be resolved? Doubtful. But surely Zouk is top tier, even if some would argue it isn’t top of the pile.
What raises Zouk about the masses is simply the quality of the flavours available — the spicing is more subtle and effective than most curry houses, to say nothing of the variety. This is not varying heats of a generic spice mix, the menu runs a wide gamut of distinctive tastes. And the food can be punchy or very subtle, with several dishes being more aromatic than spicy (the roast lamb leg is a particularly delicious example, and the chillo kebab whilst hotter is also very cleverly flavoured).
The portions are pretty solid, and Zouk is certainly a good value evening out — foodwise at least. You could probably share two curries between three people, and the prices aren’t particularly dear. The exceptions to this are the sundries (rice/​naan portions are modest, which winds me up in truth — we all know it wouldn’t cost much to be generous with this stuff) and the booze. The wine and cocktails are very good in fairness, but priced more like restaurant in London than Manchester.
There is the odd fly in the ointment, most notably the tables are packed a bit close together and the acoustics mean a loud background noise quickly builds up. Additionally, I recently ordered a meal only to be told both my starter and main were out of stock and I had to choose again. But by and large this is all overshadowed by how good the food tastes. The core of this restaurant is as good as it gets, and the issues with it never become serious enough to distract from that. The fact is that I didn’t notice the noise after 5 minutes and both my second choice dishes were delicious.
In one sentence? With Zouk around there is no excuse to visit the Curry Mile.

They are a few times I have been eaten a good lamb but the Lamb at Zouk was far beyond perfection and planned that is nothing short of a genius. The dish was expertly prepared. It was Grilled, Juicy and Fresh.

The indian food was alright but for some reason my stomach was very bloated after the visit from this restaurant. I wasn’t sure what caused it but it wasn’t pleasant. Also the food left a bit of a bad aftertaste.

Restaurant: The service was spot on and the food was delicious.
My friend had mentioned some specific dietary needs when making the online reservation and hoped that she would still be able to have a curry dish, unfortunately this wasn’t the case and she had to have a shawarma wrap instead. This was slightly disappointing for her although she enjoyed her meal nonetheless.
We shared poppadoms and a pickle tray which was very tasty. The poppadoms themselves were spiced which was a nice touch. The pickle tray featured mango chutney, a spicy mint dip, and an onion and tomato sauce — all delicious.
For a main I ordered paneer palak which was Indian cheese with spinach. This was really tasty, with plenty of large pieces of firm paneer and a richly spiced spinach sauce. I had a garlic naan on the side which was buttery, soft, and delicious.
Staff were attentive and friendly throughout the meal. For poppadoms, main, naan and a large beer I paid around £20 with tip.
Shisha bar: Reasonably priced but shambolic service.
After the meal we went outside to the shisha bar. Things got less impressive from here. The table was so wobbly I was concerned about putting my drink down on it.
The staff couldn’t seem to comprehend anything we were saying to them. It didn’t seem like this was a language issue, they just seemed totally out of it. When they asked what shisha flavour we wanted we responded that we hadn’t seen a menu. He gestured towards the drinks menu saying «that’s the whole shisha menu». We were really confused and eventually he pointed to a list of shisha flavours hidden away on the front page of the menu in small print. We then ordered a pomegranate shisha and it took him a really long time to understand what we were saying, even with pointing at the exact word in the menu, before he eventually said «Oh, yes, pomegranate!» as though we had been using a different word entirely.
Another struggle came in the form of trying to order a beer. «A small Cobra please» was met with blank stares. I pointed at my friend’s large Cobra and said I wanted one of them, but the small one. «A large Cobra?» he asked. After much to-​ing and fro-​ing he went away to get me a beer. Then came back to ask «a small Corona?» No. «A small Peroni?» No. Arghhh!
Eventually got my beer and was able to pay. Between three people a shisha and some beer and tea was £30.
Overall I would return for food in the restaurant but would only go for shisha if I was feeling very patient.

I went back for the second time in a week. i try not to repeat restaurants during a trip, but they are close to my hotel and the food was so good.
This time I asked for a recommendation and i was NOT disappointed. The waited suggested I try the curry lamb special. It was AMAZING. Be warned — it has star anise in chopped up pods, so I was a little surprised to find some very hard chunks — they taste great, but the texture threw me off, so I munched then and pulled them out. The lamb was fall apart tender and the sauce was delicious. I got it hot — I like spice, but I probably should have gotten medium — I had a smidge of heartburn later. I can’t quite keep up with my tastebuds these days.
Luckily I have two more weeks in Manchester in April, so I’ll be back then!

We went to Zouk last weekend, Saturday, to be precise, because some of the other places we had in mind were fully booked. So looks like is the place to go, if you’re a bit lazy.
Good things first. I am a sucker for watermelon. So, as soon as I saw watermelon crush on their menu, I wanted a few. I asked them if they could make it with gin (cos I am not a fan of the bitter aftertaste that vodka leaves you with) and they obliged! In fact I think I had about 3 or 4 (I don’t even remember).
Next up, the starters… it was a bit of a mixed bag. I had seekh kebab, my wife had a tokri chaat (I think), our friends had aloo paratha and palak tikka.
I loved my seekh kebab but my only gripe was, I could still taste raw ginger, which was a bad thing.
Our friends loved the palak tikka and aloo paratha. Palak is the hindi name for spinach, by the way. aloo (potato) paratha is a spicy indian potato cake.
The tokri chaat was a bit of a disappointment. Tokri in hindi means a basket. chaat is specifically a variety of Mumbai (Bombay) street food. True to it’s name, the tokri chaat arrived in a basket with a poppadum acting as an edible bowl, It looked like a bhelpuri (puffed rice with finely chopped onions, tomatoes, chilli and masala) but tasted nothing like it. We won’t be ordering it again.
For the main course, we ordered a mili-​jhuli sabzi, which literally (yes I am certain I have put the word ‘literally’ to correct use) translates to mixed vegetable, a butter chicken (more about it in a bit), a chicken sukha (dry chiken) and I think a lamb dish.
To go with them we ordered rumali rotis (more about that too, later), naan and pilau rice.
The mixed veggie, the dry chicken and the lamb were very well made.
The star of the show for me, was the rumali roti. I may have mentioned this before but, making a rumali roti is an intricate process and an art form. Rumal in hindi means a very thin handkerchief. So a rumali roti is essentially a roti that’s stretched until it’s as thin as a handkerchief and cooked. This rumali roti, is by far the best I’ve eaten outside India.
Now, if the rumali roti had me flying in seventh heaven, the butter chicken brought me crashing right back onto earth. The description on their menu very clearly says the chicken pieces are barbecued and served with a creamy sauce with cashewnuts. The chicken pieces were not barbecued, to begin with, but instead of cooking them in a creamy sauce with cashewnuts, they were cooked in Heinz (or equivalent) tomato soup. I have heard of people using this as a base for cooking butter chicken in the past, but on that night I experienced it first hand. So, here is a hot tip: do not order the butter chicken.
Overall we had a decent experience, but given the fact that two starters were so-​so and the butter chicken was a disaster, for a restaurant that specialises in sub-​continent cuisine I can’t give it more than 3 stars and justify it to that voice in my head.

Came here for a uni course meal so fair play to them, there was a lot of us! But unfortunately there were a few things that irritated me!
Okay so starting off… The hosts and waiters were all lovely and very accommodating however their drinks prices are very bizarre! I bought a mango mocktail and tasty as it was… It was £5.50!!! That is more expensive than some cocktails with actual alcohol in them! So definitely would not be going back for the cocktails goodness knows how much they cost!
As I am currently vegetarian there is always less choice :(I chose the vegetable tikka which was rather disappointing. It came in parts… So spicy veg like aubergines, courgettes etcs which were (too) spicy for me! Then a separate tikka sauce which had peas and broccoli in (???) which there wasn’t enough of And bizarrely a cucumber tomato And lettuce salad on the side:(
Apart from being too spicy, not enough sauce to go with the boiled rice (I wanted pilau) it wasn’t actually that tasty or flavourful!
I do expect to be wowed at a curry place with something I couldn’t make myself but sadly this was not meant to be!
I have heard good things about the shisha here so perhaps I will give it a second chance to redeem themselves…

So I have been savouring this moment for so long to come here… and now that time has finally come!
The open kitchen is a fantastic idea with great swish white leather sofas surrounding it!
The minute we walked in the staff were very attentive, and kept topping up our drinks all night (I think they were trying to get us drunk)
Right for the food… wow. I am a lover of seafood and to have something other than king prawns and salmon was refreshing. the menu opened up like Japanese a fan. and it took us a while to decide what we wanted.
While we perused, poppodoms were served with some very non cliché sauces… a nice spinach and chilli one and ok I guess mango chutney and cut up onions. which are cliché but were well made.
Eventually I settled for the scallops and homous dish to share for a starter… well I say share but those scallops didn’t touch the table… these were huge succulent tika style ones, which were worth the £6! The homous I let everyone share, it was well made with home made pitta bread…
Right on to the mains… I honestly found it difficult to decide between the red snapper, halibut, lobster, ocean platter and. everything else. I chose the red snapper curry… I’m so glad i did! For 11.99 this fish was huge, cooked to perfection with yummy spices. The rice was served in cute wooden pots and the Naan bread was light and airy .we chose the peshwari, garlic and plain.
For those that eat meat. wow honestly I heard nothing but praises about the lamb dishes… there was more Meat than sauce… it was nice to be unable to count the amount of meat chunks in your curry for once!
Overall this place blew my socks off, the open kitchen with its glistening meats turning in the artificial sun, the constant care of the Waiters from beginning to end, the diversity of the food and the quality of it…
My only slight gripe was the waiter snatched up the £10 tip and shoved it in his back pocket, much quicker than I had eaten the scallops! I hope he was going to share that!
Oh and they have a shisha bar at the front under heated lamps

I was here on Monday for their Tiffin Lunch Special which is £7.95 for 2 curries, rice, some chicken kebab and roti. So it’s quite decent value.
The restaurant is fairly large and felt quite empty on a Monday afternoon, the lunch special obviously being offered to draw in customers.
There is a sheesha smoking area out the front of the restaurant which is a nice touch but I suspect used less over the coming Winter months.
Our orders were taking very quickly which is something you want when you are grabbing lunch in your work hour and the food arrived within 5 minutes of ordering. A very generous sized meal in fact for the money.
We had 2 meat curries and on inspection these appeared to be the exact same dish which was a little disappointing. I can only assume they had run out of the other dish and we ere unfortunate enough to have ordered before more was ready but this wasn’t mentioned by the waiter so it is indeed only an assumption.
My friend and I had tap water as well so I wasn’t expecting any further charge but when I paid I did note that I was charged £8.75 was this for the benefit of a few cubes of ice in my water? If they do charge for water again it’s something you would hope would be pointed out to you. Hidden charges are something I’m not a fan of anywhere let alone in restaurants. They should be up front if they add a service fee or charge for corkage etc.

I love Zouk. It’s my joint favourite curry in the city centre alongside East z East. I think what’s so great about it is that it offers standard curries alongside more exotic nosh and an awesome grill menu. This place is particularly fun for groups and parties. It caters to everyone and the staff are great.
I went recently on a STAG and had a real mix of lager and curry fun with spoil yourself trimmings. Like a MEGA Cobra lager and a Curried lamb shank.
It also offers a cheap lunch menu and therefore caters to all budgets as well as tastes.
I’d book in advance for a weekend! It gets mega busy!

I had a great time at Zouk with the Unilocal curry club. I thought the service was very friendly and welcoming and generally well organised (much better than Mughli although we had a bigger group there).
Food wise I though the chicken handi had an excellent flavour although the meat itself was just a little on the dry side. Peshwari naan crumbled very easily to reveal a shocking pink interior so if you want bread to eat with I’d go with something else, the quality of the bread seemed good though. Pilau rice was brown rice I think, totally fine although not very memorable. Everybody else’s food looked good too and in general the restaurant is very well presented (although PLEASE turn down the music/​random beats — why are some Manchester Indian restaurants weirdly like discos? I don’t understand.) Mango lassi was good, as were the poppadoms which were extra fancy with seeds.
Good place for a group as it’s a very big space, there’s a nice outdoor area out front too. I’d safe this is a safe bet for Indian in the city centre, it’s not mega cheap but nor is it outrageous and the food is good quality.

For a fantastic curry in a sleek setting with excellent presentation, look no further than Zouk. It literally took my breath away (due mainly to immense portion sizes, thankfully not spiciness).
I was reliably informed that they were generous dishes, so decided against a starter and just enjoyed destroying a few poppadoms and the pickle tray first.
For mains, it was the somewhat plainly entitled ‘Chicken & Spinach’ (aka Saag) with a sizeable peshwari naan. Both of which were the tastiest I’d had in a hell of a long time. The sweetness of the naan went really well with the not-​so-​sweet spinach and nuttiness of the fenugreek in the curry.
All this was washed down with a bottle of Black Sheep Ale. Perfick.
The place is huge and was pretty busy for a Wednesday night, but we at no point felt rushed to finish and the staff were very warm and friendly.
A curry restaurant which is firmly on my bookmark list for repeat visits.
Tip: unless you want to be ‘serenaded’ by one of the staff with an interesting (and immensely loud) rendition of Happy Birthday, perhaps don’t mention it’s your special day :)

Visited here previously 3 years ago for a friends birthday. Looking at my review, the food was good but nothing «special». The thing which let it down a bit was the service. It was busy and it was a large group of us so possible excuse/​reason.
Anyway, I went last night and it was great! Being a Wednesday, it was not crazy busy. In fact, the top level didn’t appear to have anyone there (until later on in the evening).
A waiter came pretty quickly to ask if we wanted any drinks and if we wanted poppadoms/​pickle tray — which of course we did.
I was the only one to have a starter and was asked if it was OK if it came at the same time as everything else — no problem. The starter I had was Punjabi Lollipops — have a look at the photo I uploaded. Its basically chicken wings marinated in pomegranite and cooked over charcoal. It was lovely and sweet.
For the mains I chose the Lamb Karahi (with some pilau rice). It tasted really good and a pretty big portion. I actually couldn’t finish it after the combination of my starter and a couple large drinks. In hindsight, I didn’t need the starter (and probably should have been sensible with smaller drinks). I was happy but completely stuffed!
Recommended.

People of Manchester, hear ye, hear ye — if you want the best Indian curry house in town make sure you visit Zouk.
I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve been now, but the quality of the food is the real bonus that keeps drawing us back time and time again. Set just off of Oxford road — Font is a great bar to have a couple of pre-​dinner drinks before heading around the corner to fill up (and believe me, you’ll struggle to walk when leaving due to over indulgence!)
My tops tips for Zouk are:
1. It’s busy every night but try to go early to mid week, or early on the weekend — the service and speed of delivery drop due to large parties so make sure you go when you can actually enjoy all their is to offer.
2. It’s all about the Lamb Nihari — I mean it is so good and spicy that you will literally want to meet the chef afterwards and ask him for the mystical secret sauce that he creates to take home!
3. Load up on extras — Cheese naans and rhoomali rotis are both as good as each other and great for mopping up all the sauce.
4. The pre dinner pickle trays (although not free like most average curry houses) are definitely worth buying as the homemade chutneys and sauces are on a different level.
5. If you’re going to Zouk, please send me an invite and I’ll be there in a flash to join you :-)