Large Portions of Slow and Pricy 'Quick, Cheap, Small Snacks' (Evuna Restaurant (Manchester))

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Evuna Restaurant (Manchester)
Date:	28/10/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Mixed menu with vegetarian options, nice decor

Disadvantages: Relatively expensive

Evuna is one of several tapas restaurants in the centre of Manchester, and in fact one of several on Deansgate. It is at the far end, near the Hilton and the Instituto Cervantes, perhaps deliberately placed to catch students after class while they're still in a Spanish frame of mind.

We recently went on a Friday night and booked a table for 4 people, for 8pm which turned out to be a good idea since the place was packed. It's not that big anyway, but every place was occupied except for the two tables outside, and given that it was a dark and cold October evening, the only surprising thing was why they'd even left these out. Evuna is a bit strange because it is set at street level and you are literally sitting in a shop window. I've never been during the day, but I imagine that in daylight it could be a bit off-putting to have people wandering past and peering in as you're trying to enjoy a meal. The rest of the decor is nice, though, with polished wooden floors and exposed brick walls.

Something else that is a bit odd is that the menu is posted outside, but there's only one copy of it and, instead of being in the window, it's actually on the glass door, which puts you a bit in people's way if you're trying to browse it before going in. This can be solved, with some preparation, by checking out their rather dubiously designed website where it is also available:

http://www.evuna.com/Bar_Restaurant.htm

The door is also plastered with stickers proclaiming various awards and recommendations the restaurant has received, which looked a bit tacky and cheap, and nothing like what it's like inside. The first area contains a bar but the only people sitting here were the staff, who jumped to attention when I walked through the door, which gave a good first impression. Though perhaps, had I known what was to come, I would have wondered why they were all lounging around talking to each other rather than serving the diners.

We ordered a range of tapas to share, plus wine and soft drinks. We were automatically offered water too, and accepted a jug. The drinks came quite quickly but the food took a little longer. Though we'd ordered it all in one go, they chose to serve the olives first, and we got a very generous serving of these. The pitted green ones were much tastier than the black ones, though typically we had more of the latter. What we didn't have, though, was anywhere to put the stones we were removing, which meant they had to be clumped together, rather inelegantly, on the very edge of the dish while is still contained fresh olives.

The rest of the food came out all together, with the first dish to be served a massive platter of calamari. At this point we were wondering where everything else was going to go since it took up most of the table, but the rest of the dishes came out in much more usual tapas-sized bowls. It should be noted that we didn't have a massive amount of the calamari - they'd just chosen to arrange them on a massive plate shaped a bit like a painter's pallet.

Tapas, in their true, original sense, are not exactly what you will find here or, indeed in many British tapas-style places. The word 'tapa' in Spanish means lid and one theory has it that, years ago, in some hot countries a snack to accompany your drink would be served on a small plate which would be placed on top of your glass between sips as a makeshift lid to keep out flies. Other theories suggest tapas as a forerunner to peanuts or pretzels in a sports bar - they were often salty meats that would encourage people to drink more, thus boosting bar profits. Either way, the key is that they were small individual bites or nibbles. The menu here at Evuna is a variation on this (I sincerely doubt that back then people ever covered their drinks with massive loaves of garlic baguette) but it would meet most (British) people's definition of tapas, and certainly has a Spanish flare to it.

The menu has a good mix of fish, meat and vegetarian tapas, plus breads and extras, and is arranged clearly so you can jump straight to the area you're interested in. For the most part, the food was tasty and well cooked, but I was a little disappointed that the garlic bread appeared to be basically a part-cooked baguette that they'd heated up and spread garlic butter on - not very Spanish at all. A table next to us had ordered the plain bread with dipping oils, and this looked like it could have been a better choice (and was half the price). Price wise it's not that cheap because you are expecting to order several dishes - they start at about £5 and run up to £12 however something nice and unusual (if a little inauthentic) is that they also offer 'large' servings of some of their tapas. Additionally, they do offer a main (non-tapas) menu with larger dishes - paellas, fish, and rather randomly, two pastas. These cost from £13 to £20 each but last week no one seemed to be ordering them, so I cannot comment on the size. You can also mix and match, tapas and mains, but little guidance is given on how much to order so you have to guess really. As a minimum I'd think you'd want maybe two tapas per person, plus maybe some extra bread or potatoes. The menu includes Spanish names, but also English translations so you do know what you're ordering.

Puddings are available but not on the main menu. The selection is a little weird (it includes a Whisky Milkshake) and didn't have anything chocolatey, just some ordinary ice cream and so on, but we shared a 'Spanish style' cheesecake which had an almost Creme Brullee look to it, tasting a bit like that too. This was served without any accompaniments (ice cream, cream etc), just a single strawberry they'd cut in half, and a tiny drizzle of a watery strawberry coulis. It wasn't bad, and we ate it all up, but for nearly £5 I expected something a little more spectacular.

Throughout the night the service was pleasant, but a little slow. To place our initial order we had to wait (they were busy, but it still seemed a little long) and later when we wanted drinks refills and, after a while, to view the pudding menu, both times we struggled to catch the attention of a member of staff. They had a few people serving, but they were always dashing back and forth looking after other diners (...I hope - they must have stopped lounging by the bar at this point).

We spent a total of £90 for 4 people which seemed like an awful lot of money at the time, but then the others did get through two bottles of wine between them which bumped up the cost significantly. For this we got maybe 9 tapas to share (I'd had a big, conference lunch so wasn't eating much), a pudding and just one soft drink. It's not a cheap place if you're drinking, but they offer a lunchtime menu with 3 tapas (from a selection) for under £10 which is a good deal, especially as if you're dining with someone you can double up and each get a taste of 6 different dishes. You will have to tolerate passing shoppers peering in, though, since it's only available in the middle of the day.

I enjoyed my meal but for the company more than anything else. I wouldn't be against returning, but it's important to view it as a proper restaurant, with proper restaurant prices, not a place for a quick, cheap snack.

Evuna
277 - 279
Deansgate
Manchester
M3 4EW


Telephone 0161 819 2752

Email enquiries@evuna.com

Summary: An interesting option, but save up some pennies first