Review: Michael Wan's Mandarin Restaurant

This is based on dinner that I had here with a friend. I had been meaning to go to Mandarin since long as it looks like a chic place. When you peek in from their glass front, you can see English, Chinese and Asian guests, but what impressed me was that most of them seemed to be well-heeled, dressed in suits and formal attire. 

Located on Clifton street near the town centre, Michael Wan's Mandarin Restaurant is an easily accessible.

My eating-out companion Luckey and I went to eat here on Friday the 2nd of June 2017. We were sat at a 2-seater table that was in a crowded, front area of the restaurant. The waiters were quite prompt in their attention to us and kept hovering nearby to take the orders. It was a bit uncomfortable for me. Eventually, we ordered our soups. I had a Chicken and prawns hot and sour soup, while Luckey had a more traditional Chicken sweet corn soup. My soup was not as hot as I am used to, and, to be frank, tasted quite sweet. I managed to polish it off. 

For the main course, we ordered a Kung Pao King Prawn and a Chicken Sizzler with garlic sauce. We had this with steamed rice. While the Kung Pao was an interesting concoction of large, well-cooked king prawns, onions, and a few other vegetables on a nice gravy of roasted cashew, the sizzler was a disappointment. Not only did it never sizzle, it was insipid in taste - I couldn't even make out the garlic taste in the final product. 

Hot and sour soup

Kung Pao king prawns

Chicken sizzler with garlic sauce

The main course with steamed rice

Yours truly

With Luckey

The bar at the front 

The entrance area

To go with the food, we had a cocktail each. It tasted of chocolate liqueur. 

They added a 10% service charge on the bill. The final bill was a bit steep, no denying that. However, you could not fault their eagerness to please. Hence, I paid up that charge. And that's that. Thanks for reading this review.

Ratings:

Stars: 4
Food: 3.5
Ambiance: 3.5
Service: 5
Cocktail: 5

Recommendation: Ask for rear seating as they have sofas and more comfortable seating there.

I had written a review of this restaurant on TripAdvisor UK (read the review here)

The management responded with the following comments:

blkman1, General Manager at Michael Wan's Mandarin Cantonese Restaurant, responded to this review, 2 days ago

Thank you for your review, we're glad you enjoyed your evening with us.
We remember you from the pictures you were taking of the restaurant which you mentioned were for your blog :-) The area where you were seated was a temporary dining area which is added to the usual dining area for the duration of the Blackpool Dance Festival (this is usually the bar area) and may explain why you felt a little cramped.
We're very surprised to hear about the lack of sizzle, that's very unusual and if you had mentioned it to one of our waiters it would have been happily replaced without question.
Thanks again and hope to see you again
Team Mandarin

Review: Sapori Restorante Italiano in Blackpool

Located on Clifton Street, Sapori Restorante Italiano Blackpool is a unique restaurant that has earned plaudits from every guest who has visited it in the past. Luckey, my restaurant-hopping colleague and I went to this interesting place on a weekday. It was her treat this time, and she had taken care to book a table for us. Which was just as good, as Sapori, ranked 11 among the 700+ eating out places in Blackpool by TripAdvisor, can get pretty busy even on a weekday.

Sapori means Taste in Italian

This was to be a typical Italian dinner, so we occupied our allocated table by 07:10 p.m. The waiters were upon us within a minute, so it was up to us to tell them to hold off for a bit while we studied the menu. It is a fairly large menu with antipasti, pane, pasta, carne and many more categories. They have a bar where hard spirits are available, as well as a wine menu and soft drinks. We did not look at the desserts as we were full up to the gills after the starter and the main courses.

Eventually, we settled for a shared antipasti, a Crocchetta Di Pesce (described as Smoked haddock and spring onion fishcake served with home-made tartar sauce), followed by a separate main for each of us. While Luckey ordered a Salmone (described on the menu as "salmon fillet cooked in a sauce of white wine, dill and cream served on a bed of mashed potato with vegetables ", I settled for Gamberoni (described as King prawns cooked in a sauce of garlic, tomato and a hint of cream. Finished with Gran Marnier). We did have a drink each that complimented the menu items to some extent. 

Here are the pictures of the foods we ate:

Haddock fishcake

Salmone

Gamberoni

Contemplative

Two foodies on the prowl

A section of the guests around us

It was a delicious meal. The king prawns were very tasty and the gravy of tomatoes and cream was excellent indeed. I did taste the salmon as well. It was not spicy, and it was really smooth and well-cooked. The fishcake was great as well. No complaints at all.

At the end of the dinner, we thanked the staff. One of them, who is one of the owners, greeted us personally and requested us to visit again. 

Ratings:

Food: 5 stars
Presentation: 4.5 stars (I deducted half a star because they used soy sauce in all the three dishes to decorate them - no variety).
Ambiance: 4.5 stars
Hospitality: 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.5 stars

Review: Mr Basrai's World Cuisines, Blackpool

When you visit Mr Raghubir Basrai's outlet in Blackpool, you can't imagine it began just10 months ago! This big outlet at Cookson street in Blackpool is now full on most evenings, and it isn't hard to see why.

Mr Basrai's World Cuisines is a family-run business and arrived in Blackpool last year. Located near Blackpool's town centre, this restaurant with nearly 350 covers is possibly the best thing to happen to this town when it is facing a downward trend in the places tourists visit in the UK.  It offers multiple cuisines from around the world - all in an eat as much as you like buffet. The price is also very reasonable, considering that it includes over 50 different main-course items and another 50 or so items from within the starter and dessert menus. Most items are prepared fresh as you wait for it to be served on your plate, except for the standard Indian, Chinese and Japanese items, which are prepared beforehand and are available to take on your plate directly from containers which are being constantly heated electrically from below.

I have been to this place 4-5 times since it opened. While my first visit was when I was by myself and had just returned from an outing from outside Blackpool late evening, the rest of them have been in the company of either my family (when they were in the UK with me in October) or my friends.

This time, it was with my dear colleague and friend Luckey Kaur, and we went there on the 27th of January 2017. It was a no-reason dinner outing, and we decided to make the best of it as both of us were free the next morning. Beginning with a Mr Basrai's famous cocktail, we then proceeded to have a great time.

The beauty of it all is that Mr. Basrai himself attended to us. When we told him Luckey was a Punjabi too (as is Mr Basrai), he was quite happy to extend special hospitality services to us. His son, Rajbir, who normally minds the till, first went and found us both a cosy table at the back, then kept sending waiters with smiles to ask us how the meal was and whether we were enjoying ourselves. Here are some pictures of the two of us having a gala time.

Samosas and tikkis with chhole

Enjoying the Mr Basrai's special cocktail

Dessert that Luckey had

The chaat we had

The huge collection of starters

Both of us enjoying a selfie and the desserts

Dessert that I had

Having fun

 Additionally, we also ate a main course of noodles with vegetables and, in my case, prawns as well. Wow! When we were about to settle the bill, imagine our surprise when Mr Basrai sent us back to our table and then sent a complimentary cocktail each! We were pleasantly surprised. He was all smiles as we greeted him while leaving and, I suppose, it was a great gesture by him to make it 100% certain that I would return again to his place for a good time.

Ratings:

Food: 5 stars
Décor: 4.5 stars
Hospitality: 5+ stars (he he).
Costs: Great VFM, hence, 5 stars
Location: 5 stars, unless you live away from the town centre.