Let’s face it, we Londoners love to take the piss out of Northern cities and particularly their nightlife. Scantily clad revellers braving ice-cold nights on the tiles. The warm beer, stodgy food and cries of ‘ee by gum’ and ‘ow much!’ every time the price of a pint goes up by tuppence.
However are these prejudices actually a way of masking the reality that while a night out around the Calls in Leeds or in the Northern Quarter of Manchester may not have all the forced sophistication of the best underground spots in Peckham, those Northern nights are just bloody good fun. Proper pubs, strangers that will talk to you, great music scenes and clubs that are about fun. And if we are even more honest, would we really prefer a night out in Mayfair with a bunch of hedgies to a proper session along the Quayside in Newcastle? Be honest now.
Along this long and winding road we come to Tattu. This is an emerging chain of upmarket Chinese restaurants created by brothers Adam and Drew Jones. Their first restaurant opened in Manchester in 2015, Leeds followed in 2017 and Birmingham in 2021. They describe their aim as creating venues that “stimulate all senses, fusing beautiful and meaningful design with quality and innovative Chinese cooking”. They have now come to London, so taking head on the question – how good a night out will this be?
Once you have navigated the newly minted snickelways (Northern language alert: Yorkshire term for alleyways) of the Outernet you will eventually find the entrance from which you will be shown into the restaurant. Which is nothing short of spectacular. There are several gorgeously detailed and cleverly separated rooms that disguise how large the restaurant is, and cleverly allow it to feel both intimate and spectacular. We were seated in the central area beneath (fake, but you would never know) cherry trees dripping with blossom and creating waves of sparkled reflections in the glass roof. Properly jaw-dropping and the precisely configured opposite of a brick-lined hole in the wall in Shoreditch. I loved it (and in fairness love love hole in the wall joints too) and although I am too old to even think of taking photos and posting them on Instagram or whatever, if I was not then I would have had my phone straight out. Ditch any worries about having to appear diffident and just enjoy the beauty.
The serving team have clearly decided to embrace the glorious wonder of the place and their enthusiasm was infectious, more so when combined with theatrical cocktails (try The Hidden Dragon. Just trust me) . You have the slight feeling of wandering onto the movie set of an early Indiana Jones movie or perhaps a sequel to Big Trouble in Little China. A bit silly, a lot over the top, utterly entrancing and fun. Lots of fun.
Then comes the food, almost as a surprise reminder that you are in a restaurant. We tried the Modern Sharing menu, which is punchy at £125 a head, albeit not off the scale in the West End these days. There are several set menus, and I think that here they are a more sensible approach than going a la carte, which could get out of control quite quickly. In short, on price, this place is expensive, but in context it aims for destination dining and a big night out experience rather than being a venue for a quiet Chinese on a rainy Monday (obviously….).
After some moreish prawn and truffle crackers, three starters glided across the room to us. First up was yellowtail sashimi with a citrus ponzu, garlic and edamame. Simple dishes are one of the tests of a kitchen, and this was up there. Fresh with a ponzu zing, and having allowed the fish to cure to the right level in citric acid. I could eat this all night. Then a half of aromatic crispy duck which I loved and which pulls of a sleight of hand: most of the duck was proper roast Peking duck that would grace any high-end Cantonese joint (and nothing normally to do with crispy pancakes), but which shared the dish with some crispy confit duck and the usual pancakes, cucumber and spring onion. And – I like this – very crisp onion pieces so that you could make duck pancakes from normal Cantonese roast duck pieces. Beyond being delicious, that’s a nice mix of funny and clever. The final starter was lobster and scallop toast, which was very good but struggled to hold interest as against the other two. It goes without saying that they all looked beautiful – the people who created this venue were hardly going to mess up on the presentation of the food.
Now I should at this point make another point about Northern food (and before the inevitable abuse I grew up in Yorkshire so I am one of them too. Or maybe that will just make the abuse worse. Ho hum.) which is portions. The word generous does not really do justice to how much food is offered here. Anything more than a ham sandwich for lunch and you may hit a wall during dinner here. But that’s Northern hospitality for you. Anyway, you’ve been told.
So, after a bit of belt loosening, on to the main courses. Not that they are called courses on the menu. They are described as waves. Which tells me they know exactly how much food is coming here. “Wave Three” was Shanghai black cod with hoisin, ginger and lime; Beef fillet marinated in soy with shiitake, ginger and asparagus; Kung Po prawns with pineapple, green beans & Thai basil; Coconut creamed spinach with tofu, crispy shallots and pomegranate. Sesame and ginger chopped salad, made up of with rainbow vegetable, pumpkin seeds and purple potato crisp; and duck egg and Chinese sausage fried rice.
The clear winner to me was the black cod. I lived in Tribeca opposite Nobu when it first opened all those years ago and it was a dish I obsessed over (as did everyone else) almost as much as the tuna sesame sashimi salad. Then everyone copied it and you cannot find a pub in W1 that does not serve it. But occasionally you come across a place which does it so well you remember why you fell in love with the dish all those years ago. This is one of those places. ‘nuff said.
Of the other dishes, the beef was high-quality meat and tender in a way that actual Chinese people would probably hate, but we Westerners love. Great dish, my companion would have scoffed the lot had it not been for a bit of an unseemly struggle over the serving plate. The prawns – huge, juicy and with some tongue-tingling spice were very good and the salad was, as salads, very nice. The rice was a mistake though – too much going on when the punchiness of the other dishes demanded something plainer to soften the effect on the palate. This rice competed with rather than complemented the main dishes. Anyway, next time I’ll just ask for boiled rice to be substituted and I’m pretty sure the staff will oblige.
Puddings were a bridge too far at this point but as a sacrifice to readers I can confirm that I ate a decent amount of the mango and coconut pannacotta with white chocolate. Delicious.
So, to go back to the question, can a Northern restaurant work in London? Of course it bloody well can. And it’s smarter not to compete with London on the grit and grunge of a “cutting edge” approach which would be drowned in condescension. Tattu is not that. It is beautiful, glam, delicious and most importantly, great fun. That’s the kind of night out that you want every once in a while, and Tattu will deliver it no problem.
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