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Evuna
Manchester Deansgate Tapas Restaurant - reader comments |
| "I
love Evuna. My husband and I called in on the spur of the
moment and it has a lovely ambience. The
lovely girl, who is one of their wine buyers, made
us very welcome and there's a nice intimate
feel to the table. The food was great
and she opened three bottles of wine to make sure we got the
one we liked, which we then bought 6 bottles of, to take home.
I will certainley recommend and revisit."
- Judith Benson, Halebarns - Member since Jul'08 (16/6/09
visited on a thursday evening) |
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| "We
went to Evuna without a reservation early Saturday evening.
The waitress said we could have a table if we could be finished
in an hour and a half, which was fair enough. The place was
packed and very lively. Nice atmosphere without
going over the top with the Spanish theme, however, the food
was quite disappointing, being very similar to every other
tapas styled restaraunt outside of Spain. The food was also
on the cold side, with the exception of the Garlic Mushrooms,
which were lovely. We had six dishes including squid and prawns
plus steak skewers, which were ok. The service was excellent
and the waitress worked really hard. Nice place just
a pity the food isn't more exciting."
- Barb Little, Rossendale - Member since Apr'09 (17/5/09
visited on a thursday evening) |
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"It's
funny that for most people, Spanish restaurants often remind
you of being on holiday, with its fun vibe, upbeat music and
often lively ambiance. However, they are also often sadly
limited to tapas, paella, sangria, and other things which
despite being typically Spanish, don't really show much variety.
A real shame, since Spain is probably one of the most overlooked
countries in the world, especially when it comes to great
food.
Anyway, on Sunday night, we paid a visit to Evuna, looking
forward to its promise of great wines, and dishes which
offered something a little different to a simple tapas
bar.
We arrived earlyish at around 7pm, and had the place to ourselves.
We were greeted by two lovely and very cheery Spanish ladies,
who asked us to take our own pick of seats, in their semi
rustic, yet smash casual dining area, with gentle Spanish
music playing in the background. There's no Spainish flags,
bulls, matadors, or football tops on the walls here. It's
Spanish, but not cheesily done. Overall, a nice, intimate,
cozy, informal dining area. It's the kind of place you'd
go for a relaxed romantic meal for two, although they do push
their party catering too.
As you'd expect from a restaurant which is also a wine merchant,
the wine list was pretty good, comprehensive, and
with bags of quality on offer, to suit everybody's pocket.
We opted for a Albarino, which went really well with most
of the dishes that we ordered, since they were all seafood
based. All of the list was Spanish, which I think is fantastic,
since it's a Spanish place afterall. However, I don't know
much about Spanish wine, and it was great to be clueless about
most of the list, hence choosing the only one that I knew
went with our food (I recognised it from a holiday in Marbella!).
Later on, other diners asked if they could sample before buying,
and the staff duly obliged. Good to remember for next time!
The menu is heavily seafood based, as you'd expect
from a Spanish eatery. There are no starters as such, so tapas
is used for this course. We opted to start with a single tapas
each, and decided on the Prawns with garlic and chilli and
the calamari rings. The prawns were excellent in size,
taste and texture, with just the right amount of spice
and came well presented, peeled, but with tails still
on. The calamari was OK, but we found it a little chewy, but
the accompanying garlic mayonnaise was lovely, although the
tomato dip a touch insipid, and it came in a large bowl which
seemed to dominate the plate. On the whole though, good
quality, well presented upmarket tapas, and a nice start
to the meal. I'm not sure how you'd cope if you came here
just for tapas, as the crockery used is more elaborate than
your typical terracotta bowls, so you'd only fit 4 on a table.
As I say, its definitely not just a tapas bar.
We wanted to try something that's familiar to us, and also
something new, so the main courses were Seafood Paella and
the Salt Baked Seabass with mixed veg. The paella was really
nice, plentiful, well cooked and went down well. Again
though, the calamari was a touch chewy, but it was nice enough
and we were happy. The seabass though, which is the house
speciality, deserves special mention. It arrives at the
table, still encased in the salt which it is baked in. This
is cracked open, and the filets of fish removed at the table.
I saw James Martin cook and rave about this on tellie a couple
of months back, and thought that it may be too salty due to
being covered in a fiver's worth of seasalt, but in fact the
salt seasoned it perfectly, left it amazingly moist, and to
be honest, it was probably the best tasting seabass that I've
ever had. A real discovery, and fantastic to try something
totally different. Brilliant stuff, and you must give it a
go if you visit Evuna. The accompanying vegetables were also
really well cooked, even if the fish did steal the show.
For desserts, we chose the crème Catalan and Spanish
cheesecake. Both were ideal in size, and ended the meal really
well. The Crème was lovely, creamy and full of zesty
citrus fruit, with a crunchy burnt sugar topping. Basically
a Spanish crème brulee, only fruity! The cheesecake was
also well done, quite heavy, but ended off the meal well.
Also, it was new to us, which is always a plus point.
Overall, a definite winner, strong across the board in
all areas, a very well done place, and would suit pretty much
all occasions. You could get away wearing pretty much
whatever you liked, the staff are charming and friendly,
cant do enough for you and are perfectly suited to making
you feel welcome. Also, they do indeed take Hi-Life
cards, making it an even more appealing option for the
tight amongst us. So, get yourself down to Evuna, and try
something different to just tapas and paella, although even
if you do have these, you wont be moaning.
Food 7/10 - Service 7/10 - Ambiance 7/10 - Overall 7/10 (3.5
stars)"
- chis handley, salford 16/3/09 (visited on a sunday evening
- TRUSTED REVIEWER) |
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| "My
husband and I had had a serious day Christmas shopping and
had often wanted to call in to Evuna. From the moment we arrived,
the girl who does the buying was friendly and gave us some
wines to sample before we bought for a party. Lovely food,
friendly staff, calm atmosphere. They gave us a nice cosy
table and we will definitely go again when in town."
- judith benson, hale, cheshire 17/1/09 (visited on a thursday
evening) |
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| "Superb!
Tapas is my favourite food and I would be telling everyone
to go to Evuna."
- wez milward, manchester 2/12/08 (visited on a friday evening) |
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| "On
this, our first visit, we decided to just try the tapas to
test the quality of the food, it was awful! The pork
was undercooked and the beef was tough and unchewable. Such
a huge disappointment, as the reviews I have read were
all good... where were those people eating? Not here I'm sure.
Having regularly visited Spain and its wonderful tapas bars,
I never expected this would be even a near match but I was
hoping for some pleasant food."
- celia fish, fylde coast 11/11/08 (visited on a sunday evening) |
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"There's
many tapas restaurants to choose from in Manchester, with
the excellent El Rincon and the original La Tasca's and La
Vina's further along Deansgate. El Hacienda is a great new
addition too but for me, Evuna can't be beaten. The
setting, amongst the exposed brick work and bottle racks in
a wine merchant's shop, is so charming you can't help but
enjoy the experience. The food is good and the
portions larger than most of the other tapas places
in town. With 3 tapas dishes for £9.99 and a massive
glass of quality house wine for a further £2.50, the
lunch time offer can't really be beaten either."
- matthew, manchester 8/6/07 (visited on a thursday lunchtime) |
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