Please, please chill
Pro Tasty and authentic-feeling food.
Con Epic beer fail.
Pay
€
Per Person €11.50 3-course menu with a drink that wasn't cold enough. A coke added €3 to that.
In Short
Hopes. Does the Tuk Tuk name remain reliable?
Reality. Food wise, it's good.
First Impressions. Red, black and a slogan we'd not bother with.
USP? Largely uncompromised dishes and flavours.
The offer in three words. Portion size lottery.
Service! Friendly and speedy at - a very quiet - lunchtime.
Friend friendly? Menu del dia has vegetable option, but cooking ingredients might need checking.
Rating for dating. A bit spartan in decor.
Tip? Not today.
Change one thing? Drinks menu needs attention.
Revisitability. Good for take-home food.
Compare & Contrast
Konnichiwa is successfully producing a similar offer round the corner.
What's the story?
Tuk tuk's having a go at the lunchtime oriental market around Malasaña. It's a bit of a muddled start, but there's potential in the food but work needed on essential details.
Starter: Sexy Bao & Sweet Chilli Salad
The steamed bun. Everywhere isn't it? Sadly I don't quite get the excitement but this one had some good flavour combinations thanks to a nice touch of mint and a squirt of spicy sauce from the table. It's an enjoyable experience, but, sexy? It's about as sensually arousing as, well, a chewy pork thing. Which...well, anyway. And before you ask, yes. Deep breath.
Oh, the salad. A sizeable plate of greens and veg with an excellent sweetish sauce that could have benefitted from a bt more chilli. This is a decent dish for chopstick practice too. Well proportioned plates, both.
Mains: Satay, Indonesian Rice
Proportion goes to pot with the asymetric main courses. It looks like they're designed to a budget not a balanced size. Two Satay sticks is a very small main. Even three would hardly be generous with little to no garnish. The rice is different, in that it's easily a main course portion. Sweet, but consistently tasty which it retains after multiple mouthfuls. A splash of hot sauce adds a certain something, too. The satay is superbly done, though. Quality, fresh juicy meat, plenty of fresh flavours in the sauce. Putting the two dishes together meant sufficient food for two. Otherwise, we'd have been overfed on rice or looking around hungrily for more chicken. By chance, we hit on a happy combination which we enjoyed.
Dessert
Three ice cream/sorbet flavours were on offer today. We turned down added choc sauce, but it turned up anyway which isn't the best service management in the world. Happily, it worked with banana sorbet, even if I didn't want it. But I give you a a moment o imagine lemon sorbet and choc sauce. You've got it. To quote the old song, they go together like a horse and marriage. Still, a mint leaf and biscuity crunchy bits made this more interesting than simply a random scoop and we appreciated that touch of effort.
Verdict?
So, this is reasonable food at the standard lunchtime price, although portion size is a bit of a lottery. We must credit a simple dessert that got a bit of attention. While the service was friendly, the incomprehensible lack of knowledge about the beer culture of Madrid - no, Spain - and, even stranger in modern Madrid, a lack of options. Mahou's fine as the default, but a choice between not chilled enough draught and entirely unchilled canned Cinco Estrellas, is an issue to deal with, now. The alternative was Coke at €3 a can. I could have popped to the Alimentacion over the road and bought two cans for half that, left them under a tree and popped in and out for mouthfuls of food.
We may visit again, but why eat in? The same food, plus a bottle of decent wine or half a dozen properly chilled beers would be the same price at home - and I can stick Stranger Things or, yes please, Blakes 7 on the TV.
Symptom of expansion or maybe franchisification? More quality control's needed to maintain the original offer we tried at the restaurant in Cardinal Cisneros. Another symptom? Recently we saw publicity offering a special deal in "selected Tuk Tuk stores." Stores? No! That's what marketing consultants call shops.
Tuk tuk, you've got successful restaurants. Keep a close eye on them, make sure the offer is consistently up to scratch. We'd be keener on another visit.
Pro Tasty and authentic-feeling food.
Con Epic beer fail.
Pay
€
Per Person €11.50 3-course menu with a drink that wasn't cold enough. A coke added €3 to that.
In Short
Hopes. Does the Tuk Tuk name remain reliable?
Reality. Food wise, it's good.
First Impressions. Red, black and a slogan we'd not bother with.
USP? Largely uncompromised dishes and flavours.
The offer in three words. Portion size lottery.
Service! Friendly and speedy at - a very quiet - lunchtime.
Friend friendly? Menu del dia has vegetable option, but cooking ingredients might need checking.
Rating for dating. A bit spartan in decor.
Tip? Not today.
Change one thing? Drinks menu needs attention.
Revisitability. Good for take-home food.
Compare & Contrast
Konnichiwa is successfully producing a similar offer round the corner.
What's the story?
Tuk tuk's having a go at the lunchtime oriental market around Malasaña. It's a bit of a muddled start, but there's potential in the food but work needed on essential details.
Starter: Sexy Bao & Sweet Chilli Salad
The steamed bun. Everywhere isn't it? Sadly I don't quite get the excitement but this one had some good flavour combinations thanks to a nice touch of mint and a squirt of spicy sauce from the table. It's an enjoyable experience, but, sexy? It's about as sensually arousing as, well, a chewy pork thing. Which...well, anyway. And before you ask, yes. Deep breath.
I am too sexy, too sexy for my bao,
too sexy for Beijing, Madrid or Macau.
Oh, the salad. A sizeable plate of greens and veg with an excellent sweetish sauce that could have benefitted from a bt more chilli. This is a decent dish for chopstick practice too. Well proportioned plates, both.
Mains: Satay, Indonesian Rice
Proportion goes to pot with the asymetric main courses. It looks like they're designed to a budget not a balanced size. Two Satay sticks is a very small main. Even three would hardly be generous with little to no garnish. The rice is different, in that it's easily a main course portion. Sweet, but consistently tasty which it retains after multiple mouthfuls. A splash of hot sauce adds a certain something, too. The satay is superbly done, though. Quality, fresh juicy meat, plenty of fresh flavours in the sauce. Putting the two dishes together meant sufficient food for two. Otherwise, we'd have been overfed on rice or looking around hungrily for more chicken. By chance, we hit on a happy combination which we enjoyed.
Dessert
Three ice cream/sorbet flavours were on offer today. We turned down added choc sauce, but it turned up anyway which isn't the best service management in the world. Happily, it worked with banana sorbet, even if I didn't want it. But I give you a a moment o imagine lemon sorbet and choc sauce. You've got it. To quote the old song, they go together like a horse and marriage. Still, a mint leaf and biscuity crunchy bits made this more interesting than simply a random scoop and we appreciated that touch of effort.
Verdict?
So, this is reasonable food at the standard lunchtime price, although portion size is a bit of a lottery. We must credit a simple dessert that got a bit of attention. While the service was friendly, the incomprehensible lack of knowledge about the beer culture of Madrid - no, Spain - and, even stranger in modern Madrid, a lack of options. Mahou's fine as the default, but a choice between not chilled enough draught and entirely unchilled canned Cinco Estrellas, is an issue to deal with, now. The alternative was Coke at €3 a can. I could have popped to the Alimentacion over the road and bought two cans for half that, left them under a tree and popped in and out for mouthfuls of food.
We may visit again, but why eat in? The same food, plus a bottle of decent wine or half a dozen properly chilled beers would be the same price at home - and I can stick Stranger Things or, yes please, Blakes 7 on the TV.
Symptom of expansion or maybe franchisification? More quality control's needed to maintain the original offer we tried at the restaurant in Cardinal Cisneros. Another symptom? Recently we saw publicity offering a special deal in "selected Tuk Tuk stores." Stores? No! That's what marketing consultants call shops.
Tuk tuk, you've got successful restaurants. Keep a close eye on them, make sure the offer is consistently up to scratch. We'd be keener on another visit.