In a Muddler
Find out the verdict on Newcastle’s latest restaurant
THE concept of the pan-Asian fusion menu at new restaurant The Muddler may have been lost on some Geordies.
“Oh, it’s Chinese food,” we heard one potential diner say as we went into the newest Grey Street venue.
That’s simplifying it a bit as The Muddler aims to serve international cuisine – “an explosion of flavours from all over the world”.
My usual encounter with Asian food is in a takeaway carton, so I was looking forward to some more high-end cuisine.
But I left the restaurant feeling a bit ‘muddled’ myself.
WHAT’S THE PLACE LIKE?
Walking into The Muddler I had an anti-Tardis moment.
It was a lot smaller on the inside than it looked on the outside.
This turned out to be a problem as we had arrived early and there were no tables available for us.
We ordered drinks of Old Mout cider and the house cocktail Muddler Spritz in the meantime.
Luckily there were some bar stools by the window so we could gaze out on Grey Street while waiting for some diners to finish up.
And before too long, we were taken to the back of the restaurant and seated by wall-length mirrors (I presume, to give the illusion of a bigger space).
HOW WAS THE FOOD?
For the purposes of a review, I went for a standard three courses, but would have happily opted for the sushi options otherwise.
Several mouth-watering sushi platters were on offer as well as dozens of small dishes.
But instead I opted for prawn dim sum to start and my guest tried the small chicken katsu curry.
My dumplings were served inside a decorative wooden box, which left me wondering whether it would be a case of style over substance.
My £5 starter came with four reasonable sized dumplings with a dish of soy sauce to dip in, but I struggled to taste the prawns.
The £6.50 katsu chicken had been lightly battered and was not too oily, my guest said.
During the starter course we had both made a valiant attempt at using the chopsticks provided, but gratefully accepted knives
and forks ahead of the main course.
I had chosen the larger version of the chicken katsu curry for £13 while my fellow diner went for one of the most expensive mains – the £16 beef and coriander skewers.
My chicken was tasty and went well with the huge amount of curry sauce provided, but I was envious of my diner’s succulent beef dish.
Our plates also came with plenty of fresh vegetables and salad.
Both of our mains had huge mountains of sticky rice that had to be left unconquered as it proved too much.
We were glad to be offered a jug of tap water to wash it all down and were ready to tackle a third course.
As someone with a sweet tooth, I always try to leave room for dessert but there weren’t many options here.
Only two desserts were available – mochi ice cream or dorayaki pancakes.
However, we were informed there were no pancakes left and they had also run out of my preferred flavour of coconut ice cream.
We opted to share the mochi, which came in at £4.50, and choose two yuzu scoops and one salted caramel.
The ice cream is surrounded by a kind of dough that makes it tougher to tear apart but stops the ice cream from melting.
The tangy citrus flavours of the yuzu went well with the sweetness of the ice cream and the salted caramel stopped short of being too sickly.
The mochi balls made a simple dessert much more interesting.
WHAT ABOUT SERVICE?
As I mentioned earlier, there was no table for us when we arrived and we had the impression that our booking had been overlooked somewhere.
But our wait was short and we were kept well stocked with water. Our waitress was also quick to offer us cutlery (probably after she had seen we were not chopstick experts).
There was a baffling start to the meal though.
As we awaited our starters, a waiter came up and placed a dish on our table.
“Sorry, what is that?” I asked.
“An appetiser” he said before bounding away.
That didn’t really answer my question and we were left with no option but to try the mysterious appetiser to find out what it was.
We think it was tofu but it would have been nice to have been given an explanation.
SO WHAT’S THE VERDICT?
The Muddler fits into the Grey Street aesthetic and everything looks very impressive.
But it has only been a few short weeks since opening and it seems to be still finding its feet.
Our mains were filling and full of flavour, but my starter was a bit bland and the dessert options were much too limited, even before they ran out of stock.
There is plenty of potential though and those sushi dishes are likely to tempt me back.