Fu Manchu Review - ONIN London

Before visiting Fu Manchu, I’d heard a lot about it. Friends living in Clapham had recommended it but I’d never managed to get around to visiting. So when I was invited down to review I jumped at the chance. Arriving at 7pm we were shown to a cosy little booth at the back where we had the pleasure of listening to Yo Preston and the band warming up. Our lovely hostess recommended the SMITH’S SUMMER SPRITZ (Smith’s Spritz mix shaken with lemon and apple juice and fresh lime leaves then topped with prosecco. Fruity, fresh and sparkling with a kick) and a N TANG’S SZECHUAN SLING (Dr. Fu Manchu’s daughter’s favourite tipple; Homemade Szechuan pepper Shrub, Finlandia Mango Vodka, Yellow Chartreuse and Mango Juice. Topped with soda water) to start off with while we perused the delicious looking menu. Both drinks were so delicious. Actually we didn’t have one bad cocktail out of the three cocktails we had each. This was impressive given the different flavours of each drink we tried and in some cases, some of their more unusual ingredients.

The menu at Fu Manchu works a little different than most places. You are provided with a sheet of paper and a pencil to mark down what items you wish to order and when you’d like the food brought to your table. We ordered so much food and forgot to stagger out the order the dishes should come in. This meant a lot of our food was delivered at once, rather than spread out.

One of the things I miss about Australia though is I can go to my local dumpling restaurant and get 10-15 steamed or fried dumplings for the price of three dumplings here in the UK. It’s a good thing Fu Manchu does an all you can eat brunch on the weekend that I may have to visit to get my fill of dumplings. For steamed dumplings we ordered Prawn and Chinese Chives dumplings, Chicken, Lemongrass and Coconut Dumplings and the Scallop, Rocket and Szechuan Pepper Dumplings. These were so delicious and absolutely amazing with the different sauces provided on our table.

Our fried dumplings consisted of Chicken and Sweet Aubergine Dumplings and Spicy Beef and Radish Dumplings. I must admit these weren’t my favourite dishes of the night. My friend really enjoyed them, but I found the texture of the inside fillings not to my liking.

The Sweet Potato and Caramelised Garlic Bao Bun and Honey Roast Pork Bao Bun were lovely, however there didn’t seem to be much filling in the buns as there should have been. Though don’t go round trying to kiss vampires after eating the Sweet Potato and Caramelised Garlic Bao Bun, they’ll run away screaming.

For our final two savoury dishes of the night we chose the Duck Spring Rolls and Crispy Salt and Pepper Squid. I’ve never eaten Duck Spring Rolls before and I’ve been missing out all my life. Definite life changer type moment when I first bit into one on Friday night. In relation to the squid… well it was cooked to perfection. Squid is one of those dishes you can get so wrong but Fu Manchu got it so right!

It wouldn’t be dinner if we didn’t end on dessert so we decided to order the Crispy Custard Buns. I don’t even know where to begin to describe these little parcels of heaven. Crispy on the outside and sweet creamy custard in the middle. I’d go back to Fu Manchu just to eat my weight in these.

We washed our meals with two other cocktails each, the LOTUS Cup (a frozen mix of Eristoff Vodka, white wine, fresh grapes, mint, lemon juice and sugar syrup. Served in a frosted metal vessel), the GREEN TEA-NI (Green Matcha powder stirred in with Bombay Sapphire, sugar syrup, apple and lime juice. Green, earthy and full of anti-oxidant goodness), MANCHU’S MIND CONTROL (The Doctor’s most favoured prescription; A healthy dose of his own secret recipe grog, shaken with mango, guava and lime juice. Served in the face of Fu) and the DRAGON FRUIT PALOMA (Sauza Hacienda tequila, Cocchi Americano Vermouth, lime juice and Dragon fruit make this delicious Asian twist on the Mexican classic). Each cocktail just kept getting better and better. Fu Manchu is definitely a place to not only go to eat delicious dumplings but to drink try these amazing cocktails.

We were luckily enough to move to the front of the bar to another reserved table so we could watch the live music performance of Yo Preston and Tchengiz. They were fantastic so our only complaint was that their sets weren’t longer. We could have listened to them all night.

After the remarkable performances from the live music acts, I got to meet Georgie Barradale (a student from BIMM in Fulham). She organised the musical talent for the night’s line up for a her music project ‘Xplore’ – an event managing service based in London which explores new musical talent that they believe to be interesting and then showcase to the rest of London through cool music venues. Fu Manchu was the first event she organised by herself and it is safe to say she did an amazing job.

Georgie also provided me with some of the information about the talented artists who performed on stage. Tchengiz, a singer songwriter mentored by Will Heard from Rudimental and has gigged with the likes of Mark Ronson, Gypsy Kings, Conor Maynard, and X-factor finalists such as Emily Middlemas. (https://www.youtube.com/user/Tchenny) and the headliner, Yo Preston, who I already knew from his recent viral hit Love Yourself Vs. F**ck yourself which won a gold plaque in Australia. (https://www.youtube.com/user/youcefpreston1).

Make sure you check out both these talented singers and hopefully Fu Manchu will have them back soon, because the venue is perfect for acoustic singers. We left shortly after the live music finished but the venue started getting even busier at the DJ started to spin the decks.

Fu Manchu is a great venue and has a large number of special events coming up that deserve a look out for. They’re even doing a special Chinese New Year’s Cocktail, the Year Of The Rooster which is making me want to book a table there again ASAP. Plus get there before the end of January to get 50% off food – Monday to Thursday!