Liutaio Music Restaurant — Restaurant in Cambridge

✓ Vegan and Vegetarian Options

WHAT I HAD: Har Gow (4 Pcs) [£4.30], Vegan Mandu (4 Pcs) [£3.50], Spicy Bamboo Shoot Salad with nuts (Vegan) [£5.00], White Bait meets White Bait [£8.00], Taro and Ginko in Green Curry (Vegan) [£10.00], Vegan Karaage Bento [£9.00 Set Lunch with Cold Drink]

A wide variety of snacks and meals ranging from dim sums to noodles and main meals, all handmade! They specialise in teas and Dim Sum, and offer great deals of set meals for one person and groups. Also, a surprising amount of vegan options too! So, I definitely recommend it for vegan and non-vegans looking for fresh, delicious and affordable variety of Chinese food for any time of the day!

The Dim Sum is good (dumplings have some room for improvement but still great)! The side dishes and main meals are fresh, quality and well cooked, and I love that they use ingredients not commonly found in the typical Chinese food fare (i.e. Gingko, Prickly Ash etc.) that is a breath of fresh air especially for the vegan options as it goes beyond the usual tofu and mushrooms! The staff of this mostly family run restaurant is friendly and warm, they are also very flexible to requests. I love the eclectic décor that although it is mainly Chinese antiques, somehow still has a contemporary feel to it, perhaps due to the minimal design and well-spaced seating. The ambience is a mix of cosy and classy, a place I also love spending time at even if it’s just enjoying some snacks with a pot of tea while people watching and taking in the beautiful antiques (some of which are for sale) in the store. I also heard that they have musical...

Well, it looks beautiful, and the menu looked beautiful with lots of items I wanted to try. But I was not able to try the things I wanted, and the experience was so off-putting.

I walked in around noon on a weekday when the place was absolutely empty, and asked to order dim sum for takeout. I was trying to order items that were listed on the large a la carte menu up in the window. I was told that they were out of most of the things that had intrigued me enough to go in. Like 3 out of 5 things. I asked when they would have them so I could come again another time to try the items listed on the menu that I was interested in. Then I was told, well, we have them right now, but you can’t order them now a la carte because then we wouldn’t have enough for the full set meals later.

That just felt really awful to me. I’m not inspired to want to go have an expensive set meal there after that. And if items are only available as part of the set menu, they should not be advertised in the window as being available a la carte. It’s really disappointing because it looks beautiful and the menu looked great. Probably if you are with a group ordering set menus instead of a solo woman wanting to sample a few things when they’re empty at lunchtime, they’d be more interested in having you as a customer and you’d have a...

Here I was served some of the best dim sum I've eaten outside of the Far East. All made to perfection in house.

From Top left going clockwise: Duck mandu, glutinous rice packages, tofu & veg pouch, vegetable shitake buns.

The duck had a wonderful strong flavour with the sticky pastry. I'd never had rice steamed in that pastry before. It was brilliant. The tofu was mashed and delicately flavoured then wrapped perfectly in spongy tofu. Then soft cotton wool buns which had the perfect balance of mushrooms and greens within. I can't rate this place highly enough. Finished with a serving of sweet red bean buns. We couldn't resist.

Great tea too.

I noticed the waitress was the chef as she had flour on her mask. She was a little shocked when I asked if she made them herself. She said yes.

All for £29/$40. I can't wait to go back and for the rest of the menu.

The cafe also sold Chinese pillows which double as a locked box to store your valuables in while you sleep. The Chinese use soft western pillows now, I'm...