Vudu Restaurant — Restaurant in Kirklees

The evening actually started off quite well I’ll be honest. We seated quickly, front of house main guy was funny, polite and actually lovely I’ll call him ‘Supervisor’ from this point.

We ordered our food, starters came, all actually quite nice, no problems here. Until…

I asked for some table water only to be told they don’t serve table water and you have to buy water. Now we had already spent around £25 on drinks at this point and denying table water is a BIG NO for me. ESPECIALLY when they had ‘religious’ music playing through the sound system and the basic rule in Islam is never deny a person water. Here is where it all went downhill.

The mains came. My three friends enjoyed their food, again no complaints there. I, however, ordered the shrimp. At £22 for this dish which came with ‘free’ rice I expected nothing short of perfection. Perfection it was NOT. The prawns were so desperately overcooked I could not cut through them with my knife, the sauce was a watery and tasteless mess BUT STILL I thought never mind UNTIL I tried the rice… which was a congealed solid mess. This is when I decided to speak up but only about the rice. The waiter came along and when I told him the rice wasn’t right this is how the conversation went: Waiter- what’s wrong with it? Me - it’s all solid and not edible. Waiter - that’s how it’s supposed to be. Me - no it’s not. It’s one solid clump. Waiter - it’s sticky jasmin rice. That’s how it is. Me - I know what jasmin rice is, I cook it. This is not how it’s supposed to be. Waiter - I’ll get the manager. … note I haven’t even complained about the awful prawns, just the rice which is easy enough to correct. Manager - how can I help? Me. - I’m not sure what this is, but it doesn’t resemble rice. Manager - it’s jasmin rice, it’s meant to be like that. … at this point I’m thinking this is not the first time people have complained about this rice because they’re saying the EXACT SAME THING. Rehearsed perhaps? Me - that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Manager - Darling, jasmine rice is a sticky rice it’s meant to be like that. Me - don’t call me DARLING! It might be Jasmine rice but that’s not edible and it’s not supposed to be like that. … I hadn’t mentioned the wilted 6 day old, poor excuse of a salad that was also on the plate. Manager - ‘shrugs shoulders’ I can get some more for you but it will be exactly the same. … no mention of an apology thus far. Me - so what would be the point then? … now I’m pissed Me - actually since we’re on the topic, the prawns are also way overcooked and I can’t chew them. Manager - oh so you’re not happy with the prawns? What do you want me to do? Shall I get more sent out? Me - no thanks, you can just take these away and take them off the bill. Manager - That dish is our best seller, in the year and a half we’ve been open, you’re the only person to complain… fine, I’ll take it away … he whips the plate away, still no apology and stomps off like a spoiled brat in a huff.

Some whispering and pointing of fingers ensued between Manager and Supervisor and the supervisor never came back to the table with his jokes and joviality.

We were going to have dessert but decided after that debacle we would go elsewhere and buy dessert.

A quick read of the reviews and lo and behold in few short minutes I came across other reviews also complaining about the prawns. Wow. What a shock.

Zero customer service skills, just a lot of arrogant morons who don’t have a clue about hospitality. So many of these ‘instagram’ hyped places are popping up and they’re all as bad as each other. Clueless.

The whole situation could have been resolved in seconds, politely and would have resulted in a 5 star review.

They’re lucky I gave them 3 stars for the quality of the food. I was inclined to give 1 but since my friends liked their food I thought it unfair.

The 5* reviews, it seems, have come from ‘influencers’ who have been offered free food in exchange for a good review. Not biased at all obviously.

Do better, or shut the place down and go back to...

Let's start with the main part, the food. For starters we had the lamb chops, chargrilled lamb chops, nachos, boa buns and dynamite shrimp. The lamb chops were amazing, honestly the best I've had and I have had many. It was succulent, soft and tender even the fat was so soft it wasn't chewy at all. The chargrilled lamb chops were even better that's something I will have again over anything else, I highly recommend this. The nachos were really nice and came with a few sauces which they keep refilling for you if you want more and you can keep those sauces and jalapenos for the whole meal, my favourite sauce was the chilli sauce for this starter. The boa buns were very nice, it had Korean fried chicken in side them which was nicely seasoned and it had spice and sweet, the buns themselves were like soft, fluffy clouds this was really good. Lastly the dynamite shrimp was very good it came with some sort of cheese sauce it was creamy and the prawn was breaded it was delicious definitely decent shrimp.

For the mains we had the sirloin steak which was exceptional. We asked for medium with no blood and it came exactly like that and it was still very succulent and melted in the mouth. For sides I had the mac n cheese which was okay nothing special a tad dry, roast potatoes those were super fluffy on the inside but not crispy on the outside but perfectly seasoned. I also had the vudu sauce which wasn't great next time I would rather try a mushroom sauce or maybe peppercorn. The vudu sauce wasn't bad it just didn't have much flavour. We also had the garlic mushrooms as a side and that was mediocre definitely had better. We also had the tiger grilled prawns which were very good the prawns literally melted in the mouth it was very tender almost like it wasn't prawns and the size of the prawns are very big so you get good portions. It has decent flavour too. Lastly for dessert we had the molten lava cake with raspberry gelato, this was quite nice the center was gooey and had the molten sauce that oozed out, and a chocolate sauce on top which was good, the cake was really moist and warm, it came with crushed Oreos but the raspberry gelato was amazing and helps cut the richness off the cake since it's sweet and sour and the gelato was hella creamy definitely something I'd recommend. In general the dessert menu is lackluster as there's only 5 dishes and not many great options.

The only reason I gave the service 4/5 is because we kept getting different waiters which was annoying because we would tell one waiter one thing and the other one would come with different information or asking something we've already told someone else. Also they spilled stuff all over my nephew which was funny for me but obviously upsetting for him and they gave nothing for that but the waiter did apologise several times. But the waiters in general looks like most of them are still in training hence the uncoordinated service but they're all super nice and helpful hence the 4 star rating.

The atmosphere was good, the music wasn't too loud the tables are very good and seating comfortable. My reasons for the 4 star rating is that some of the tabling are too close to each other the restaurant lighting is a tad dark but I in general enjoyed the atmosphere.

I would also like to mention that everything is halal even all the alcoholic drinks aren't alcoholic which I think is amazing as I tend to avoid places with alcohol because I prefer fully halal restaurants so that's a nice touch for sure.

Prices aren't bad either and I would say is quite good considering the economy.

Oh we also had a few different mojitos. The mango and passion fruit was the best in my opinion. Strawberry was good and quite sweet but the raspberry one was overly sweet I didn't like that. They also boycotted sprite and come and offer fentamens as an alternative which made me...

I don’t think I’ve ever left a negative review on a dining experience before but it was terrible on almost all counts. I’m only writing this to give you a chance to improve. Everyone deserves that at least. The concept here is good and the town needs a great halal fine dining experience - but the town doesn’t need this.

1. You made some of your customers wait nearly an hour to be shown to their table even though you had plenty of free tables. This is clearly as you don’t have the staff and organisation to cope with the demands of a restaurant just yet. It appears you were staggering as food orders were going out late and your chefs needed more time.

2. The name. Sickening really. You are clearly a practising Muslim owned organisation but you go with a tired stereotype to match the Afro beats music. If you understand the meaning behind the name, it’s the equivalent of calling your joint ‘black magic’ or ‘jadoo’ - this doesn’t align with your target audience. Yes you want to be urban and edgy but this isn’t the way to do it.

3. You are not selling drinks from the Coke Cola brand due to a choice to boycott. This should be informed to customers at the door before being seated. Explain you have alternates. Pop cards on each table outlining your decision. You lack communication around this.

4. You boycott but you play extremely loud music some with offensive words in the lyrics. I couldn’t even speak to my guests as it was so loud.

5. We waited 10 mins to have our drinks order taken. We asked at that time to order the food but we’re told the manager will come and take the food order. 5 mins passed them 10 and 20 further mins down the line, the manager came. Now, why the manager? Because a good handful of dishes were not available. Clearly only the manager had enough menu and product knowledge around this lack of stock. Not the waiting staff. Another fail. We couldn’t order our first choice dishes.

6. Starters. Awful. No side salad with the hummus. And LATE. All of our starters came at different times. My husbands starters came 10 mins after mine. It’s just rude. Guests should have the opportunity to start eating together. This is good manners in the UK. Don’t stagger the starters - give them to guests at the same time.

7. Drinks came AFTER the starters. Most unusual. We expect our drinks before the starters. All the tables around us also got their drinks after their starters. This needs massive improvement. I’ve all my life looked forward to a non alcoholic expresso martini. But was told there was none available as there was no coffee. I ordered a mojito which wasn’t great. Tasteless and not worth the money. And the coffee? I turned around and saw they are serving instant coffee - Nescafé and Lidl’s own brand. But no coffee machine to make my expresso martini. Just instant!

8. Mains - served cold. Unappealing. The place is chaotic and the chefs have an inability to serve dishes at the same time. Again things came in dribs and drabs. Chips 5 mins after my husbands steak. So his steak gets cold before his chips arrive. No sides are included in the price so if was just a sorry looking steak on an empty plate. The mains are missing the sides and presentation to match the highly elevated price points.

9. The waiter burned me with the cloth at the end which they bring to the table, to clean your hands. He poured boiling kettle water into it and I was scorched.

10. In small print is the fact that a discretionary 12.5% service charge (tip) is added to the bill. Customers: Please be aware legally you can have this taken off. I recommend you ask for this to be removed from you bill. The service isn’t of the standard to warrant it.

I hope you are able to improve in...