"mu" — Restaurant in London

Appetizers, main course, side dishes, music and cocktails were fantastic. Unlike the old comments, I think food is served timely (not too fast and not too slow), and is delicious.

Menu highlights: Appetizers: aubergine, popcorn shrimp, beef gyoza (we ordered all 3 of them twice because it was soooo good)

Main course: I liked salmon teriyaki, it had smokiness in the taste. Would recommend it. We went for the turbot (yes its august and its not turbot season), but still it was delicious. As a side dish, oyster mushrooms were really really good. But ofc, we ordered rice and nori fries which complemented well with the fish.

Cocktails: soju spiritz, toki and one more that I cant remember the name. All of them were delicately prepared. Balanced taste.

Wine menu: we ordered 2 bottles of white wine. One was chenin blanc, fantastic. They have orange wine on the menu as well. Great wine menu.

All I can say is they got the spirit 😉 Lowlights:

Dessert: This can be improved. Ideas are good but not tasty. Matcha cheesecake: it was like a san sebastian cheesecake (burnt) but the consistency was too dense. Chocolate mousse: it was more like a choco-pudding. It should be more foamy. Green tea brulee: Consistency is good but I felt marine aroma. So maybe the green tea used in this recipe should be swapped. Dunno, Im not a chef but didnt like it.

Only providing this feedback for the dessert because I believe mu is very reactive. I'd say other than dessert food is fantastic. Definitely would love to go again.

I loved the music. It is really an experience. Very fun. Wasnt overwhelming either as the band took breaks that gives us time to chat occassionally and enjoy the music rest...

So we went to Mu with my family for a birthday meal for my daughter.

This was for 8pm. There was a really good but very loud salsa band so it was very difficult to have a conversation.

The food was good but not amazing and even the main dishes were of starter proportions, not overtly expensive but when you consider the size of the portions, yes quite dear.

Service was good but when it came to the bill we had the option to pay £6 each (there were four of us) toward the band’s fee so that’s and extra £24 on top of our meal which was well over £200 for basically quite nice scraps.

So paying the band was optional but one felt obliged to add this extra payment.

It’s basically a con as you think your getting free live music but the owners of the restaurant are getting the punters to pay for the band.

I’m a musician, and I know that in this country musicians don’t get paid what they’re worth but this was done in a somewhat stealthy, emotional blackmail kind of way.

The place was decked out to the hilt and this was Hackney, so I suppose they had to get their money back.

I was raised in Hackney so I’m indigenous and I feel that this is the nasty side of gentrification.

It’s not all bad as gentrification has helped to provide good schools for the borough amongst other things but this restaurant, Mu, is a nasty piece of work.

We stayed for the bands 2nd set and they were great (and they seemed to be a bit quieter so one could still have a conversation) but that restaurant left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

If your quite affluent and don’t mind being ripped off then I highly recommend Mu, but just make sure you eat a bag of chips...

Looks good in principle, but ultimately "mu" misses the mark and feels too much like a clinical business than the trendy jazz club, it attempts to convey.

I attended "mu" on a Friday night a few weeks ago and was keen to experience some live jazz music. On the night the jazz music was a form of African jazz which was interesting to hear and although unexpected, still enjoyable to listen to. Unfortunately though the venue just isn't set up to play to its strengths and unique selling point, the live music. A long bank of two seater tables take up most of the dining area and are orientated in such a way that only one person can see the band while the other faces the wall. Then there are tables in the centre closer to the band but many of these were left empty, presumably as they seat 3/4 people but most people there were parties of two. This left a strange energy in the room and something feeling off about the atmousphere, with only some people able to fully engage with the music and the band. As two diners we decided to switch seats so both of us could share the experience but this is hardly the best solution.

The food was fine, interesting ideas but a bit hit and miss resulting in an average experience. The presentation was good and there were some tasty dishes but some dishes just felt very average, and not worth the price.

The service was fine.

Overall, "mu" looks the part but the restaurant feels like it doesn't...