TUK TUK Golders Green — Restaurant in London

Despite many poor meal experiences in my lifetime, this is the first time I have ever been motivated enough to leave a bad review, honestly, I’m still a little baffled over the experience I’ve just had!

My wife and I passed the restaurant on the way to our hotel and noticed the impressive shop fit and fun design; following a quick scan over the many assuring positive reviews on Google and some hours later we order click and collect via the website. The order was promptly accepted and quickly ready for collection. Two staff members greeted me warmly on arrival and I was ready to go in just a few minutes. The restaurant itself feels nice and there’s definitely a cool atmosphere about the place, I can easily imagine some hours disappearing here with friends and a few drinks - hence the 4 & 5 star reviews for service and atmosphere, it’s cool, well laid out and inviting. Unfortunately the fun stops there for me and when it comes to the main act (I.e the food) I have to say I have never in my life experienced pan-Asian food quite like this.

One of the first things that struck me on the menu was a lamb bao, I’m a big fan of lamb but as it’s not commonly found on the menu I was intrigued to see how this would fare, the truth is this is a dish to be left well alone; it was a damp, hugely overfilled shredded lamb sandwich with not a crack of seasoning or spice, very bizarre indeed.

I also ordered a salmon poke bowl which came with full sized sheets of nori on top? Typically shredded nori is used to garnish a poke bowl, however - leaning into my adventurous side and eager to recover from my lamb starter, I decided to use the filling of the poke bowl to form some sort of hand rolls using the nori sheets but the poorly trimmed and unwashed bamboo shoots totally overwhelmed me at the first mouthful, I persevered but with no soy or wasabi accompanying the dish it became clear this was an impossible dish to enjoy, the salmon was clearly fresh and of a fair quality but I had totally lost my appetite by this point.

My wife ordered the chicken pad Thai and found everything to be of one texture, sadly this too was seemingly unseasoned and terribly over cooked to a single body of inedible mush.

Unfortunately despite the flamboyant start this was the poorest meal I have had in recent memory. The sad, uneaten pile of food returned to the belly of the paper takeaway bag truly takes new ownership of the title ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’.

Clearly there is a spark of something here but the disparity between the vibrant, trendy restaurant and the dishes that stared up at us is pretty gargantuan. Kosher may be the selling point (?) but this desperately needs to be backed by proper food prep, a far greater understanding of relevant spice/flavouring along with complimentary execution in order to survive and I truly hope they can turn this around.

I would also be very wary of the countless 5* Google reviews by profiles with no other ratings, rather...

Thoroughly disappointed. Looked forward to coming here since the facade was put up due to there being a dearth of kosher Asian food locally. My mother ordered the crispy cauliflower and aioli and a basket of popcorn chicken. I didn’t try the cauliflower but the aioli was okay, not sure it tasted homemade but I could be wrong about that. The popcorn chicken was incredibly below par. Extremely simple, barely any chicken inside, the tempura batter was flavourless other than being incredibly salty and I’m actually quite shocked the restaurant didn’t go through the very minimal effort of making their own sweet Chilli sauce. Instead, we were served this neon orange syrup like dipping sauce that was 99.99% corn syrup with a tiny hint of chilli flavouring.

I initially wanted to order the Szechuan Beef dish but due to a dental appliance I have to wear for the time Being I can’t eat noodles, so I asked if I could have it with rice instead…No!…hmm bit weird. Chef seems awfully tetchy about serving rice with a dish that would be equally authentic served as such.

Instead, I ordered the Beef Bánh Mi. I was incredibly disappointed. The sandwich was an absolute mess, dripping some sort of gravy made of corn starch and what tasted like Osem bouillon powder all over the place, soaking through the wrapping paper and getting all over my hands. There was VERY little in the way of meat in the sandwich as well, certainly not £9 worth. Furthermore, I should add, I’ve had a Bánh Mi before, made by Vietnamese people. The filling in this was so far from authentic it just made me sad. Vietnamese Bánh Mi contains dryer, fresh-tasting crunchy vegetables for the purpose of texture, like radish, crispy pickled carrots, fragrant chillis, fresh coriander, spring onions etc, not wet mushy tomatoes and lettuce and bell peppers. This sandwich may as well have been from subway (or New Deli for those who have been to Israel) for the all Vietnamese authenticity it contained. Also where the hell was the sriracha?! It’s a staple in Vietnamese and south East Asian cuisine.

The only reason I’m not giving this restaurant a 1* is because I hope they have the capacity to improve. Otherwise they’ll be condemned to suffer the same fate as any other restaurant who have dared to occupy the same space under the bridge on Golders Green road…folding in...

Went here for dinner with a friend this eve. Initially we weren't too phased that it had taken over an hour but noticed our server was clearly high. They apologised for the delay and we were told it would be free, then later they changed it to 50% discount. After a longer wait we asked for our order: 1 vegetarian and 1 chicken dish to take away. They compensated us with a free dessert that we didn't want but appreciated. When we went to pay he changed it to 15% discount for our trouble. Third time he'd changed what he'd told us, seems he was too baked to remember what he was even doing. It was an extremely poorly run kitchen. Then, by the time we got home they'd given us 2 chicken dishes which were absolutely inedible. We called to ask for the vegetarian dish, they took our details then never called back to offer a remedy. Such an awful experience. Clearly any review over 2 stars is from a friend. Rubbish service, unprofessional and disgusting food. If your intention is to reply to this to save face on Google, don't bother wasting yours or my time. Just do a better job and perhaps stay sober at work. What a...