Restaurant Review: Mr Lau's Dim Sum Bar & Restaurant: Warrington

Hey,

Another restaurant review for you today - and once again I've strayed from Manchester city centre!

I was kindly asked to try out Mr Lau's Dim Sum Bar & Restaurant*, a well-established eatery in Warrington town centre.

Warrington is not too far from us at all (in fact, we technically have a Warrington postcode!) but it's not somewhere I've thought to try for a meal out.

I'm a big fan of Chinese food but usually opt for a takeaway rather than a sit-in dining experience so I was unsure what to expect from a restaurant I'd not heard of before.

Mr Lau's is definitely deceiving! It doesn't look like much from the outside but upon walking through the door and ascending the stairs, you'll find a real feel-good atmosphere. The music is pumping and the bar area has a great buzz about it - it becomes clear that this is not simply somewhere to just eat Chinese food!

The seated restaurant is found down another set of steps - a large, modern space with low level lighting and an open kitchen at the back for all guests to see.

We were promptly greeted by our cheerful and friendly server who ushered us towards the cocktail list while we browsed the vast menu (seriously, I wanted to take a picture of how large it physically is but couldn't get it in shot!).

Encouraged to get two cocktails as it was Happy Hour, I didn't need much convincing to oblige and ordered a couple of Lychee Martinis which were absolutely delicious!

Starters

Unlike a lot other Chinese restaurants, Mr Lau's is specially dedicated to Dim Sum - small dishes of traditional bites and steamed dumplings or buns, usually shared around the table. I love this style of eating so I was more than happy to try a few different items for our starter.

The easiest dish for us to choose was the Char Siu Bao - a small plate of beautifully fluffy steamed bao buns, filled with sweet and sticky roasted pork pieces. These were totally divine and tasted really authentic and homemade.

Next up was the Siu Long Bao - another pork-based option but this time in the form of a steamed dumpling. Steamed dumplings usually divide my husband and I - I love them, while he usually finds that they're not to his taste though he's happy to try them. These ones were delicious; served in a traditional steamer basket, they were light and packed full of well-seasoned filling. They were so big, they were difficult to tackle with the chopsticks!

Finally, we opted for an item from the 'Gourmet Dim Sum' selection, Crispy Prawn Wontons. I usually find wontons a bit hit and miss when ordering them from takeaways - very often they are over-fried, resulting in a rock-hard dry outer pastry. These however were the best I've ever tried! The pastry was flaky and just the right amount of crispy, while the whole prawns inside were huge, juicy and incredibly tasty. 

Mains

Happy to continue the sharing of dishes, we chose a couple of our usual favourites for our main courses.

First, Salt and Pepper ribs. I adore the flavours of Chinese salt and pepper seasoning. I've actually recently begun to get to the bottom of a food intolerance and while I struggle with onions and garlic in particular, I'm happy to take the risk and discard the larger pieces to enjoy that classic salt and pepper flavour!

The ribs were huge and plentiful - we would definitely order these again!

Our second choice was Char Siu Peking - roast pork (at this point, I realise we had a lot of pork during this meal!) in a sticky, sweet peking sauce. I'd say that this dish was smaller in size but with plenty of large pieces of melt-in-the-mouth pork, it was more than enough to share.

We also complemented the mains with side orders of salt and pepper chips and egg-fried rice. 

The huge portions at Mr Lau's unfortunately meant we had zero room for dessert - we left feeling very full and incredibly satisfied with the standard of food and service we received.

We're not short of reasons to return either, especially with lots of offers through the week to enjoy including 'Dim Sum Mondays' (all Classic Dim Sum dishes at £2.95 each), 'Half Price Wednesdays' (50% off the entire a la carte menu) and 'Aromatic Fridays' (free crispy duck!).

We loved the party atmosphere at the restaurant, perfect for continuing your evening with friends - quite possibly at the fabulous Emily's cocktail bar next door!

Is Chinese food something you like to choose for a meal out?