Wokmania

There is big surge of these Chinese buffet restaurants opening up at the moment. Wokmania is the third but is a bit more classy environment.

When Lisa emailed me and suggested we have our monthly meet up this weekend I was well up for it. Because of DS birthday though I couldn't do Friday or Saturday so I suggested we meet up Thursday after I finish at TBG.
We met at 2.45 on the dot outside the Standing Order and went in there for a couple of pints first. It was great to just sit back relax and chat. There was lots to catch up on and when we get started we can both talk for England.

It was gone 5pm when we made the move and the short walk down to the "Cathedral Quarter" of Derby along to Wokmania which is set inside St Werbergh's converted church.


Inside they have done wonders. It is very classy but they have kept the features of the church which is an experience like no other.

The desserts area is right at the front of thechurch where the alter would have been which is an interesting metaphore if you think of it...

And yes that is a White chocolate fountain you can see.

There are over 100 dishes in all. There was so much choice that both of us had 2 starters. I like the finger food first but they had a great salad bar with Pineapple and Cucumber and Potato a number of mixed salads. As well as the obligatory Prawn Crackers, samosas and spring rolls. No Prawn toasts though :(
We also found ourselves having 2 mains. There are so many hot dishes and curries to choose from. I made a bee-line for the BBQ ribs and the Lemon Chicken as well as Rice, Chow mien, Garlic Mushrooms, Ooh so much I can hardly remember it all. I didn't even see the fish dishes until Lisa was merrily picking apart her spicy Prawns so I had to go back and get some along with the spicy Mussels and fried Whitebait. We could have gone back for more but we both knew we needed to save a space for the desserts section.

The toilets are on a balcony so I took a picture from up there of the rest of the restaurant.


and of the lovely wooden ceilings


Now for the best yet - the dessert section - What a selection they had on offer. As well as the Milk chocolate fountain and the White chocolate fountain there was a soft ice cream machine (You know the ones I have trouble with) and around the tables are bowls of sweeties. There is Jelly Babies and Liquorice Allsorts and Fruit Bonbons and other jelly based sweets. Then there is a huge selection of fruits with Skewers which I guess you are encourged to put all the pieces of fruit on a skewer and bath them in chocolate MMmmmmmm.

I filled a bowl with ice cream then I found the biggest Strawberry I had ever seen and lots of sweeties and covered them all in both types of Chocolate.

All this was washed down with a gorgeous bottle of white wine which Lisa treated us to.

Now I have read a few reviews of the place online and I have to agree with what they all say. The thing that lets them down is the staff. They are all very young and seemed to spend a lot of time standing around chatting. Our plates weren't cleared once and we had to move them to another table out of the way although we were told on our arrival that we could use as many plates as we wanted. At May Sum your plates are gone as soon as you turn round.
I even had to ask a group of them to move so I could go back up to the Dessert area.

I just couldn't let the evening end without having a piece of the gorgeous Raspberry cheesecake which was as good as it looked and finished off my meal perfectly.

By the time we were coming to the end of our meal the place was getting really busy. People queuing right to the back. I was glad we came in when we did.
The other negative was waiting to pay. We stood there for a while while the staff carried on chatting. We could have easily just walked out and they wouldn't have noticed.

All in all it was a great evening. Wonderful company and great food. Now Lisa says we should make it our mission to visit all the buffet restaurants in Derby. Roll on next month!