Famous Taiwan eatery Dazzling Café opens in Manchester

Alicia Boukersi | 25th March 2018

Stalking aesthetic cafes and restaurants on social media is one of my hobbies; I love seeing the pretty décor and Instagram-worthy foods that places have to offer. Recently I discovered Taiwanese chain Dazzling Café. Instagram shows a beautiful though busy café, whilst TripAdvisor reviews reveal people have waited in four hour queues to try some of their “to-die for” desserts. Now that they’ve opened a branch on Manchester’s Mosley Street, we went to see if it was worth the hype.

 

The café opens at 12pm and it is decidedly busy when we get in at 1pm on a slow Monday afternoon. According to the wait staff, there’ll be even more customers later on. “Office workers tend to come here after 3pm, they’re one of our key clientele”, manager Nicholas Moo tells us. By the time we leave, all the chairs and tables have already been filled.

 

There’s a Manchester meets Taiwan theme within Dazzling Café – think open space and pastel wallpaper with golden worker bees and honeycomb shaped cabinets. A neon sign reading ‘Are you dazzling today?’ is being photographed every few minutes and adds to the Instagram look. For Nicholas Moo, the café’s appearance is almost as important as the food: “People love to take pictures of food and places, so we want to be part of that. We want to be known for being pretty”.

 

To start, we tried the Mixed Salad and Deep Fried Cod with Japanese Sesame Dressing. At £7, the big bowl of rabbit food seems a little discouraging but it’s actually quite delicious. The fish is absolutely fresh, and the sweet-tasting sesame dressing is one of the best I’ve had.

 

The Smoked Duck Breast Pizza with Pesto Sauce, priced at £10.50, was rustic and hearty. It doesn’t take too long to cook either which makes it a great option for a mid-week lunch. With a thin base and no marinara sauce, it seems healthy but it’s full of cheesy goodness that makes me think less so. A Margherita pizza is priced at £6 and a Hawaiian Pizza is £8.50 for those with a more traditional palette.

 

There’s a good choice of oriental drinks too. We tried the Rose Baileys Latte, which uses both alcohol and flower leaves to create a soft and delicate coffee taste. For someone that doesn’t really like coffee, I was drinking it awfully quickly, but at only £4.50 each the two drinks (and complimentary biscuits) were worth it. I might have to start replacing my weekly Starbucks for a Dazzling Café Coffee instead.

 

There’s a long list of teas as well, including Lemongrass and Ginger, Taiwan Red and Ali Shan High Mountain Green which are all priced at £3.20.

 

Desserts are arguably the trademark of Dazzling Café and we didn’t know where to begin. We ultimately chose the waitress’ choice, the Mont-Blanc Honey Toast, which we advised to share between two. At £10.50, we were impressed by the size. In fact, it’s so big the waitress has to dissect the cake at the table, carving it into manageable bite-sized pieces. Several stacks of fluffy honey flavoured toast are hidden inside the massive brioche style base. The toppings of ice cream, strawberries and chocolate make it undeniably mouth-watering. There’s also mochi flavoured waffles on offer if they’re more your taste.

 

Annoyingly I didn’t see that French Fries with Truffle Sauce were on the menu until it was time for desserts, but I’ll absolutely be trying them next time I’m looking for a unique yet affordable lunch place in Manchester. I’ll also be back for seconds of the honey toast but I might have to bring a small army of my friends to devour the whole thing with me.

 

Dazzling Café

58 Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3HZ

+44 1614 256330