Sometimes you just have to head out to somewhere relatively new with some of the people that matter to you for your birthday. And that’s exactly what I did back in August by venturing to the Panda Mami branch in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

They have something for almost anyone at Panda Mami, unless you have dietary restrictions through choice or allergies, and whilst I didn’t go with children I seen plenty having a blast and tucking in too.

We all had a nice little selection of drinks as well by having some of the mocktails on offer. My favourite was the apple mojito but it was incredibly sweet, in fact all of them were a little on the sweet side. It would be nice if they offered a more refreshing, zingy, almost palette cleansing choice. The prices for them weren’t too bad and fairly average for what you might expect for a drink from a restaurant (less than £10 for mocktails and only a small amount more for actual cocktails).

They have a solid selection of starters which naturally are all pretty beige; Like picky bits but beige bits. From little imitation crab balls that have been battered, prawn toast, onion rings, spring rolls and even really safe food like chips. I really enjoyed the prawn toast as it did have a nice little bit of prawn mixed in there and the spring rolls were a hit too without any of it being too oily and greasy. They also had a little duck pancake section and whilst I only got some of the meat from there I can confirm it tasted delicious and the pancakes looked great too.

I then really struggled to start to pick a sensible order for how to tackle everything else and next time I go, because I do intend to go again, I have a game plan prepared. I couldn’t visit every station and missed out on some of the live cooking stations purely because of my bad observing and pre-planning.

They had a delightful selection of more main type meals from noodles, rices, curries and some really delicious mushrooms too. They also had some sections that included spicier food and it definitely packed a bit of a punch. I also enjoyed some of the seafood but did find the prawns to be a bit of a miss.

Naturally, as I had other priorities, I didn’t really take a look at what I can only refer to as the “children’s or basic eater” section but was informed it included pastas, pizza and things like chicken nuggets too. Which, whilst I didn’t care for, I greatly appreciate them having something that will work for more people and especially families to make it a great meal out for everyone.

They also had a little sushi section and this is one of the bits I was looking forward to most. But it sits there, isn’t covered and the base it sat on wasn’t particularly cold. That resulted in the sushi being incredibly meh to the extent that I had a few bites and just couldn’t bring myself to eat any more of it.

But as it was my birthday I decided to open up the infamous dessert stomach to gobble up some self-serve ice cream, a variety of cake, some cheesecake and a bit of rocky road too. Would be terrible for my sugar levels but honestly I could probably just sit at the dessert section all day, with a bit of the chocolate fountain and candy on the go too. The cheesecake was my absolute favourite but the rocky road certainly gets a very close second place.

We went between Monday and Thursday on an evening so it was £21.99 per person for the food, with the drinks being extra, if you go on a Friday the price is the same but they are open slightly later. Saturday and Sunday have slightly different prices.

We booked the table in advance and if we didn’t turn up we would have been charged £10 per person which is a sensible way to do it and I appreciate it because for a restaurant like this they buy and prepare food based on expected numbers. When booking I asked for a window table but on arriving we found ourselves more in the middle of the dining area so it felt like they hadn’t really read that request and this caused a bit of an issue because the restaurant was incredibly loud with other diners, the staff and the live cooking station and we really could have done with a quieter spot to communicate a bit easier (especially as one member has hearing issues).

The staff were also incredibly friendly and attentive, especially at taking empty plates away and if you blinked you would have missed it, but the one thing I think they were missing was offering table water. We still would have purchased the drinks but table water being offered would have been a nice touch.

It wasn’t perfect but it was absolutely delightful and made for a wonderful birthday meal. I’ll be going back and if you have a Panda Mami near you I would recommend you going too!