udać, udać się "confusion"

I'm a little confused about the verb "udać" and how it is used. I've noticed "udać" on its own means something like "to pretend", and "udać się" means "to go" or "to manage".

How do I use this verb correctly, e.g. "udało mi się" I presume means "I managed to", but I'm unsure what "udało się" or even "udać się" used with a noun means. Any help would be appreciated :-)

Hmm, I don't know anything like that. You can use 'udać się' with a verb which means 'to succeed' e.g.:

Udało mi się to narysować - I succeeded in drawing it.

When you mean 'udać się' as 'to go' you must always include the direction, which will be a noun preceded by a preposition (like do, na, w kierunku, ku, etc.) e.g.

Udał się do domu - He went home.

You can only use 'udać' (not udać się) with a noun, which means 'to pretend' or 'to act' e.g.

Udawał głupka - he acted the fool.

Cinek

Cinek

Ciasto udało się wyśmienicie.
(cake)

Impreza udała się znakomicie.
(party)

'udać się' appears to behave like '(s)podobać się' and other similar type reflexive dative verbs. Is that bascially correct?

Yup.