A couple of weeks ago, after drooling over images posted on twitter by the most techy dog in Manchester, M-Dog, Mo and I decided to book our five year anniversary dinner at the newly opened Sakana restaurant on Peter street.
A quick glance at the menu and we were desperate to try it. I have spent the large part of 2014 complaining about how it was hard to find places that served great sushi and sashimi dishes in Manchester. So, I was excited to see whether Sakana was on-par with some of the greats down south i.e. Sushi Samba.
It was a cold and typically wet evening when we arrived, so thankfully, there was a cloakroom to get rid of all the excess layers. The restaurant was fairly quiet so after a bit of chit chat with the hostess we were able to go straight through.
As a total design nut I love the interiors here. Stylish booths, sushi counter and tables are arranged around the large open plan kitchen. Mo couldn’t stop gushing about how perfectly they had designed the booths, right height, right distance away from the table and extremely comfortable. The piece de resistance for me was the stunning, twisted wire maple tree that towered over us, designed by Sarah Gallagher.
The first floor features their ‘fine dine gallery restaurant’, proving Sakana has been designed to truly cater for all types of occasions; the quick bite at the bar, a catch up with friends, for date nights and parties. Sticking to the design theme, I also loved the quirky fan menu, but again that’s the graphics geek in me.
On ordering, we went off the waiters recommendations, and chose dishes from each of the sections. We had: tiger prawn nigiri, yellowfin tuna sashimi, crunchy california uramaki roll, salmon fillet tappanyaki and the tuna tataki robata.
Food was fab. It really was. I was so pleased! I hate to say it, but I was half expecting Sakana to be a disappointment and to not live up to the hype, but I was thankfully proven wrong.
Now when ordering you must, I repeat MUST, leave space for dessert. I actually didn’t think I could face anymore food, but Mo insisted as it was our anniversary, I had to order one. So I let him order me a passion fruit panna cotta and I sat back and tried to hurry my digestion to make space for the last course.
It arrived and I devoured it. It definitely makes my list on top desserts I’ve ever eaten. It was the kind that made me feel the need to provide Mo with a detailed explanation after every bite. Mo enjoyed his just as much, he just chose to eat it without commentary. He did however have lots of praise for the quality of the coffee (I was too busy admiring the cup it came in and wondering where I could buy some for ourselves).
Unfortunately I hadn’t started off the day feeling too well, so we weren’t really able to stay for a late one. Should we return in the future, we would definitely enjoy taking some time to enjoy the bar area before heading home, almost certainly something we would do if we were out with friends.
Down to the nitty gritty… price. It’s not the cheapest, similar to what we would have paid in London. But the price perfectly matches the quality of the food and experience of being there. A certain dog does happen to have some good offers for this place though, so go, try it out and you’ll soon appreciate it’s worth it.
All in all, this is a great addition to the Manchester restaurant scene and it really is about time we had some top notch pan-Asian cuisine on our doorstep. Can’t wait to show it off to friends and family!
Click here to visit the Sakana website
