PROMOTION
Unless you’ve been living on the moon over the past year or so, you can’t have failed to notice a change in the way we dine these days. Restaurants are beginning to do away with traditional starters and main courses in favour of small and large plates, sharing platters and more sociable dishes - ideal for grazing along with some liquid refreshment.
Fabulous flavour combinations and each dish that arrived at our table was as pretty as an Instagram
Perhaps this is a result of the multitude of quality Spanish restaurants we’ve been enjoying recently, assisted by cheaper international travel. Everyone’s heard of tapas; a selection of small, full-flavoured dishes designed to enjoy along with a drink or two, but this style of sociable dining works really well with Asian flavours too. Nowhere in Manchester understands this quite as well as Sakana does – their name literally translates as the Japanese word for ‘food eaten as an accompaniment to alcohol’.
This modern, split-level restaurant serves a range of Pan-Asian street food, sushi, dim sum and salads using fresh ingredients that make the most out of oriental flavours and textures. The Japanese-style ground floor is laid out with cool wooden tables, whitewashed walls and contemporary artworks around an open kitchen in which all manner of theatrics happens on the teppanyaki and robata grills.
Tuna Tartare
Sakana has now re-launched their menu, displaying a newfound confidence in their offering by narrowing it down to their best dishes. Small plates are packed with fabulous flavour combinations and each dish that arrived at our table was as pretty as an Instagram. Pick of the bunch had to be Tuna Tartare with Avocado – yellowfin tuna, bound with silky avocado and caviar, topped with a quail egg yolk which acted like a rich dressing to compliment the fresh fish. A Soy Scallop (sold by singles) arrived perched on top of thin glass noodles in its own shell, infused with a light but richly flavoured garlic soy dressing. We also recommend Duck Spring Rolls with cabbage, vermicelli and wood ear mushroom, which were rolled in Vietnamese rice paper before being deep fried. These are the ideal drinking snack, just make sure not to spill any of the plum dipping sauce down yourself.
Soy Scallop
One of the new dishes on Sakana’s menu is a range of Tacos; salmon, tuna, or lobster – but not as you may know them. Sakana’s tacos come by way of three small, slightly crisp flour taco shells topped with a fresh chopped salsa and a vibrant homemade guacamole – Asian fusion in a nutshell...well, a taco shell.
Lobster Tacos
From the Sushi side of the menu, we tried the intriguingly named Green Caterpillar Roll. We like to think we’re adventurous eaters over at ManCon, but we were relieved to discover that no insects were harmed in the making of this dish. Freshwater eels were however, in the form of Unagi, a Japanese speciality and they provided a bit of delicious protein in this quirky inside out sushi roll complete with paper thin slices of avocado, cucumber and green caviar.
Green Caterpillar Roll
We were surprised when our server recommended Sakana’s Sweet and Sour Chicken as it’s a pretty commonplace Chinese stalwart, but we understood why when it arrived at our table almost too pretty to eat...almost. The glistening red sauce looked almost unreal and jewel-like studded with pomegranate seeds and slices of kiwi, and it provided the perfect accompaniment to the crispy fried chicken breast. Duck Red Curry was also a real treat, enhanced by Sakana’s urge to increase the nutritional value by adding fresh fruit - in this case grapes and lychees, providing a sweetness to counteract the spicy heat.
Sweet and Sour Chicken
We’d also recommend that you don’t overlook the side dishes; a particular highlight being the Robata grilled sweet potato served in a bamboo husk. The dual effect of the special grilling technique and the bamboo wrap imparted a unique smokey flavour into the strikingly purple tuber.
Sweet Potato in Bamboo Husk
We left Sakana with a full belly and a general feeling of well-being. Their Pan-Asian menu is full of vibrant oriental flavours enhanced by a range of fresh ingredients. This time, we washed it all down with a chilled glass of Kung Fu Reisling which held up well in the face of so many interesting flavours. We wonder which dishes they’d recommend with the £3600 bottle of Petrus they’re rumoured to have on their wine list.
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