Good sushi is a hard thing to find in Manchester nowadays. To be honest, ever since the demise of Umezushi, it has felt out of reach.
Average sushi, however, is suddenly available in abundance thanks to an explosive proliferation of trendy, if soulless, Pan Asian restaurants.
You know the sort. The spots with the claggy, dried-out rice on ostentatious platters, whose chefs stuff cream cheese into the middle of their maki, or disguise its lack of freshness with cascading waterfalls of dry ice.
These spots, with their fake flower walls and neon signs that scream “Pick me!” seem, depressingly, to be taking over. So it’s with relish I can reassure you at least one place in Manchester city centre is doing its bit to remind us what real sushi should actually taste like.
Image: The Manc Group
Image: The Manc Group
Even better, it’s entirely missing the gaudy flamboyance of Manchester’s glitzy Pan Asian sushi scene – so if, like me, you’re not into superficial sushi, you should feel right at home here.
ADVERTISEMENT
I’m talking about One Sushi, formerly known as Ikkan – a tiny Japanese takeaway shop on Oxford Road filled with little more than a few wooden counters and a cash desk topped with metallic maneki-neko, or beckoning cat.
Opened last year by the team behind China Buffet, a popular Chinese restaurant in the heart of Chinatown, its takeaway cabinets are stuffed with California and red dragon rolls, deep-fried ebi, and various tempting combo platters.
These lovingly packaged takeaway morsels are already considered by sushi fiends in the know to be amongst best in the city, but – whilst they are really good – they are nothing compared to what is coming off the kitchen’s near-invisible pass.
Hidden at the back by a blue flag featuring the One Sushi logo and rolling waves that resemble Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai’s famous Great Wave off Kanagawa print, it’s here that you will reconsider whether you’ve ever really had a good piece of sushi before in your life.
ADVERTISEMENT
Prepare to be blown away.
The no-frills setup for the omakase, which literally translates as ‘I leave it up to you’. / Image: The Manc Eats
A piece of Otoro tuna nigiri. / Image: The Manc Eats
We’re talking otoro belly tuna, A5 seared wagyu steak (that’s the highest grade you can get), sweet Japanese scallops and prawns, all prepared right in front of you by master sushi chef Eddie who trained at two Michelin star Hong Kong restaurant Zuicho.
All the fish here is super fresh, and the entire style of the menu is down to chef Eddie – meaning he chooses for you, preparing the best of the best from that day.
Priced at £58 per person, Eddie can accommodate up to four people at once for this incredible omakase sushi experience. There’s really nowhere like it in Manchester for this price, in fact the only other place where you can go to experience something like this will set you back at least £200.
ADVERTISEMENT
For sushi lovers, this is a dream come true.
Featured image – The Manc Group
Eats
Viral chicken shop Wingstop is opening inside the Manchester Arndale
Daisy Jackson
Wingstop, the chicken shop famed for its vast range of wing flavours and sauces, is opening another spot in Manchester city centre.
The brand will be taking over the old Yo Sushi site in the Manchester Arndale, which shut down just last month.
It’ll mean there’ll be two Wingstop locations within a few minutes’ walk of each other, with another takeaway already well-established on Piccadilly Gardens.
Wingstop UKI has found viral fame with people taste-testing its wide range of hand-sauced chicken wing flavours, ranging from garlic parmesan all the way up to the eye-watering ‘Atomic’.
As well as chicken wings, it serves delicious tenders and burgers, all cooked to order.
There are also a range of sides, including loaded fries, sweet potato fries, and cajun fried corn, plus dips like ranch, honey mustard, and blue cheese.
Wingstop is also famed for its thick milkshakes – which are a necessity if you order your chicken down the spicier end of the scale.
Established in Texas in 1994, Wingstop rose rapidly to become one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the US.
The brand launched in the UK market in 2018, and into Ireland last year, and now operates more than 85 locations.
Wingstop is opening in Manchester Arndale
Wingstop will be moving into the 5,928 sq ft unit upstairs in Manchester Arndale, just opposite Next.
Scott Linard, Portfolio Manager for M&G Real Estate, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Wingstop to our vibrant F&B offer; an addition we’re sure will resonate with our younger visitors.
“With the additions of popular restaurant chains like Wingstop, coupled with the arrival of new retailers such as Arc’teryx, Alo Yoga, Pro:Direct and Sephora, we are strategically creating a destination where people across the North West and beyond want to spend their time.”
Steve Gray, Head of European Retail Asset Management at Global Mutual, said: “Wingstop will join Manchester Arndale’s varied F&B mix, including Popeyes, Sides, Hotel Chocolat, Joe & The Juice and Café Nero.
“In-demand operators like this help create energy and momentum that allows the brands across the scheme to thrive, driving increased footfall, longer dwell times and a more compelling offer for visitors.”
The best cheese tasting party in the North is BACK at a new Manchester venue
Danny Jones
That’s right, one of the biggest and best cheese tasting nights in the entire land is returning to Greater Manchester at a brand new city centre venue.
Not to be over-the-top, but this isn’t just another experience sampling possibly the greatest foodstuff on Earth, it’s a fully-fledged cheese-lovers’ party.
Some of you may have come across Homage2Fromage before, but for anyone unaware of the Yorkshire-born event, it started out as a monthly cheese tasting club and went on to expand across the dairy-adoring North at large.
Relaunching here in Manchester for 2026, all you lactose-intolerant people better watch, because Home2Fromage is coming back with a vengeance and heading to the Northern Quarter. Here’s how it went down the last time we visited one in Leeds:
Leeds, Sheffield, Harrogate, Manchester and who knows where else next.
Posting up in a relatively recent addition to NQ‘s bar and restaurant scene, The Faraday – a pub on Lever St that replaces the old Seven Sins back in October – it looks set to be an ideal venue for the regular evening series.
Homage2Fromage will be making its Manc return this month, and better still, they’re holding a cheeky little giveaway to sweeten the pot.
As in the deal, we mean – not the inevitable bowls full of olives, chutney, oil and various other dips…
To welcome this celebration of all things cheese coming back to Manchester city centre, they’re giving away a bunch of free tickets: 20 pairs in total.
Worth over £50 a piece for each twin set of tickets, you’d be a fool not to at least throw your hat in the ring for this one.
As you can see, the competition closes this Thursday, 19 February, ahead of the full relaunch party next week (Wed, 25 Feb), and all you have to do to enter is fill out this super quick survey.
It really is as simple as that; a few quick words are all that stand between you and a potential mountain of cheese and more.
You can find all you need to know about the event right HERE, and in case you haven’t popped into The Faraday just yet, see more down below.
It’s still somewhat early days, but we can see ourselves spending a fair bit of time in this up-and-coming Manchester watering hole, especially when there’s cheese nights involved.
Georgina Pellant -
29th September 2023 
