The arrival of Sexy Fish in Manchester must be the most talked-about and eagerly-anticipated launches of the entire year.
This ultra-glamorous restaurant has become a staple with the rich and famous down in London since it opened seven years ago.
And now the high-end Asian restaurant has expanded its reach to Manchester, transforming the former Armani shop at Spinningfields into a glitzy, spacious dining space.
Huge, glittering sea creatures – crafted by none other than Damien Hirst himself – creep out from the walls.
There’s an enormous octopus above one side of the dining room while a gang of swordfish burst out on the other end.
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As you enter the cavernous room you’re welcomed by a life-size blue mermaid, with her smaller sister smiling out from the bar.
A fish tank filled with real fish covers the entire wall of the private dining room.
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Upstairs in the toilets, you’re welcomed by a glowing pink floor and a mermaid mosaic, plus star fish taps and shell sconces.
A Damien Hirst octopus installationThe Sexy Fish Manchester toiletsSexy Fish Manchester has taken over the Armani siteThe fish tank in the private dining room
Even the plates are shaped like fish, from a shell-like bowl propping up lobster tempura to a fish jug spewing a cloud of dry ice.
Basically, there are a lot of sexy fish in here.
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Sexy Fish’s light-up pink bar is backdropped by a waterfall and waiters whizz around in sea life-patterned waistcoats and blazers.
It’s a fittingly opulent setting for this high-end new opening in Manchester.
Lobster tempura at Sexy Fish ManchesterDuck and watermelon salad and yellowtail sashimiCaramelised black codPremium sashimi at Sexy Fish Manchester
On its Omakase set menu offering, the premium menu comes in at a cool £162 per person.
For that, you get dishes including oysters with smoked chilli, crispy duck and watermelon salad, bone marrow and king crab, premium sashimi, and caramelised black cod.
Sexy Fish Manchester opens to the public today, Thursday 12 October.
One of Manchester’s grandest restaurants has finally reopened TWO YEARS after fire
Daisy Jackson
One of the most historic restaurants in Manchester has reopened at last, two years after a fire forced its closure.
Mount Street Dining Room & Bar – which many of us may remember as Mr Cooper’s – stands within the Grade II-listed Midland Hotel.
The grand dining room dates all the way back to 1903, when it opened with the hotel as the Grill Room.
The restaurant was at the epicentre of the Industrial Revolution and was frequented by railway travellers, perhaps best-known for hosting a lunch between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904, who went on to form the world-famous Rolls-Royce brand.
The Midland’s restaurants has gone through several changes in the decades since, undergoing a major £14 million refurb in 2020 to relaunch as Mount Street Dining Room & Bar.
Its interiors are inspired by the hotel’s early 1900s art deco and railway heritage, with a menu that focuses on locally-sourced British produce.
But the restaurant has been shut since early 2024, when a fire damaged the entrance and trellising around its main entrance on Mount Street.
The beautiful bar areaA glimpse of the menu at Mount StreetCocktails and British food
The Midland has finally managed to get the restaurant back open again this month, with a new food and cocktail menus, which aims to offer refined but simple British dining.
Expect dishes like pork and black pudding bonbons, white onion soup with crispy potatoes, smoked British salmon with lemon gel and dill mascarpone, and slow cooked beef daube with confit garlic mash.
Plus desserts such as rice pudding with Anise glazed pearsand Bakewell pudding with cherry syrup.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen inside this beautiful, storied dining room – and it looks just as beautiful as we remember.
Daisy Jackson -
12th October 2023 
