Sapporo Teppanyaki Manchester

Last week I had some of the best sushi I’ve eaten in a long time…and it wasn’t in a sushi restaurant, oh no…it was at Sapporo Teppanyaki in Manchester.

Yes, Sapporo Teppanyaki is Japanese food, but it’s not necessarily somewhere you’d think of going for just sushi, is it? Well it wasn’t for me anyway.

So me and hubby had a rare mid-week lunch date, sans baby and boy did we make the most of it! We ate sushi till our hearts’ content. 

First things first, Sapporo Teppanyaki Manchester is huge! I mean it’s seriously vast and impressive when you walk in. You can tell on a Friday and Saturday night, the place would be buzzing. But mid week at lunch time, it was very quiet and it’s a shame, as it’s in a perfect central location and does some damn good sushi. We didn’t mind though, as it meant we had the whole place (and the wonderful General Manager) to ourselves.

Scouring the menu, we wanted everything. There had to be some ngiri going on and some sushi rolls. Then we were advised to go for the sushi selection platter and told that we couldn’t not have the Dragon Rolls. Oh I’m so happy we were told to order the Dragon Rolls… by far my favourite of the bunch. And because it was a rare treat to be out at lunch, we also had to order some noodles to share and opted for the beef yakisoba noodles (we did not need these, as the sushi was surprisingly filling!).

Orders in, we sipped our delicious mocktails (it was midweek after all and we did have to go back to work) and talked about the busy weeks we had ahead of us.

Then the food started to arrive. We’d asked for it to come to the table whenever it was ready, so it was a sort of tapas of sushi affair…my favourite way to eat.

Tuna ngiri, trout ngiri and SOFT SHELL CRAB ngiri. I’m shouting this at you because you don’t see SOFT SHELL CRAB on many menus and when you do, you know it’s going to be good. And it was soooooo good. We devoured one each and then silently wished we’d ordered two lots.

We had tanuki sushi, which is a vegetarian tofu basket filled with stir-fried wild rice and veg. Sweet and savoury all in one bite. My hubby wasn’t keen, but I really enjoyed them…they’re sort of like a japanese sushi burrito. What’s not to like?

Then the sushi rolls and selection platter turned-up, featuring the dragon roll. Now the dragon roll combines grilled eel, ebi tempura, cream cheese and avocado, all wrapped up in a rice sushi parcel of delight. Mild but flavoursome, I could have easily eaten six of these to myself (and will do next time).

Above – the famous dragon roll…about to be devoured. 

We happily chomped our way through the sushi that Sapporo Teppanyaki was serving up…freshly rolled and were getting fairly full. Then, the dish we’d forgotten we’d ordered (oops) turned up…

By this point, we were just being greedy, so we had a few forkfuls and asked for the rest to be boxed-up so we could take it home for dinner. The noodles are good, but not a patch on the sushi which was such a revelation.

We didn’t even make a dent on the sushi menu at Sapporo Teppanyaki…there is the whole world of sashimi (raw fish slices) that we didn’t venture into, but certainly will do next time. But I would say that the selection platters are a great way to go if you’re not sure on what to order and want a good variety of sushi. You get a good serving and there’s always at least two of everything, which is perfect for sharing.

You can probably tell that I really enjoyed our lunch at Sapporo Teppanyaki Manchester and it’s got me in a sushi kind of mood. I don’t think it’ll be long before I’m back and working my way through the rest of the menu and revisiting those dragon rolls…mmmm.

So if you work in Manchester city centre or are heading there for lunch or dinner and if you like sushi or have never had it and want to try some done properly, then be sure to hit up Sapporo Teppanyaki. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. Don’t just think it’s there for the theatre of the teppanyaki grill, the restaurant is a great spot for a leisurely sushi lunch (and cocktails).

Do you like sushi? What’s your sushi of choice?

Check out some of my other Manchester restaurant reviews: Australasia, Jamie’s Italian and Bar San Juan.