Wasabi - Manchester

This place is awesome! I didn't expect to find a place that sold Mango Sago and other types of Chinese sweet dessert, or shaved ice in the middle of Manchester. Hell, it was hard to find a good mango sago place even in the U.S, where Chinese community is big. And I found it right here in the middle of Manchester Chinatown! I got the mango sago with mango, black pudding, and white rice balls. It was delicous, light, and exactly what I expected it to taste like. The dessert shop was pretty empty at lunch time. but the interior was nice and well-decorated. This dessert shop was hidden on the upper floor of the conveyor belt sushi restaurant Wasabi, and that made it even more of a hidden gem.

This restaurant seems to be very popular especially for the younger crowd, as there was a queue outside when we first passed by before we finally decided to give it a try about half an hour later. We were seated by the sushi conveyor belt near the entrance very quickly. My friend ordered a mixed sashimi for 1 person while I had the set C teishoku (set meal). The £18 mixed sashimi had salmon, tuna, tamago (never thought that would be considered a sashimi item), and surf clams. It didn't seem very impressive in terms of the selection of fish (and eggs). My £21 teishoku was better as it came with mixed tempura (although they didn't give me the sauce that should typically be served with tempura), udon in broth, miso soup, 6 nigiri sushi, 2 pieces of salmon and tuna sashimi each, daikon radish, grilled salmon belly (it should be grilled cod but they ran out so they substituted it with 2 pieces of salmon belly). The best item was the grilled salmon belly which was done perfectly well. I gave 4 stars because of that grilled salmon belly as everything else would probably be just average.

We went to Wasabi for the dessert room. We wanted yam ice cream and got it. The taro snow ice cream was fantastic. Frozen shaved ice cream with red bean and rice balls. Absolutely lovely and worth the detour.

I would say Wasabi serves its purpose! Ouch, a little harsh okay. It's good sushi, and they know what they're doing. It's perfect for a quick lunch between meetings, and they have good offers on (6 sushi dishes miso soup for £8.95) but a little on the pricey side. I think they'd get more people through the doors if they had cheaper lunchtime deals on, something for on the go commuters who just need to grab a bite. However, it's clean, staff are friendly and it's easy to park! So I wouldn't say I was disappointed, just a little... meh! I'm sure there's better sushi in Manchester, but it's good for a quick meal. I wouldn't take out-of-towners here.

Following a boozy day in Manchester we decided to pop to Wasabi in China Town for some quick sushi for dinner. For a Saturday evening it was rather busy, so we waited around 15 minutes for two seats at the belt. Once seated we opted for the set menus I ordered set menu B at £8.95 giving me 3 grey plates of sushi off the belt and 1 hot noodle or rice dish cooked from the kitchen. Neil C. ordered the Wasabi set menu at £17.95 with 10 grey plates off the belt and 1 hot noodle or rice dish. He didn't eat them all, don't worry, we split the 13 plates between us and it was plenty for the 2 of us as well as a main meal each. The service in here is great. Anything you don't see on the belt you can order fresh from the kitchen at no extra cost. For a quick lunch or dinner to satisfy a sushi crave, I would always recommend wasabi.