Thanks to Yelp, I got to finally taste the best authentic sushi in Manchester at Umezushi! I've heard many good things about it and one of these was that it's listed in the Michelin guide! It's not 5 minutes out from the hustle bustle of Exchange Square but it's pretty isolated, tucked under the arches on Mirabel Street. I was slightly surprised that the place was already quite busy and still waiting for reservations to arrive! Luckily they found us space at the sushi bar, which I've decided are the best seats in the house! It's like the sushi chef is making sushi just for you! We got the Shikkoku black lager (actually lager,didn't taste like a porter or stout despite its looks) and a green tea for drinks. To start we had miso soup and then we were each served the prettiest bowl of sashimi of Argentinian rock shrimp, Hamachi (Japanese amberjack) and lightly pickled mackerel - the Hamachi was meaty and melty, the prawn was firm and sweet! We were then served 8 nigiri each in two sets. They were salmon topped with wasabi tobiko, Toro (tuna belly) topped with yuzu tobiko, scallop topped with regular tobiko seared Toro (topped with plum I think?), octopus, Wagyu steak, grilled eel (which I later learnt at a Yelp event that it's completely home made), and sea urchin. All were amazingly prepared to a high standard of presentation. The fish were fresh and sweet! (Still not a big fan of sea urchin though!) The picked cucumber and freshly pickled ginger that the sushi was served with were great to cleanse the palate with between sushis. Our 'stew' course was a consommé made with fresh abalone which had been slowly cooked so that it wasn't too chewy. This was sooooo nice! The soup looked clear but it was packed with flavour! The abalone pieces were meaty and had a good texture. Following this we had a 'grill' course of a small piece of Wagyu fillet steak that had been cooked over charcoal for added flavour. The steak was cut up into little pieces like melt in the mouth meat chocolate! Mmm. Try that from the specials menu if you don't take the tasting menu! To end with, we got melt in the middle chocolate pud and vanilla ice cream. It was made very well but I was expecting a more Japanese style pudding (with green tea/red bean/black sesame). Still, the night felt really special because of the quiet surroundings, immaculate presentation, polished service and really good quality ingredients! Five well-deserved stars! I'll definitely be coming here again! read more