Samsi — Restaurant in Manchester

Firm favourite for the last 18 years. Still, I think the best sushi and sashimi in Manchester.

Edit February 2022

A bit sad to say, that after many many years of Samsi being one of one of our favourite restaurants, tonight was a big disappointment.

Ordering on a website, no menus, and closing out the bill ahead of knowing if we'd want to order more was strange, but ok, the world is a different place now.

Ordered a couple of courses of food and then every single thing we ordered arriving at once to the extent it wouldn't all fit on the table made us feel rushed, and as it turned out, we were in and out inside an hour, where we've never been rushed through before much less we've been jovially told to take our time and enjoy ourselves historically.

Portion size and quality is all over the place, with maybe 75ml/a 5th of a bowl of miso sans same and tofu for £3.25 (£3.60 with service charge), supermarket selection sized sushi rolls, and full inch thick squid tempura rings with not tempura batter, with squishy grilled eel and such a small amounts of accompanying sauces so as to make them pointless, making what was once an excellent Japanese food restaurant merely OK at best.

To top it all off, given there's precious little table service with the website ordering platform and zero attention to timing, courses and space, to be charged nearly £15 in service/processing charge felt very rich.

Sadly, overall the place is a gaunt shadow of what it once was, and ultimately a massive letdown. We still have the memories of the last 20+ years of visits, but I don't think we'll make any more here....

Had dinner in Samsi, quite disappointing. A middle age Waitress was not friendly, when we first arrived I I would say she was actually a bit grumpy. She took us to the table, which she just pointed to where we sit , I wasn’t really sure which table she was really refer to! The area we sat was actually decorated as if the traditional Japanese seating (on the floor) and it’s not actually sitting on the floor but it’s a bench and you had to squashed in and it is quite difficult and uncomfortable, and the middle age waitress was then just left us unattended, when she came back she was like rushing to take our order! There was an English family sitting right opposite us, I could see this middle age waitress (possibly Japanese or some Asian origin) was actually more friendly to them than to us. We ordered coke and some tap water, I was expected to have a jug of tap water like the English family opposite us and she just gave us one glass of water (and I had said clearly some tap water but not a glass of tap water) , the coke that the other table had was in a bottle while the coke that we had was in a glass in which is less frizzy as you could imaged, I just wonder why the same drink that we ordered would turn out different from the other customers?? About the food I can taste the rice wasn’t actually Japanese rice which is more soft and sticky, it’s more like Chinese rice which is harder (but it is Japanese food and a Japanese restaurant!) The Gyudon is also too salty with too much soy sauce at the bottom. Food is a bit pricey provided...

My first review in a while and I am so excited to be writing about my experience at Samsi Manchester.

My friend and I came here for our girls weekend brunch and it was better than our expectations too!!

Alright so we had one of the 10 piece platters- Sushi, Sashimi, Norimaki 🍣 to start with alongside a warmed bottle of sake 🍶 ☺️to share of course! We could taste the freshness of the sushi and cravings were happily satisfied.

From the main menu we decided to go down the path of Donburi! As we had both been craving this particular dish for the longest time. Choosing the Katsudon and Unadon which tasted 10/10… alongside stir fryed udon( s/o to the chef for making this variation for us ❤️) just amazing also came with miso soup which we had after the meal.

Of course!!Dessert, cheesecake(New York cheesecake on the menu)at a Japanese restaurant umm? Yes please!!! Also 10/10

Overall, beautiful interior- it really takes you to another world intimately and having the chance to enjoy authentic Japanese in all its entity. One of my best food memories for sure.

Be sure to check them out, perfect settings for date nights, weekend brunch!They also offer large bookings for celebrations as well!!

I 100% recommend Samsi, and will definitely be back to try the other items on the menu. The customer service was also 10/10 which is really important!

Also if you live around the area, you can place an order for your slice of authentic Japanese and have it delivered too!! Convenient, perfect for homeboys and...