Finally, I am back with a food post!! Maybe you are familiar with the many foods offers that you can find in Manchester during January, and if you are not familiar, do not worry, it is easy, pretty much all the restaurants offer up to 50% off food, some of them include the discount on the drinks and the majority not. I have been living in Manchester now for 3 years and these January offers are becoming more popular each year. There are other restaurants that have started to offer something different for their customers, and this is the case for Cottonopolis.
Cottonopolis offer a set menu of 5 dishes for just £18, yes just £18, and if you think this is cheap, back in the summer I had the opportunity to try the set summer menu for just £15 which was even better! The menu includes two choices per course and in each, there is a vegetarian option.
The options for this January menu were:
SNACK
PRAWN CRACKER OR GYOZA SKINS
SUSHI
SEABASS MAKI OR RED PEPPER MAKI
SOUP
POR AND KIMCHI OR WAKAME MISO
TEMPURA
CRAB TEMPURA OR MUSHROOM TEMPURA
DONBURI
BEEF AND MUSHROOM OR TOFU & BROCCOLI
Luckily, this evening was with the Official Brunch Club Squad! If you do not know us, we enjoy sitting in a table full of food discovering new places and great places to eat and all tell our followers about them, Liam and I shared our menu so we could try both of the options.
SNACK
Prawn crackers are something that we are used to eating more often, however, this was my first time eating gyoza skins. The gyoza wrappers are easy to make and I think this was a great presentation for them, just fried and presented like the prawn crackers. Both dishes came with a sweet chilli sauce which pairs really well with them.
SUSHI
We are massive fans of sushi and love all the variations sushi offers, those ones personally were very excited for me. The texture was perfect, but comparing with the other courses, the sushi was not as flavorsome aas the others. If I had to pick one, the Seabass sushi was my favourite as it has a better combination of flavour and texture.
SOUP
After the first spoon, I knew this was my favourite of the two, the wakame miso soup for me was much better than the pork and kimchi. I found the pork one really spicy and difficult to eat both had fantastic tastes and Liam loved the pork one more. The wakame miso soup was tasty and rich in flavor, I really enjoyed the vegetable and the taste of the Wakame miso soup.
TEMPURA
For this course, both dishes were really nice. I have had mushroom tempura before and these ones had a great texture, they weren’t soggy or watery, just right and perfect. The crab tempura was good, I am not a big fan of crab tempura as usually tastes very fishy, but the taste of this one was not mega strong and had a really great crunch.
DONBURI
At this part of the dinner, I was really full, the last course was the jewel in the crown. I love donburi and I really enjoyed both dishes. The beef was very soft and with the different herbs and rice, the mix was an explosion of flavours. From the broccoli and tofu, I like the mix of texture, the softness of the tofu and the crunchy bites from the broccoli, however, the sauce on this one was a bit spicy for me so I had to take it apart at some point as my mouth was on fire.
And of course, I had to order a dessert because as you know, it is not a proper dinner if you do not have a dessert. Salted caramel and peanut arctic roll:
This was my experience during January at Cottonopolis. It seems like a big dinner, but they are like Chinese dishes style. Let me know if you have tried Cottonopolis and what do you recommend me to try in my next visit to this restaurant.