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Slightly over a few weeks into 2020, you’re probably more than slightly over receiving the same endless special offers in your inbox, via Facebook, on Insta, Twitter, and even word of mouth from your eager mates.  

Anyway, we were invited down to one of our favourite venues in the city; Cottonopolis, to sample their January offer.  ‘Japanese small plates’ is the theme here, and Cottonopolis have a great deal on for you.  5 small plates for just £18, which is a steal even in the current climate of post-Christmas/pre-payday price drops.

The 5 dish menu features both omnivorous and also vegetarian options, so we opted for one of each, to give you the full run down on things.

Thai style prawn crackers got us started, with spicy notes and that well-loved crunch that you get from this Eastern classic. 

Crispy Gyoza Skins were the vegetarian option, and were definitely our favourite of the 2 choices.  Crispy and light, like mini poppadoms, are a novel spin on the prawn variety.

We also ordered a pint of perfectly chilled draught Asahi beer, and a cocktail titled ‘Gin, Pineapple and Spice’ (£8), featuring Cottonopolis’ own gin, robata grilled pineapple for some well rounded sweetness, finished with toasted tiki spice.  It would proudly have graced any bar in the city.

Round two on the food, the meat based version, or fish in this case, was salmon maki roll; everybody’s favourite form of sushi.  Well cooked rice in nori, shrouding salmon and veg for texture, with a generous helping of pickled ginger and wasabi on the side. 

The veggie course was again our winner.  Crispy slivers of asparagus with a lovely citrus laden yuzu mignonette, was a fresh and vibrant way to start the proper dishes.

Pork Yakiton, aka grilled pork skewer, was simple as it should be, yet effective. Flame grilled pork with pickled walnut mayo and some vibrancy from the spring onions. It’s funny how things on a skewer usually taste good! 

Robatayaki Cauli was the alternative.  Perfectly cooked cauli, done robata style over charcoal for those charred smoky depths of flavour, seasoned with furikaki, preserved lemon and an umami hit from some crispy seaweed.  A good dish, but the pork won us over in this round.

To follow it was everybody’s favourite Japanese dish in this part of the world.  Tokyo Fried Chicken, or Chicken Katsu Curry, was a winner.  Lovely chicken, cooked to juiciness, with that legendary sauce, pickled cucumber to balance the richness, and then some spring onion for a light touch.  Up there with the best katsu in town!! As you can see from the picture; we may have been in a rush to dig into this one!

The vegetarian option this time round was Mushroom Noodle Salad; a crescendo of quality mushrooms, lovely al dente noodles, and  bags of classic far eastern flavours.  Aromas of sesame hit you as soon as the plate landed. However, the meaty option was hard to top, much as the mushrooms came a close second.

To finish, both options featured a generously portioned rice bowl, one with some lovely well-BBQ’ed pork belly, and the other with a soft, almost liquid textured salt and pepper tofu.  Both dishes were based around some splendid steamed rice and quality forest mushrooms.  We called this one a dead heat.