New Samsi

A mixed result, was my last trip to New Samsi. We've been there 5 or 6 times, and while it IS the best of the Manchester Japanese places, it's far from perfect.

The food is pretty good....not great, mind, but pretty good. The service is, to me, a problem.

Last night we had their ultimate "feast", the "Sumo" banquet.

1) Miso soup. Not much to say, Miso soup is pretty much the same everywhere.

2) Tempura. One prawn each, and a couple of bits of veg. The tempura at Samsi falls well short of the ideal....which would be dead light and crunchy, with little "fingers" of batter coming off the main bit....as I've had it in the very best Japanese places. Here it's simply adequate......maybe a bit better than average, but nothing special. The dipping sauce was watery and VERY low on flavour.

3) Skewers of chicken. Fine. Basically terryaki sauce poured on chicken cubes. Again......pretty good but nothing special.

4) Fried chicken. Small bits of.....fried chicken. Nothing particularly Japanese about these....just bits of deep fried chicken meat. Not a patch on KFC (no joke), but perfectly edible.

5) Prawn and steak. The prawns came in a garlic /butter/oil sauce that tasted EXACTLY like scampi you'd get in an Italian restaurant. A bit over-cooked, but again, not bad. Not Japanese food by ANYBODY'S definition, but if you like Italian scampi in garlic sauce, these are fine. The steak was virtually tasteless. No flavour at all.

6) Salmon terryaki. Pretty good. Again, the same sauce as on the earlier chicken skewers. A perfectly good dish. Not the best version I've had, but fine.

7) Desert was, as is almost always the case in Oriental places, laughable, so I won't bore you with the details.

What I find off-putting about this place is the service. They seem willing enough, but have NO apparent sense that people are out for a good time, not just to cram food down their gobs and get out.

LONG before we'd come close to finishing one dish, the next one would be dumped on the table without a word being spoken. It's as if they care NOTHING about the pace of the meal that the customer is setting; you will eat at the pace that THEY dictate. A good restaurant keeps subtle track of how each table is progressing and times the following courses to arrive AFTER the earlier courses are done. Here it's just amateur hour......cook it fast, dump it on the table, and goodbye. Considering we spend £75 for two, decent service would not have been too much to ask.

To be honest, if I want Japanese in Manchester I'd have to go back to Samsi, as the alternatives are virtually nonexistent.....Wagamama is pretty bad, Tampopo has a bit of Japanese on their menu, but falls well short of the mark. Ithaca............well, I really don't want to pay £25 for a small piece of fish.

My suggestion would be to NOT have Japanese, and instead take advantage of one of Manchester's true treasures. Try Koreana, a Korean restaurant just off of Deansgate. Korean is fairly similar to some Japanese dishes and is, if anything a fair bit better. And the food at Koreana blows Samsi off the map....it's truly amazing. 'Just one man's opinion.
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Adam Roberts
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Sunday, May 03, 2009

Fantastic.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, December 13, 2008

I am happy to add my recommendation to this place. Very solid food. Not spectacular, perhaps, but very good. We eat here on a regular basis, and the place deserves to be supported!
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Adam Roberts - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

what a night everything was perfection and the staff are japanese, the food is japanese i recommend this restaurant 100%. I thought i was in Japan again and you can buy food downstairs in the deli, and we will be returning.
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Luca Lyons
Saturday, July 28, 2007

what a night everything was perfection and the staff are japanese, the food is japanese i recommend this restaurant 100%. I thought i was in Japan again and you can buy food downstairs in the deli, and we will be returning.
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Luca Lyons
Saturday, July 28, 2007

this restaurant is an excellent japanese eatery. The service is good, and the general feel of the place, but the food is the best thing by a mile. It is always fresh and very tasty. Have been about 4/5 times and each time the standards have been really high. Good value for what you get.
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peter stephens
Friday, January 05, 2007