Have you tried Teppanyaki yet? Had chefs cook before your very eyes? See your dinner cooked fresh on your table? With a few knife tricks thrown in? In all honesty, I hadn’t until I visited Sapporo Teppanyaki, Manchester*, the other week. Before I popped along, I wasn’t sure what to expect – I felt late to the party as SO many of my friends had already been. When I asked them about it, all they would say was that it was AMAZING and they didn’t want to give anything away. Well then, I thought, better find out for myself…

I arrived at Sapporo Tappanyaki, Manchester* (one of their three restaurants across the UK) at 8pm on a Thursday evening. Thursday is the new Friday, dontcha know, and Sapporo was certainly reflective of that – it was pretty busy. I was greeted by the absolutely lovely and so-very-welcoming Area Manager, who invited myself and my guest to try a cocktail or two at the bar before taking our seats. We each chose one of Sapporo’s own cocktail creations – we don’t like to take the easy route! – and went for a Cham’berry champagne cocktail with strawberries and a Sapporo Delight, referred to as ‘dessert in a glass’. And that it was, delicious!

Before long, it was time to take our seat and enter the main restaurant. The restaurant itself was clean, minimalist but busy! Surely a good indication of what was to come. There were several tables, each with their own booking station and two chefs, and it became clear that most of these were booked by large parties. In fact, I think our table was the only one made up of smaller groups of two, three and four put together. I am usually pretty antisocial and don’t like sharing my table with strangers (Friends reference alert: Joey doesn’t share food!) but in this setting it just kinda felt normal.

The menu at Sapporo is pretty extensive, to say the least. It comes on a little clipboard (cute) and has many pages of different set menus, starters, mains, sides and desserts. In all honesty it was kinda overwhelming for someone who had never visited before, but the fantastic staff offered to guide us through and helped us pick our mains and starters. For starters, my guest and I ordered our favourite Vegetarian Spring Rolls (5.25) and Vegetable Tempura £6.75). The starters were served to us at our table, before our chefs arrived; this is the only part that was slightly weird for me, but I do understand that the chefs can’t cook EVERYTHING in front of you, it just wouldn’t work. The starters were a generous size, especially the Vegetable Tempura which is definitely a sharable size and SO yummy. I would definitely order this again.

After our starters were cleared, it was the time we had all been waiting for – chef time! Clearly everyone else on the table had also been waiting for this time too; it kinda felt like the chefs were celebs, and they definitely put on a show! They started off by performing a few tricks with knives, utensils and then showed off some pretty eggscellent egg skills. I won’t give it away, but there are a lot of eggstraordinary tricks that can be done with an egg or two. After this, they started cooking up egg fried rice and sautee potatoes for the whole table, and served out to each of us accordingly. I liked that everyone automatically got the same sides – I can see how good of a decision this might be for large groups who faff around all ordering differently; it just makes things quick, simple and painless.

Before we got started on our mains, the chefs broke the ice by immediately going into some potato tricks. Essentially, they flipped a piece of potato at each member of the table, encouraging us to catch them in our mouths. Everyone else on the table must have knew to expect this, as they acceptingly and willingly caught potatoes one-by-one much to the delight and cheers of the rest of the table. However my plus 1 and I were a little more shocked and disappointingly couldn’t catch one even after three flips of a potato. Oh, the pressure!

Then, time for the main meals! One chef cooked meat on his frying table, and the other cooked fish and vegetables, which I appreciated as being very sanitary. There was a whole host of options on the Sapporo menu and so it was a tough choice, and certainly reflected by the various assortment of critters cooked right in front of us. I’m not going to lie, I am pretty squeamish so had to mentally blank out a lobster being ripped apart and it’s whole carcass frying away in front of me – although the couple next to me who had ordered it were clearly very proud of it and took many photos of their dinner friend cooking away!

The main meal portion sizes were very generous, in fact they were pretty huge and a lot bigger than I expected and our waitress agreed that a lot of people tell them that, which can only be a good thing! Our waiters were all very friendly and gave excellent service, filling our glasses with our New Zealand white wine whenever they ran dry and asking if we needed anything else. Throughout the meal, the chefs were keen to interact with us and my guest and I were lapping it up, we loved it! Everything was so delicious, and my guest who ordered Lamb Fillet also said their main course was delicious and tender.

Halfway through the meal, we were treated to another little trick by the chefs – FIRE! They warned us to sit back whilst they set aflame the cooking stations they were on. Honestly, the pictures don’t really do it justice – the flames were HUGE and so very hot. You would assume that fire would be hot, but honestly, these were HOT! It was definitely a spectacle…

After the main course, pretty much everyone else on the table paid their bills and departed, but we were tempted into trying a dessert. We didn’t even have to look at the menu, our fantastic waitress recommended we try their top two specialities; Banana Tempura (£6.50) and Chocolate Spring Rolls (£6.75). These were fanastic choices! The presentation was incredible, so colourful, and both desserts were absolutely delicious. I especially loved how these were sweet takes on classic Tappanyaki style main courses. I mean, have you ever heard of chocolate spring rolls before? If you’ve not tried them, you’ve not lived!

Over all, I had an absolutely wonderful time at Sapporo Teppanyaki in Manchester. The service was friendly and attentive, the atmosphere was lively (best for parties or group celebrations, I feel) and the food was delicious in generous portions. Price wise, I definitely think it’s reasonable, and as well as your dinner you’re paying for entertainment and experience. I had a great time and I can’t wait to go back – I am already contemplating the next special occasion I can take to Sapporo Teppanyaki Manchester for our celebration…