Well, this Friday I managed to take half a day off work and instead of wallowing around the house, or driving people mad via Twitter; for a change, I decided to make my day a productive one and went to the new Samsi in Spinningfields. It’s part of a chain that has developed in the north of England, and, having never been before, I was more than a little surprised..

Thinking it would be nothing more than a rip-off of the now, well-established Yo! chain found predominantly in the basements of any good Selfridges, I was extremely impressed and elated to find that it was nothing like it, and, if I’m honest, perhaps even better.

Having been a Yo! for a short period of time prior to Samsi opening, you can see the influence in sushi conveyor and other bits and pieces around the restaurant. The similarity ends there though as the menu hosts a whole multitude of different Japanese dishes, none of which are available from Yo!

For just £6 at lunchtime, you can get miso soup to start and chicken bento, or six sushi plates, among a whole host of other fantastic offers.

We wanted to get the full flavour of the restaurant though, so we opted for full-whack food and we certainly were not disappointed. Seafood ramen and beef bento were our choices, with a side of chicken gyoza dumplings, the best dumplings I’ve ever tasted in Manchester. The ramen was full of huge chunks of tuna, succulent prawns and a whole host of lovely, rich broth, while the bento had five or six compartments of various veg, lovely sticky rice, and gorgeous beef fillet.

I suppose the only thing that could have let the place down was the slow-ish service. It was lunchtime and they only had one waiter on, so once the tables started to fill up, things started to slow down.

All in all though, a great new edition to the less than many Japanese eateries in Manchester; a well-deserved 9/10.