KAJI Restaurant and Bar Manchester
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
High-end Japanese restaurant KAJI is one element of the Musu Collection, based on Manchester’s Bridge Street. Formerly a tasting menu-only destination – one of the city’s best, no less – now it’s been divvied up into KAJI, Miyabi and Omakase. The latter two are set to launch in early 2025 – more on those later.
Tonight, we’re diving into KAJI’s fire-based dining concept, based around themes like ignite, flame, ember and ash. This new set-up allows diners to choose their preferred dishes, rather than being limited to a tasting menu and offers everything from sushi and snacks to seafood plates and sharing platters.
This means it’s possible to pop in and try a couple of favoured dishes before heading out to the theatre, or bring a group out and drink and dine until the clock hits 12. It’s the right move for a venue that has built a reputation for sky-high quality – not only in the dishes and the quality of the ingredients but how it looks and feels.
If you haven’t been, KAJI is arguably the city’s best-looking drinking and dining space, with an ambience to match. The look is Tokyo-meets-Bladerunner but the vibe is Rover’s Return, courtesy of the friendliest and most likeable staff this side of Granada Studios (many of whom we recognise from previous visits, which suggests it’s a jolly nice place to work, too).
As for the food, it’s that hard-to-master combination of traditional Japanese cooking merged with dazzling modern ideas, executed beautifully. The sashimi platter arrives dramatically on an all-glass pedestal, swirling with dry ice – as well it should, it’s probably the best and freshest sushi in Manchester.
The KAJI fried Carlingford oysters are astonishingly good – teaming oyster mayo, bonito hot sauce, zingy lime and dots of caviar with Ireland’s finest molluscs.
KAJI’s crispy chilli buns are as good as bread gets. They’re fluffy and irresistibly squishy, while the subtle addition of jalapeño pickles to the butter set my tastebuds working overtime.
But they’re just a couple of the superb dishes at KAJI. Tonight’s sample menu is a compilation of the UK’s most imaginative food, utilising the highest quality ingredients to be found in the British Isles. Case in point, the two-inch thick scallop, harvested in Orkney, then baked in its shell with a sweet and creamy sea urchin butter.
To misquote Saint Michael, the Herdwick lamb rack isn’t just any old rack, this is lamb aged in Koji rice. Why? To add flavour and make this famously tender meat even more so. It’s served with a light-but-tangy tomato-based ponzu sauce, plus a couple of potatoes that have been well-cooked in the embers of the grill, practically bursting with charcoal aromas.
To finish, a mood-perfect smoked chocolate mousse, topped with a passionfruit sorbet, and a BBQ Pedro Ximenez-soaked pineapple by its side.
And that’s the beauty of KAJI. Every dish is an adventure that stays firmly on the side of delicious. This isn’t simply having a meal, this is first-rate event dining, primed to be one of the very best food destinations in Manchester.
