A few weeks ago I wrote about how Sushimania had opened in Nottingham. I ordered a takeaway one lunch time to try it out. Read about it HERE. One of the main reasons Sushimania has been so popular in Nottingham is that it offers an ‘all you can eat’ sushi experience for £16.80! It sounds like a bargain but I thought I best head down to check it out before posting it all on my social media… research shall we say! You have 1 hour 45 minutes to eat as much as you can.

The menu is two sided, and you can choose 6 items from each side at a time. There are some supplements and restrictions on items, however this didn’t prove too much of an issue. So what did we order?

Miso Soup

After trying this in my takeaway experience and finding it somewhat lacking in flavour, I didn’t order this again. My friend Johnny did though. He agreed with me. It lacks flavour and depth and neither of us would order again. I would give this a miss.

Nigiri

Up first are our nigiri dishes. Nigiri is the name for a small rectangular block of rice, with something perched on top of it. This can be anything from omelette to fish. We ordered:

Salmon nigiri, raw salmon on top of rice. The salmon was absolutely delicious. It melted like butter in my mouth and barely needed any chewing. It was fantastic.

Tuna nigiri, thin slices of tuna on top of rice. I am not usually a fan of tuna but you could taste that this was incredibly fresh. Not my usual taste but very good nonetheless.

Sweet prawn nigiri, raw prawns with a surprisingly sweet taste. I would never normally eat raw prawn for obvious reasons but apparently this is the one prawn you should eat raw, as cooking it rids it of its sweet taste. Again not something I would usually choose but it was a very interesting experience, one I would have again.

Mushroom nigiri, shiitake mushroom. I thought this would be a little boring but it really surprised me. Earthy in flavour, it was fantastic dipped in a little soy sauce.

Katsu

Katsu is usually a form of meat, vegetable or fish, covered in a panko breadcrumb and deep fried. We ordered the prawn katsu that came with a sweet tonkatsu sauce. It tastes a little like BBQ sauce, being sticky and sweet. Definitely one to have again.

Tempura

We ordered the oyster tempura. Tempura batter I believe is made from cornflower and water, and is a light batter. This is used so that it doesn’t overpower the taste of whatever it is battering. In this instance, I wish it had masked the taste. Very fishy and definitely not to my taste, we ended up leaving this dish after one bite.

Sushi Rolls

We also ordered a variety of different sushi rolls. The crispy duck uramaki (inside out rolls, where the seaweed is inside the rice, rather than outside) was delicious with pieces of cucumber and hoisin sauce.

The California futomaki (a thick sushi roll containing multiple ingredients) has crab stick and cucumber in it (and something else I wasn’t entirely sure of). Everything tasted lovely and fresh!

Salmon skin uramaki was last up. Super crispy salmon skin (incredibly tasty and very fishy) complimented the subtle taste of the cucumber. Again a real winner!

Warm Dishes

We ordered a couple of hot dishes from the menu. First up was Gyu Kushiyaki, beef grilled skewers, sprinkled with sesame seeds. This was a little more chewy than I would have liked but the accompanying sauce was lovely.

We also ordered one of my favourite dishes, salmon teriyaki. This was delicious. The sweet teriyaki sauce was lovely and sweet and the salmon was perfectly cooked. A real winner for me.

Usually I don’t really like gyoza, finding them chewy and slimy. Gyoza are little Japanese dumplings that have been stuffed with meat and vegetables. These chicken gyoza were better than most I have had, with lots of filling and a crispy outer shell.

Temaki

Temaki is another of my favourite dishes. Temaki is a hand roll, a cone of seaweed stuffed with rice and your choice of filling. I guess its like a Japanese version of a sandwich? It is definitely easier to eat on the go than sushi, that’s for sure. I had a salmon and avocado hand roll which was beautiful. The salmon was fantastic and the avocado perfectly ripe, and there was plenty of rice.

My favourite dish – Sashimi

Sashimi for me is the best Japanese dish you can get. A Japanese delicacy of very thinly sliced, very fresh, raw fish. We chose salmon, my favourite. It was so good we reached the maximum amount of portions we could eat between us, four. There is a restriction on this, I guess purely because it is so popular and expensive to produce. The salmon was as described above, buttery in taste and incredibly fresh.

Overall

I am surprised at the level of quality at Sushimania, given the very low price point. At £16.80 it gives you a chance to have your favourite dishes, along with trying something you wouldn’t usually go for. The waitress serving us was a little short and sharp when we asked how we should order, however it was pretty busy so many she didn’t want to waste time explaining it to people. The tables on either side of us were also struggling to understand how much they could order at once, so maybe a little time and care while initially explaining it to people would be a good idea. The only thing I was a little sad about was the fact that their pumpkin croquettes aren’t on the all you can eat menu. It is one of my favourites so would love to see it appear! Other than that, fantastic value and brilliant food. You can’t go wrong with Sushimania!

Sushimania is located at 6A Chapel Bar Chapel Quarter Nottingham NG1 6JS.

You can find Sushimania on TWITTER and their WEBSITE and also check out the all you can eat menu HERE