July 18, 2016

Dining in the Dome with Yo Sushi - One For Your Bucket List & Runs with Other Restaurants All This Week

July 18, 2016/ Claire Spence

Last night Smix & I had a very special once in a lifetime opportunity to eat our favourite food at the top of the world. Well, the top of Belfast at least.

Our friends Yo Sushi Belfast had taken over the dome in the Victoria Centre for two nights of deluxe dining with unreal views over the Northern Irish capital.

It was an intimate affair with less than 30 of us sat at little tables dotted around the viewing deck at the peak of the Victoria Centre.

You could see from Cave Hill to the City Hall, from the Odyssey to the Castlereagh Hills, it was a breath taking view, and without the usual bustle of guests up there with you like during a normal day.

The evening started with a ninja sushi school. We were guided by head chef Andrew through the history of Yo Sushi, the rolls and the rest, and those who wanted to roll their own had a chance to get hands on.

Yo Sushi Belfast run sushi classes regularly. It's something we've always wanted to do, but sadly the time we were booked to come along, Smix got sick! It's definitely on the cards though, as Smix says my home made sushi is 'disgusting' and won't eat it!

Pikachu from Build a Bear instore £21 but selling out quick- only available dressed online for £45!

Then it was time to eat. The first course was sashimi, which is raw meat & fish. It's my favourite part of any sushi experience.

The beef tataki (under the limes) is my favourite Yo Sushi dish of all time, and I always order at least two on every visit. It's lightly seared beef which just melts in your mouth.

I also had raw tuna & salmon, and Andrew kindly included cucumber maki rolls for Smix, as that's one of the two dishes he loves.

The second course was salmon nigiri for me, prawn nigiri for Smix. That's the rectangular blocks of sticky rice topped with fish. More cucumber maki for Smix, which pleased him no end, and for me two classic rolls. I loved the little ones with the hot sauce, my kind of sushi roll.

The heat started going out of the sun around 730pm and the shifting and changing of the sun was just magical to watch outside the dome.

Next was the hot food course. Now when I go to Yo Sushi I rarely order any hot food, despite their full and bountiful menu of it. So it was nice to try some other dishes. I do order salt chilli squid sometimes.

Above is okonomiyaki, a traditional Japanese street food. It's a pancake made from cabbage and spring onion, and it actually has quite a Northern Irish tatse to it, sort of like a potato cake.

Below are chicken gyoza dumplings with a soy dipping sauce.

For this course Andrew improvised on Smix's dishes and deep fried the seaweed wrapped cucumber maki!

The final hot dish was a sweet and sour style chicken and sticky rice. At this point I was struggling a bit as I was eating for two, which these dishes made to be shared within the couple at the table, where my partner had his own dishes being made for him. But I didn't let that stop me. Oh no!

Finally dessert! I love the Matcha green tea cake, and a sweet apple dumpling accompanied it, with chocolate and banana sticks as decoration. I also bought some chocolate mochi on my way home, ganache filled balls of joy that I can't resist on every visit.

I have to thank the staff of Yo Sushi Belfast tremendously. They gave Smix & I an experience we will always remember. It was so special.

The good news is if you want to do this yourself, the Dining in the Dome events run until the 23rd of July. It's not just Yo Sushi in on the act either. You've missed their evenings, but click here to browse the other centre's restaurants who are taking over the dome, and book a table with them. It's a tremendously romantic gesture, and something very special.

Handy hint, until 730pm the dome is very warm due to the glass, so wear something light, and bring cash for paying for drinks.

Let me know if you dine in the dome, on Twitter @rudedoodle, and if you want more photos and videos then add my username on snapchat 'rudedoodle'.

March 09, 2016

Taste The Streets of Tokyo- Unveiling Yo Sushi's 100 Piece New Menu

March 09, 2016/ Claire Spence

Our favourite restaurant has a brand new menu sampling the tastes of Tokyo. The 100 piece menu has new favourites to find, as well as hot and cold delights to investigate. The menu comes in the form of a zine, with underground arts of the city highlighted.

The menu launched throughout the UK yesterday, and we called to our Belfast store to try the new dishes.

Smix eats pickled ginger by the handful!

Here are some of the dishes they served for us.

Finally here is a round up of all the new items to browse for yourselves.

January 23, 2016

Sakura Sushi, Belfast - I Got It Wrong...

January 23, 2016/ Claire Spence

Back in August last summer I posted a blog touting The Battle of the Belfast Sushi Joints. Back then my favourites, Yo Sushi! Belfast came out on top, but I believe I was a little hasty writing Sakura in Botanic off as too authentically Japanese for me (not necessarily even a bad attribute!).

In August when I went along to order take out from Sakura, I was struck by the distinct lack of pictures of what everything was on the menu. Even as a sushi enthusiast I'm very much still a 'point at the picture of the sushi I want' customer, even dining at Yo! So I just asked Sakura to make me up some sort of takeaway and unfortunately that day they chose a huge platter of only nigiri (raw fish on blocks of rice). No rolls of any sort, or even maki.

Then, as a Yo Sushi! westernised sushi experience veteran, I was faced with a piece of nigiri that literally had octopus suckers on it. I concluded Sakura was too rich for my tastes.

So, Thursday past, Fashion Week launch, I'm up in Belfast anyway so I take advantage of being near somewhere that actually sells sushi (Bangor is a sushi desert) and with parking easier near Sakura, I decide to have another try.

Hooray! A giant sign outside with PICTURES of three different trays you can buy to takeaway. I immediately go inside and point to the sign with glee. I chose the medium tray on Thursday, but today I picked up one of each of the sizes to show you what you can get.

Small £4.80 Medium £8.50 Large £12.50

These rolls are especially good, they've crispy bits in them (technical foodie term).

So Sakura, forgive me, I was wrong and now I love you. The website gallery shows me many wonders I would love to try too. Maybe I should print out the pictures and take it with me to do a bit more pointing ordering. The rolls with the yellow on top, second down left, those look GOOD.

August 08, 2015

Battle of the Belfast Sushi Takeaways!

August 08, 2015/ Claire Spence

I was talking about sushi over on Facebook and my friend Claire recommended I try Sakura on Botanic Avenue in Belfast next time, rather than Yo Sushi! Michael & I had actually been to Sakura twice a number of years ago, when they were the only place that had a sushi train in Northern Ireland. It was so long ago I couldn't even remember what it was like to compare to our staple Yo Sushi! takeaway boxes. So I picked up a big twelve piece box for £16.50, at Sakura, and a large salmon & tuna box for £7.50 from Yo Sushi!

Top left £16.50 box from Sakura, top right is a little sushi mix bowl from Yo! which costs £1.50, bottom is the £7.50 Yo! large salmon and tuna box.

Firstly ordering at Sakura was trickier than Yo! because there aren't really premade boxes or pick and choose from. Secondly the menu to order from doesn't have images of each piece, and even though we get sushi often I still don't really know all the names of the things I like, or don't like. I know what a hand roll is (I'm not keen on them), California rolls and maki, but everything else is always ordered with a point at the picture on the Yo Sushi! menu.

So even though the Sakura takeaway menu is more extensive than the Yo Sushi! one, I was a little flustered at what to order and in the end just asked for the large selection.

Compared to Yo Sushi! pieces, Sakura sushi is almost twice the size. I can eat a whole box of Yo! takeaway in one sitting, but I only managed five from the Sakura tray. They give you tonnes of wasabi, soy sauce and pickled ginger too.

Generous amounts of ginger & wasabi with the Sakura box

Tastewise I think Sakura is closer to what you might get in a traditional sushi restaurant in Japan, whereas Yo Sushi! is more of a westernised version of the food type, which I think I prefer. You can't say that Sakura portions aren't generous, in fact I've no idea how I'm going to manage to eat it all this evening while the raw fish is still good!

After my Sakura experience I think I'll stick with Yo Sushi! at least for takeaway boxes for now. I think Sakura would be better for sitting in, so that's on my to do list. Now what am I going to do with all this fresh sushi?? I'm off to hunt for some lose trousers with an elasticated waist band....