ICE, fire, steam and oil encased in wood – Manchester’s most distinctive lunch package. Welcome to the Cottonopolis Bento Box, a showcase for the four Orient-inspired food methods that govern the menu at this NQ bar.
For a good value £8, between 12pm and 4pm, choice at the chef’s daily discretion, you are guaranteed a bao bun (steamed), a skewer (fire), sushi (ice), tempura (oil) and a small salad, jostling together in the traditional light wood lunch box. With soy in a small pourer. You’d have to pay extra for pickles, which I inevitably crave.
My launch sample worked a treat, mind. Yellowfin tuna maki rolls aren’t Umezushi standard but good, the prawn tempura crisp and near greaseless, the pork yakiton, skewered pork belly glazed with soy and mirin for its robata grilling quite chewy and intense.
If the broccoli and roasted peanut salad seemed superfluous it was because I Ieft it until last and it followed the standout chicken karaage bao, the blessed trinity of soy, ginger and garlic shining through its deep-fried carapace.
Cottonopolis, perhaps the handsomest of all NQ warehouse conversions, is shortlisted for Bar of the Year in the 2016 Manchester Food and Drink Awards. With food offerings of this quality and aesthetic bent (sic) it really ought to be in the box seat for a gong.
Cottonopolis Food & Liquor, 16 Newton Street, Manchester, M1 2AE. 0161 236 5144.