The 10 Best Japanese Restaurants in Manchester City Centre

It wasn't that long ago that "Japanese food in Manchester" basically meant a supermarket sushi box and a sad little sachet of soy sauce. What a glow-up the last decade has been. The city centre is now stacked with proper izakayas, specialist ramen bars, and sleek high-end sushi spots that genuinely hold their own against anything in London.

Whether you want a bowl of tonkotsu big enough to hide in, a teppanyaki chef flipping flaming prawns across the grill, or rooftop sushi with skyline views, the city delivers. We've crossed Manchester from Piccadilly to Chinatown to Castlefield to bring you the definitive guide to the best Japanese restaurants in Manchester city centre.

Shoryu Ramen Manchester

1 Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester · 4.6★ (4,194 reviews)

Right on Piccadilly Gardens, Shoryu is the city's go-to for a proper bowl of ramen, and for good reason. It was the brand's first venue outside London when it opened, and the specialism is Hakata tonkotsu: a rich, creamy, 12-hour pork broth from the Fukuoka region of southern Japan, finished with thin, straight noodles, nitamago egg, and slices of char siu pork belly you can practically read through. Portions are generous, the pillowy Shoryu buns are non-negotiable as a starter, and the whole thing is fast, flavourful, and ideal for a weekday lunch or a solo dinner at the counter. A proper Manchester mainstay.

When ramen won't cut it and you want dinner plus a show, Manchester's teppanyaki scene steps in.

Sapporo Teppanyaki Manchester

91-93 Liverpool Rd, Manchester · 4.5★ (2,694 reviews)

Over in Castlefield on Liverpool Road, Sapporo is the city's teppanyaki classic. Each table comes with its own dedicated chef, an iron grill, and a genuine performance: knives spinning, flames roaring, prawns arcing through the air, and the infamous potato flip that you'll find yourself attempting to catch in your mouth by about the third round of sake. It's every bit as much entertainment as meal. Beyond the theatre, the ingredients are the real deal, with premium cuts of steak, fresh seafood, and excellent sushi and sashimi on the side. Absolutely ideal for birthdays, anniversaries, or any group dinner where you need the energy up to eleven from minute one.

Moving away from the grills, a few of the city's best Japanese spots are all about the slower, quieter crafts of hand-rolled maki and long-simmered broth.

Maki & Ramen

11 York St, Manchester · 4.8★ (6,120 reviews)

A short walk from Piccadilly Gardens, Maki & Ramen has become one of the most-loved noodle spots in the city. It's the Manchester branch of an Edinburgh-born group founded by chef Teddy Lee in 2015 (he trained at the Tokyo Sushi Academy), and the obsession shows: the signature tonkotsu broth is simmered for eight hours, the noodles are handcrafted, and the sushi is as neat and vibrant as it is generous. The York Street room itself is a quiet showstopper, centred on a staggering 20,000-piece Lego model of the original Edinburgh shop, which sounds like gimmick material but somehow works beautifully. It gets busy, so book ahead if you can.

Chinatown is still a vital beating heart of East Asian cooking in Manchester, and it's home to some of the most reliable Japanese comfort food in the city.

WAZUZHI (formerly Wasabi)

63 Faulkner St, Manchester · 4.5★ (2,317 reviews)

Known to locals by its former name, Wasabi, the rebranded WAZUZHI on Faulkner Street is still exactly the cheerful, unpretentious Chinatown joint regulars have loved for years. It's the kind of place you duck into for proper comfort food without the price tag attached. The deep-fried soft-shell crab ramen is the standout, playing crisp, crunchy crab against a silky, umami-heavy broth. The panko-crumbed pork katsu curry is equally excellent: crisp cutlet, glossy curry sauce, job done. Cheap, cheerful, consistent, and exactly the sort of neighbourhood spot you want in your back pocket.

For those evenings when you want to dress up and the occasion calls for something more refined, Manchester's upper-tier Japanese scene has grown up fast.

Kinju Premium Japanese Restaurant

Fourways House, 18 Tariff St, Manchester · 4.6★ (146 reviews)

Tucked inside the historic Fourways House on Tariff Street, Kinju is where to book when you want your Japanese dinner to feel like an occasion. The room is moody, grown-up, and deliberately under-lit in that way only proper fine dining rooms can pull off. The focus is firmly on premium ingredients and precise, confident presentation, with attentive service to match. It's still newer on the scene (the lower review count reflects that, not a dip in quality), but it proves Manchester's Japanese dining can now compete at the top of the market without blinking. Date-night material.

Sometimes, though, the best meals come from small, unshowy rooms where it's all about the ingredients.

Yuzu Japanese Tapas

39 Faulkner St, Manchester · 4.4★ (1,004 reviews)

Yuzu is a masterclass in keeping it simple and doing it well. Tucked into Chinatown, this intimate spot skips the flashy interiors entirely and puts everything into the food. It's izakaya-style all the way: small sharing plates of grilled, raw, fried, and simmered things, built around locally-sourced meat, fish, and veg but rooted in proper Japanese technique. The sake list is thoughtful and deep, so let the team guide you through a couple of pairings. It's tiny, so a reservation is essential, but what you get in return is one of the most genuinely authentic Japanese meals in the city.

If you've got an appetite and refuse to sacrifice quality, the modern all-you-can-eat spots popping up around town are worth your attention.

Sushi Mami

Gainsborough House, 111 Portland St, Manchester · 4.6★ (3,656 reviews)

All-you-can-eat and "quality" usually make for an awkward pairing. Sushi Mami on Portland Street doesn't get that memo. The system is genius: you order plate-by-plate from a tablet at the table, and each dish arrives fresh from the kitchen rather than wilting on a conveyor belt. That means nigiri and sashimi stay proper nigiri and sashimi, and inventive maki rolls actually look like the menu photos. It's modern, relaxed, and weirdly democratic: big eaters go hard, careful eaters go curated, everyone leaves happy.

Some of the best Japanese food in the city, meanwhile, is served above it.

Sora

Malmaison Deansgate, 23 Princess St, Manchester · 4.5★ (191 reviews)

Perched on the seventh floor of the Malmaison Deansgate, Sora is the rooftop Japanese-meets-pan-Asian spot Manchester has been quietly missing for years. Opened in 2024, the room is moody and seductive (think mustard booths, textured walls, ambient DJ sets at the weekend) but the real selling point is the terrace, which looks straight out over Albert Square and the gothic spires of Manchester Town Hall. The menu leans into sushi, robatayaki skewers, and small sharing plates rather than traditional sets, with cocktails built around sake, yuzu, and shiso. Come for a golden-hour drink, stay for dinner, leave impressed.

Dining out should be fun, and Manchester has one Japanese spot that's genuinely unlike anywhere else in the UK.

WakuWaku

54 Portland St, Manchester · 4.5★ (707 reviews)

Walking into WakuWaku feels like falling into the pages of a manga. It's officially the first 2D restaurant in the UK: owner Chris Lui, originally from Hong Kong, hand-drew every black line onto the all-white interior himself, using around 150 paint markers and routinely staying until 3am for four straight months. The walls, chairs, tables, even the little painted frames on the walls (a 2D Last Supper starring cats in sunglasses, if you were wondering) are all part of the illusion. Mercifully, the food isn't a gimmick either: proper Japanese donburi, omurice, katsu curry, and ramen sets, all priced fairly and pulled straight from the colourful real world to contrast with the monochrome room.

Finally, a tip of the hat to one of the original torchbearers of Manchester's Japanese scene.

Samsi

Regency House, 36-38 Whitworth St, Manchester · 4.2★ (1,482 reviews)

Samsi on Whitworth Street has been quietly feeding Manchester sashimi, bento, and noodle dishes for years, long before Japanese food became the hot commodity it is now. The large, modern dining room is comfortable rather than trendy, and the menu covers the full spread: delicate sashimi, hearty bento boxes, classic noodle bowls, takoyaki, and a proper unadon that's well worth ordering. It's the kind of reliable, grown-up institution you take your parents to when they visit and trust completely not to let you down.

Choosing your perfect Japanese dinner

From the flaming grills of Sapporo to the rooftop hush of Sora, from a bowl of slow-simmered tonkotsu at Maki & Ramen to a 2D fantasy at WakuWaku, Manchester's Japanese dining scene is in genuinely great form right now. Whether you're after a fiver-and-change lunch, a slick sharing-plate dinner, or a celebratory meal with theatre attached, these ten prove the city's appetite for Japanese food has never been bigger. The only hard part is picking which to book first.