Tuesday 28 June 2011

Sheffield Food Festival – Wasabisabi

The Sheffield Food Festival is fast approaching and many restaurants are getting prepped ahead of the big event.  This is the biggest foodie event of the year in these parts and all are tweaking their menus and perfecting their dishes.  Some are developing all new and special Food Festival menus which will run for the whole of the week.

One such place is my old favourite Wasabisabi.  Knowing just how much of a fan I am (see my earlier review here) they invited me to preview their special menu ahead of its Food Festival release.


The menu is tapas style; a bit of this and a bit of that.  Over the years I’ve worked out that this is the way to do it at Wasabisabi and we tend to pick a few starters (or tapas) dishes to share and then get something for the ‘main’ event.

With this menu you’ll get three small starters, a main and a miso soup; all for the grand sum of £15 (Friday & Saturday nights are excluded).  It’s excellent value, especially when the food is of this quality.  

It’s also perfect for those who are unsure about sushi as you can work the menu in such a way so as to completely avoid the raw stuff.  Or, you could just have a little…. Just to give it a go.  At this price, you’d be daft not to!

Although I have firm favourites here (yes I have been a few times) I took this as an opportunity to try something new and for starters I had takoyaki (octopus balls), koroke (butternut squash croquettes) and sake nigiri. 

Takoyaki weren’t exploding with flavour, as the octopus is quite delicate, but the teriyaki dipping sauce was tasty.


Koroke were very moorish.  I love butternut squash anyway and these croquettes were breaded and fried, but like the octopus, they weren’t at all greasy.


Sake nigiri was as good as ever.  The salmon was fresh tasting with sufficient fat running through giving it that deliciously creamy taste.


Some of my old favourite dishes are available too.  There’s the vegetable tempura, the edamame and the aubergine and I’d wholeheartedly recommend them all.


Once the starters were cleared I was served a miso soup along with the main.  Again, going for something new I tried the beef soba. 

It was a dish of noodles, beansprouts, some other veg and some crispy seaweed and thin strips of beef.  It was filling but light and the veg was nicely cooked with some crunch left to them.


Two of my favourite main dishes are also on the menu and these are the katsu kare and the ramen.


So if you’re a lover of Japanese food, or a complete stranger to it, do try this menu over the Food Festival.   Wasabisabi is a consistently good restaurant; it’s somewhere I take friends and family when they come to visit and it’s one of our top choices for a celebratory meal.

1 comment:

  1. I stumbled on the food festival by pure chance last Saturday. Great to find your blog, take a look at mine @ www.whatweatetoday.co.uk

    ReplyDelete