A striking new Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar is getting ready to open - with dazzling interiors and a towering five metre high bonsai tree. Kitten is the latest restaurant set to open at the burgeoning new Deansgate Square district in the city centre.
The vast site will feature Japanese fine dining and contemporary cocktails in a super-stylish setting featuring vast eight metre high ceilings, walls of bamboo and Venetian plastering. There's an extensive marbled bar where revellers can sit and enjoy cocktails, as well as leather booth seating across the dining space.
Guests will also be able to dine with a front row seat to the sushi chefs hand-crafting dishes at the huge bar. These seats also provide a peek into the semi-open kitchen to see dishes grilled over one of the largest robatayaki grills in the city.
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Kitten's kitchen team will be headed up by head chef Josh Gabrielides who joins from Ivy Asia and head sushi chef Daniel Zhou joins from Peter Street Kitchen. The team also boasts experience from Sticks and Sushi and other top ranked Pan-Asian restaurants around the country.
We had a sneak peek inside the venue as it prepares to open to the public later this week on Friday, June 17 just off Deansgate. Taking centre stage in the venue, the sushi chefs will serve up an extensive raw menu featuring a selection of freshly made dishes including black and blue tuna with pickled kohlrabi and squid ink tuille.
Other highlights include Wagyu beef tataki with truffle ponzu, sliced truffle, chives and crispy shallots. Traditionally cooked over open flames, the robata menu includes the finest cuts of beef; T-bones with pickled red radish and sesame miso dressing, chicken yakitori with pickled heritage carrots and pink ginger as well as carefully crafted duck, pork and lamb dishes.
Those who favour seafood can enjoy a whole sea bass cooked over the charcoal grill served with ginger, sake steamed clams and seaweed. Other seafood dishes include salmon with dashi poached choi sum, kohlrabi, caviar and split shiso dressing.
Tempura squid, yasai vegetables and nobashi noodles all feature on the menu whilst crisp tofu, wild mushrooms, robata sweetcorn, heritage tomatoes and charcoal-seared aubergine form a selection vegetarian and vegan dishes. Menu prices have not yet been released.
Bosses of the venue also aim to become a go-to drinks destination, with the Kitten cocktail menu set to feature classic cocktails as well as inventive combinations enhanced with Japanese influences. The drinks menu has been crafted by beverage manager Tim Herbert - previously of Wood and Co.
Across the weekend diners will be able to enjoy live music, DJs and entertainment and on warmer days guests can dine al fresco dining in the stunning setting of the Square. The front of house, a team of ex-hoteliers, will ensure the guest experience is second to none.
Kitten will be open daily from midday until 11.30pm on weeknights and til 12.30 on weekends, serving food and drink across the day and evening.
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