It’s no wonder Kate Moss loves it. Or Kendall Jenner. Or the Crouches. Or Drake. It’s opening night at Sexy Fish Manchester and we’re partying in what feels like an adult version of The Little Mermaid. Nearly nude dancers covered in sequins and sparkly body paint twirl on podiums. At the door a male model with abs like the Alps is dressed up as Poseidon, complete with trident and blue body paint. Meanwhile, waiters wearing silk suits decorated with shells and carrying trays of champagne and cocktails squeeze between guests who are dancing beneath a sparkly swordfish sculpture and some Damien Hirst artwork, as a DJ plays phenomenally loud deep house music. Tonight is a taste of what Manchester can expect now that Sexy Fish has arrived.
For those of you unfamiliar with Sexy Fish, here’s what you need to know. The original restaurant opened in Mayfair in 2015, branched out in 2022 in Miami and then, this month, in Manchester. Sexy Fish is a luxe, expensive Japanese(ish) restaurant. It’s what is known as an “experiential restaurant”, which basically means a place where the food is not actually the main draw. There’s a DJ playing loud music (usually house), colourful but low-key lighting and dancers. The “privilege” of being there (they are snooty about who gets through the door, with a “smart and elegant” dress code) and dinner will set you back a decent wage. Not much of a big deal to the clientele, which, along with Moss, Jenner and Drake, comprises footballers, such as the 6ft 4in French international Olivier Giroud and Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne, and their wives or girlfriends.
The most important bit of information you need to know is that Sexy Fish is owned by the restaurateur Richard Caring, who also owns half of Mayfair’s celebrity haunts. He’s known for rescuing — or ruining, depending on where you sit on the taste spectrum — struggling restaurants and transforming them into glamorous chains. His company, Caprice Holdings, owns the Ivy, Scott’s, J Sheekey, Bacchanalia and Balthazar. And of course Sexy Fish — recently credited as one of the reasons the group is back in profit post-pandemic.
Back to my night out, which started at the five-star Stock Exchange Hotel in the middle of town. Fittingly it is owned by the Manchester United legend Gary Neville. You may recognise it — lots of the interviews in the Beckham documentary were filmed here. There are marble floors, dim lighting and velvet curtains, and it smells delicious — the hotel has its own scent that’s spritzed through the corridors, much to the delight of the A-list visitors (yes, the Beckhams have stayed) — where we begin the night with espresso martinis before walking ten minutes around the corner.
The crowd at Sexy Fish is a mix of footballers (in the VIP area Jesse Lingard is wearing Lennonesque black sunglasses that I’m almost certain he can’t see through), WAGs (someone points out Jack Grealish’s girlfriend) and reality TV stars. It’s like playing ITVX Whac-A-Mole. I can see some of the cast of The Real Housewives of Cheshire, the Corrie actress Helen Flanagan, Towie’s Lucy Mecklenburgh and the model Christine McGuinness. I even bump into the TV chef Simon Rimmer on the stairs to the loo. The male-to-female ratio is 30:70. All of them look like they have been AI-generated by a computer that has been fed images of ludicrously attractive people.
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And then there’s the decor. Do you remember when there was a world shortage of pink paint during the production of Barbie? I feel like Manchester is at risk of having a similar shortage, but of neon lights. Every surface, wall, mirror and floor tile is lit up and shimmering. Even the huge fish tank that makes up the back wall of the VIP zone is shining blue.
Slipping between the crowd are waiters holding platters of sushi and mini-skewers of black cod — a favourite of footballers. Peter Crouch admitted in his memoir I, Robot that whenever he and his Premier League pals went out for dinner (either at Nobu or Sexy Fish) they ate as a pack, all ordering the same thing: black cod. The food critic AA Gill called it “so utterly, naffly, screechingly, definitively over” — but judging by the speed at which it’s disappearing off trays at Sexy Fish, nothing has changed since Crouch’s footballing days. It’s still very much the dish du jour. On the menu you’ll find wagyu beef gyoza with foie gras and truffle for £35, while that black cod is £49.
Surveying the scene is the man himself, Richard Caring, wearing a dark suit with satin lapels, his signature silver hair quiffed and his trademark tan turned up to ten. “Going out should be about having fun, and that’s what Sexy Fish stands for,” Caring tells me. “It’s got an extraordinary atmosphere with live music, immersive entertainment and international DJs. Whenever I meet new people they often ask when I’m going to open it in their city.”
Manchester isn’t just having a “moment” right now, it feels like it has entered a new era. The past five years have seen it become the epicentre of the UK’s entertainment and nightlife scene. In addition to its two football clubs, Co-op Live — the UK’s largest indoor arena, holding 23,000 people — opens next spring, while in December Chanel unveils its Métiers d’art collection in the city. As for nightlife and dining, there’s already Tattu, an experiential restaurant loved by the Man City manager, Pep Guardiola, and a new Soho House, while next month Tattu’s founders open Fenix, a high-end Greek-inspired restaurant that will have DJs every night and chefs who have relocated from Mykonos for the opening. Next year, Maya, from the team behind the glam restaurant Isabel Mayfair, opens in Manchester. Spinningfields, the neighbourhood that’s home to Sexy Fish, is where the party is at. “Manchester has a big music and football heritage, and people want to emulate their heroes,” says Adam Jones, the co-founder of Tattu and Fenix. “So the city has always had an appreciation for premium experiences.”
You can’t talk about Sexy Fish without talking about the bathrooms. Caring is known for creating loos you want to spend time in. In Manchester the floors, which look like they are covered in slices of radish, are illuminated neon pink, while octopus tentacles squirm across the walls. Everyone waiting is chatting, taking pictures or topping up their lipstick, and all seem to recognise each other. “That’s the thing about Manchester, everyone knows everyone,” says a girl as she lends me her lip balm.
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Back in the VIP area, Lingard (sunglasses still on) is surrounded by women. The waiters have gone from serving canapés to dancing on the stage, though I’m not sure the crowd need any more encouraging. It’s a good time.
My foodie friends like to slag off Sexy Fish. It’s way too expensive and not authentic Japanese food and has a posey scene, they say. I don’t disagree with any of those points, but they’ve missed the good-time vibe that Sexy Fish creates. I don’t meet a single huffy person in the admittedly huge queue for the bar (which includes the world’s widest selection of champagnes) and everyone is wonderfully friendly — this is Mancunian hospitality at its finest. So the next time someone sneers at Sexy Fish, ask them if they had a blast there. The likelihood is the answer will be yes — especially if they weren’t the ones paying.
