Thursday 31 October 2013

YO! Sushi and Cocktails - Classy Girls!

Something that the three of us in our house absolutely love is sushi. So to get our sushi fix we head out to YO! Sushi in Notts. Unfortunately Sophie couldn't join us, she was learning how to salsa, but Hannah and I were so game for Blue Mondays. It's a great discount day where many of the plates on the menu are put to the cheapest price, which are the dishes which come on blue plates priced at £2.50 each. They also offer a 25% student discount for other days of the week, but we haven't tried that. I mean, what better way to cheer up a Monday with a conveyor belt of sushi?
Yo! Sushi Nottingham
YO! Sushi

It had been too long... So I tucked in to sushi rather than getting many photos! My favourite dish has to be the squid; hot, spicy and a little squidgy! Plus I re-discovered that eating particularly large California rolls with chopsticks is not practical... You either need a really big mouth or to dissect it with your chopsticks before you attempt to eat it. With a bit pot of pickled ginger in front of me to keep me entertained, I was a happy girl. Though we did decide that you could never go there on a first date, as proven by my failed attempts at the California rolls.
What I really enjoy about YO! Sushi is the casual atmosphere. Nobody forces you to order straight away, you don't have to eat non-stop, you can pause and peruse the dishes as they pass by. It's a great way to pick what you eat, as you can see it before you choose it, and something that you many have never considered from the menu may catch your eye. Though according to Sophie those fun and colourful looking moshi are not as tasty as you may think; I have yet to try them.
Yo Sushi Nottingham
Sushi speeding past
Yo Sushi California Rolls
Jumbo california rolls
We casually took our time enjoying sushi, and then thought we may as well enjoy the time while we were actually in town and headed out for a couple of cocktails, so headed to the Lace Market/Hockley area. First stop, Bad JuJu Tiki Bar. Hello 2-4-1 happy hour before 9o'clock and Monday is 2-4-1 mojitos. We started on happy hour though... So chose other drinks than mojitos. The Fairground Martini was amazing, it was like an alcoholic version of the Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice, only better! A mix of Morgan's Spiced rum, caramel, apple and lemon topped off with a shake of cinnamon dust was like autumn and winter to drink. Plus it had a side of what I named 'apple art' which was a very cleverly cut slice of apple on the edge of the glass. And you can play Mario Kart in there - we were tempted but some other people beat us to it, so we enjoyed our drinks instead.
Bad Juju Cocktail Bar Nottingham
My 'apple art'
Bad Juju Bar Nottingham
Bad Juju Tiki Bar
Sophie had mentioned to us that she went to a cocktail bar called the Boilermaker, so our plan was to find this. The issue with Boilermaker is that from outside you won't have a clue what it is unless someone who has been before is with you. Hence Hannah and I dawdled outside for a bit before braving it and stepping inside. From the outside it looks like an empty shop, with two doors either side of the room, and there was nobody on the desk. We went in and followed the instructions on the desk to proceed through the door which says Staff Only. And found ourselves on a little red room... To discover a hidden door in to the actual bar. It did take us about 5 or 10 minutes to get in as we were so unsure as to where we were going!
Boiler Maker Cocktail Bar Nottingham
It was dark so the pictures aren't great!
Boiler Maker Nottingham Cocktails
Our eye-catching cocktails
Once we made it inside, it was completely unexpected. The bar was like a cute tearoom, with duck egg bluey-green chairs and church pews to seat yourself on. It was nice to go in to a bar that did table service - clearly Cannes has made me lazy! I chose the Mississippi malt shake, which was a mix of bourbon, peanut butter, chocolate and banana, which was good, but a bit watery. Hannah's choice was unexpected - she ordered the wrong drink and it wasn't the option with marshmallows that she wanted and instead had egg whites and jasmine tea and something else that I can quite remember but it was so good and worth getting her order muddled up for.
Juju Nottingham Mojitos
Raspberry Mojito Time!
So we returned to JuJu (the drinks were cheaper... Hello? We are students!) for 2-4-1 mojitos... I went for my classic favourite, the raspberry mojito, though they had classic, strawberry, elderflower and ginger to name a few. These were brought to us in cute jam jars - it was nice to have a quirky edge to the drinks and they were beautifully presented with added chambord and raspberries for that fruity flavour. But people were still playing Mario Kart so we didn't get a go... And called it a night. We walked in to the street FULL of students... Uni vs Trent varsity bar crawl was underway so we escaped the drunken freshers as quick as we could and tucked ourselves up in bed!

6 comments :

  1. Ooo I do love YoSushi. So disappointed last time though, they barely had any variety!! Lots of fun picking the plates though.

    { Teffys Perks Blog } X

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    Replies
    1. Ah that's when you press the little orange button and order one of the dishes off the blue Monday menu :)

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  2. Yummy this looks delicious! I want to get sushi now.

    -Vogue&Heels
    www.vogueandheels.com

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  3. An alcoholic version of a Starbucks drink?! I'm in!

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