By Jack Dulhanty, Mollie Simpson and Libby Elliott
We’re sitting in MUSU, “very possibly the most expensive restaurant in Manchester,” according to the Guardian, whose recent review found the food here “exquisite”. In the far corner, Gary Neville is drinking a very large glass of red wine behind a retractable glass wall, part of the gaudily elaborate fit-out on which MUSU’s founders claim they spent more than £3 million.
The dining at this high-end Sushi palace on Bridge Street is long and narrow like a catwalk and the music pulses like the beats at a fashion show. Diners are meant to “feel the mood and sexiness of the venue,” according to its creators. Some of the walls are covered with giant plasma screens playing panoramic shots of the Tokyo skyline or the inner sanctum of some canopied forest.
MUSU’s Kaiseki menu — an 11-course “seasonal journey through the flavours and techniques of Japanese cuisine” — costs £150 per person, plus £120 each if you add the premium wine pairing. That comes to £540 for two, pitched perfectly at Manchester’s burgeoning class of football millionaires and property moguls. Pep Guardiola has dined here recently, as have many of his Manchester City stars.
Since this place launched late last year, the city’s hospitality hype machine has swung into action. The Manchester Evening News called MUSU “dazzling”, admiring the “stunning interiors”. “Whether it’s your cup of tea or not MUSU is a sign of where Manchester is as a city and where it’s going,” declares the website Manchester Confidential.
But if that’s true, we have a problem. Because according to multiple accounts we’ve heard and documents we’ve seen, MUSU has a bad habit of not paying its staff. “I was just begging anyone,” one former worker remembers after her wages didn’t get paid last year, not long after MUSU opened. “The accountant wasn’t answering to anyone because she was flooded with emails.”
“If I don’t get the money, I’m fucked, basically,” says someone who is still waiting for their money, having worked there very recently. “I won’t be able to pay my bills, or my friends, because I’ve been borrowing so much money from them.” They’ve sent plenty of emails — polite and patient — but nothing. It’s being “chased up”. More emails. Still nothing.
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