My evening at Minami Yaletown was an elevating fine dining experience, even although eating was not the only thing that kept me busy – I had too much to catch up with my buddy Joe who I didn’t see for over 15 years. I simply wanted to show my guest from California the best food that we could offer in Vancouver, and Minami did it for me – food was impeccably sexy, service was genuinely attentive, and ambiance was energetic but not noisy.
As I was walking in, the main dining room reminded me of another great restaurant in the area: Blue Water Cafe. The kitchen was semi open, allowing me a peek at the great works by a group of young handsome sushi chefs with their aburi torches or wooden boxes for making oshizushi. Our waitress was friendly and adequate, who provided us very detailed information on sake flights and different types of sake.
We did not order a lot of food.
Aburi sashimi plate was a teaser to showcase how Aburi style is different from the traditional style. The slightly torched exterior gave a mild char flavour just enough to enhance the fresh seafood – scallop, salmon, hamachi, and red tuna. There were great details on each individual piece of fish with a unique sauce and different garnish components. The whole plate was an amazingly beautiful piece of art, and we had to take a moment of admiring before digging in.
Minami Roll, which was made of spicy prawns, cucumber, wrapped in Aburi short rib and served with touches of wasabi masatake sauce. I actually didn’t taste either prawns or short rib, as both flavours were quite subtle. But the combination of everything in it was perfectly balanced. It was simply divine…
The last but not the least was another visually stunning dish: Saikyo Miso Baked Sablefish, garnished with tiger prawn cake, coconut cream kale, and Aburi miso mini eggplant. The piece of fish was perfectly cooked. I could easily slice off a small piece with my fork and put in my mouth – it was incredibly fresh and moist, the texture was firm but tender, and the taste was buttery and perfectly balanced between sweet and savory. The prawn cake however, had a texture that was how I had expected. It was a little too soft. However the prawn cake was the only thing on the plate that I was not crazy about – the kale and the eggplant were so flavourful and they complemented the fish superbly.
We also tried a Sake Flight of 3 types of stronger tasting sake instead of getting desserts. I am no expert on sake so I was glad I learned a little bit on it today, thanks to our lovely waitress.
What they offer here at Mimami is a complete package of innovative culinary arts, spectacular services, and zestful ambiance. It may comes with a pricey tag, but it is totally worth it. I can’t wait to come back here to try their other dishes.
Official website:
http://minamirestaurant.com/
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