Vancouver Good

Miku Japanese Restaurant specializes in aburi style sushi, which is basically nigiri sushi that is torched, giving it a partly charred, partly raw texture. This method is intended to bring out the flavours of fish while still giving you the fresh taste of sushi. When executed well with good quality fish, it’s heavenly.

I went to Miku a few days ago with a couple experts: Husband Dan, who lived in Japan for a year way back when, and a friend who lived in Tokyo for four years and knows good sushi. Miku Restaurant is the seventh restaurant in a Japanese chain of six restaurant. This is the company’s first venture outside of Japan.

Overall, Miku is a great addition to Vancouver’s excellent Japanese restaurant scene and I would recommend it to people looking for a refined and different dining experience. We tried several dishes at Miku – many were amazing, a few were okay, and a few fell short. Highlights:

• We went for the specialty – a lot of aburi style sushi. The concept is cool – with each fish, the kitchen prepares it and tops each fish with a different kind of sauce. So, there was hamachi with an avocado sauce. Albacore tuna with a miso sauce. Salmon with a matsutake sauce. Some of the sauces were paired perfectly with the fish, while others were a tad over-powering. The kitchen seems to mix up the fish/sauce combo regularly.
• Aburi Saba Oshi Sushi – sushi pressed in a box with two layers of mackerel and Miku’s signature “secret” sauce. So good.
• Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi – pressed sushi with two layers of salmon, topped with a cream sauce, Miku sauce, and a thin slice of jalalpeno, which is meant to counter the richness of the other flavours. Good, but a little too creamy for me. And if you don’t like spice even that sliver of japlapeno will be a lot for you
• Crunchy scallop roll – a chopped scallop roll adorned with tempura bits and a sweet seaweed
• Ebi Fritter – Miku’s version of Ebi Mayo, with a light as air beer batter
• Calamari – Tender, thick rings of squid drizzled with a sauce of green, red, and orange peppers
• Chicken Nanban – chicken pieces marinated with lemon and herbs, fried, and slathered with a house made tartar sauce. The dish didn’t work for me, but Dan enjoyed it
• Try a bottle of Japanese plum wine with your dinner. It’s a light and sweet drink that pairs well with sushi.
• And the main nitpick from all of us – the rice was a little too soft. Some of the sushi fell apart too easily…less moisture in the rice would have rectified this.

If you go to the website you’ll find a way too long and cheesy video about the restaurant.

Miku sushi is a great restaurant taking some innovative approaches to Japanese food. Some approaches work and others don’t, but I appreciate Miku’s take.  If you’re in the mood for an upscale dining experience or just want to see blow torches in action, give it a try.

Miku Restaurant
#2 – 1055 West Hastings Street
(Guinness Tower)
604-568-3900