... On the third time of asking, I demurred to the other half and we entered Miko.
THE RESTAURANT
We seemed to be lucky to get a table, as we were asked if we'd booked, and we hadn't. There followed 15 minutes of standing near the entrance waiting and then we got a table. I didn't mind this ... Read review
Mooching around downtown Vancouver on our holiday, Ms Larsbaby and myself kept on passing a sushi restaurant which we couldn't quite make up our minds about. By this, I mean my instincts told me not to go in as there was something about it I couldn't quite warm to, but Ms Larsbaby was more optimistic and thought the sushi looked promising. At this end of Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, there are many options and surrounding the restaurant was a couple of Japanese restaurants, a noodle bar, and a Korean restaurant, all of which I liked the look of but hadn't tried. On the third time of asking, I demurred to the other half and we entered Miko.
THE RESTAURANT
We seemed to be lucky to get a table, as we were asked if we'd booked, and we hadn't. There followed 15 minutes of standing near the entrance waiting and then we got a table. I didn't mind this at all, as my interest had begun to be piqued looking around the restaurant. My doubts began to go away as I scanned the walls and saw dozens of pieces of paper stuck to the wall with pictures of ice hockey players, indeed whole teams, all signed with comments such as "great sushi!" I didn't realise that ice hockey players were renowned for their culinary tastes. My confidence was more borne from the fact that if rich people like that liked reasonably priced food like this, there must be something in it.
The seating was several tables for 4 and some for 2 along the side of the restaurant, all subtly partitioned off as seems to be the norm in North American Japanese restaurants. Light wooden panelled walls added to that effect.
THE FOOD
There was lots of sushi on the menu, as well as rice and noodle dishes. Clearly though, sushi was the star of the show here. Loads of varieties were on the menu, and on the wall was one of those posters showing what each one looked like. All the usual things, such as salmon, tuna, squid and shrimp were in evidence. You could either order a plate of sushi (typically 8, 10 or more pieces selected by the chef) or order each piece separately.
We decided to get a medium sized mixed sushi plate between us. This comprised of 6 sushi rolls and 7 fish pieces on rice. To drink, we had green tea, which was served in traditional round ceramic beakers.This was suitably fragrant and strong.
A tip I picked up on a trip to China some years ago is to rub wooden chopsticks together, on all sides of the end you will be picking up from, to make sure that any splinters on them are gone. It's a ritual for me now, no matter where I am, and so I did this after I'd taken them out of their paper wrapping.
I am a big fan of Unagi sushi, which is a bit of eel on top of rice. It was pretty pricy at $6 for 1 piece but Ms Larsbaby was insistent as I have extolled its virtues and she wanted to try it, so we had one of those too.
A big blob of wasabi sat on the corner of the wooden platter the sushi came to us on. A big pile of pickled ginger sat at the opposite corner, like two boxers in a ring. We had a small ornate blue and white plate each to load the sushi onto. I have been advised by a friend who reckons he's in the know that the best way to enjoy the wasabi is to mix it into the soy sauce, poured into a dinky little square bowl. You can also smear a little bit onto the top of the fish with your chopsticks, but I generally don't do this as the fish already has some wasabi on it to fix it to the rice. I have also been told to orientate the piece so that the fish is on your tongue rather than the rice when you bite, giving you the full flavour of the fish. I am sure someone will correct me in the comments!
The 4 rolls were 2 salmon and 2 vegetable (i.e. cucumber). The seaweed roll casings were firm and held the insides together pretty well When bit into it, it stayed firm and in fact the casing itself had quite a taste, and when you reached the rice and fish or cucumber, it complemented very well; the almost papery crunch of the roll, followed by the softness of the rice, and either a final crunch again of cucumber or softness of the fish. Mmmm!
We had quite a mix of sushi. I've been told that the mark of good sushi is how well the rice holds together when bitten into, so that you can bite a piece in half without what is left collapsing spectacularly. All pieces passed the test with flying colours. One thing I do notice comparing fresh sushi to chilled supermarket sushi is how brittle the texture can be out of the fridge because the rice and fish isn't at room temperature, which underlines to me how important it is to be very fresh. Otherwise the rice separates a little and the block can collapse, and the fish loses it's lovely silky softness.
It's also notable how big the fish pieces were in relation to the rice. Each one overlapped the 4 corners of the rice by quite a way, so they were pretty generous cuts of fish, doming over the rice quite pleasingly to form an arc. In some places you can get small cuts of fish with identical proportions to the rice so full marks again.
There was one tuna piece, which was melt in the mouth delicious. I like the rawness of fresh sushi, as it has to be really fresh and thus you get the full flavour of the fish, in a way like having steak rare. One salmon piece was just as melt in the mouth tasty. A shrimp piece was crunchy and sweet. A squid piece was a bit of a challenge to eat as it was quite hard but once in the mouth it had a fabulous chewy texture. One piece of fish, bright red fading into white, was quite firm but again delicious. Two pieces of delicate pink fish were pretty good too. I asked around the site and our Japan expert (you know who you are!) reckons these might have been red snapper or sea bream. I apologise in not being able to describe them; I do struggle a bit with doing justice to the nuances of sushi, other than it's fishy and delicious!
One that I can describe though is the unagi. The eel is very oily and has a slick brown hue. I always thought it was actually served hot but now I'm not so sure. It actually tastes quite meaty, and has that kind of texture. I find it like a taste explosion; a deep, rich, fantastic, hybrid meaty-fishy taste. The piece of eel was also pretty big; in fact it draped well over each edge of the rice and was probably double the length of it! We were so impressed we ordered one more each. I overheard the people next to us discussing if they should order eel and I butted in and told them that they should, showing them what we got. They were suitably impressed and ordered it, too.
SERVICE
Rather excellent. The waitresses, dressed in kimonos, hovered round the tables, topping up our green tea when necessary and generally made themselves available whenever anyone needed attention.
CONCLUSION
I have to tip my hat to Ms Larsbaby as she obviously had better instincts than me when it came to this place. The sushi was excellent, the service friendly and the atmosphere convivial. Definitely worth the visit; make sure you try the Unagi. At only $26 (about £13) this was a bargain and yes, I can't work out what happened to the extra Unagi either!
CONTACT INFORMATION
Miko Sushi, 1335 Robson Street Vancouver, V6E 1C6 Canada
