Guest guest Posted August 7, 2003 Report Share Posted August 7, 2003 Hi Folks, My husband and I just came back from eating at Minako Organic Japanese restaurant on 2154 Mission St. btwn 17th and 18th streets. (415) 864-1888 WOW!!!! It will be hard for me to write a thorough review without taking up too much space. But I will try to run through all of the great points quickly. Size: It's a VERY small restaurant, so don't everyone go at once or I'll never get to eat there again! Staff: It's run by a woman named Yoko and her daughter Judy. (Not that many female sushi chefs out there, and this one's a jewel!) Yoko is amazingly sweet and nice. I have some food allergies (as does Judy) and if you talk to Yoko, she'll alter items so you can eat them and was very happy when I stopped by to tell her how much we liked the food. Service: Perhaps a tad slow, you'd think at first, but each of our dishes was brought out separately, except for the nigiri on one platter, which made it possible to eat one at a time and take a break before the next so that you're not so full at once. Menu!!!! EVERY vegetarian item is vegan! Yes, it's true. And everything is organic. The menu is about half seafood and half vegan. There are about 10 appetizers, 20 maki/rolls, and 20 nigiri to choose from!!! I couldn't believe my eyes at the choices. Plates: Everything we ordered, and saw ordered around us, was served beautifully, as if we were in some ritzy bistro on the upper east side of manhattan. The portions are very generous and the sushi is well made. Here's what we had, from memory (there were no menus for me to take home): Appetizer - Tofu Nuta - lightly fried curlicues of tofu skin with warm scallions in lemony miso sauce - ummmmmm Vegetable Tempura roll wrapped in avacado (something like " Green River " ) - yam and carrot tempura in delicate crunchy batter Vegetarian Eel and cucumber Maki - crunchy battered " eel " with the proper eel sauce and lots of cucumber Spice Greens Roll wrapped in avacado and spinach - takuwan (pickled radish) with Daikon (radish) sprouts, fresh red lettuce, avacado, some other spicy greens with spicy sauce. - lightly spiced but not hot Nigiri - pickled Turnip, Daikon sprouts, and hijiki salad. The hijiki salad was warm and freshly made, the best I've had, with hijiki, mung beans, carrots, mung bean sprouts, and corkscrew rice noodles. For dessert they brought us two big deep-fried crunchy thin wonton noodles stuffed with banana and red beans and sprinkled with powdered sugar on a plate with strawberries and a big mint leaf - and this was on the house! The Bill: It came to $56, which is a lot of money for us. However, the quality of the food was so high that it was definitely worth it. (Besides, where are you going to get vegan tempura and eel; along with many unusual veggie nigiri ) Now that I've written this review, I'm feeling selfish and wanting to keep this restaurant to myself. But of course I wish that I had found out about it sooner and want to share it with my fellow veggies! And when places like this do really well, it prompts others to start offering more veggie food. Enjoy! Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 7, 2003 Report Share Posted August 7, 2003 Emily, do you know if the sushi rice at Minako is made without honey, which, along with vinegar, is usually put into sushi rice? - Emily sfBAVeg Wednesday, August 06, 2003 10:17 PM [sfBAVeg] Minako Restaurant Review - 5 stars!!! Hi Folks, My husband and I just came back from eating at Minako Organic Japanese restaurant on 2154 Mission St. btwn 17th and 18th streets. (415) 864-1888 WOW!!!! It will be hard for me to write a thorough review without taking up too much space. But I will try to run through all of the great points quickly. Size: It's a VERY small restaurant, so don't everyone go at once or I'll never get to eat there again! Staff: It's run by a woman named Yoko and her daughter Judy. (Not that many female sushi chefs out there, and this one's a jewel!) Yoko is amazingly sweet and nice. I have some food allergies (as does Judy) and if you talk to Yoko, she'll alter items so you can eat them and was very happy when I stopped by to tell her how much we liked the food. Service: Perhaps a tad slow, you'd think at first, but each of our dishes was brought out separately, except for the nigiri on one platter, which made it possible to eat one at a time and take a break before the next so that you're not so full at once. Menu!!!! EVERY vegetarian item is vegan! Yes, it's true. And everything is organic. The menu is about half seafood and half vegan. There are about 10 appetizers, 20 maki/rolls, and 20 nigiri to choose from!!! I couldn't believe my eyes at the choices. Plates: Everything we ordered, and saw ordered around us, was served beautifully, as if we were in some ritzy bistro on the upper east side of manhattan. The portions are very generous and the sushi is well made. Here's what we had, from memory (there were no menus for me to take home): Appetizer - Tofu Nuta - lightly fried curlicues of tofu skin with warm scallions in lemony miso sauce - ummmmmm Vegetable Tempura roll wrapped in avacado (something like " Green River " ) - yam and carrot tempura in delicate crunchy batter Vegetarian Eel and cucumber Maki - crunchy battered " eel " with the proper eel sauce and lots of cucumber Spice Greens Roll wrapped in avacado and spinach - takuwan (pickled radish) with Daikon (radish) sprouts, fresh red lettuce, avacado, some other spicy greens with spicy sauce. - lightly spiced but not hot Nigiri - pickled Turnip, Daikon sprouts, and hijiki salad. The hijiki salad was warm and freshly made, the best I've had, with hijiki, mung beans, carrots, mung bean sprouts, and corkscrew rice noodles. For dessert they brought us two big deep-fried crunchy thin wonton noodles stuffed with banana and red beans and sprinkled with powdered sugar on a plate with strawberries and a big mint leaf - and this was on the house! The Bill: It came to $56, which is a lot of money for us. However, the quality of the food was so high that it was definitely worth it. (Besides, where are you going to get vegan tempura and eel; along with many unusual veggie nigiri ) Now that I've written this review, I'm feeling selfish and wanting to keep this restaurant to myself. But of course I wish that I had found out about it sooner and want to share it with my fellow veggies! And when places like this do really well, it prompts others to start offering more veggie food. Enjoy! Emily Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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