Friday, July 3, 2009

Miyagi's-the next visit


I am starting to worry that maybe my standards are lowering after too long in this town or something---we had another great meal, unbelievable! I am loving it, but still, I worry. Anyway, this was a relief really because the last time we went to Miyagi’s, it wasn’t very good. But they have gotten the quality back up to my first visit, (and raised a few of the prices) and several things were damn good. And we had a really sweet, unobtrusive server.

As usual, we were really attracted to the appetizers at this place. There are so many yummy sounding things, how could you possibly get a big dish when you could get lots of little things and taste so many different flavors?

Although we ordered everything at once, it was nice that they didn’t bring it all out at once. The first thing they brought was the hot rock steak which was outstanding. In fact, it was so good, after we ate everything; we ended up getting another order. Basically, it is thin slices of raw New York strip that was marinated in a teriyaki type marinade with lots of little chives on top. They bring you a really hot rock (literally) and you cook it yourself on top. Interestingly, we ordered the same thing last time, but we were given a little iron skillet to cook it on—this was really a hot rock. Pretty cool. Anyway, it is really thin steak and it cooks in like a second—I just put it on for like 2 seconds, flip it for about 1 more second and eat it. (My tip—cook the chive side down first, and the chives stick to the meat and add a little extra flavor.) Delicious. Like I said, we liked it so much we ordered another one after we finished everything else. (And it isn’t really that filling since it is just meat after all.)













We also ordered the citrus tuna salad with mango salsa and topped with avocado spread. It was pretty good, but there really wasn’t a lot of tuna there—it was nice with the mango though. The tuna was raw and cut into dices, like a tartare. It was in about the same sized pieces as the mango, but there was about twice as much mango as there was tuna. And there were some greens as well. Like I said, it wasn’t that exciting, but very fresh and light. I probably would order something else next time.

We ordered the King Kani as well, which was two pieces of a large roll of sushi full of king crab marinated in Japanese mayo and topped with chives. Hubby liked this one more than I did (it’s that seaweed thing), but the crab was quite tasty. It sort of wasn’t what I was expecting based on the description, but still tasty.

We also ordered the softshell crab again (of course) with ponzu sauce on the side. I am happy to say, it is way back up to the quality level it was at when we ordered it the first time. The second time, the quality had fallen way off, but these were great. They were meaty enough and the crust was nice and light and crisp. Now, the price has risen from $4 to $6 to I think it was $10 on this visit. But the portion is not bad (I think it was 2 whole crabs cut in half) and it was enough for us with everything else we had. Of course, after eating all this, we ordered the second order of the steak, so maybe it wasn’t really, but I think it was more that we just really really liked that hot rock steak!



We also had our favorite dessert item at Miyagi’s (ok, the only thing we have ever tried because we like it so much)—the honey toast. Basically, just a great big piece of toasted bread drizzled with a honey sauce as well as a little bit of chocolate and raspberry sauce and served with vanilla ice cream. Doesn’t sound that exciting, but a nice simple flavor combo that ends the meal nicely.



I also like this place because it has a very modern interior and is usually at least half full of people. More like a place you might see in San Francisco---I mean, so many of the traditional Japanese restaurants look exactly the same inside and just don’t provide the ambiance for a night out if you know what I mean. Miyagi’s delivers on this point too. The food is also quite artfully presented and I like that the menu actually changes somewhat. We will certainly be back to Miyagi’s—and it won’t be quite as long this time!

Miyagi's
3625 E. 96th Street
Indy, 46240
317/846-7077

1 comment:

  1. I was there a few weeks ago. I had mostly sushi, a sea bass and a few other items. I really enjoyed it. Service was good and it is a nice room. I am looking forward to my return visit. Speaking of, I need to finish my review!

    ReplyDelete