nothing in particular

I was surfing hungrygowhere.com for Nirai Kanai's reviews when I saw someone mentioned "Mimigar" being much better. So on friday night, we decided to make a trip down to Mimigar Okinawa Japanese Homemade Dining Restaurant. After some 15mins walk from a bus stop, we finally arrived at a dark alley beside Gallery Hotel.



Mimigar..in midst of some renovating building and Gallery Hotel.



After walking in, we realised there were quite a number of Japanese patrons. Quite surprising actually, as it was not obvious from outside Mimigar. The 2 main chefs were a guy and this lady above..quite young looking o.O Mimigar is filled with red, orange and yellow colors with warm spotlights.



We were seated at the counter, with lots of special dishes before us. There's potato with bacon, kimchi cabbage, long beans, miso stewed mackerel, vermicelli and hijiki..etc




The waitress came and laid our table. Hmm the utensils were pretty interesting..



Coral as a chopstick rest O_O
Having seen pictures of Okinawa with clear waters and white sandy beaches, this coral kind of reminds me of the sun, soft sand and clear waters =D



Interesting decorative items along the counter.




Nice glass for plain water (left) and exquisite teapot(right).



Since we are at Mimigar, we have to try rafute of cos..Upon comparison, I would say this tastes like what we cooked during our past cooking expedition >.>''' Mimigar's version of rafute is pretty tough, fats did not melt in the mouth and the sauce was not viscous either. And its very salty. This costs $12 for the above portion of 2 slices, its lesser than Nirai Kanai but at the same cost.

Nirai Kanai 1 - 0 Mimigar.



We got quite tempted by the 'Special Dishes' so we ordered Potato with Bacon, $10. It came in a small plate and I think I can literally count the pieces of bacon with the no. of fingers on both hands. And ok, its not THAT special to me =(



Another dish we ordered was the Okinawa Special Tofu, $9. The waitress above was using a butan gas stove to 'make' the tofu on the spot, probably some cogulating agent with the soy milk. It's described in the menu as being fluffy, something out of your expectations.



The soup was bonito flavoured(with bonito powder) with lotsa spring onions, which tasted good. The tofu was not so much of being smooth, it was in chewy chunks.



We ordered the somen (which Nirai Kanai offers as well) for comparison purposes. Mimigar's version has got pork bits in it and it was much more dry..before we knew it, the noodles were clumped together -_-

The fine pork bits left a horrible feeling on my taste buds cos the noodles weren't smooth and felt like there were tuna bits in them. $12 for this but this is served in a small plate unlike Nirai Kanai which offers somen at a larger portion for the same price.

Final verdict:
Nirai Kanai 2 - 0 Mimigar

Nirai Kanai FTW!